"Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

Anonymous

Sheesh, hasn't the supposed K teacher heard of things like math manipulatives? You already said something about having the kids playing with blocks half the day, never thought about gamifying it and thinking manipulatives? You'd have those kids counting to 100 in 2 weeks.


I'm the K teacher. I never said they played with blocks half the day. And, FYI, that is a totally different skill set that is being developed than using math manipulatives--which, of course, I did.




Anonymous

I'm not the K teacher.

My concern is that all of this "fear" of being behind internationally (in math and language) is overblown. The thing that has made America great (and let's not forget that America is great) is our ability to create. Building towers out of blocks and thinking in directions that are not necessarily the ones mandated by the "standards" are probably the kinds of thinking that have made America great and different from all those places that are "ahead" of us on tests. We lead precisely because we see beyond the "standards". We see that the possibilities for ways of seeing the world are endless. We should not try to box ourselves in or define ourselves with rigid standards.

And to the person who says, "Oh, but the standards don't do that" I would say that they do that more than you might think. They do consume time and take time away from other endeavors. They are especially bad for students on either end---the ones who need time to come up to standard (because the pressure with those students is to cram and drill and kill to get them up to speed) and for the students at the high end for whom the standards are too weak. Those students may do okay, but the teacher will be spending time with the weak ones because of the high stakes pressure of the tests.

If the "standards" dominate due to the high stakes nature of the testing, there will be students who lose. Higher end parents may opt out of public education (which the Republicans would be only too happy to see happen). Low end and middle range students will be stuck with a minimal and prescriptive education.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
I'm not the K teacher.

My concern is that all of this "fear" of being behind internationally (in math and language) is overblown. The thing that has made America great (and let's not forget that America is great) is our ability to create. Building towers out of blocks and thinking in directions that are not necessarily the ones mandated by the "standards" are probably the kinds of thinking that have made America great and different from all those places that are "ahead" of us on tests. We lead precisely because we see beyond the "standards". We see that the possibilities for ways of seeing the world are endless. We should not try to box ourselves in or define ourselves with rigid standards.


The things that have made America great are:

1. lots of stolen land
2. lots of stolen labor
3. lots and lots of natural resources
4. an intact industrial base at the end of World War II
5. immigration

And the Common Core standards, in fact, do not limit the ways of seeing the world -- unless you think that it limits the ways of seeing the world for children to understand (for example) place value, or supporting an argument with evidence.
Anonymous

The things that have made America great are:

1. lots of stolen land
2. lots of stolen labor
3. lots and lots of natural resources
4. an intact industrial base at the end of World War II
5. immigration

And the Common Core standards, in fact, do not limit the ways of seeing the world -- unless you think that it limits the ways of seeing the world for children to understand (for example) place value, or supporting an argument with evidence.


Sad. You just showed your true colors. You did not cite the Constitution or freedom. I see why you like Common Core. You want robots.




Anonymous


Yes, I thought he might mention democracy, but I guess that doesn't count at all.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

The things that have made America great are:

1. lots of stolen land
2. lots of stolen labor
3. lots and lots of natural resources
4. an intact industrial base at the end of World War II
5. immigration

And the Common Core standards, in fact, do not limit the ways of seeing the world -- unless you think that it limits the ways of seeing the world for children to understand (for example) place value, or supporting an argument with evidence.


Sad. You just showed your true colors. You did not cite the Constitution or freedom. I see why you like Common Core. You want robots.


Really?

Other countries have constitutions, although obviously not the US constitution. Other countries have freedom, too. The US does not have a monopoly on constitutions and freedom.
Anonymous


Let freedom ring!! From every mountain! From sea to shining sea! Let freedom ring!! Freedom inspires. CC does not. CC stifles.
Anonymous
Other countries have constitutions, although obviously not the US constitution. Other countries have freedom, too. The US does not have a monopoly on constitutions and freedom.



And every single one of them has not made teacher evaluation and school evaluation dependent on standardized testing. We are the only ones to float such hare brained ideas.
Anonymous

Other countries have constitutions, although obviously not the US constitution. Other countries have freedom, too. The US does not have a monopoly on constitutions and freedom.


You don't sound like a patriot--or someone who has lived in one of those countries and understands the difference of true freedom. Or, maybe, you are not from here.




Anonymous

^ Maybe this guy is from Great Britain and works for Pearson? What a dim and materialistic view of America.
Anonymous
Good grief.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
I'm not the K teacher.

My concern is that all of this "fear" of being behind internationally (in math and language) is overblown. The thing that has made America great (and let's not forget that America is great) is our ability to create. Building towers out of blocks and thinking in directions that are not necessarily the ones mandated by the "standards" are probably the kinds of thinking that have made America great and different from all those places that are "ahead" of us on tests. We lead precisely because we see beyond the "standards". We see that the possibilities for ways of seeing the world are endless. We should not try to box ourselves in or define ourselves with rigid standards.

And to the person who says, "Oh, but the standards don't do that" I would say that they do that more than you might think. They do consume time and take time away from other endeavors. They are especially bad for students on either end---the ones who need time to come up to standard (because the pressure with those students is to cram and drill and kill to get them up to speed) and for the students at the high end for whom the standards are too weak. Those students may do okay, but the teacher will be spending time with the weak ones because of the high stakes pressure of the tests.

If the "standards" dominate due to the high stakes nature of the testing, there will be students who lose. Higher end parents may opt out of public education (which the Republicans would be only too happy to see happen). Low end and middle range students will be stuck with a minimal and prescriptive education.


You are really trying far too hard, to the point of totally contradicting yourself. On one hand you are calling the standards "minimal and prescriptive" and suitable for low and middle range students, while at the same time complaining that they are too hard, are too much "pressure", and that they can only be met with "cramming and drill and kill."

As for taking too much time away from other endeavors, I again have to eyeroll. Building cities out of blocks was something most of us on our own as kids. The priority in school was the reading, writing, and so on - NOT the stuff that kids could just as well do on their own. And before you go off on another nonsensical commentary about not everyone being so privileged as to have a fancy set of blocks, we built with old cardboard boxes, we made cities in the dirt and sand outside, we made do as kids.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

Let freedom ring!! From every mountain! From sea to shining sea! Let freedom ring!! Freedom inspires. CC does not. CC stifles.


Ugh, spare us the phoney baloney Sean Hannity style patriotism.
Anonymous
Building cities out of blocks was something most of us on our own as kids.


Good for you. However, there is so much value in doing this with others--and, contrary to what you say, kids whose parents do not read to them are not likely to be encouraged to build.
Anonymous
One of the values of building with others is to learn cooperation; to meet a goal together; etc. There is also design; creativity; planning; etc. If you don't understand the value, then you can't be helped.
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