Forum Index
»
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Seriously FFX? why can't school start on Monday?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| The person who keeps saying that teachers must be intellectual should actually try teaching. Some of the most ineffectual teachers have been intellectual types especially when it came to management. Being an intellectual does not always equate to great classroom management. |
Anonymous
Bingo! |
Anonymous
Agreed but then what is the point of public school as it's now set up? If teachers can't really teach and are just good at classroom management, then maybe kids shouldn't be in those classrooms. |
Anonymous
If you played less bingo and studied the fundamentals of your profession you might help the children you are paid to teach to be successful in life. It's not a matter of being a Gore Vidal intellectual. It's a matter of being a true expert in your given discipline. Quality seasoned master teachers have a base reservoir of knowledge about their discipline ten times deeper and broader than any individual lesson they will ever teach. There is a very logical reason for this expectation. You are a teacher - you went to college - you majored in English, math, science, social studies etc. etc Our expectations are that you are well read experts in your field. If you are not then you should not have been hired to teach. You have all gotten into the habit and it is allowed by your principals to plagiarize lesson plans and to teach what is confined within that narrow box for the day. Teachers must be able to answer any revant question related to their field. They can dig deep in their reservoir of knowledge to provide a eureka moment for inquisitive students. Ever question must be a teachable moment. Unfortunately, you are not prepared to do so. Unfortunately, you can't! Teachers are no longer experts in their fields and it is madness, but they unable to answer anything outside of their cheat sheet - their lesson plan. They are actually proud of that fact. The expectation is after five years teachers must by experts in pedagogy and discipline content. If that is not who you are or what you aspire to be please find a different job, because you are not a "teacher" and you are denying our children the quality educations you are being paid to provide. |
Anonymous
The parents had input. |
Anonymous
Which was ignored in favor of teacher input. |
Anonymous
Good grief. I was a teacher and very well read in my field and in many other fields. I am also one of those who scores very, very well on standardized tests. I was a good teacher, but, I can tell you that there were frequently teachers on my team who were better than I. And, some of them were no where near as well read as I or had scores as good as mine. Some people just instinctively are great in the classroom. That does not mean they are uninformed in their fields, however. You are assuming that you must be PhD material to be a good teacher. This is not the case. There, of course, is a need to be informed in your field--and, most teachers are. I don't know why you think they are not. |
Anonymous
| Bottom line: School is not free daycare. Stop thinking it is. It’s a few short years that you’ll need to find someone to watch your kid when school is closed. Deal with it. |
Anonymous
If a high school teacher has majored in a given discipline they should have a mastery of that subject and after few years of teaching it they should be experts. Your contention that they are somewhat read in the field is totally inadequate. The fact that you've read Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird does not make you an English teacher. We are not looking for published Ph.D. teachers, but we are looking for teachers who have truly earned and are worthy of a B.A. FCPS principals are lazy people who were never scholarly themselves so they do not demand scholarship or even genuine effort from their teachers. FCPS principal hideout in their offices all day just hoping they don't get caught. FCPS students have been left for dead in their classrooms and the principal just don't care! They never really taught school themselves so they really can't tell the difference between the living and the dead. |
Anonymous
Thank the SOLs for this- you realize that teachers can't go off script and do creative lessons anymore? If it's not tested, it's not taught in most schools. |
Anonymous
The SOLs have nothing to do with it. Virginia barely has any SOL tests anymore. They've removed all but bare bones testing. I had way most testing in my youth than my kids get now. The tests have nothing to do with teacher's expertise. The people going into the field are not passionate about their field and are not the most intelligent in their graduating class. |
Anonymous
|
For the rest of the employed population people must remain current in their field of expertise. FCPS HIGH school teachers are hired at age 22 knowing little more than their students. They start and end their careers giving nothing more than homework assignments and coaching some silly half-assed sport like ring toss.
GO BOOSTERS! There was a time when high schoolers attended school for academics, but today high school is all about extra-curricular activities. Everyone in Fairfax knows people who left high school totally unprepared for the rigors of college. High school teachers are no longer hired for their scholarship, today they are hired based on what team they can coach. FCPS Principals really stink! Get up off your lazy asses and start doing your jobs! |
Anonymous
Stfu. You don't even know what you're talking about. All students MUST pass the 11th grade writing SOL to graduate. I teach that which means it is my job to give them the tools they need to pass that test. The writing component is entirely persuasive. Do I value narrative and creative writing over persuasive? Yes. Would I be derelict in my duty to my students to teach that more than persuasive? Yes. I have leeway to do some of what I want but ultimately my students need to do well on the SAT, SOLs and any other standardized tests they may take, such as AP. So that's where I focus my teaching. |
Anonymous
There are only two writing SOL tests in all of K-12. Pick another grade if that one test inhibits you that much. Or work to reform the one high school write test that still exists. They seem to be making changes to the tests apply the time. Do you really think it is better that kids could graduate without any minimum writing test prior to graduation? They are minimal competency tests. Your AP students shouldn't be worried about passing it so I don't know why you'd be inhibited there and I'm perfectly fine making sure all children that graduate high school have some minimal competency in writing through one test in 8th and one in 11th. It isn't fair to them to graduate high school completely unprepared. Communication is huge in the world today. I'd prefer more than one writing test and if it takes you all year to teach your A,B, and C students how to pass the writing SOL something was wrong with their teaching from years prior when they weren't tested and just moved ahead. |
Anonymous
| Looking online the prompts are not always persuasive or about their opinion on something but they are reflective on personal experience. Write about when laughter helped you in a situation. Write about an important decision you've had to make or will make. If some 11th graders can't write a five paragraph reflective essay on themselves by 11th grade without spending all year on it, then I guess I want them to spend all year on it. This is something I expect all graduates to be able to do. |