Remind me what FCPS doesn't use textbooks or worksbooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:never send a kid to public middle school.

AAP Centers at Carson, RRMS, Longfellow, etc blow most privates out of the water. I don’t know anyone with an AAP qualified kid in the Western County going private.

Key: western county. What privates are there?

[Anonymous]

Is FCPS unique for this or is the way it is nationwide? Somehow DC's sheets get lost or misplaced between school and home. It's very annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: This I know. It sucks trying to help your kid as a parent and it's a major PITA when your kid is out sick for a week.

1.) It doesn't save much paper. My kid gets endless paper worksheets.

2.) I doubt it saves the teachers time. If anything it adds time trying to find stuff online and make copies

3.) I assume maybe it's unfair to low income kids? If so, I would gladly start a donation campaign to level the field and make sure ALL schools had these textbooks.

4.) It doesn't seem to save money if you have to xerox everything.


So why? why? why?

Basically because there is a stigma to using textbooks. As a teacher, I think it is ridiculous. The various worksheets that teachers piece together are not any better than what is provided in the textbook, but no one wants to be the teacher who teaches out of the textbook. You can blame the education schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

I have spent the past 20 years teaching and have never heard teachers say anything of these things. We have textbooks but often do not have enough hard copies for everyone. Teachers are extremely frustrated with the lack of textbooks and the new pressure to not use it at all.

They say it here all the time. Also at our school through teachers, principal, administration, and elected officials.

Teacher here again. Yes, teachers do say it. Stupid, kiss ass teachers love to talk about how they love coming up with their own curriculum. Well guess what? Some teachers actually enjoy having a life outside of school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: This I know. It sucks trying to help your kid as a parent and it's a major PITA when your kid is out sick for a week.

1.) It doesn't save much paper. My kid gets endless paper worksheets.

2.) I doubt it saves the teachers time. If anything it adds time trying to find stuff online and make copies

3.) I assume maybe it's unfair to low income kids? If so, I would gladly start a donation campaign to level the field and make sure ALL schools had these textbooks.

4.) It doesn't seem to save money if you have to xerox everything.


So why? why? why?

Basically because there is a stigma to using textbooks. As a teacher, I think it is ridiculous. The various worksheets that teachers piece together are not any better than what is provided in the textbook, but no one wants to be the teacher who teaches out of the textbook. You can blame the education schools.

This is what we see. it's ridiculous. Teachers too afraid to use the workbooks. What is so funny is that the most reputable schools in FCPS actually teach out of ....wait for it.... a workbook. Mclean schools in particular have no qualms about using them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: This I know. It sucks trying to help your kid as a parent and it's a major PITA when your kid is out sick for a week.

1.) It doesn't save much paper. My kid gets endless paper worksheets.

2.) I doubt it saves the teachers time. If anything it adds time trying to find stuff online and make copies

3.) I assume maybe it's unfair to low income kids? If so, I would gladly start a donation campaign to level the field and make sure ALL schools had these textbooks.

4.) It doesn't seem to save money if you have to xerox everything.


So why? why? why?

Basically because there is a stigma to using textbooks. As a teacher, I think it is ridiculous. The various worksheets that teachers piece together are not any better than what is provided in the textbook, but no one wants to be the teacher who teaches out of the textbook. You can blame the education schools.

This is what we see. it's ridiculous. Teachers too afraid to use the workbooks. What is so funny is that the most reputable schools in FCPS actually teach out of ....wait for it.... a workbook. Mclean schools in particular have no qualms about using them.

My kids go to school in McLean and the only time there has been a workbook is for vocabulary in 5th grade unless you are referring to the useless online math books.

[Anonymous]

The issue is that standards are always changing and developing, writing, approving, and publishing textbooks is very expensive. Both sides are no longer willing to spend the money for hard copies of these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: This I know. It sucks trying to help your kid as a parent and it's a major PITA when your kid is out sick for a week.

1.) It doesn't save much paper. My kid gets endless paper worksheets.

2.) I doubt it saves the teachers time. If anything it adds time trying to find stuff online and make copies

3.) I assume maybe it's unfair to low income kids? If so, I would gladly start a donation campaign to level the field and make sure ALL schools had these textbooks.

4.) It doesn't seem to save money if you have to xerox everything.


So why? why? why?

Basically because there is a stigma to using textbooks. As a teacher, I think it is ridiculous. The various worksheets that teachers piece together are not any better than what is provided in the textbook, but no one wants to be the teacher who teaches out of the textbook. You can blame the education schools.

This is what we see. it's ridiculous. Teachers too afraid to use the workbooks. What is so funny is that the most reputable schools in FCPS actually teach out of ....wait for it.... a workbook. Mclean schools in particular have no qualms about using them.

My kids go to school in McLean and the only time there has been a workbook is for vocabulary in 5th grade unless you are referring to the useless online math books.

The online mathbooks actually have a workbook attached to them for each lesson. Does your school use the worksheets corresponding to the online math textbook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that standards are always changing and developing, writing, approving, and publishing textbooks is very expensive. Both sides are no longer willing to spend the money for hard copies of these things.

The standards are maybe changing by one a year. Don't exaggerate. The textbook or workbook doesn't have to encompass every standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

I have spent the past 20 years teaching and have never heard teachers say anything of these things. We have textbooks but often do not have enough hard copies for everyone. Teachers are extremely frustrated with the lack of textbooks and the new pressure to not use it at all.

They say it here all the time. Also at our school through teachers, principal, administration, and elected officials.

Teacher here again. Yes, teachers do say it. Stupid, kiss ass teachers love to talk about how they love coming up with their own curriculum. Well guess what? Some teachers actually enjoy having a life outside of school!

The textbook is not a curriculum. We have a curriculum and the textbook is one supplemental piece.

[Anonymous]

It used to be that parents could look at and vote on a selection of textbooks for the district during some kind of a community call type thing. Parents could see the different texts and give their thoughts on them.

Now every teacher comes up with their own pieced together worksheets and parents have no voice or input on what will be used to teach their kids. Yet the taxes just get higher and we keep having more bond referendums yet less input in how our kids are educated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

I have spent the past 20 years teaching and have never heard teachers say anything of these things. We have textbooks but often do not have enough hard copies for everyone. Teachers are extremely frustrated with the lack of textbooks and the new pressure to not use it at all.

They say it here all the time. Also at our school through teachers, principal, administration, and elected officials.

Teacher here again. Yes, teachers do say it. Stupid, kiss ass teachers love to talk about how they love coming up with their own curriculum. Well guess what? Some teachers actually enjoy having a life outside of school!

+1
I would be a-ok with my children's teachers teaching straight out of the textbook. That's what a textbook is for! And then the kids have easy reference to what's going on in class. My middle schooler spends much of her homework time googling concepts that were discussed in class because she has NO REFERENCE material to refer to. It's beyond ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It used to be that parents could look at and vote on a selection of textbooks for the district during some kind of a community call type thing. Parents could see the different texts and give their thoughts on them.

Now every teacher comes up with their own pieced together worksheets and parents have no voice or input on what will be used to teach their kids. Yet the taxes just get higher and we keep having more bond referendums yet less input in how our kids are educated.

Yep. I grew up here and the FCPS really were excellent. They've coasted so much on that (old) reputation, that they have tricked many newer parents into thinking they truly are excellent. They're not. It's sad to see how low their standards are now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

I have spent the past 20 years teaching and have never heard teachers say anything of these things. We have textbooks but often do not have enough hard copies for everyone. Teachers are extremely frustrated with the lack of textbooks and the new pressure to not use it at all.

They say it here all the time. Also at our school through teachers, principal, administration, and elected officials.

Teacher here again. Yes, teachers do say it. Stupid, kiss ass teachers love to talk about how they love coming up with their own curriculum. Well guess what? Some teachers actually enjoy having a life outside of school!

+1
I would be a-ok with my children's teachers teaching straight out of the textbook. That's what a textbook is for! And then the kids have easy reference to what's going on in class. My middle schooler spends much of her homework time googling concepts that were discussed in class because she has NO REFERENCE material to refer to. It's beyond ridiculous.

+1, then I could follow it and help my child when they need it. I have to text the homework hotline as there is no explanations and random questions that make no sense without any teaching or explanation. Our child has a math workbook but it only comes home every two weeks and its worksheets but no teaching which isn't helpful (nice book but I need some explanations).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've brought this up here many many times and keep getting teachers chiming in that a textbook is limiting. Of course it's limiting. It's not meant to be your only resource. It's meant as a starting point. Uggh. Textbooks were never meant to be the only resource to be used in a school. And then there are the teachers who chime in how easy it is to just make up your curriculum daily and how much freedom they have. Language arts is a joke. Language arts at our school consists of kids getting books from the shelves to read to themselves, read to a friend, or reading books online. I understand teachers don't want to be constrained with a textbook, but it is beyond me why they think random unrelated worksheets and open ended projects with no resources to help guide the student is a better curriculum system than a textbook and workbook.

I have spent the past 20 years teaching and have never heard teachers say anything of these things. We have textbooks but often do not have enough hard copies for everyone. Teachers are extremely frustrated with the lack of textbooks and the new pressure to not use it at all.

They say it here all the time. Also at our school through teachers, principal, administration, and elected officials.

Teacher here again. Yes, teachers do say it. Stupid, kiss ass teachers love to talk about how they love coming up with their own curriculum. Well guess what? Some teachers actually enjoy having a life outside of school!

+1
I would be a-ok with my children's teachers teaching straight out of the textbook. That's what a textbook is for! And then the kids have easy reference to what's going on in class. My middle schooler spends much of her homework time googling concepts that were discussed in class because she has NO REFERENCE material to refer to. It's beyond ridiculous.

+1, then I could follow it and help my child when they need it. I have to text the homework hotline as there is no explanations and random questions that make no sense without any teaching or explanation. Our child has a math workbook but it only comes home every two weeks and its worksheets but no teaching which isn't helpful (nice book but I need some explanations).

Wait, what is this "homework hotline" you speak of?? Is it something any student can use, or specific to your child's school? I could certainly use something like that to help my child decipher her homework. But really, what we could all use, are some damn textbooks and workbooks. Grrrr.