General Frustration and Disappointment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Wow. My kids write ALL THE TIME. Have done so all along. You should complain to the administration if yours aren’t.

Which schools have kids write ALL THE TIME? My now-high schoolers barely wrote anything in elementary school (post-covid, everything was on google slides). Barely any writing in middle. Even humanities APs don't have the amount of writing I was expecting.

All of my kids who had a certain ELA teacher in middle school wrote every week in 7th grade ELA, and they also wrote a lot if they had two of the 8th grade ELA teachers. Those three ELA teachers had students respond to writing prompts constantly and then the teachers left comments.

They also wrote quite a bit in history and civics.

We didn't have the experience several posters have described with everything being on Google slides. There was a lot of paper used in both middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

I have 6th and 8th graders and neither has had to read whole books or write anything more than a paragraph, and none is actually handwritten. Math exclusively on computer with answer keys provided and many assignments with unlimited submissions. It’s insane and they learn nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Wow. My kids write ALL THE TIME. Have done so all along. You should complain to the administration if yours aren’t.

Which schools have kids write ALL THE TIME? My now-high schoolers barely wrote anything in elementary school (post-covid, everything was on google slides). Barely any writing in middle. Even humanities APs don't have the amount of writing I was expecting.

All of my kids who had a certain ELA teacher in middle school wrote every week in 7th grade ELA, and they also wrote a lot if they had two of the 8th grade ELA teachers. Those three ELA teachers had students respond to writing prompts constantly and then the teachers left comments.

They also wrote quite a bit in history and civics.

We didn't have the experience several posters have described with everything being on Google slides. There was a lot of paper used in both middle and high school.

How long ago?
The issue is the pandemic and the requirements for a shutdown preparedness plan, being ready for virtual learning

[Anonymous]

I was just reading Freddie DeBoer on test scores and it turns out (I had no idea until I read this) that around 2008-2012 was the peak of test scores for developed nations globally (in general, obviously there are specific outliers/trend-buckers) and developed countries have been going down since then.

So whatever's happening can't be all that political or even Covid, because it predates Covid and it crosses national borders.

But it could still be tech .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Wow. My kids write ALL THE TIME. Have done so all along. You should complain to the administration if yours aren’t.

Which schools have kids write ALL THE TIME? My now-high schoolers barely wrote anything in elementary school (post-covid, everything was on google slides). Barely any writing in middle. Even humanities APs don't have the amount of writing I was expecting.

All of my kids who had a certain ELA teacher in middle school wrote every week in 7th grade ELA, and they also wrote a lot if they had two of the 8th grade ELA teachers. Those three ELA teachers had students respond to writing prompts constantly and then the teachers left comments.

They also wrote quite a bit in history and civics.

We didn't have the experience several posters have described with everything being on Google slides. There was a lot of paper used in both middle and high school.

How long ago?
The issue is the pandemic and the requirements for a shutdown preparedness plan, being ready for virtual learning

this is nonsense. teachers use the google slides and the terrible TPS garbage because its easier. Not because they are dying to really teach but the school system is requiring them to play Mr Math Youtube videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

I have 6th and 8th graders and neither has had to read whole books or write anything more than a paragraph, and none is actually handwritten. Math exclusively on computer with answer keys provided and many assignments with unlimited submissions. It’s insane and they learn nothing.

My son has definitely had to write down his answers in math, including Algebra, this year. He also wrote down his math, and had to show work, in elementary school math. He is in AAP for what it is worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Wow. My kids write ALL THE TIME. Have done so all along. You should complain to the administration if yours aren’t.

Which schools have kids write ALL THE TIME? My now-high schoolers barely wrote anything in elementary school (post-covid, everything was on google slides). Barely any writing in middle. Even humanities APs don't have the amount of writing I was expecting.

All of my kids who had a certain ELA teacher in middle school wrote every week in 7th grade ELA, and they also wrote a lot if they had two of the 8th grade ELA teachers. Those three ELA teachers had students respond to writing prompts constantly and then the teachers left comments.

They also wrote quite a bit in history and civics.

We didn't have the experience several posters have described with everything being on Google slides. There was a lot of paper used in both middle and high school.

How long ago?
The issue is the pandemic and the requirements for a shutdown preparedness plan, being ready for virtual learning

My kids are now 21, 18, 16, 14, and 12. Only the oldest was in middle school before the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

I just don’t understand why we don’t/can’t make kids do academically ‘hard’ things. Is it because schools want every kid to have a shot at an A? Like when did struggling with hard things become something we (teachers/parents/grown-ups) ameliorated instead of encouraged? Kids should read WHOLE books instead of passages. Kids should (productively) struggle with appropriate leveled math in order to gain understanding. Writing, editing, proofing, citing should be mandatory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

I have 6th and 8th graders and neither has had to read whole books or write anything more than a paragraph, and none is actually handwritten. Math exclusively on computer with answer keys provided and many assignments with unlimited submissions. It’s insane and they learn nothing.

Your 6th grader should have done a ton of writing in 5th and 6th. Each benchmark unit has writing in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

I have 6th and 8th graders and neither has had to read whole books or write anything more than a paragraph, and none is actually handwritten. Math exclusively on computer with answer keys provided and many assignments with unlimited submissions. It’s insane and they learn nothing.

Your 6th grader should have done a ton of writing in 5th and 6th. Each benchmark unit has writing in it.

Very little real writing in benchmark from my experience. An “essay” comparing two half page excerpts is pretty dinky compared to what used to be research papers or comparing whole novels it’s also challenging to write more words than the source material contained, which was basically what was required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a current sixth grader. The past two or three years have been almost exclusively spent writing on Google Slides.

Toward the tail end of this year, there were a couple of assignments that needed 3 paragraphs or so.

I have 6th and 8th graders and neither has had to read whole books or write anything more than a paragraph, and none is actually handwritten. Math exclusively on computer with answer keys provided and many assignments with unlimited submissions. It’s insane and they learn nothing.

Your 6th grader should have done a ton of writing in 5th and 6th. Each benchmark unit has writing in it.

Very little real writing in benchmark from my experience. An “essay” comparing two half page excerpts is pretty dinky compared to what used to be research papers or comparing whole novels it’s also challenging to write more words than the source material contained, which was basically what was required.

6th grade teacher here. While, I don’t love the writing in benchmark my students are writing a lot. They wrote something for each of the 8 units, multiple multi paragraph responses per unit, essays on some of the unit tests and then an additional end of year essay we added. In addition, we did two literacy projects based off the Benchmark as well. I added in novels during the fiction units. Kids also had responses to that as well as final assignments. I would call that a lot of writing. That does not include writing/reading done in SS/Science.

[Anonymous]

We would have preferred CKLA (which APS and MCPS use) over Benchmark. That said, Benchmark is clearly an improvement over the mess that preceded it.

Most everything in FCPs now is worse than it was in the 1990s though.

[Anonymous]

The lack of reading bothers me! It would be nice if they read a whole book at least once a year. Is that too much to ask?! Too much SEL. Too much fluff! Just teach math and language arts please, science and social studies too.

I hate that they learn by power point.

Too many apps.

Stop with all the testing!

Weird inconsistent calendar doesn’t provide stability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My students who come back to visit me their freshman year of college largely report that college is much easier than their high school experience, so I think they're well prepared.

I also think the experience (especially in elementary) is very non-standardized. My own child has been writing 5 paragraph essays since 3rd grade, so the anecdote about being overwhelmed by an essay is odd to me.

My now 9th and 11th graders, who were in AAP, barely wrote anything through middle school and I have been surprised at how little they write in HS.

Send them to an IB high school, they will be writing constantly.