My AP went on and on today about standards, about how a diploma from our school means more than a diploma from other schools. And then....he passed out multiplication tables for us to copy and distribute to our students to use when we are teaching factoring because learning them is no longer a requirement....Talk about standards??? I didn't think our standards could ever get this low.
3 comments:
Pretty soon they'll be using calculators for basic addition and subtraction. Wait-I'm sure some are already doing this.
This is sad. Will they be able to use these charts during the state testing too?
I feel your pain. Students often have great difficulty with the grade level standards because they have not mastered the prerequisite standards. It makes our jobs much more challenging and stressful, and the students become extremely frustrated. We work together (as best we can) to fill the gaps. Their test scores show growth from the previous year, but they frequently do not acheive grade level "proficiency". The students, teachers, site, and district are then punished for this. Does anyone other than teachers see how hard it is to catch a train that is leaving at it's scheduled time when you are nowhere near the station (prerequisite)? Many teachers have thrown themselves and their personal lives on the tracks to give their students a greater opportunity to get on board. Tutoring on weekends, homework help by telephone during the evening, Tutoring before school, and more. I commend them, but students and parents also need to step up and do more.
Sorry, I believe I have worked my way into a bit of a tirade.
Its crazy. We are held to such a high standard to get these kids to pass but thier previous years are failing them. I am not saying that all lower level teachers need to be perfect in mathematics, but they need to teach these kids their times tables atleast! I remember being in 3rd grade and having the teacher make us do times tables up to 12 infront of the whole class. We didn't move on to anything else until we had that mastered! Now I have kids who not only don't know what 3x4 is but also don't know how to add. Thier requests to use thier times table charts and calculators are denied because they can't use either of those on their state tests. I can't believe that they have gotten this far with being allowed to not learn thier times tables. But what can we expect from teachers in my district who teach sixth graders that integers is pronounced in-tiggers. Okay rant over. :)
Post a Comment