Benchmark, almost one year done. How are people feeling about it?

[Anonymous]

[b]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

LADY I WAS EXPLAINING THAT I THOUGHT OUR PRINCIPAL SAID FCPS WAS REQUIRED TO USE THE WORKBOOK. I can't believe that it has taken me three tries to explain to you why I thought you were lying.

You actually didn’t say your principal said FCPS either. You said the principal said “they” are required to use a workbook,meaning your specific school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

+1, my third graders read the passages in the booklet and then answered about 1/2 the questions online. The teacher created Google Slides with the questions.

+2 and there’s no feedback ever on Google slides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

I did. I had 5 kids doing virtual learning and I’m a teacher myself. And I said above that I get what people are saying and how the teacher put it online. And I said that’s just more work for them and it doesn’t really give the kids a chance to practice with pencil. The county wanted less online. The point of benchmark wasn’t for all of it to be converted to google slides. But some teachers are obsessed and wanted to spend hours of their time this year putting every lesson online. That was their prerogative and their choice and also unnecessary and not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

I did. I had 5 kids doing virtual learning and I’m a teacher myself. And I said above that I get what people are saying and how the teacher put it online. And I said that’s just more work for them and it doesn’t really give the kids a chance to practice with pencil. The county wanted less online. The point of benchmark wasn’t for all of it to be converted to google slides. But some teachers are obsessed and wanted to spend hours of their time this year putting every lesson online. That was their prerogative and their choice and also unnecessary and not required.

So you’re a teacher and didn’t understand how another teacher could put stuff online in FCPS? And immediately called a poster a liar who explained how their teacher did it online? Something is not adding up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

I did. I had 5 kids doing virtual learning and I’m a teacher myself. And I said above that I get what people are saying and how the teacher put it online. And I said that’s just more work for them and it doesn’t really give the kids a chance to practice with pencil. The county wanted less online. The point of benchmark wasn’t for all of it to be converted to google slides. But some teachers are obsessed and wanted to spend hours of their time this year putting every lesson online. That was their prerogative and their choice and also unnecessary and not required.

So you’re a teacher and didn’t understand how another teacher could put stuff online in FCPS? And immediately called a poster a liar who explained how their teacher did it online? Something is not adding up.

Actually I thought they were just viewing the book online. You can see any part of benchmark online. So No I didn’t realize at first that the teacher was converting the book online. The point of the book was doing paper pencil work. I said the book was required and it wasn’t the intention of FCPS that it be done online. We were told to move away from screens and google slides. I didn’t call anyone a liar. There are multiple people here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Liar. They are required to use the workbooks.

You’re an effing idiot. Teachers can take the questions from the workbook and type them onto a document that the students can then type on. They can also scan in the readings.

Our school does not do that. They did a presentation on Benchmark at the beginning of the school year and several parents asked about if any of it would be online and they very clearly said that they were required to use the workbooks. So, maybe your school does things differently, but I was relaying what I was told by our school.

Thanks for the name calling, though, how incredibly mature of you.

You started the name calling by calling me a liar. You can’t possible see how the workbook could be used online? Why would you think I’m lying about that? That’s idiotic.

As I explained, our school told us the workbooks were required. I didn't realize that was not an FCPS thing. I'm not going to apologize to you, because you're continuing to call me names. You should talk to your principal about this though instead of whining here and calling people idiots. I like to advocate for my child instead of acting like a child on DCUM.

Funny, when I said what our teacher was doing, you immediately called me a liar without provocation. I had not name called you at that point. You said “they are required to use workbooks,” as if what your school was doing was universally true for all. You then backpedaled and said well that’s what your specific school is doing. I don’t need an apology from you lol. But look to your own behavior and understand you get what you give.

[Anonymous]

What have your principals said when you contacted them to complain about the teachers putting Benchmark things online? And what did the Executive Principal say when you elevated it to her? Because I expect that if you were unhappy with the way this program was implemented, surely you went and advocated for your child to be taught this curriculum in the way that the creators intended?

Right?

RIGHT????

Such cowards who aren't willing to advocate for their children they just come on here and insult other people who happen to be happy with the way their schools are implementing the program. When I'm unhappy with something at the school, I ask about why it's done that way. Sometimes there's a good explanation and I leave it alone, but sometimes there is no explanation and the teacher or the administration works with families to change things for the better. But you people, you don't even try, you just call people idiots.

[Anonymous]

Let’s get back to the point. Benchmark still sucks after a year. And yes, I’m a teacher. I’m a pretty decent teacher who used to do rigorous, challenging work in reading and writing, and creative projects with my upper elementary kids. Now that I’m doing Benchmark there’s no time to do any of that, and I hate teaching language arts. Needless to say, my students, who are smart, hate it too. I’ve got to find a way to get back to what I used to do, when kids were more excited and inspired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What have your principals said when you contacted them to complain about the teachers putting Benchmark things online? And what did the Executive Principal say when you elevated it to her? Because I expect that if you were unhappy with the way this program was implemented, surely you went and advocated for your child to be taught this curriculum in the way that the creators intended?

Right?

RIGHT????

Such cowards who aren't willing to advocate for their children they just come on here and insult other people who happen to be happy with the way their schools are implementing the program. When I'm unhappy with something at the school, I ask about why it's done that way. Sometimes there's a good explanation and I leave it alone, but sometimes there is no explanation and the teacher or the administration works with families to change things for the better. But you people, you don't even try, you just call people idiots.

Many, many teachers are creating pages to go with benchmark. It’s common knowledge, complaining won’t change anything..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s get back to the point. Benchmark still sucks after a year. And yes, I’m a teacher. I’m a pretty decent teacher who used to do rigorous, challenging work in reading and writing, and creative projects with my upper elementary kids. Now that I’m doing Benchmark there’s no time to do any of that, and I hate teaching language arts. Needless to say, my students, who are smart, hate it too. I’ve got to find a way to get back to what I used to do, when kids were more excited and inspired.

Decent or Good or Great?

Leaving that alone I want to know what your challenging and rigorous writing and work entailed? Did you cover spelling, affixes, comprehension strategies, annotations, grammar introduction and reinforcement? Did you provide and critical feedback and correct on the writing assignments?

Please note I’m not accusing I’m seeking clarity and details.

[Anonymous]

It’s interesting to hear so much conversation or derision of a program based on kids not reading books. When I think back to ES, yes there were stories in our reading books (some more interesting than others) but not full books. I don’t recall the entire class reading a full book together before 5th/6th grade when we did Anne Frank and even then some of it was assigned as homework.

Instead kids selected their own books and wrote book reports. Teachers would give prompts and you write your own story. Sometime you just wrote your own story no prompt provided. There was occasionally time provided in class for you to read your selected book.

The shared reading was a read aloud by the teacher for a few minutes (let’s say 15) each day or certain days of the week. During this time kids just listen. Some put their head down and listened. Some stared out the window. Others drew pictures or colored while listening to the reading. Teacher may or may not ask questions aloud to see about comprehension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teacher has converted all the benchmark stuff to online stuff. We never see anything on paper returned.

Every student gets a “workbook” for each unit that you should see. That can’t be done online.

LOL. You’re so naive. Tell me your child never did virtual learning without telling your child never did virtual learning. Almost everything in a consumable workbook can be converted online - how do you think we survived virtual learning?!

What are you going on and on about? This is 2025 lady, we're not doing school on zoom anymore! If you're so upset about this, you should talk to your school admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s interesting to hear so much conversation or derision of a program based on kids not reading books. When I think back to ES, yes there were stories in our reading books (some more interesting than others) but not full books. I don’t recall the entire class reading a full book together before 5th/6th grade when we did Anne Frank and even then some of it was assigned as homework.

Instead kids selected their own books and wrote book reports. Teachers would give prompts and you write your own story. Sometime you just wrote your own story no prompt provided. There was occasionally time provided in class for you to read your selected book.

The shared reading was a read aloud by the teacher for a few minutes (let’s say 15) each day or certain days of the week. During this time kids just listen. Some put their head down and listened. Some stared out the window. Others drew pictures or colored while listening to the reading. Teacher may or may not ask questions aloud to see about comprehension.

This is how I remember elementary school, too. I don't think we read Charlotte's Web and the like until maybe 4th grade. We were never reading the novels in school though, it was homework. A lot of kids didn't do their homework and a LOT of kids just went out and bought the Cliff Notes books instead of reading the whole book. I was an avid reader and I still used the Cliff Notes more than once, even in elementary school (thanks older siblings, LOL!). I don't love how parents here have this very romanticized memory of what their schooling was like and think that's what school should be like now. You're not remembering correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s get back to the point. Benchmark still sucks after a year. And yes, I’m a teacher. I’m a pretty decent teacher who used to do rigorous, challenging work in reading and writing, and creative projects with my upper elementary kids. Now that I’m doing Benchmark there’s no time to do any of that, and I hate teaching language arts. Needless to say, my students, who are smart, hate it too. I’ve got to find a way to get back to what I used to do, when kids were more excited and inspired.

Decent or Good or Great?

Leaving that alone I want to know what your challenging and rigorous writing and work entailed? Did you cover spelling, affixes, comprehension strategies, annotations, grammar introduction and reinforcement? Did you provide and critical feedback and correct on the writing assignments?

Please note I’m not accusing I’m seeking clarity and details.

I am a different teacher and I whole heartedly agree. The one thing I do like about benchmark is the mix of genres focused on a specific subject. But the readings chosen aren’t very engaging and some are dated. Last year my kids did a ton of creative writing. While I like that there are essays, there is very little creative writing. I always gave feedback on their writing. The vocabulary instruction for upper is a joke and I did more with greek/latin roots previously. They don’t hit greek/latin roots in the 6th grade curriculum until Unit 5. We have had two lessons so far on some roots and have on more coming up. Last year, the majority of the word study I did was greek and latin roots. I plan on making adjustments next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s get back to the point. Benchmark still sucks after a year. And yes, I’m a teacher. I’m a pretty decent teacher who used to do rigorous, challenging work in reading and writing, and creative projects with my upper elementary kids. Now that I’m doing Benchmark there’s no time to do any of that, and I hate teaching language arts. Needless to say, my students, who are smart, hate it too. I’ve got to find a way to get back to what I used to do, when kids were more excited and inspired.

Decent or Good or Great?

Leaving that alone I want to know what your challenging and rigorous writing and work entailed? Did you cover spelling, affixes, comprehension strategies, annotations, grammar introduction and reinforcement? Did you provide and critical feedback and correct on the writing assignments?

Please note I’m not accusing I’m seeking clarity and details.

I am a different teacher and I whole heartedly agree. The one thing I do like about benchmark is the mix of genres focused on a specific subject. But the readings chosen aren’t very engaging and some are dated. Last year my kids did a ton of creative writing. While I like that there are essays, there is very little creative writing. I always gave feedback on their writing. The vocabulary instruction for upper is a joke and I did more with greek/latin roots previously. They don’t hit greek/latin roots in the 6th grade curriculum until Unit 5. We have had two lessons so far on some roots and have on more coming up. Last year, the majority of the word study I did was greek and latin roots. I plan on making adjustments next year.

Nice to hear about adjustments you are planning. Quick question, 6th grade for roots and affixes??? None of it is covered in grades 3-5?