Anonymous wrote:DP. It depended on what group your child was placed in. Agree - count yourself lucky.
Please stop repeating this myth over and over. Kids were in separate spelling groups according to ability based on a spelling test, yes. But the reading groups were up to the kids - they choose what books to read from several choices. And those group were constantly changing based on what book the kid chose. There were not two separate groups - unless you are saying the teacher had a group of favorites, but they were not assigned different work - except for levels of spelling words. Or when the kids got to choose which type of project to do - or how involved to get in the project. At least we never saw that in the two years we experienced with the 4th grade teacher with two different kids.
Yes, you are correct. This poster is stretching the truth or is delusional. Both my kids had her. Sure, she was tough but not anything like what they're describing.
Two groups in the same class. One group had "Thursday" and "apple" on their spelling exam when the other group had "tetrarchy" but were graded on the same grading rubric?
But if you were someone who signed off on the paperwork or a parent who's kid benefitted from that, I can see why you would try to defend it?
My kid was in the lowest level spelling group, but in his year they never had words like Thursday or Apple. They were more challenging than that, but not super tough like the highest group. He was not given easier words because he was a “favorite”. but because he just wasn’t a strong speller. As for using the same rubric for all spelling groups, do you think he should have gotten Cs because his words were easier? Or should there have only been one spelling group? And all the kids could choose their own books and projects when there was a choice.
I went back and re-read the original complaint. It was so awful, I can't believe this was done to a child.
On the spelling words, it was already provided in writing. The sheets used for the spelling tests were provided as evidence. Same went for the books that were "choice". When the only two books "permitted" by the teacher were so difficult that they had no Lexile rating, and listed as "appropriate" for 8th grade GT (in 4th Grade), while other children were free to choose books under 1300 Lexile, but assignments were graded on the same grading rubric? When a teacher erases the child's choice of different assignments then writes in herself "how game theory affects our lives"?
This doesn’t sound familiar to me. But I do recall assignment questions that were both vague and advanced and also abstract that I struggled to understand what they could possibly be asking my child to write about. Given that I, with a PhD, couldn’t fully understand the point of the questions, it did seem to perhaps be aimed a little higher at times than a “gifted” 9 year old. The teacher just didn’t get it when asked what the point was.
The CES curriculum is set by the Central Office. They use the same projects and assignments at all CES schools.
Yeah that’s what she said but the 5th grade curriculum wasn’t even remotely similar and that too was surely set by Central office. Or she just created her own assignments, rubrics and questions, and added to what central office provided in ways that weren’t helpful.
Had a child go through the center at Pince Crest a few years earlier then one when they opened the local center at PBES. The program was the same. You may really want to take the PP's advice and just let it go.
Not true. Program in 4th grade at Piney branch was much more intense and voluminous than any other CES location. No other CES has that level of homework. Nor did PBES in 5th.
Seemed the same when my kids went through it. Are you sure you didn't forget to take your meds today?
You know you are responding to multiple people, don’t you? You know that an entire class of parents complained about this?
It actually wasn't the entire class. Only a few VERY vocal parents. Many were happy with her that year.
There were a few parents who were unhappy. They objected to any homework which tells me they wouldn't have been happy at any CES. Not sure what they expected from an accelerated program for advanced learners.
This is why everyone said adding the 2nd class was a disaster. Because it was. About half the class was fine. About half was purportedly struggling (according to parents) and parents were literally crying at the meetings that they called to lambast the program and teacher. It was absurd. If you don't like the rigor, opt out. The school made that decision for people the next year, when the two-class experiment ended.
You didn't explain why the kids with more difficult assignments received lower grades? Half the kids in the Chewy class, mostly white, got an easy ride. The mostly ethnic kids in Yoda didn't.
The TKPK parents crow about how their schools are the best. It's shameful.
This was only in that poster's imagination. I had two kids go through the program and both loved it. Anyway, that teacher left PBES years ago and the poster with the grudge would be well served by seeking therapy.
There are multiple posters who were extremely unhappy. There were not different groups for my kids class but it was still a terrible experience.
I'm positive it's one slightly unhinged poster with a penchant for sock puppets.
Well it’s very easy to see that there are several 1) one or more who are unhappy about there being two reading/spelling groups, I think during the period when there were two classes 2) others unhappy about volume of work and favoritism in general, some of whom have no experience of with spelling groups (myself included). It’s the defensive supporters who are coming across as unhinged here because they won’t let the thread die.
The poster's obsession with a teacher who many in this thread liked and who left the school years ago seems off. A lone poster with multiple personality disorder seems like the most plausible explanation.
She DID NOT leave the school years ago.
Yes, I heard she got promoted! My kid, who is finishing CES there, never had her, so she left more 2+ years ago.
That’s not true. She left either this year or last year. She was definitely there this time last year teaching 4th grade CES. I don’t know if she returned in fall 2022. But if your child is truly “finishing CES there” right now, she taught him/her last year, so stop lying.
She's been gone for a couple of years. As a PP suggested, you really need to let this go. It's just not healthy.
There are some really strange things going on in this thread. But the fact is the 4th grade CES teacher has been the same for several years (at least 5, someone else said 10) until she left at the end of last year, apparently.
What’s not healthy are the blatant lies.
What's not healthy is your obsession with a teacher who left PBES years ago.
She didn’t! She left less than a year ago. You are almost Trumpian in your denial of facts.
Or maybe it was just a hologram teaching her class last year? She did wear a mask all year even after the mandate was lifted, so I guess it could have been someone impersonating her?
Or it could be that you are either wasting it deliberately lying.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
If she did then she wouldn’t have been teaching there this time last year. Which she was. Fact.
That's really strange because my neighbor's kid was in that CES class last year and when I asked about it, I was told she had moved on the previous year.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
If she did then she wouldn’t have been teaching there this time last year. Which she was. Fact.
That's really strange because my neighbor's kid was in that CES class last year and when I asked about it, I was told she had moved on the previous year.
Your neighbor’s kid must be finishing up 4th grade right now. Because if they were in 4th grade last year she’d have been their teacher.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
If she did then she wouldn’t have been teaching there this time last year. Which she was. Fact.
That's really strange because my neighbor's kid was in that CES class last year and when I asked about it, I was told she had moved on the previous year.
Your neighbor’s kid must be finishing up 4th grade right now. Because if they were in 4th grade last year she’d have been their teacher.
Nope, they're in 5th and when I asked about her last year they told me she had left.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Most people were fine with the higher expectations, but some believed kids shouldn't have homework. I wish they had read up on CES before accepting the seat because hearing their complaints was tiresome. It's even called the Center for enriched studies.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
If she did then she wouldn’t have been teaching there this time last year. Which she was. Fact.
That's really strange because my neighbor's kid was in that CES class last year and when I asked about it, I was told she had moved on the previous year.
Your neighbor’s kid must be finishing up 4th grade right now. Because if they were in 4th grade last year she’d have been their teacher.
Nope, they're in 5th and when I asked about her last year they told me she had left.
You must have misunderstood or misheard. She taught 4th grade last year and any kid in CES in 4th last year was taught by her.
Maybe she told you she’d left at the end of the year?
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Most people were fine with the higher expectations, but some believed kids shouldn't have homework. I wish they had read up on CES before accepting the seat because hearing their complaints was tiresome. It's even called the Center for enriched studies.
There are different ways to approach advanced work. There is increased depth and rigor and focus on creativity and critical thinking and then there is piling on busy work and focusing on volume. This teacher did the latter. Some parents may want to see piles and piles of paper as “proof” That their kid is “advanced” and “challenged”. But some of us understand that unrelenting volume isn’t what advanced learners need.
I’ve never heard anyone say that zero homework is the goal, though 5th grade by contrast had minimal homework.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Most people were fine with the higher expectations, but some believed kids shouldn't have homework. I wish they had read up on CES before accepting the seat because hearing their complaints was tiresome. It's even called the Center for enriched studies.
There are different ways to approach advanced work. There is increased depth and rigor and focus on creativity and critical thinking and then there is piling on busy work and focusing on volume. This teacher did the latter. Some parents may want to see piles and piles of paper as “proof” That their kid is “advanced” and “challenged”. But some of us understand that unrelenting volume isn’t what advanced learners need.
I’ve never heard anyone say that zero homework is the goal, though 5th grade by contrast had minimal homework.
We loved the curriculum. The assignments were creative and engaging. There were so many memorable projects. They dressed as Greek heroes, built a rube Goldberg machine, or wrote creative stories! It was a great class where kids could learn and grow. Sadly, a few people tried to ruin it for everyone else and apparently still haven't let it go.
Anonymous wrote:DP. It depended on what group your child was placed in. Agree - count yourself lucky.
Please stop repeating this myth over and over. Kids were in separate spelling groups according to ability based on a spelling test, yes. But the reading groups were up to the kids - they choose what books to read from several choices. And those group were constantly changing based on what book the kid chose. There were not two separate groups - unless you are saying the teacher had a group of favorites, but they were not assigned different work - except for levels of spelling words. Or when the kids got to choose which type of project to do - or how involved to get in the project. At least we never saw that in the two years we experienced with the 4th grade teacher with two different kids.
Yes, you are correct. This poster is stretching the truth or is delusional. Both my kids had her. Sure, she was tough but not anything like what they're describing.
Two groups in the same class. One group had "Thursday" and "apple" on their spelling exam when the other group had "tetrarchy" but were graded on the same grading rubric?
But if you were someone who signed off on the paperwork or a parent who's kid benefitted from that, I can see why you would try to defend it?
I've posted this before but my kid was in the lower spelling group. I thought the words were easy. I asked to move him to the higher group. She moved him. Zero issues. Maybe you're overthinking it?
Same with us, but I couldn't even tell there was a difference between the groups. DC wanted to switch to be with their friends and the teacher said it was fine.
Which book?
You must not have a kid, @PBES. The groups were for spelling words. It wasn't a big deal.
About books, my kids read approximately a book a month in CES. Kids could choose 1 of 3-4 books each month; these choices were set by the CES curriculum used by every center. It had nothing to do with spelling groups. That poster just forgot to take their meds again.
Now I know you're you're not a PBES parent or teacher.
I don't know why MCPS CO staff and BOE members get on this post and pretend to be parents? It's very strange.
Anonymous wrote:The teacher finished there last June and switched schools for this current school year.
This is correct.
I think that's wrong. I heard she took an AP job in the fall of 2020.
I also heard she got promoted because the metrics for her class were off the charts. She was tough, but kids learned a lot from her.
We felt the same way, but a few parents were against rigor. They failed to grasp this was a class for advanced students and felt any homework was too much.
Most people were fine with the higher expectations, but some believed kids shouldn't have homework. I wish they had read up on CES before accepting the seat because hearing their complaints was tiresome. It's even called the Center for enriched studies.
There are different ways to approach advanced work. There is increased depth and rigor and focus on creativity and critical thinking and then there is piling on busy work and focusing on volume. This teacher did the latter. Some parents may want to see piles and piles of paper as “proof” That their kid is “advanced” and “challenged”. But some of us understand that unrelenting volume isn’t what advanced learners need.
I’ve never heard anyone say that zero homework is the goal, though 5th grade by contrast had minimal homework.
We loved the curriculum. The assignments were creative and engaging. There were so many memorable projects. They dressed as Greek heroes, built a rube Goldberg machine, or wrote creative stories! It was a great class where kids could learn and grow. Sadly, a few people tried to ruin it for everyone else and apparently still haven't let it go.
Sadly, the staff were never arrested and charged. Next time, though!
Anonymous wrote:DP. It depended on what group your child was placed in. Agree - count yourself lucky.
Please stop repeating this myth over and over. Kids were in separate spelling groups according to ability based on a spelling test, yes. But the reading groups were up to the kids - they choose what books to read from several choices. And those group were constantly changing based on what book the kid chose. There were not two separate groups - unless you are saying the teacher had a group of favorites, but they were not assigned different work - except for levels of spelling words. Or when the kids got to choose which type of project to do - or how involved to get in the project. At least we never saw that in the two years we experienced with the 4th grade teacher with two different kids.
Yes, you are correct. This poster is stretching the truth or is delusional. Both my kids had her. Sure, she was tough but not anything like what they're describing.
Two groups in the same class. One group had "Thursday" and "apple" on their spelling exam when the other group had "tetrarchy" but were graded on the same grading rubric?
But if you were someone who signed off on the paperwork or a parent who's kid benefitted from that, I can see why you would try to defend it?
I've posted this before but my kid was in the lower spelling group. I thought the words were easy. I asked to move him to the higher group. She moved him. Zero issues. Maybe you're overthinking it?
Same with us, but I couldn't even tell there was a difference between the groups. DC wanted to switch to be with their friends and the teacher said it was fine.
Which book?
You must not have a kid, @PBES. The groups were for spelling words. It wasn't a big deal.
About books, my kids read approximately a book a month in CES. Kids could choose 1 of 3-4 books each month; these choices were set by the CES curriculum used by every center. It had nothing to do with spelling groups. That poster just forgot to take their meds again.
It was a wonderful program that had the same curriculum at every center. Seems like there were a lot of Karens at PBES. Most parents wish their kids had a challenging curriculum, but these Karens would've been better off declining the invitation. They saw CES as prestige and had no interest in learning.
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