Reply to Example of APE Astroturf tactics

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have nothing to do with APE but last year's virtual learning math made it abundantly clear that we need math text books.  My 2nd grader did so so little math last year.  The kids just didn't do enough problems to become comfortable with math facts or concepts.  It was really bad.

I bought a set of Singapore Math workbooks and my kid has been doing extra practice.  They basically follow the APS curriculum and are really good.  They are not like the textbooks we grew up with--they teach concepts, practice the concepts and then ask for kids to take the concepts further through multistep problems.  I wish APS would adopt something similar.  They're great.

Oh, and you do hear teachers complain about lack of resources, particularly when they switch grades.  [b]It's a ton of work to develop a whole new curriculum to meet Virginia standards on your own.  Teachers will beg and borrow materials from other teachers when they switch grades, but APS gives them nothing.  They are dependent on their own network to source resources.  It's embarrassing.  [/b][/quote]

This. I don't know that a specific "textbook" is the answer but we should not have individual teachers recreating the wheel. The district should be providing the curriculum and teaching resources.[/quote]

LOL, I work here, I've seen many teachers having to learn the math concept right before they go teach them, for example, ask other teachers how to "compare fractions" right before the lesson is taught - meaning otherwise she wouldn't know how to do it!  This teacher in this very particular example is very kind, loving, and supportive of her students, but she has almost no math content knowledge, oh, she was "teacher of the year" one year.  She isn't the only one who doesn't qualify to teach math, like I said, I've seen many.

My point is, give those teachers a textbook to follow, even better, a text book with a comprehensive "teacher guide", because, trust me, many teachers are bad at math themselves and aren't even shy about admitting it in public.  Most can get by in 1st and 2nd grade when kids are still being taught how to add and subtract, but by 4th or 5th grade, some teachers probably can't even pass the math SOL of the grade level they teach.

P.S. examples I mentioned are from one of the APS elementary schools[/quote]
+1.  It's crazy that APS expects teachers just to work from the VA SOLs.  No wonder teachers are burnt out.  And please don't suggest that Bridget Loft's team should make resources.  Everything they put put during the pandemic for elementary was embarrassingly bad.  Just vet and buy good resources.[/quote]

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