Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

“I can paint all teachers with a bad brush but you can’t do it for nurses.”

Test scores all over the nation don’t lie.

We are a hugely obese country with lots of diabetes and other health issues. Guess that’s on nurses by your logic.

It's great that we FINALLY have a superintendent in APS who has a clue.

Selecting Lexia is a great first start. I expect more positive changes to the curriculum - including scientifically-proven programs.

It is NOT poverty. It is the curriculum.

Read articles or books by Natalie Wexler. The Lucy Calkins story is so shocking - how the heck did she become so influential. It may be because she makes it easy for teachers.

Not only is her workshop approach awful for reading, it is equally awful for writing. Read The Writing Revolution and see what direct instruction with the Hochman Method can do. Public education needs to be evidence based.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ this is why parents don’t belong volunteering in classrooms

On the contrary, it's why parents need to go in more. They have no idea half the crazy stuff that happens in school, and teachers are not allowed to tell them.

First off, my child was both bored to death with being taught (talked) down to in every subject in a high FARMs school every day for 6 years. That's tough to deal with as a parent of a gifted child but we can supplement that at home or find other means. However, the problem we had was that our child had to deal with awful kids that were allowed to cause violence and mayhem in the classroom and the teachers had to shield these kids because of 1) ridiculous privacy laws (every parent and classmate knows your kid is the bad egg already so not sure why this is so important); and 2) apparently these kids who physically and mentally torment other kids are snowflakes themselves according to their parents who often label them as the victims. Otherwise why would you get so offensive?

Parents of regular students must go into the classroom if there is a kid like this and volunteer if for only one reason. To stop blaming teachers for the lack of learning. Teachers absolutely cannot reach borderline kids when they have no energy and low morale because selfish and entitled parents cite stupid inequitable laws instead of deferring to common sense and human decency. Your one kid who is that socially unstable will not go on to have a good education and career. However, you're taking that opportunity away from 20+ other kids who fall behind because of you, many of whom are URM or from households that don't have a history of going to college, and may need that one good year of learning environment to kickstart their academic careers.

Yes, we have many problems with curriculum and some teachers. Yes, general ed classes should be emphasizing education and not babysitting. But it's hard to judge who are the good teachers if they're not able to actually teach. It all starts with having classrooms set up for teachers to teach and not to police. Oftentimes, whom the parents perceived as good teachers were actually just entertainers and not actually teaching any material. And please, parents, don't come back with "my kids learned a lot." Almost all of you don't even know what that means and you're just comparing it to some watered down SOL that is meaningless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

“I can paint all teachers with a bad brush but you can’t do it for nurses.”

Test scores all over the nation don’t lie.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

Worked in 3, actually, and my mother was a nurse for 40 years.

Mmm Hmm. You said “a” hospital (singular) above. Go ahead and cry “bull” all you want. You’re the one changing your story.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

Calm down Drama Queen. The problem is this is also what’s taught in teaching programs. It’s been reading instruction for a LONG time. A lot of teachers honestly don’t know it’s not “the best” way to teach reading. I don’t teach elementary but you can also stop acting like teachers are killing children by using curriculum they learned on and are told to use by their district. By all means go lobby the district to abandon it and tell them what reading program you prefer.(you don’t know any.)

I don’t know which is worse, knowing the curriculum you follow is terrible yet choosing not to speak up, or being completely unaware that the curriculum is terrible in the first place. It means you’re either lazy or stupid.

Yes, there are many better options for the chosen curriculum. Many posters have linked specific examples. Children need to be taught to decode. Spelling, phonics, and grammar instruction are critical. A curriculum focused on building knowledge, rather than general comprehension strategies, is much more effective.

How do I, as a nurse, understand this better than you?!

The Calkins curriculum is not terrible. It works wonders for many students in helping them to think deeply and comprehend at advanced levels (granted, I’ve only taught Calkins in upper elementary grades). In the lower grades, it needs to be coupled with phonics instruction. A phonics only curriculum would bore the early readers to tears. My kids’ K-1 teachers (ACPS) did a good job balancing Calkins with phonics instruction. The dramatics of calling the curriculum “terrible” don’t help. What we had before (NO language arts curriculum for my first 12 years of teaching) was much worse. Each teacher had to create her own lessons based on the standards.—Fine, if you had an outstanding teacher, but not great in many cases.

THIS is the problem. We have educators that don’t understand how awful the LC curriculum is.

“It works wonders!” Um, why are kids so grossly underprepared for middle and high school then? Why are test scores getting worse and worse?

The only kids that are doing well are those that come from privileged homes. This is because their parents make sure they have the basic knowledge they need (they supplement at home or hire tutors). Not everyone can do this.

THIS is why the solution isn’t just handing more money over. When our “educators” don’t even understand the problem, we are in deep trouble.

Maybe the problem is not the curriculum, but that living in poverty makes academic success very difficult, regardless of the curriculum.

That's what research tells us, anyway, although it's ignored by everyone because it's much easier to blame schools for a problem they didn't cause than it is to address the real cause - poverty and inequity.

Also what my personal experience teaching for 30 years tells me.

Yet research shows that those kids living in poverty start to thrive when they are in a school that uses a content-rich curriculum! Go back and read previous posts. Using a better curriculum minimizes how much supplementation is needed, meaning it narrows the achievement gap between rich and poor kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

Worked in 3, actually, and my mother was a nurse for 40 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

“I can paint all teachers with a bad brush but you can’t do it for nurses.”

Anonymous wrote:This is such a depressing thread. I taught first and second grade in the mid to late 90's in the era of whole language. I had to secretly teach phonics because I realized it works! I had to hide my phonics books and worksheets and create fake lesson plans. So many teachers and administrators were so thoroughly convinced whole language was fantastic.

I had one identical twin in my classroom in first grade one year. I taught him phonics and another first grade teacher taught whole language. I got in trouble because the parents were livid the child in my class had learned to fluently read while the other twin did not. They returned from spring break after realizing the big difference in skills. The parents demanded the other twin be placed in my classroom and showed the principal phonics worksheets that had been sent home and wanted to know why their non-reader wasn't being taught. The end result was I got in big trouble! The principal was so mad at me for teaching reading well and the other teacher wouldn't talk to me!

Same here! I had to secretly teach phonics. It really helped a lot of kids who otherwise would have been held back. But if they'd found out, I'd have been in trouble. Even the kids with dyslexia weren't getting phonics, and it was a total disaster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

LOL. You worked in ONE hospital for years! You can totally speak for the entire nursing profession! 😂

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.

I suppose I can’t speak for all nurses, but I’ve worked for 4 different hospital systems. I guess you worked in a really bad hospital, and a really bad school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

Calm down Drama Queen. The problem is this is also what’s taught in teaching programs. It’s been reading instruction for a LONG time. A lot of teachers honestly don’t know it’s not “the best” way to teach reading. I don’t teach elementary but you can also stop acting like teachers are killing children by using curriculum they learned on and are told to use by their district. By all means go lobby the district to abandon it and tell them what reading program you prefer.(you don’t know any.)

I don’t know which is worse, knowing the curriculum you follow is terrible yet choosing not to speak up, or being completely unaware that the curriculum is terrible in the first place. It means you’re either lazy or stupid.

Yes, there are many better options for the chosen curriculum. Many posters have linked specific examples. Children need to be taught to decode. Spelling, phonics, and grammar instruction are critical. A curriculum focused on building knowledge, rather than general comprehension strategies, is much more effective.

How do I, as a nurse, understand this better than you?!

The Calkins curriculum is not terrible. It works wonders for many students in helping them to think deeply and comprehend at advanced levels (granted, I’ve only taught Calkins in upper elementary grades). In the lower grades, it needs to be coupled with phonics instruction. A phonics only curriculum would bore the early readers to tears. My kids’ K-1 teachers (ACPS) did a good job balancing Calkins with phonics instruction. The dramatics of calling the curriculum “terrible” don’t help. What we had before (NO language arts curriculum for my first 12 years of teaching) was much worse. Each teacher had to create her own lessons based on the standards.—Fine, if you had an outstanding teacher, but not great in many cases.

THIS is the problem. We have educators that don’t understand how awful the LC curriculum is.

“It works wonders!” Um, why are kids so grossly underprepared for middle and high school then? Why are test scores getting worse and worse?

The only kids that are doing well are those that come from privileged homes. This is because their parents make sure they have the basic knowledge they need (they supplement at home or hire tutors). Not everyone can do this.

THIS is why the solution isn’t just handing more money over. When our “educators” don’t even understand the problem, we are in deep trouble.

Maybe the problem is not the curriculum, but that living in poverty makes academic success very difficult, regardless of the curriculum.

That's what research tells us, anyway, although it's ignored by everyone because it's much easier to blame schools for a problem they didn't cause than it is to address the real cause - poverty and inequity.

Also what my personal experience teaching for 30 years tells me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS moved in the spring to a different approach for elementary reading. I would have to find the programming language but it is a move away from this.

Does anyone know what they moved to?

They are also the district piloting an assessment for ES besides PALs for Virginia that is supposed to be a better screen for dyslexia. I mean the other shoe here is that not every child is a genius. So yes some kids in a class will be better at reading/math ect than some other kids and as they age it will be easier to see, especially in ES when the classes aren't in any way set up to level kids together based on ability. So yes is Lucy Calkins good, no not really according to newer info, but are APS parents all in this mind set of my child is amazing and going to Harvard, yes they are.

Ha, no. This isn’t because parental expectations are too high. The vast majority of our graduates are SO far behind those from other developed nations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please read “The Knowledge Gap” by Natalie Wexler. Lucy Calkins is HORRIBLE. I can’t believe teachers go along with this.

Omg don’t blame the curriculum a whole district buys and says teachers have to use on the teachers. How much say do you have over how your leadership tells you to do elements of your job?

I’m a nurse and you’d better believe that if my coworkers and I were instructed to do things that consistently led to bad outcomes, we would speak up and demand change.

WTH?? You’re ok with accepting the failing state of education? I seriously have to question your integrity if you’re ok with continuing to operate this way. Jesus.

You are not telling the truth. I have worked in both a hospital and a school and have seen plenty of nurses in bad hospitals, who knew they were in bad hospitals, doing things in bad ways because they didn't have a voice and needed their jobs.

Our schools are structured like the military - principal gives orders, and teachers cannot disobey. You literally can be fired for "disobeying a direct order" from the principal, regardless of what it is.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. We speak up all the time, and if needed - notify medical boards when someone is doing something unethical.

BULL. I worked in a hospital for years, and the nurses knew perfectly well which doctors did what awful thing and NO ONE spoke up. That's extremely rare. You are totally lying, or aren't even a nurse.