Teachers out there: looking to vent?

[Gertabelle]

Is it some form of hypnosis that gets the administration to stop writing checks to any and every “educational technology” company that comes along and spending all our money on tech junk that we don’t need, doesn’t work, and will be obsolete by the time I finish this sentence?

:clapping: Amen! :clapping:

If I ever decide I can no longer endure the stress and pressures of teaching, I may develop some absolutely-essential-this-will-raise-all-your-test-scores-and-engage-students-and-look-great-in-your-bullet-points-while-presenting-to-the-state-board-of-education-overpriced new system…and retire in high style.

 

[Allegra]

:clapping: Amen! :clapping:

If I ever decide I can no longer endure the stress and pressures of teaching, I may develop some absolutely-essential-this-will-raise-all-your-test-scores-and-engage-students-and-look-great-in-your-bullet-points-while-presenting-to-the-state-board-of-education-overpriced new system…and retire in high style.

As if anyone would take you seriously. What do teachers know about teaching?

 

[Allegra]

I GOT IT!!!

Quiet recorders!

 

[Gertabelle]

I GOT IT!!!

Quiet recorders!

Quiet children!

 

[EasterJoy]

Thanks, and I concur! Those who neglect to use periods cause me to lose my breath while reading!!

The lack of periods is the least of my complaints. It is the dragging pace with which content is disclosed that drove my students crazy. It is the literary equivalent of shouting at someone who isn’t fluent in your language.

 

[Regina7]

What’s educational technology? I teach college students (and RE), so I don’t have to deal with state testing and all that garbage. I certainly have pet peeves though. My #1 for the moment is students who think they should pass just because they come to class, despite their complete ignorance of what I’m actually teaching. Or maybe my #1 complaint is that their ignorance is completely irrelevant, unless it happens to interfere with their financial aid.

 

[Monica4316]

To everyone who commented on the technology… I completely agree. It bothers me too, especially the “educational games”.

 

[pensmama87]

To everyone who commented on the technology… I completely agree. It bothers me too, especially the “educational games”.

Right.

I do think some technology is really useful for schools, but it’s actually the non-educational technology I like the most. Online grading systems, paying PTA dues or field trip expenses online, being able to download school calendars directly to Google instead of copying everything by hand (though I do like having the physical calendar in my kitchen as well). Those are nice time-savers, they facilitate communication with parents, and if done right they save paper and money for the school, too.

Pretty much all of the educational technology I am “meh” about, especially for elementary. I’d rather see quality lab equipment, musical instruments, and manipulatives. Screens keep kids quiet, but I have my doubts as to how much they actually teach.

When I taught I liked my Smartboard because it made prepping a few things easier (I did use PowerPoint a lot, but Allegra’s points about how it is frequently used are well taken), but it wasn’t necessary for what I did (I taught English.) It simplified my lecture notes. But I could see it being better than an overhead projector especially for math and sciences that require a lot of visuals to be taught well, and can take a tedious amount of time to construct on a chalkboard or whiteboard.

 

[john_ennis]

AMEN.

I know my oldest is only in kindergarten, which isn’t supposed to be super academic, but when he comes home and tells me he watched two episodes of Curious George and played his online learn-to-read game for 20 minutes, and he’s only in school for half a day, I start to wonder…

I will admit I used presentation software a lot when I taught because it freed me up to look at students, and I could easily show images, but many, many people my age (and many of the students I taught) had an annoying habit of softly whispering to their PowerPoints instead of addressing their audiences.

Any school that’s not fostering a culture of reading early and continuously (and of course effectively) is missing the point.
And of course that has to be happening in a climate that has requirements, not merely “expectations.” So, right away that counts out just about any school that automatically advances kids to the next grade in middle school–which means most of our public schools.
Thus, I have many a ninth grade boy tell anxiously, “Mr. E, I’ve never read a whole book,” because he just found out we’re reading To Kill a Mockingbird and he’s going to be quizzed and questioned on what he read.

So a peeve? It’s a paralyzingly disparate level of literacy in high school classrooms that has resulted from automatic promotion (and from the TV/videogame culture). It sends parents of adequately-educated kids running for alternatives like home school, private school, Christian schools, charter schools; and it places the inadequately educated kids in an impossible situation.

 

[john_ennis]

The best elementary school (at fostering literacy) that I’ve ever seen, would have your and my kids bringing home a reading log (very simple at the lower grades, increasingly demanding and independent as they move from 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) that made reading at home a matter-of-fact part of their schooling. Reading by the parent, then with the parent, then to the parent, then independently (with short simple tests that held the student accountable as she got into the independent stage) creates an understanding that reading a lot is a part of any educated person’s life.

An assignment to watch a TV program at home…I never saw it at this school (until more sophisticated classes that may have the kids view some documentary on something, or doing some research).

 

[Allegra]

The best elementary school (at fostering literacy) that I’ve ever seen, would have your and my kids bringing home a reading log (very simple at the lower grades, increasingly demanding and independent as they move from 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.) that made reading at home a matter-of-fact part of their schooling. Reading by the parent, then with the parent, then to the parent, then independently (with short simple tests that held the student accountable as she got into the independent stage) creates an understanding that reading a lot is a part of any educated person’s life.

An assignment to watch a TV program at home…I never saw it at this school (until more sophisticated classes that may have the kids view some documentary on something, or doing some research).

I actually think the best literacy programs allow students to select their books and give them time to read at school. The average six-year-old has very little control over whether or not he gets time to read at home. But schools don’t allow free reading time anymore because that can’t be assessed and of course, the only way to prove kids are learning is by constantly generating data!

 

[Allegra]

What’s educational technology? I teach college students (and RE), so I don’t have to deal with state testing and all that garbage. I certainly have pet peeves though. My #1 for the moment is students who think they should pass just because they come to class, despite their complete ignorance of what I’m actually teaching. Or maybe my #1 complaint is that their ignorance is completely irrelevant, unless it happens to interfere with their financial aid.

It’s a series of supposedly interactive, instructional video games that are fiercely marketed to schools as essential for student’s engagement and success in the modern world. They’re usually lousy, difficult to operate, easy to cheat on, and extremely basic in the skills they actually enforce. They are designed to sell hardware. The tech company’s goal is to take the district for millions of their budget spent on smartboards and related devices. There is a hard push to et each student their own device. (laptop or tablet) even as young as K-1.

 

[Regina7]

It’s a series of supposedly interactive, instructional video games that are fiercely marketed to schools as essential for student’s engagement and success in the modern world. They’re usually lousy, difficult to operate, easy to cheat on, and extremely basic in the skills they actually enforce. They are designed to sell hardware. The tech company’s goal is to take the district for millions of their budget spent on smartboards and related devices. There is a hard push to et each student their own device. (laptop or tablet) even as young as K-1.

Yikes!

Poor teachers.

Yet another reason I’m glad I homeschool my own kids.

I will say that the majority of my college students are quite ill-prepared to handle college-level English. I have no doubt that all the testing in HS has been a factor.

 

[john_ennis]

I actually think the best literacy programs allow students to select their books and give them time to read at school. The average six-year-old has very little control over whether or not he gets time to read at home. But schools don’t allow free reading time anymore because that can’t be assessed and of course, the only way to prove kids are learning is by constantly generating data!

Time to read at school is of course necessary. Bringing the parents into it is vital, though. And even though home situations vary, that’s no reason not to require extensive and continued reading at home. Even the poorest, most stretched-thin parents I’ve talked with have great concern and willingness to do what’s necessary at home for their kid. The fact that two in a hundred don’t do that, is no reason not to engage the rest in an intense and required at-home reading program. They will largely rise to it!

The schools’ complaining about tests is partially self-imposed: every test we give, we try to prep them for (because our student scores show how poorly we’re educating them). This prepping takes time, and it’s not supposed to be done. The tests are supposed to show where our students are based on the normal curriculum we teach.

Instead we “teach to the test,” which we admit is wrong. Why do we do it? Because we don’t like what the test shows–that students are being very inadequately educated.

Schools, ironically, should be the last ones we listen to when it comes to whether these tests are a good idea. They have a vested interest in not being exposed.

Not to say there aren’t bad tests. That’s another story.

 

[Gertabelle]

Instead we “teach to the test,” which we admit is wrong. Why do we do it?** Because we don’t like what the test shows–that students are being very inadequately educated.**

Schools, ironically, should be the last ones we listen to when it comes to whether these tests are a good idea. They have a vested interest in not being exposed.

Not to say there aren’t bad tests. That’s another story.

Are you sure about that bolded part? The validity of these tests is absolutely at the heart of this conversation – not some other conversation – if you are going to start accusing teachers of teaching to the test in order to hide something.

Schools should be the FIRST ones we listen to regarding the usefulness of tests. My school has nearly 300 students who are required to be tested on their English language acquisition. This testing is so complicated that it takes the entire month of January to complete it – meaning the teachers who are supposed to be taking small groups of students daily to work on their English language acquisition are instead giving tests. Because these tests measure listening and speaking skills (not just reading and writing), large amounts of time needs to be scheduled for the one-on-one speaking and listening portions of the test.

Incidentally, our teachers don’t teach to the test, but they absolutely take time to teach students how to take tests – how to understand what questions are asking, how to weed out wrong answers to be left with two possible good answers to choose from, how to construct effective written responses, how to click and drag, how to highlight sections of text, etc.

Why do they do this? To raise test scores. Without taking this time, students cannot show what they actually know, because the questions are sometimes designed to assess the ability of students to figure out convoluted language, rather than the subject matter supposedly being assessed. And without taking this time, these tests would be assessing our students’ ability to use technology rather than their knowledge of math, science, literacy, etc.

And why is it important for our test scores to be as high as possible? Because our jobs are on the line based on these assessments.

So yeah, validity matters.

 

[Allegra]

Are you sure about that bolded part? The validity of these tests is absolutely at the heart of this conversation – not some other conversation – if you are going to start accusing teachers of teaching to the test in order to hide something.

Schools should be the FIRST ones we listen to regarding the usefulness of tests. My school has nearly 300 students who are required to be tested on their English language acquisition. This testing is so complicated that it takes the entire month of January to complete it – meaning the teachers who are supposed to be taking small groups of students daily to work on their English language acquisition are instead giving tests. Because these tests measure listening and speaking skills (not just reading and writing), large amounts of time needs to be scheduled for the one-on-one speaking and listening portions of the test.

Incidentally, our teachers don’t teach to the test, but they absolutely take time to teach students how to take tests – how to understand what questions are asking, how to weed out wrong answers to be left with two possible good answers to choose from, how to construct effective written responses, how to click and drag, how to highlight sections of text, etc.

Why do they do this? To raise test scores. Without taking this time, students cannot show what they actually know, because the questions are sometimes designed to assess the ability of students to figure out convoluted language, rather than the subject matter supposedly being assessed. And without taking this time, these tests would be assessing our students’ ability to use technology rather than their knowledge of math, science, literacy, etc.

And why is it important for our test scores to be as high as possible? Because our jobs are on the line based on these assessments.

So yeah, validity matters.

This, and more. The test scores are very poor representations of the school, because they aren’t designed to show growth. (At least the ones required in our state.) Our district generally falls around average as far as standardized test scores go, but if you look at the numbers that actually should count, they tell a different story. Our district has the highest number of minority and free and reduced lunch students graduating and finishing a four-year-degree in the state. We’re in the ten percent in the nation as well. We’re nearly 50% minorities in our population. No other district has the same demographics we have and is so successful. Our ACT scores, graduation rates, college placement rates, and AP test rates are all quite high and that includes our disadvantaged demographics, but our state standardized test scores are not great. Clearly there is a discrepancy.

The elementary standardized tests have to be given on computers. They are convoluted and difficult to use programs that the kids get frustrated with and give up on. Our ELL kids can’t understand the computerized, monotone reading voice. They tests don’t really assess what the kids have learned because the actual mechanics of taking the test are so complicated and in order for the kids to do well on them, hours and hours of classroom time have to be spent preparing to take these goofy things.

We’ve got three different assessment programs going on, two of which are only to entitle the school to additional funds (we’re now forcing the kids to do these test for more money!) Between the three, we’ve lost a massive amount of instructional time. Free reading is basically non-existent. (Though the smart teachers find a way to squeeze it in.) Recess has been cut to 20 minutes a day, even for K-1. Social studies and science had been cut out of the required elementary curriculum, though science was restored a few years ago and our kids are flourishing. We’re in the process of restoring a social studies curriculum that looks like it’s going to be really neat.

 

[My_Nose_My_Toes]

Wow, lots to read, read, and ‘meditate on,’ as Mother Angelica would say! Thanks for being so honest, and I hope I will have more to contribute as I think upon it. I have been working back to back until this moment, so I am only getting back into the thread now!