Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that you are all telling her to google the curriculum, sight words and buy books to supplement sure says a lot about MCPS. I really find it sad how bad our child's education is. Bare minimum to pass tests in 3-5th grade.

Yes, the fact that MCPS hands out the curriculum guide at the beginning of the year and also makes the curriculum guides available on line (here:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/elementary/guides.aspx )

sure says a lot about MCPS. Namely that MCPS goes to some trouble to make this information available to parents.

If you think that the education in MCPS is bad, I'm guessing you don't know much about education in the rest of the US.

Sorry, but that's such a BS argument.

I'm somewhat happy with MCPS, and somewhat unhappy, but that argument is ridiculous. Hey, stuff sucks more in other states, so you should be happy with MCPS? No thanks.

People don't need to be happy with MCPS. People should have some sense of proportion, though. "I really find it sad how bad our child's education is" suggests to me that PP is not considering MCPS in the context of education in the rest of the US.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that you are all telling her to google the curriculum, sight words and buy books to supplement sure says a lot about MCPS. I really find it sad how bad our child's education is. Bare minimum to pass tests in 3-5th grade.

Yes, the fact that MCPS hands out the curriculum guide at the beginning of the year and also makes the curriculum guides available on line (here:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/elementary/guides.aspx )

sure says a lot about MCPS. Namely that MCPS goes to some trouble to make this information available to parents.

If you think that the education in MCPS is bad, I'm guessing you don't know much about education in the rest of the US.

Sorry, but that's such a BS argument.

I'm somewhat happy with MCPS, and somewhat unhappy, but that argument is ridiculous. Hey, stuff sucks more in other states, so you should be happy with MCPS? No thanks.

Our relatives live out in VA and I am amazed at how much communication they get from the school and on-line compared to what happens in MCPS. My SIL showed me their on-line system. Starting in K the teacher records all the assignments and grades and the parents can see every grade. The sections actually make sense. Spelling means spelling. Reading comprehension is reading comprehension. If the teacher assesses reading level and it changes it gets recorded and the parents have access to see it! The homework sheets are available on-line. If a child leaves something at school or is sick you can just download it. They even see a section on the days lesson. This system isn't more work for the teacher it is just open to parents.

MCPS really sucks in comparison.

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum guides on the MCPS website are useless.

How so?

If you were designing the curriculum guides, what information would they contain?

The curriculum guides on the MCPS website are useless.

Anonymous wrote:I'm also lost.I ask my son, but he says he can;t remember what they did at school.At a conference I asked to see the books they are using.I wish they brought the books home from time to time.

+1

Families and teachers should be better connected than this. It'd make me consider homeschooling if there was no other option. This kind of this is dumbing down our kids.

I'm also lost.I ask my son, but he says he can;t remember what they did at school.At a conference I asked to see the books they are using.I wish they brought the books home from time to time.

Anonymous wrote:The fact that you are all telling her to google the curriculum, sight words and buy books to supplement sure says a lot about MCPS. I really find it sad how bad our child's education is. Bare minimum to pass tests in 3-5th grade.

Yes, the fact that MCPS hands out the curriculum guide at the beginning of the year and also makes the curriculum guides available on line (here:

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/elementary/guides.aspx )

sure says a lot about MCPS. Namely that MCPS goes to some trouble to make this information available to parents.

If you think that the education in MCPS is bad, I'm guessing you don't know much about education in the rest of the US.

The fact that you are all telling her to google the curriculum, sight words and buy books to supplement sure says a lot about MCPS. I really find it sad how bad our child's education is. Bare minimum to pass tests in 3-5th grade.

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum posted online is not all that specific. I know when my child was in Kindergarten, things like "fact families" made no sense to me.
It's way too brief to be of much help.

I wish the kids had some kind of textbook or online resource. Our child's teacher does very little in class and I want to supplement at home but it's tough.

It's quite easy to supplement online in the early years! There are so many great workbooks online that you can get for K-2. We like Kumon workbooks, or Spectrum, or even some of the cheap ones from the dollar store are fine. Now that the curriculum is a bit more standard, they often cover the same ideas. I've found different publishers at each grade level cover similar material.

Or, just go on Amazon. We do workbooks at grade level, and then go one grade level ahead. Usually 2 or 3 pages at night, in addition to DD's homework (she doesn't get much homework anyway). You'll also learn more about the curriculum yourself that way.

So there are no workbooks that are used?

The curriculum posted online is not all that specific. I know when my child was in Kindergarten, things like "fact families" made no sense to me.
It's way too brief to be of much help.

I wish the kids had some kind of textbook or online resource. Our child's teacher does very little in class and I want to supplement at home but it's tough.

I would focus specifically with the teacher on why your child feels behind before worrying about what you should be teaching him at home to catch up. If the teacher has any concerns then you can proceed from there. Hopefully she will allay his and your concerns. This could likely be accomplished ith an e-mail. If there are concerns follow up with a conference.

PP again.

Some of the ESs have lists of the word wall words for each grade. At least you'll know what words your child is expected to know how to spell/read.

This is one example. Scroll down to "Word Wall Words":

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/waysidees/specials/reading.aspx