I didn't know that the transition from K to 1st would be so hard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, when you say hours and hours, is that hyperbole? Because that's how much time I spent when I transitioned from a public school in North America from first grade to a public school in Hong Kong during the second grade, without knowing how to write (can speak) a word of Chinese. What's worse is that the academic environment is hyper competitive over there where students do substantive written homework and take tests and exams just like the ones that upper middle school and high school students take here. At the end of the semester, students are ranked based on their overall scores and the rank is listed publicly. Heck, I didn't even have a concept (nor did I even know the Chinese word for it) of what is a test when I took the first one.

Of course, now, I'm really comparing apples to oranges, but are we really talking about hours and hours here?

So, tell me again,

Not seeing why any of this is relevant to this thread.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, first grade is when parents have to get more involved in the “academic” portions of school. It only gets worse from here! Sounds like the teachers are depending on you to organize everything and figure out the assignments. Can you set up a chart with due dates, post it on your fridge? Also, try not to overdo things like making a special trip to kinkos for pictures. Just use the magazine pictures. Do the deciduous walk on your way to the car in the driveway. or remember to talk about it at the playground next time. Of course, this means that I would’ve had to google deciduous trees to be able to have this talk in the first place. You can do it, op! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I read aloud to my kids every night before bed and count that as the reading for 20 minutes.

[Anonymous]

We're at FCPS and have no homework. Just reading each night and the occasional projects. It's great.

[Anonymous]

Ugh! Just do the reading snd ignore the rest op. If you choose not to ignore, make it easy on yourself and just google the pictures of “important people place” (one of each), talk about it with your child, oriny it and be done with it. Same for the tree... When you are out and about with your child, if you hapoen to see a deciduous tree or pass through a monument/important place, bring up the subject- like normal parents would fo regardless of the assignment.

[Anonymous]

I think the interesting thing is that first grade made me realize why parents have to supplement. We are in FCPS and it's been a complete black box. We get one or two worksheets once a week sent home with a check plus on it. But I have zero idea what my kid does all day beyond referring to "Stations."

We are getting an interim this week, so I imagine we'll see all sorts of issues that we have to run around and fix with expensive tutoring. It's annoying and frustrating, but I get it. The day is super busy, there are more kids, they are getting adjusted and with one teacher it's hard to accurately teach and assess the kids AND give them attention. My kid reports that the bulk of her day is self-directed learning, worksheets, learning games, etc. It's not teacher led. The teacher is seeing groups of kids, assessing reading and math, and focused on recording records.

In an ideal world, I wish each grade an an assessment teacher whose sole job was to do all of these individual assessments and recording records so teachers can focus on teaching. It's a pipe dream of course.

[Anonymous]

Give feedback to the teacher OP. That is absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the interesting thing is that first grade made me realize why parents have to supplement. We are in FCPS and it's been a complete black box. We get one or two worksheets once a week sent home with a check plus on it. But I have zero idea what my kid does all day beyond referring to "Stations."

We are getting an interim this week, so I imagine we'll see all sorts of issues that we have to run around and fix with expensive tutoring. It's annoying and frustrating, but I get it. The day is super busy, there are more kids, they are getting adjusted and with one teacher it's hard to accurately teach and assess the kids AND give them attention. My kid reports that the bulk of her day is self-directed learning, worksheets, learning games, etc. It's not teacher led. The teacher is seeing groups of kids, assessing reading and math, and focused on recording records.

In an ideal world, I wish each grade an an assessment teacher whose sole job was to do all of these individual assessments and recording records so teachers can focus on teaching. It's a pipe dream of course.

It's been the same for us all the way through 6th grade. Awful. Finally middle school has actual classes and no Stations where all the kids do is talk.

[Anonymous]

I think you got a bad teacher OP. It sounds disorganized and not well planned out. My DC had a teacher like that where the homework was more work for the parent than the child (like one assignment involved cooking something and writing about it -- just what a working parent wants to do on a school night and obviously my first grader could not do it by herself). A child should be able to do homework fairly independently, and it doesn't have to be worksheets. And I hate homework where there is a varying schedule and there's never a sense of what is due when.

Last year's teacher was so much better -- a packet given out on Monday, due Friday. There was a suggestion for what could be done each day but it was obviously flexible. It wasn't just rote worksheets either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the interesting thing is that first grade made me realize why parents have to supplement. We are in FCPS and it's been a complete black box. We get one or two worksheets once a week sent home with a check plus on it. But I have zero idea what my kid does all day beyond referring to "Stations."

We are getting an interim this week, so I imagine we'll see all sorts of issues that we have to run around and fix with expensive tutoring. It's annoying and frustrating, but I get it. The day is super busy, there are more kids, they are getting adjusted and with one teacher it's hard to accurately teach and assess the kids AND give them attention. My kid reports that the bulk of her day is self-directed learning, worksheets, learning games, etc. It's not teacher led. The teacher is seeing groups of kids, assessing reading and math, and focused on recording records.

In an ideal world, I wish each grade an an assessment teacher whose sole job was to do all of these individual assessments and recording records so teachers can focus on teaching. It's a pipe dream of course.

It's been the same for us all the way through 6th grade. Awful. Finally middle school has actual classes and no Stations where all the kids do is talk.

Yes! And the thing that drives me nuts is that as a parent you're told your kid can't do X, Y, Z. But when I press on how they learned whatever, the answer is self-directed stations. The focus on assessing over actual teaching is frustrating. We are doing Kumon (something I never, ever thought was going to be necessary) because there's a lack of focus on actually teaching the kids. 10 minute mini-lessons ain't going to cut it when the kids spend the remaining 80 cycling through self-directed stations while the teacher is in the corner doing a DRA with a kid one on one. It just doesn't make sense.

I wish our school was more honest about this.

FWIW, I taught in a title I school (our kids go to the neighborhood school that's actually "high" performing and I'm home on mat leave now, but will return in Jan.) I had an assessment teacher who did a lot of the testing so I could focus on the kids more directly. But we got that teacher out of Title I funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the interesting thing is that first grade made me realize why parents have to supplement. We are in FCPS and it's been a complete black box. We get one or two worksheets once a week sent home with a check plus on it. But I have zero idea what my kid does all day beyond referring to "Stations."

We are getting an interim this week, so I imagine we'll see all sorts of issues that we have to run around and fix with expensive tutoring. It's annoying and frustrating, but I get it. The day is super busy, there are more kids, they are getting adjusted and with one teacher it's hard to accurately teach and assess the kids AND give them attention. My kid reports that the bulk of her day is self-directed learning, worksheets, learning games, etc. It's not teacher led. The teacher is seeing groups of kids, assessing reading and math, and focused on recording records.

In an ideal world, I wish each grade an an assessment teacher whose sole job was to do all of these individual assessments and recording records so teachers can focus on teaching. It's a pipe dream of course.

We are in FCPS and in first grade, DS had stations. I'm not sure that DS or any kids learned anything from most of them.

I was surprised that there were no stations in second grade. I'm sure it is teacher dependent but his teacher didn't do them. At first I was concerned because from what I understand, stations/workshops/centers are the current best practice in teaching. But it was a better year all around. And no stations in third now, either.

[Anonymous]

Shocked at all the parents telling teachers that their kid wouldn't be doing homework assigned to them. If you are overwhelmed at 1st grade homework, I don't know how you will make through school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Give feedback to the teacher OP. That is absurd.

+1 Is this a new teacher? She certainly can't be a parent if she's giving this much work.

Does FCPS have any guideline on homework? In APS there is a homework guideline that homework should be no more than 10 min/night per grade level (not counting reading). If homework went significantly beyond that we stopped it and wrote a note to the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shocked at all the parents telling teachers that their kid wouldn't be doing homework assigned to them. If you are overwhelmed at 1st grade homework, I don't know how you will make through school.

Because that amount of homework is inappropriate for a 1st grader. Homework is generally pointless in elementary school. I stopped my kids if their ES homework went on too long and gave feedback to the teacher. They are now in HS and manage their heavy homework load just fine, which is appropriate for the class load they are taking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shocked at all the parents telling teachers that their kid wouldn't be doing homework assigned to them. If you are overwhelmed at 1st grade homework, I don't know how you will make through school.

Because it is not developmentally appropriate.

Because the kids need to be getting direct instruction in the classroom instead of working through worksheets/playing games in stations on their own while their teaching is completing yet another assessment to determine whether he or she is effectively teaching (note: there's no teaching happening, wealthy/educated/resourced parents are supplementing).

Because the lack of teacher interaction is the perfect storm for kids having behavior issues (because: adult attention that is developmentally appropriate).

Because when it comes to learning doing worksheets or random projects in first grade is not going to garner a love of school or learning. What kids need in the primary K-2 years is developmentally appropriate supports at home. They need to read and be read to. They need to be engaged with and learn measuring and math in every day life. Recommendations on this front are always helpful. But writing 100 sight words over and over without any context...is problematic (an actual homework assignment we have weekly).

I agree with other posters. First grade is shocking. I think the emphasis on assessing where the kids are versus actually teaching kids is nuts.