The value of instruction books - after we go back to normal, could we have instruction books again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do people think books = anti-teachers? It's just a method of delivery. No one is saying they don't want teachers, just that they want the content delivered in a way so that parents and kids can access it.

+1

I believe teachers miss books as well!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do people think books = anti-teachers? It's just a method of delivery. No one is saying they don't want teachers, just that they want the content delivered in a way so that parents and kids can access it.

Why do parents need to access the content? I've already been to school. It's my DC's turn now. I don't want to access his textbook or his content. I don't want to teach him. The teacher does that.

No, the KIDS need to access the content. Content is more understandable via print text. It’s easier for children. Easier for teachers. More equitable. Better all around. I doubt schools will ever admit their mistake at this point, though. They have invested a ton of time and effort into online learning.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

+1

Or go online and order a textbook. There are many to choose from and probably cover most of the material your child is learning. Most teachers don't get through an entire textbook, but you can pick and choose what you would like. Also you will find that some textbooks are shockingly awful and don't teach anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

Last I checked, Khan Academy -- or IXL, for that matter - doesn't teach social studies. Or science. Or English, in any meaningful way.
Any recommendations on how to teach history 'from the internet'??

[Anonymous]

I'm an upper elementary teacher in FCPS and I would LOVE to use textbooks. But using textbooks is considered to promote uninspired teaching and indicates a lack of creativity. So instead I have to recreate the wheel and create packets covering every single concept. Talk about a waste of paper. At least with a textbook, it could be reused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/

It is best to use both...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an upper elementary teacher in FCPS and I would LOVE to use textbooks. But using textbooks is considered to promote uninspired teaching and indicates a lack of creativity. So instead I have to recreate the wheel and create packets covering every single concept. Talk about a waste of paper. At least with a textbook, it could be reused.

I really haven’t had textbooks in 27 years of teaching. It hasn’t been much of a problem.

As far as homework goes, I say it’s not needed in elementary. If hw is assigned, then the child should be able to complete it independently.

[Anonymous]

Where do you live that your school doesn't have a syllabus/ curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do people think books = anti-teachers? It's just a method of delivery. No one is saying they don't want teachers, just that they want the content delivered in a way so that parents and kids can access it.

Why do parents need to access the content? I've already been to school. It's my DC's turn now. I don't want to access his textbook or his content. I don't want to teach him. The teacher does that.

I need access because the kid has no idea what he has learned, what he is learning and what is coming to him. The book and curriculum would tell me that DC is learning percentages in January, 2020. Right now DC is drowning into lose leaf papers and has no idea where his percentage papers are in case he needs to refresh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do people think books = anti-teachers? It's just a method of delivery. No one is saying they don't want teachers, just that they want the content delivered in a way so that parents and kids can access it.

Why do parents need to access the content? I've already been to school. It's my DC's turn now. I don't want to access his textbook or his content. I don't want to teach him. The teacher does that.

I need access because the kid has no idea what he has learned, what he is learning and what is coming to him. The book and curriculum would tell me that DC is learning percentages in January, 2020. Right now DC is drowning into lose leaf papers and has no idea where his percentage papers are in case he needs to refresh.

This. I don't care if it's a book book or an organized binder of items detailing what my kid should have learned. Parents need a way to figure that out to help repeat material and have additional examples etc. I don't want to teach my kid a different way that she is learning to not undermine the teacher either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

Last I checked, Khan Academy -- or IXL, for that matter - doesn't teach social studies. Or science. Or English, in any meaningful way.
Any recommendations on how to teach history 'from the internet'??

Watch documentaries, have your child come up with a research topic and let them read books about that topic, talk about current events and how it relates to government and similar historical events, etc. You don’t need a white-washed textbook to teach history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

Last I checked, Khan Academy -- or IXL, for that matter - doesn't teach social studies. Or science. Or English, in any meaningful way.
Any recommendations on how to teach history 'from the internet'??

Watch documentaries, have your child come up with a research topic and let them read books about that topic, talk about current events and how it relates to government and similar historical events, etc. You don’t need a white-washed textbook to teach history.

Actually, one place where I think current history teaching is failing kids is that it is very "episodic." Today, kids, we're going to look at primary documents about the Scopes Monkey Trial. Tomorrow, we'll do an activity on the stock market crash. Well-written textbooks provide an overview of events, and allow kids to put them on a timeline to make sense of them. Should they go deeper? Absolutely. But for teachers to be arguing that they aren't necessary is troubling. Look at any survey of American citizens (or even college students) on history or government and you will see that current methods are failing, no matter how many graphic organizers the kids fill out or primary documents they "analyze" during their formative years. (That's another thing that gets me; it is necessary to know historical facts before you can "analyze".)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people want a textbook when the internet exists. Textbooks waste paper. Just go on Khan Academy or IXL if you want to see what a student needs to learn in a particular grade.

Last I checked, Khan Academy -- or IXL, for that matter - doesn't teach social studies. Or science. Or English, in any meaningful way.
Any recommendations on how to teach history 'from the internet'??

Watch documentaries, have your child come up with a research topic and let them read books about that topic, talk about current events and how it relates to government and similar historical events, etc. You don’t need a white-washed textbook to teach history.

Actually, one place where I think current history teaching is failing kids is that it is very "episodic." Today, kids, we're going to look at primary documents about the Scopes Monkey Trial. Tomorrow, we'll do an activity on the stock market crash. Well-written textbooks provide an overview of events, and allow kids to put them on a timeline to make sense of them. Should they go deeper? Absolutely. But for teachers to be arguing that they aren't necessary is troubling. Look at any survey of American citizens (or even college students) on history or government and you will see that current methods are failing, no matter how many graphic organizers the kids fill out or primary documents they "analyze" during their formative years. (That's another thing that gets me; it is necessary to know historical facts before you can "analyze".)

+1. My older kids who had textbooks have a much better grasp of history than my younger kid who has all these online deep dive resources - even with a teacher curating them to the same time period.

[Anonymous]

Thank god our middle school still handed out textbooks. It was so helpful for the students. But also the TEACHERS! What teacher wants to create a lesson plan every single day. There is no reason why a textbook needs to be used all the time. It's a reference and a way of doing some practice and summary reading. The way it has always been. We still did group projects back in the day with a textbook. Teachers are spending too much time in lesson planning because of lack of textbooks. I'd rather the teacher have more time to plan the cool projects rather than the daily math practice.