Reply to To the parents in "good schools"

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "To the parents in "good schools""

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I could have written this.  I taught in a Title I school and then moved to a school that is middle of the road.  Even at the not Langley/McLean pyramid school, I see the same thing.  I am almost tempted to go back to the Title I school and pupil place my kids there.  I saw a lot more innovative teaching and problem solving going on there.  At my higher SES school, if a kid is struggling, the first step seems to be getting the kid to local screening because it MUST be the kid, not the teaching.  At the Title I school, we actually problem solved during CT meetings and figured out reteaching strategies and ways to improve challenging behaviors.  I think teachers were more willing to take risks and try new things.  I also think the kids themselves were more open to taking risks because their parents weren't breathing down their necks about getting straight A's and getting into TJ. [/quote]

OP here. I am so glad I'm not alone on this.

I just got a kid moved to my class because the previous teacher couldn't handle her. I spent one week with the kid and she's fine. You know what the problem was? The old teacher wouldn't use different ways to address the kid's issues (attention and behavior mostly, but interestingly enough I think she's bored and acts out and there's a feedback loop that merits getting the kid tested by the school for IEP supports). I've seen this issue so, so many times in my old school and we have strategies. Here, the only strategy is to push to the parents who inevitably do testing on their own (even though we probably should and this kid will get screened because I did the paperwork to support this). And then we enter the combat zone of special ed. Parents hire consultants and the school gets adversarial and you know what? It's the school's fault. It doesn't have to be like this. I spent years working with IEPs and parents and it's never as adversarial as it is around here.

I'm sorry for the venting. It's been one of those days. I keep quiet, focus on teaching the kids, and mind my own business, but I look around here and sometimes am blown away by how much we just coast by.

And when it comes to my kids, we live in a middle of the road school zone because it's closer to DH's work (and my work now). We use our neighborhood schools but mostly because I never wanted to teach in the same school as my kids (it can be complicated professionally if there's an issue).[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics