I used to love February at school

The kids were calm after the holidays and ready to do some learning. The month starts with Groundhog's Day and I would do a couple days of lessons on weather and I would pull in Math and do probability lessons. Can we really depend on a groundhog to predict the weather? And of course that led to all kinds of writing assignments.

Then there is African American history and a whole month of Social Studies lessons. I would have my kids make books. We studied one African American a day and again, wrote and wrote and wrote. And anytime we studied a famous person we would do the math and figure out how old they were when they died or how old they are if they are still alive.

Then President's Day led us into all kinds of lessons about presidents and the electoral process. When I taught 4th grade, every kid in my class could spell inauguration by the first of March. I also loved their 'If I Were President' essays. I swear, 9 and 10 year olds have the best ideas for what is best for America!

Valentine's Day was just full of learning opportunities in my classroom. I always bought those individual boxes of conversation hearts and the kids would have to predict how many of each color they would have in their box by just peeking in that little open part on the front of the box. And then they opened the box and counted them and of course, I would have them graph the results and compare their predictions to the actual amounts.

There were also some very fun concept formation activities we would do with the sayings on those conversation hearts. Lay out five of them and figure out what was the same about those hearts. Or I would put out a group and they would have to find my rule. One year, a little girl told me she had always hated those conversation hearts until I showed her how to have fun with them. Now she thinks that maybe she likes the orange ones after all, but she was still giving all the rest to her little brother. LOL

I never had to worry about what to put up on bulletin boards in my classroom in February. I even started hanging clotheslines to put up the kids' work as I ran out of wall space.

By the time March rolled around, we were ready to buckle down and get ready for standardized testing in April. February was about fine tuning those critical thinking skills. And a month of test practice was all my kids needed.

But no more. Now we have a scripted curriculum. I am told what to teach every day all year. Got to stick with the script! No child can be left behind!! Gotta make sure they fill in all the right bubbles on that test in April. And I must utilize all those slick materials the snake oil, er I mean textbook salesmen have sold to our district.

So no more biographies of African Americans and presidents. No more essays telling how I would change America if I were president. No more graphs (those are taught in October now). And saddest of all, no more candy hearts.

PLEASE, if you care about kids, write your congress critters and get this horrid No Child Left Behind legislation thrown out!! It has completely destroyed February.
:cry:

:hug:

I will do exactly that... repeatedly. :)

Thanks very much for the insight!

I am trying to post a little something every couple weeks. NCLB is up for renewal this year. And I am willing to do everything I can to get it thrown out.

It sucks so bad. Thanks for the help.

It could be worse. Fourth graders in here in Florida start their FCAT writing tomorrow. We start two weeks of FCAT on February 26th.

(or is it complEment? I always get those mixed up - LOL)

Good luck with your testing. I have seen parts of the FCAT. Yuck! You have my sympathy. At least we have a fairly decent test in Missouri. Of course, they keep adding more fill in the bubble questions every year and those are never good.

Oh, BTW, 6 months into SFA, I can loudly proclaim IT SUCKS!! :puke:

weather isn't teaching?

:grr:

Gotta follow the script. I do get a little leeway since I teach special ed. But the pressure to bring my kids up up up (beyond what many of them can do) is there.

And a bunch of companies (like the one bush's brother owns) are making a mint off of this. THAT really sucks.

up to my arm pits in sick kids. School is no longer fun for teachers AND kids. They are doing an incentive program down here and it is reeking havock-in addition to NCLB. The kids are great but education sucks these days. Can't wait to retire.

We're implementing something next year. I fear it's going to be horrible.

www.chron.com.

Just look up HISD incentive -you'll find all the articles. I don't think they are archived yet. What a disaster.

Some folks got large amounts-hard working teachers got none. The union warned about it. Many good experienced folks are talking about leaving the district. Lot of districts were seeing Houston did it-I hope they paid attention. We are an example of what not to do.

Value-add, based on longitudinal test score data. Yeah, that's going to reward some individual teachers more than others in the same building. Ick. I can see why there would be hard feelings.

And speech therapists? And the nurse? And the librarian? And the counselor? How are all of those teachers rewarded?

All those categories share whatever the building gets as a whole. Somehow.

I wonder what they do with itinerant staff?

There is just so much wrong with this kind of merit pay. It boggles the mind.

(surprise,surprise) but we will never make more than a teacher does. For some reason, they forgot social workers. Our SW does counseling too and she got nada. At one school-the district bilingual teacher of the year got nada. Several folks that are going to court over firing got bonuses. I think HISD helped those guys cases.

And then, the bonuses were published with the teachers names. Some teachers that were removed to certain schools for protection against stalking and violence are getting calls now. Exs and bill collectors are harassing staff. and of course all your co workers know what you got. Yeah, I'm inspired.:eyes:

I hope we never do that.

It just isn't any fun anymore.

of stress and burnout. If it can't be repaired, then it is time to do something else. Sometimes it is as easy as changing grades or going to another school if you can. I take a part time job in a hospital. That balances me a bit. But both are really starting to wear on me anymore. Now that is when you really have classic burnout.

I am beyond ready to go.

starting with Screwing our Kids Heads! The Bush Greatist Minds from the Ph.D's of America's FINEST coming from the Conservative Think Tanks has WON!

:cry: This is how they WIN...no matter who we put in the Presidency...they've TAKE OVER OUR KID'S MINDS and we will have DECADE AFTER DECADE OF HITLER CHILDREN.....

On EDIT...sorry for the hyperbole...but, it's just all so dreadful and I wish I had hope that parents today, torn between jobs and family...trying to survive will really understand the implications of WHAT YOU ARE SAYING.

There's not many of us who aren't dead who can keep working on this...and if the Parents of TODAY don't get it...they sure aren't going to do anything about it. ...And...there are SO FEW who get what you are saying..that it makes me so upset.

but I am glad you get it. You bet this is how they win.

Now that you mention it.

This is just so damn depressing. I honestly don't know whether to scream or cry.

Your students are lucky to have a teacher like you.

NLCB has been a travesty. It puts stress on the kids too, because they have to be drilled about how important the tests are.

It's a shame that teachers don't get to be teachers any more, just mere purveyors of government-dictated information.

Thanks for the kind words.

.... I read some of the ?s in the NCLB test and they were God awful ....
of the 4 answers you could make a could case for 3 ...... my son's teachers
are teaching for the test ... :puke:


But don't be too hard on yourself you seem to be a very good teacher.
Your kids are lucky.

And yes, multiple choice tests really suck.

thinking can lead to voting...DEMOCRATIC!

Because of how it does nothing for the kids. It's all memorization. Not surprising that Bush likes it - after all, critical thinking skills aren't important in the White House. Why would he want it in schools?

No Child Left a Dime

Even worse, he underfunded the program. :hi:

no child left alive...esp with the section that allows the military to be given contact info on the kids.

http://www.eiatx.org/

>
Education in Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Education in Action's experiential learning programs empower young Texans to be informed and active leaders in their communities.

What We Do
Lone Star Leadership Academy Programs: Each summer, Education in Action offers the Lone Star Leadership Academy program to outstanding Texas 5th-8th graders. Participants travel to Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin or Houston/Galveston to develop leadership skills and experience what they are learning in school through visits to significant Texas sites. Click on the Lone Star Leadership Academies button for more information.
>

Now look who is on the Advisory Council
http://www.educationinaction.org/about_us/advisory_counsel.php
-----
The Honorable Ray Allen, State Representative
District 106, Grand Prairie, Texas


The Honorable Kim Brimer, State Senator
District 10, Fort Worth, Texas


The Honorable Todd Smith, State Representative
District 92, Bedford, Texas
----

Aren't Allen, Brimer, and Smith all Republicans? If so, there are no DEM state legislators on the advisory council.

looks interesting. At this point, home schooling looks good.

Well, you sound like a lovely teacher, and I'm sorry you're on a "script". Maybe you should just ignore it.

But the focus on testing because of it is probably the worst part.

Both my parents work in public schools, so, yeah.

Thank you for the tone of your post and the obvious love you have for teaching. Maybe JacksonWest is right, the months before you retire; start teaching without the programmed propaganda. Or could you start using subliminal information in speech and pictures? I am gathering that all materials have been supplied, are they the shiny, slick kind? Wanna bet there are some subliminals to be found imbedded in the NCLB curriculums.

but I am a seasoned veteran and they generally leave me alone. I really feel for the beginning teachers though.

on the way home yesterday 'When we are finished rebuilding Iraq, can we rebuild our schools'. :rofl:

Of course, I am not holding my breath on that one.