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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]
I teach kindergarten and I hate what I am doing in my classroom[/b]

by a Kindergarten Teacher

I teach kindergarten and I hate what I am doing in my classroom.

Our day is on a schedule that must be kept: 90 minutes of reading, 75 minutes of math, and 75 minutes of science. We have 20 minutes scheduled for writing and 20 minutes for social studies, but I rarely get to those two subject areas because our reading time takes up the whole morning. We are using a guided reading with rotating centers.

Our school days is 9-3:45. Our snack time is 15 minutes long in the afternoon. The 15 minutes that we use for snack is actually part of our science time. We use FOSS (Full Option Science System) for science.

Every minute of the day is to be used for academics. One day we were coloring and cutting out some animal faces to attach to headbands so that the next day in math we would solve equations by using the animals as part of the equation (math with a bit of drama) by telling a story. The Assistant Principal asked me why I was wasting academic time to color and cut. "Why don't you do this (cut and color) during some other time?"

I asked when she would like me to do this and she suggested during a reading center but she quickly retracted that suggestion. She then suggested that we do this during snack time.

Snack time! All 15 minutes of it. I could not believe I was actually having this conversation. I am so totally shocked and at the same time saddened by what we are doing to our young children. I am retiring at the end of this next year because I can no longer do this. I love teaching and I am good at what I do, no matter what grade level I might be teaching. I am stifled by all of the programs we must implement, by our collaborate learning communities (where we plan what objectives will be taught on what day). We are told that we can teach the objective any way we want to but then when administrators walk into each of[b] our classrooms they want to know why we are not all doing the same things. [/b]

...

We even had a meeting one day to plan our math for the rest of the year and we got into this[b] heated discussion about our kids having recess[/b]. T[b]he instructional coach stated that instead of taking a recess we could have the kids count and do 10 jumping jacks or hop 10 times while counting so that we continue the academics. We agreed to disagree when the AP walked in and we asked her if we could take a recess.[/b] She went and spoke with the principal, returned, and informed us that we c[b]ould take a recess but only 10 minutes. That 10 minutes is to include lining up to go out and returning to the classroom and should any of us abuse it, even by a minute, we would lose the privilege of recess[/b]. Ridiculous. Please know that I am certainly going to print the report Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School [pdf file], and give it to both my principal and my assistant.

http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=42

[/quote]

Again, this is curriculum and assessment.  I'm all for setting the standards and giving teachers the freedom to get the kids there based on their expertise and with whatever methods they see fit.[/quote]

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