Anonymous
08/27/2012 20:17
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
How can you have a TPTEP meeting on Wed? That's the county inservice day.
I know it is the countywide inservice day. That's listed too. I guess you miss it if you have to be somewhere else. There are also grade level curriculum update meetings scheduled in the morning, the TPEP mtg, and if I was on the school Leadership Team, a meeting from 2-3.
NP here - thank you for posting your schedule. I did not know how many meetings teachers had to attend the week before school starts up. What grade level do you teach? Also, are any of these meetings related to IEPs or 504s?
4th grade. None of the meetings this week are related to IEPs or 504s.
Thank you. Best of luck to you this school year!
Anonymous
08/27/2012 16:38
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
How can you have a TPTEP meeting on Wed? That's the county inservice day.
I know it is the countywide inservice day. That's listed too. I guess you miss it if you have to be somewhere else. There are also grade level curriculum update meetings scheduled in the morning, the TPEP mtg, and if I was on the school Leadership Team, a meeting from 2-3.
NP here - thank you for posting your schedule. I did not know how many meetings teachers had to attend the week before school starts up. What grade level do you teach? Also, are any of these meetings related to IEPs or 504s?
4th grade. None of the meetings this week are related to IEPs or 504s.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 09:56
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:I think its funny the teacher complaining has admitted to also not being able to get the classroom ready on time when Open House is scheduled at the end of a long summer break. I'm guessing they have it on Thursday so that any changes to the classroom can be made after open house easily before school starts. Hoping this teacher isn't in my child's school too. Sounds like one of those teachers that is unorganized and just does the minimum to get by.
I doubt it. I have worked in Ffx schools and they are all different as far as when teachers can get in to set up their rooms. In one, teachers were actually not allowed into the building at all before a certain day, and then after that their time was very limited. I remember struggling to get the room set up before maintenance came in and kicked us out. It was the maintenance department that made us leave, but I don't know if it was as the principal's direction or not.
The other school I worked at let us in any time, day or night, any time of the year. However, the first week of school (for teachers, not students), was booked solid with meetings so that teachers could only get to their classrooms for about one and a half days before school started. In some cases, teachers would be allowed to come in a few days before the start of the teacher school year to set up, but not always. Sometimes there were maintenance issues - they hadn't finished cleaning or painting a room, for example, or in my case, a room had not been assigned yet. They used to switch our rooms a lot, and sometimes a final decision was not made until a day or two before school started. It was worse for me as a specialist - there were times when I did not have a room assignment until a day or two after the students had come back to school.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 08:17
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
How can you have a TPTEP meeting on Wed? That's the county inservice day.
I know it is the countywide inservice day. That's listed too. I guess you miss it if you have to be somewhere else. There are also grade level curriculum update meetings scheduled in the morning, the TPEP mtg, and if I was on the school Leadership Team, a meeting from 2-3.
NP here - thank you for posting your schedule. I did not know how many meetings teachers had to attend the week before school starts up. What grade level do you teach? Also, are any of these meetings related to IEPs or 504s?
Anonymous
08/27/2012 07:50
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:
How can you have a TPTEP meeting on Wed? That's the county inservice day.
I know it is the countywide inservice day. That's listed too. I guess you miss it if you have to be somewhere else. There are also grade level curriculum update meetings scheduled in the morning, the TPEP mtg, and if I was on the school Leadership Team, a meeting from 2-3.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 02:47
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Hey, 2:30
You are posting in the wrong thread. The person you are quoting posted here by accident.
This thread is about general class assignments.
I am sure it must be your favorite topic, but maybe, just maybe, we can avoid turning this into another I hate AAP thread. Or an AAP thread of any sort.
If you really want to discuss AAP, please start another thread or hop onto one of the 100 others. Just don't do it here.
We are getting nice posts from teachers and teachers' kids. Please don't drive them off by turning this into another AAP blather. Thanks!
You are posting in the wrong thread. The person you are quoting posted here by accident.
This thread is about general class assignments.
I am sure it must be your favorite topic, but maybe, just maybe, we can avoid turning this into another I hate AAP thread. Or an AAP thread of any sort.
If you really want to discuss AAP, please start another thread or hop onto one of the 100 others. Just don't do it here.
We are getting nice posts from teachers and teachers' kids. Please don't drive them off by turning this into another AAP blather. Thanks!
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids in AAP. One, DD, is highly social, loves reading and science, and would probably do just as well in Gen Ed-- she was fine in K to 2nd grade.
My other child had a miserable k-2 experience He was reading chaper books in preschool, way ahead in math, etc. He also dislikes sports and video games and is very introverted, so he had trouble making friends, and began to have problEm with self confidence. He also had sensory development issues, which are apparrently common in gifted boys, but it is hard for him to watch movies. He was bored in school, and began reading during class time. When his book was taken away, he would other ways to entertain himself, like drawing on his desk, and that also got him in trouble. When he moved to AAP, it was like he became almost a new child-- interested, engaged, happy and confident. The program was just whaT he needed.
I believe that some kids, like my son, need AAP every bit as much as other kids need special Ed-- they won't succeed in school without a teacher who understands gifted learneers and their particular social/emotional issues, as well as intellectual needs. That said, we are talking abuot a small % of kids (probably 5% or less) who really needs AAP to succeed in school. The rest of the kids seem more like DD-- often capable of doing the work in AAP, but they would also be fine in Gen Ed. Smart
I'm not saying that DD is less smart than DS- she is creative, loves to read, has an amazing talent for science, And an off the charts EQ. It's just that, IMHO, not every smart child in Fiarfax Co
[list]The 5% rule should apply to "center based" learning for children who really need a more advanced curriculum. Have you, or many others in your situation, ever stopped to think that your child is not so much smarter than the rest but simply needs a different method of being taught the same materials?
IMO, the Fairfax County AAP program has lost sight of its purpose. It began as an immersion program for the "truly gifted” in order to offer them the advanced curriculum these children need. Through this process, there have been so many exceptions to the rule with inclusion for this, and inclusion for that, our “gifted” population is up to a whopping 20-25%! Really? No. It is children like yours who just need a different way of learning the same materials but instead are being given an “advanced academic” education that are fueling the complaints.
For example on another thread, a previous school board member is leading an "awareness" campaign for minority groups who feel they are under represented in the AAP center and Thomas Jefferson. A lawsuit has been filed. It is not just the minorities here. The bottom line is the AAP program is providing “advanced academics” to children who do need to be provided a “different way of teaching”, but, do not need “advanced academics”. Fairfax County Public Schools are discriminating by providing your child “advanced academics” just because he needs a “different way of learning” and not giving the “smart” child, who flourishes in the standard classroom environment, “advanced academics”. These AAP children have many more doors open to them. They automatically are placed in advanced middle school classes and given the “AAP stamp” on their school records which follows them all the way through their education. Not to mention a “better”, “advanced”, education. This is discrimination and I believe quite possibly “tracking” depending on the way in which the student gained acceptance into the AAP center.
A solution here might be to offer an “alternative learning” school where the curriculum is the same but taught differently and keep the AAP center for the truly “advanced top 5% learners” who would be accepted solely on their scholastic achievement and high IQ’s. I don’t know. But FCPS does need to correct this sooner than later. The program and process as it is today is discrimination – but not just for minorities.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 02:30
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids in AAP. One, DD, is highly social, loves reading and science, and would probably do just as well in Gen Ed-- she was fine in K to 2nd grade.
My other child had a miserable k-2 experience He was reading chaper books in preschool, way ahead in math, etc. He also dislikes sports and video games and is very introverted, so he had trouble making friends, and began to have problEm with self confidence. He also had sensory development issues, which are apparrently common in gifted boys, but it is hard for him to watch movies. He was bored in school, and began reading during class time. When his book was taken away, he would other ways to entertain himself, like drawing on his desk, and that also got him in trouble. When he moved to AAP, it was like he became almost a new child-- interested, engaged, happy and confident. The program was just whaT he needed.
I believe that some kids, like my son, need AAP every bit as much as other kids need special Ed-- they won't succeed in school without a teacher who understands gifted learneers and their particular social/emotional issues, as well as intellectual needs. That said, we are talking abuot a small % of kids (probably 5% or less) who really needs AAP to succeed in school. The rest of the kids seem more like DD-- often capable of doing the work in AAP, but they would also be fine in Gen Ed. Smart
I'm not saying that DD is less smart than DS- she is creative, loves to read, has an amazing talent for science, And an off the charts EQ. It's just that, IMHO, not every smart child in Fiarfax Co
[list]The 5% rule should apply to "center based" learning for children who really need a more advanced curriculum. Have you, or many others in your situation, ever stopped to think that your child is not so much smarter than the rest but simply needs a different method of being taught the same materials?
IMO, the Fairfax County AAP program has lost sight of its purpose. It began as an immersion program for the "truly gifted” in order to offer them the advanced curriculum these children need. Through this process, there have been so many exceptions to the rule with inclusion for this, and inclusion for that, our “gifted” population is up to a whopping 20-25%! Really? No. It is children like yours who just need a different way of learning the same materials but instead are being given an “advanced academic” education that are fueling the complaints.
For example on another thread, a previous school board member is leading an "awareness" campaign for minority groups who feel they are under represented in the AAP center and Thomas Jefferson. A lawsuit has been filed. It is not just the minorities here. The bottom line is the AAP program is providing “advanced academics” to children who do need to be provided a “different way of teaching”, but, do not need “advanced academics”. Fairfax County Public Schools are discriminating by providing your child “advanced academics” just because he needs a “different way of learning” and not giving the “smart” child, who flourishes in the standard classroom environment, “advanced academics”. These AAP children have many more doors open to them. They automatically are placed in advanced middle school classes and given the “AAP stamp” on their school records which follows them all the way through their education. Not to mention a “better”, “advanced”, education. This is discrimination and I believe quite possibly “tracking” depending on the way in which the student gained acceptance into the AAP center.
A solution here might be to offer an “alternative learning” school where the curriculum is the same but taught differently and keep the AAP center for the truly “advanced top 5% learners” who would be accepted solely on their scholastic achievement and high IQ’s. I don’t know. But FCPS does need to correct this sooner than later. The program and process as it is today is discrimination – but not just for minorities.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 00:49
Subject: FCPS class rosters and assignments
Another FCPS teacher's daughter here, who has often spent the week before classes helping to set up my mom's classroom while she was in meetings (not to mention the numerous late nights spent at the school when she was trying to finish setting up, or during the school year when she was grading report cards, hanging artwork, etc).
Something to keep in mind: The schools are still being used for camps and summer school and other things throughout the summer. It's not like a teacher can just pick a random convenient day in July or something and go set up their classroom. Because of budget constraints, schools are being used more and more, leaving less and less of the summer for teachers to voluntarily set up. This year, at my mother's school, the earliest anyone could get in to set up was this past week. Teachers have lives too, which might include a summer job, family vacations, or young children of their own that would limit their ability to go set up their room during this week.
As for the security issue of posting class lists outside, I believe it has less to do with strangers figuring out where the kids are, and more to do with things like non-custodial parents, or other adults who may know the child, but for whatever reason need to be kept away from the kid. It's a sad world we live in, and you can never be to safe.
Something to keep in mind: The schools are still being used for camps and summer school and other things throughout the summer. It's not like a teacher can just pick a random convenient day in July or something and go set up their classroom. Because of budget constraints, schools are being used more and more, leaving less and less of the summer for teachers to voluntarily set up. This year, at my mother's school, the earliest anyone could get in to set up was this past week. Teachers have lives too, which might include a summer job, family vacations, or young children of their own that would limit their ability to go set up their room during this week.
As for the security issue of posting class lists outside, I believe it has less to do with strangers figuring out where the kids are, and more to do with things like non-custodial parents, or other adults who may know the child, but for whatever reason need to be kept away from the kid. It's a sad world we live in, and you can never be to safe.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 00:24
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids in AAP. One, DD, is highly social, loves reading and science, and would probably do just as well in Gen Ed-- she was fine in K to 2nd grade.
My other child had a miserable k-2 experience He was reading chaper books in preschool, way ahead in math, etc. He also dislikes sports and video games and is very introverted, so he had trouble making friends, and began to have problEm with self confidence. He also had sensory development issues, which are apparrently common in gifted boys, but it is hard for him to watch movies. He was bored in school, and began reading during class time. When his book was taken away, he would other ways to entertain himself, like drawing on his desk, and that also got him in trouble. When he moved to AAP, it was like he became almost a new child-- interested, engaged, happy and confident. The program was just whaT he needed.
I believe that some kids, like my son, need AAP every bit as much as other kids need special Ed-- they won't succeed in school without a teacher who understands gifted learneers and their particular social/emotional issues, as well as intellectual needs. That said, we are talking abuot a small % of kids (probably 5% or less) who really needs AAP to succeed in school. The rest of the kids seem more like DD-- often capable of doing the work in AAP, but they would also be fine in Gen Ed. Smart
I'm not saying that DD is less smart than DS- she is creative, loves to read, has an amazing talent for science, And an off the charts EQ. It's just that, IMHO, not every smart child in Fiarfax Co
[list]5% is what is should be. But you are on the wrong thread.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 00:04
Subject: FCPS class rosters and assignments
Finish from above; not every chi,d in FFX Co. Actually needs differentiated instruction.
Anonymous
08/27/2012 00:02
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
I have 2 kids in AAP. One, DD, is highly social, loves reading and science, and would probably do just as well in Gen Ed-- she was fine in K to 2nd grade.
My other child had a miserable k-2 experience He was reading chaper books in preschool, way ahead in math, etc. He also dislikes sports and video games and is very introverted, so he had trouble making friends, and began to have problEm with self confidence. He also had sensory development issues, which are apparrently common in gifted boys, but it is hard for him to watch movies. He was bored in school, and began reading during class time. When his book was taken away, he would other ways to entertain himself, like drawing on his desk, and that also got him in trouble. When he moved to AAP, it was like he became almost a new child-- interested, engaged, happy and confident. The program was just whaT he needed.
I believe that some kids, like my son, need AAP every bit as much as other kids need special Ed-- they won't succeed in school without a teacher who understands gifted learneers and their particular social/emotional issues, as well as intellectual needs. That said, we are talking abuot a small % of kids (probably 5% or less) who really needs AAP to succeed in school. The rest of the kids seem more like DD-- often capable of doing the work in AAP, but they would also be fine in Gen Ed. Smart
I'm not saying that DD is less smart than DS- she is creative, loves to read, has an amazing talent for science, And an off the charts EQ. It's just that, IMHO, not every smart child in Fiarfax Co
My other child had a miserable k-2 experience He was reading chaper books in preschool, way ahead in math, etc. He also dislikes sports and video games and is very introverted, so he had trouble making friends, and began to have problEm with self confidence. He also had sensory development issues, which are apparrently common in gifted boys, but it is hard for him to watch movies. He was bored in school, and began reading during class time. When his book was taken away, he would other ways to entertain himself, like drawing on his desk, and that also got him in trouble. When he moved to AAP, it was like he became almost a new child-- interested, engaged, happy and confident. The program was just whaT he needed.
I believe that some kids, like my son, need AAP every bit as much as other kids need special Ed-- they won't succeed in school without a teacher who understands gifted learneers and their particular social/emotional issues, as well as intellectual needs. That said, we are talking abuot a small % of kids (probably 5% or less) who really needs AAP to succeed in school. The rest of the kids seem more like DD-- often capable of doing the work in AAP, but they would also be fine in Gen Ed. Smart
I'm not saying that DD is less smart than DS- she is creative, loves to read, has an amazing talent for science, And an off the charts EQ. It's just that, IMHO, not every smart child in Fiarfax Co
Anonymous
08/26/2012 23:15
Subject: Re:FCPS class rosters and assignments
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:14:49. For all we know, the person commenting is a decent teacher. Perhaps it's a custodial issue with the budget cuts. I really don't know but it would be nice to know more specifics about the actual issues teachers face to work with them to make it a better teaching environment.
I'm a teacher. As an example, here is what is scheduled (in a nutshell) for me this week:
Monday-
8:00 breakfast
8:30-12:00 Staff Mtg.
Lunch
1:00-2:00 Mtg. 2:00-3:00 Mtg.
Tuesday-
8:00-noon Staff Mtg. 2:00-3:00 CLT Mtg.
Wed.-
8:15-10 Mtg. 10:15-Noon Mtg. 1:00-2:00 TPEP Mtg.
Thurs.- 2:00-3:00 Open House
Friday- Staff Mtg. 8:00-11:30
How can you have a TPTEP meeting on Wed? That's the county inservice day.