Piney Branch Elementary—do you like it?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

I’m pretty sure the PP was talking about the autobiography and she’s correct. 10 very specific chapters and dozens of pages, topped with photos and illustrations. Agree that it wasn’t possible to complete in 3-4 pages.

There were also several fiction projects. Which one are you referring to? I don’t recall the fiction projects being comparable in length.

No she literally said "fiction" which is very different than an autobiography.

It's funny how people feel so strongly about the teacher. the 4th grade teacher is still one of my kid's favorite teachers ever. We thought the autobiography was a great assignment - and the year my kid was in it the teacher printed them out and spiral bound them as mementos. Also the Greek Myth assignment was favorite for my kid. Seriously - my kid loved her and still talks about how much the class was one of the most best classes ever.

Yes! Our kid pulled out the autobiography earlier this year and was reading through it. It was such a cool snapshot of life. Our kid is in 9th now, but still talks about that CES class.

She was a little overzealous but like one of the PP said a lot of this was a choice that some of the more competitive kids got caught up in. Regardless, I'd take that any day over the lame middle school ELA curriculum.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

I’m pretty sure the PP was talking about the autobiography and she’s correct. 10 very specific chapters and dozens of pages, topped with photos and illustrations. Agree that it wasn’t possible to complete in 3-4 pages.

There were also several fiction projects. Which one are you referring to? I don’t recall the fiction projects being comparable in length.

No she literally said "fiction" which is very different than an autobiography.

It's funny how people feel so strongly about the teacher. the 4th grade teacher is still one of my kid's favorite teachers ever. We thought the autobiography was a great assignment - and the year my kid was in it the teacher printed them out and spiral bound them as mementos. Also the Greek Myth assignment was favorite for my kid. Seriously - my kid loved her and still talks about how much the class was one of the most best classes ever.

Yes! Our kid pulled out the autobiography earlier this year and was reading through it. It was such a cool snapshot of life. Our kid is in 9th now, but still talks about that CES class.

How long was it?

I found my kids. I'd completely forgotten about this one. They managed to pull it off in 13 pages, but there's a lot of blank space for all the chapter headings and subheadings. A lot of these assignments were memorable and fun. It really helped DC grow a lot that year.

[Anonymous]

That teacher was a disaster for my child. It sounds like she’s no longer teaching? She was unable to recognize that children were individuals and treat them as such.

My kid got all As, btw, but the experience was not worth it for the anxiety it caused from her unclear instructions and heavy volume. My child’s autobiography was definitely in the range discussed here. She was nine. 5th grade was amazing in contrast. There was no reason to put that level of pressure on kids in 4th. It’s damaging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

As stated, I was talking about the fiction project which is what the OP had mentioned. It was submitted via Google docs. I still have the PDF she marked up with the A+ on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That teacher was a disaster for my child. It sounds like she’s no longer teaching? She was unable to recognize that children were individuals and treat them as such.

My kid got all As, btw, but the experience was not worth it for the anxiety it caused from her unclear instructions and heavy volume. My child’s autobiography was definitely in the range discussed here. She was nine. 5th grade was amazing in contrast. There was no reason to put that level of pressure on kids in 4th. It’s damaging.

Yes, I heard she got promoted to an AP somewhere. Further, I agree not every kid is cut out for the faster pace of enriched studies. The whole point is to provide a greater challenge for those who need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

As stated, I was talking about the fiction project which is what the OP had mentioned. It was submitted via Google docs. I still have the PDF she marked up with the A+ on it.

Nope, I’m the person you are referring to and as already clarified I WAS referring to the autobiography project and never said otherwise. You decided, wrongly that it was a fiction project that you also decided was “the” fiction project in an attempt to claim that assignments were not excessively long and that only children who “couldn’t handle it” were an issue, not the teacher. If this teacher was just following the CES curriculum, how is it that 5th was so different? Or that CES students elsewhere don’t have similar experiences? Because they don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

Reread this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

As stated, I was talking about the fiction project which is what the OP had mentioned. It was submitted via Google docs. I still have the PDF she marked up with the A+ on it.

Nope, I’m the person you are referring to and as already clarified I WAS referring to the autobiography project and never said otherwise. You decided, wrongly that it was a fiction project that you also decided was “the” fiction project in an attempt to claim that assignments were not excessively long and that only children who “couldn’t handle it” were an issue, not the teacher. If this teacher was just following the CES curriculum, how is it that 5th was so different? Or that CES students elsewhere don’t have similar experiences? Because they don’t.

Yes, your post only mentioned the fiction project by name. I later poster guessed you meant the autobiography.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

Reread this.

Crazy that mine got by with less than ten and still got an A. It's like you have some victim/martyr complex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

As stated, I was talking about the fiction project which is what the OP had mentioned. It was submitted via Google docs. I still have the PDF she marked up with the A+ on it.

Nope, I’m the person you are referring to and as already clarified I WAS referring to the autobiography project and never said otherwise. You decided, wrongly that it was a fiction project that you also decided was “the” fiction project in an attempt to claim that assignments were not excessively long and that only children who “couldn’t handle it” were an issue, not the teacher. If this teacher was just following the CES curriculum, how is it that 5th was so different? Or that CES students elsewhere don’t have similar experiences? Because they don’t.

Yes, your post only mentioned the fiction project by name. I later poster guessed you meant the autobiography.

No it didn’t. Reread the entire thread and keep up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That teacher was a disaster for my child. It sounds like she’s no longer teaching? She was unable to recognize that children were individuals and treat them as such.

My kid got all As, btw, but the experience was not worth it for the anxiety it caused from her unclear instructions and heavy volume. My child’s autobiography was definitely in the range discussed here. She was nine. 5th grade was amazing in contrast. There was no reason to put that level of pressure on kids in 4th. It’s damaging.

Yes, I heard she got promoted to an AP somewhere. Further, I agree not every kid is cut out for the faster pace of enriched studies. The whole point is to provide a greater challenge for those who need it.

People are funny. On the one hand, they some can't stop complaining about the lack of rigor @MCPS, but when faced with anything challenging, these same posters only complain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

Reread this.

Crazy that mine got by with less than ten and still got an A. It's like you have some victim/martyr complex.

It’s like you’re talking about a different assignment. Or perhaps a similar one without different, less onerous requirements at a different time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

I’m pretty sure the PP was talking about the autobiography and she’s correct. 10 very specific chapters and dozens of pages, topped with photos and illustrations. Agree that it wasn’t possible to complete in 3-4 pages.

There were also several fiction projects. Which one are you referring to? I don’t recall the fiction projects being comparable in length.

No she literally said "fiction" which is very different than an autobiography.

It's funny how people feel so strongly about the teacher. the 4th grade teacher is still one of my kid's favorite teachers ever. We thought the autobiography was a great assignment - and the year my kid was in it the teacher printed them out and spiral bound them as mementos. Also the Greek Myth assignment was favorite for my kid. Seriously - my kid loved her and still talks about how much the class was one of the most best classes ever.

Yes! Our kid pulled out the autobiography earlier this year and was reading through it. It was such a cool snapshot of life. Our kid is in 9th now, but still talks about that CES class.

How long was it?

I found my kids. I'd completely forgotten about this one. They managed to pull it off in 13 pages, but there's a lot of blank space for all the chapter headings and subheadings. A lot of these assignments were memorable and fun. It really helped DC grow a lot that year.

It was a tough class, but I also felt my kids grew so much that year. Mostly just grateful they had a teacher with high standards and expectations because it's so rare these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by problem teachers in RLA? Is RLA reading/language arts?

I think PP means the 4th grade CES teacher who did her best to destroy any love of learning and joy for life in her students.

She was a demanding teacher that had high expectations of the students which isn't opular. However, my children learned a lot in her class .

High expectations in this case = excessive volume, quantity over quality

I know she didn't hand out A's like candy so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected 9 and 10 year olds to write 25-40 pages typewritten ten chapter + assignments (longer than anything they produce in high school) so a lot of parents were upset.

I know she expected kids to write ludicrously detailed and highly specific book reports every week but write them on a t-shirt they designed or on a dodecahedron they built or on a cereal box or some other ridiculous time consuming build at home design so a lot of parents were upset.

I could go on.

Is she still there?

No she was promoted and they're exaggerating. My kid did once write a 5 page paper for her but most were 1-2 pages.

I’m absolutely not exaggerating. 25-40 printed pages, for one ten chapter assignment, many were 10,000 words or more. Other assignments were often 5-10 pages. Virtually nothing was 1-2 pages and the volume was relentless. Fortunately she is no longer there because she destroyed kids.

I absolutely respect your child's decision to write a 25 to 40-page paper. That's really impressive for a 9 or 10-year-old. I had two of my kids go through that class too. Both only wrote 1-2 page papers since it was sufficient for the county's CES curriculum which is standardized. Once they may have gotten to 5, but that was their choice. They got by with straight A's.

My kid was at the lower end of that range (she “only” wrote about 25 pages!). Many others wrote much longer papers and it WAS required because the rubric detailed 10 chapters with specific requirements for each chapter that were impossible to meet without at least a few pages per chapter. There was no way to get around it without producing an excessively long assignment and the entire class to my knowledge did. And this assignment wasn’t even an outlier. I’m sure your kid produced the same but perhaps you’ve blocked it from your mind?! There were also fiction writing assignments that for some were close to rivaling this one in length, but those were at least somewhat due to the kids own motivation and desire to write novels, not the requirements of the assignment.

I remember the fiction writing assignment. My kid wrote 2 pages for that one. I remember helping them with it even.

Just for laughs, I found this in their google drive. It's all of 782 words and was one of their longer pieces. Also, they got an A+.

The point is just because your child choose to write 12345 pages it wasn't required and wouldn't have impacted their grade.

I even asked her about it at the time and she assured me quality mattered more than quantity.

How did that 782 words look bound? Clearly you’re not talking about the same project.

As stated, I was talking about the fiction project which is what the OP had mentioned. It was submitted via Google docs. I still have the PDF she marked up with the A+ on it.

Nope, I’m the person you are referring to and as already clarified I WAS referring to the autobiography project and never said otherwise. You decided, wrongly that it was a fiction project that you also decided was “the” fiction project in an attempt to claim that assignments were not excessively long and that only children who “couldn’t handle it” were an issue, not the teacher. If this teacher was just following the CES curriculum, how is it that 5th was so different? Or that CES students elsewhere don’t have similar experiences? Because they don’t.

Yes, your post only mentioned the fiction project by name. I later poster guessed you meant the autobiography.

Btw, I have no idea what “The fiction project” is that you claim I mentioned by name.