APS Lucy Calkins- how does this happen?
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Anonymous
| 13:40 Why presume that I or others don't already do those things also? But unless parents learn about these problems with CURRICULUM choices, those won't be easy to fix or reform. That's why there is a discussion HERE. To discuss it. |
Anonymous
Just dipping into the nurse debate once to tell you this is false logic. Kids don't know how to learn and schools have never been te right environment for kids to learn how. If a kid is unable to learn from the outset of schooling (5 years old), that is a parental issue and a different pathway than general ed should be implemented because most of these kids are already done without intervention. Nurses don't do anything special with the obese population especially when so many nurses are overweight themselves. They don't cure anything nor do they show a good model for healthy living. All they do is allow obese people to maintain their unhealthy lifestyles and suffer through obesity for the rest of their much shorter lifespan. If you replace kids with obese people and uneducated with obese for your last sentence, that part is true. |
Anonymous
The thing is, we have. We supplement a ton and our kids are doing well. I’m concerned about those kids that aren’t able to access tutors and such. You placing blame elsewhere is very telling. Do better. |
Anonymous
| Teachers love to blame poverty because they don't want to be held responsible or have to switch to a rigorous content-rich curriculum. This debate (among others) really sorts out those who are in their profession for good reasons -- to help ALL kids develop their talents, even if it requires hard work on the teacher's part -- and those who are not. |
Anonymous
In APS what you're asking for is impossible. The lack of tracking in any classroom makes it impossible to have level appropriate rigorous content-rich curriculum. If you really want to help ALL kids, you need to sort them out so that teachers can motivate each level of student. Please contact the school board and lobby the principals to separate the kids if you really care. Most parents are asking for a la carte remedies for their own chilld and this isn't possible unless your kid is the anchor dragging down SOL "pass" numbers, which is unfortunately how teachers are evaluated. Because parents don't know how to teach their kids anything in life except that feeling good all the time is a must in life and complaining or acting out when you get bored. |
Anonymous
You are definitely someone to take advice from. Definitely. |
Anonymous
Teachers roll their eyes when people like you show up for conference. Judging from your lack of understanding of education, I can tell two things already: you didn't have a good education (and I don't mean this or that college because admissions are fungible) and your children are not gifted so you fail to recognize the the challenges that students face in a blended classroom environment. I'm not a trained teacher but I have tutored or taught classrooms with these kinds of kids: ELL, deaf, URM at poorly performing schools, a foreign language, SAT for kids seeking very high scores, and every traditional subject in middle school. None of these was as a substitute teacher and were outside of school. All of these kids were reachable individually or with similarly performing kids and I was able to improve their skills. If I had mixed these kids all together into one class, some of them wouldn't have behaved well, others would be bored to death, and the vast majority would not have reached their intellectual ceiling for whichever subject was being taught. By separating the kids, you can tease out and focus on the deficient areas, which will lead to vast improvements, an overall sense of accomplishment, and a love for learning. |
Anonymous
Nurse, you are not correct. You don’t know anything about reading or public education or teaching. Your purview is nursing. You have no idea how out of your depths this conversation is. It’s multi faceted and complex and you’re seeing one angle. It’s not helping and it’s not accurate. |
Anonymous
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Wit & Wisdom and Core Knowledge are possible without tracking. Red herring.
Your assumptions about me are ridiculous and inaccurate. Focus on the substance of the discussion, which is about the curriculum. Teachers implement. You can implement a new curriculum. Lot of other teachers have implemented content-rich ELA curricula and they and their students are thriving. It's not just APS - many districts and schools across the US need to use evidence-based decision-making and get rid of Calkins. Like 60+% of the schools across the country have gone off the rails with ELA and social science instruction in the elementary years. |
Anonymous
Would you ask the same questions and have the same answers for foreign language classes? Coding? Musical Instruments? It's not about curriculum until you can get the proper audience level (singular) to teach it to. Why do you think basically a routine (and human) thing such as learning a beginner foreign language is sequential in nature and the content/students are literally segregated by year (i.e., Spanish I, Spanish II, Intermediate, etc.)? Would you be cool if 5 levels of Spanish were taught in the same classroom and some kids were told to learn independently? Probably not. And why not? Your argument doesn't hold water. You are not that intelligent but keep telling yourself and others how much you are. |
Anonymous
| Back to the original topic, the Units of Study were never meant to be used as a comprehensive program. They are a resource for teaching reading and writing to students. There are only 4 units per grade so of course, the teacher will need to supplement with phonemic awareness and phonics in addition to what is covered in the units. They are not intended as a program for students that have reading issues such as Dyslexia or significant learning disabilities. That is where your programs like Wilson and other targeted programs come in. Reading is not one size fits all. The UOS do get kids thinking critically about what they read and get most kids reading more. Reading doesn't occur in a vacuum either- all phonics in isolation does not a reader make. |
Anonymous
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15:06 You're making zero sense and are not referring to any actual argument prevalent in the educational world. Other districts are doing what I am proposing because these other districts are using curricula and pedagogy that are evidence-based. And they are experiencing success. You are just ignoring examples and evidence supporting a position you don't "like."
But, by all means, keep doing that and attacking someone you don't know. You'd be embarrassed if you did know me. |
Anonymous
I agree. Not all nurses are role models for healthy living. Most I know are overweight. One is bulimic, smokes occasionally (mostly marajuana), and told me she’s gone to work hungover and puked in the orient bathroom. She makes six figures... This person is my friend but holy hell you can’t assume all nurses are healthy or that they actually learn everything about health in school. They don’t. At least not in western medicine. I honestly can’t believe this person is a nurse but much like with teaching they just go in and do what they’re told. Also, what about all the nurses smoking outside on break? The obese nurses or other bulimic/anorexic ones? The nurses who actually steal drugs from their employers. Sorry but being a nurse doesn’t make you some magical, perfect human hun. I’d like to hope you try your best just like most teachers and most nurses. But a large amount don’t. And we can’t change things if our bosses tell us to do things a certain way even if we say Lucy Calkins seems harmful, the other option is to resign or let our boss fire us for not using the curriculum they’ve told us we must use. Just like any job you just follow your boss’ orders. Not sure how that’s so hard to understand. |
Anonymous
| Again, the responses from teachers on this thread are very telling. No wonder our education system is failing when we have morons leading the way! |
Anonymous
Will you be applying for a leadership position? There's only so much room to complain when you aren't willing to do something about it. |