Common Core

I have been away from school for quite a while and not at all familiar with the common core regents so when I was asked to help a friend’s son prepare I hesitated but agreed to tutor with the understanding that my skills were rusty and I might not be able to do all the questions.

Noah arrived for tutoring with a series of questions, some of which made no sense.  We managed to find the regents the examples came from.  Some were copied wrong and some were just indecipherable.  I know I am pretty good at math and should have no problem with a high school topic but some were just impossible.

The worst part of these regents exam was the imbalance of questions.  Most regents would have 5 questions on one topic and one to none on others and there seemed to be no consistently from year to year.  Even a hard working student would have trouble preparing for this exam.

I teach in the local community college and every year I see students coming to class with weaker skills than the year before.  Seeing this test helps explain.  There is no emphasis on skills and almost no teaching of the things they need to know to succeed in college mathematics.

Common core is destroying future math students.  It has destroyed Math education.

Aruba School Day

I watched a group of children walk happily to the water for their swim lesson.  Each group of 5 had an adult supervisor while in water.

Wonder if these kids have to deal with Common Core testing?

A day like this teaches important things that cannot be learned from books.

No Common Core Saves The Day

Judith Scott was a deaf, almost mute woman with Downs Syndrome.  She was pronounced ineducable and sent to live in an institution for the mentally retarded in 1950.  Because she could not here, and because she missed her twin sister dearly, she became a disturbing influence and deemed unworthy of any sort of training.  In 1985 her twin sister, Joyce, moved her to Oakland Ca, where everyone was entitled to an education.  While in Oakland, she attended Creative Growth Center and got interested in creating sculptures by wrapping different objects with yarn, scraps, and anything else available.

Judith Scott now has an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum.  She became a world renowned artist.

Judith was one of the lucky ones.  She had a sister who loved her and took care of her.  She got an education in something she had an ability to succeed with.  She didn't suffer in a classroom learning, subjected to Common Core.  Bless the hand on instruction she received and bring it back for all who need it.

Common Core

I will not defend Common Core.  I know little to nothing about what it entails.  What I do know is that kids today are not getting a real education.

Boo hoo to the failing scores.  This country needs a wake up call.  We have been failing our kids for years.  There might be problems with Common Core but kids not passing are not the problem.

I used to sit with my calculus students after the AP exam and help the foreign born ones with English assignments.  All had passed the regents.  All had passed out of ESL classes.  None were able to write coherent paragraphs.  Reading their work was painful.  All had to take ESL classes in college and couldn't understand why since they had done so well in high school.

Common core might be awful, but passing students who know nothing is probably worse.  There has got to be a better way.

Messages From My Students

On this snowy day I am sitting at home appreciating the fact there is no where I have to be.  I started rummaging through an old box of cards.  I found cards from dear friends and relatives, many passed away years ago. I also found heart warming ones from former students, some I remember, but many I have forgotten.

Here are a few, typed because my scanner is not working on this computer:

To Mrs. POd,

Hi!  Well I felt you deserved at least this much from me to show you how much I appreciate you and how much I really do need you to keep me in line because if you didn't help me or wouldn't help me, I don't know how I would make it through school.

Love always, Kelly!!

Dear Mrs. POd,

You are a great Math teacher.  You have a very nice and caring heart.  Thank you so much for making me feel smart.  To tell you the truth when I first came in to your class I was very surprised to know that you thought I was smart.  I couldn't believe it.  I didn't want you to know that I was dumb so I tried to get really good grades on my tests.  You are the first person who ever told me that I am smart.  Thank you.  You make learning Math fun and exiting.  Also thank you for teaching me how to use the graphic calculator.

Thank you for being there!  Have a Happy New Year.

Manpreet 

Thank you for your concern and your help in Functional Analysis.  You make learning math fun and interesting.  And you're right, it is the "circle of math."

Salome

Dear Mrs. POd.

I just wanted to say a quick "thank you!" for all of your patience, guidance, support and understanding with me this term.  You are someone I will always be grateful to.  After graduation, I'll make sure I come to visit you, if you don't hit the lottery! You not only helped me out, but you helped out Rob for me-and I just wanted to tell you how much it all means to me.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart.  I love you, Kompel

P.S.  It's not your fault if anyone fails the regents-you did your best!  If they fail, it's because they deserve it-always remember that. 

Danielson and Common core don't measure the most important things we do for your students.  I am glad I am gone before I had to worry about those things.  I am sure my students would have suffered.

(I wish I was waiting for the plane above to take me some place warm right now.  This picture is from my Aruba trip.  We were lucky enough to be there during the last cold wave.)

Sometimes Failing Is A Good Thing

I am not a supporter of the Common Core, I don't want kids to be given tests they have been pre -ordained to fail and I certainly don't believe teachers should be evaluated on test scores, and, that is something I must point out before anyone reads this post.

Sometimes failure is good.  It points out weaknesses and encourages the harder work necessary to achieve a goal.  Tony was a sweet young boy with an award winning personality and a smile that could melt the coldest heart.  His eighth grade math teacher fell under his spell and passed him every quarter, with decent grades and his parents were very proud of how well their son was doing in his weakest subject.  Unfortunately the math regents was not introduced to this charmer and he scored 27 out of 100.  (This was back in the days when a student actually had to know something to pass.). His parents were devastated and spoke to the teacher who assured them he was very bright and she had no idea how this had happened.  His parents asked me to tutor him so he could retake the exam in August.  I quickly realized what he knew all along,  he knew no math.  In  6 weeks he managed to bring the grade up to a 60 but he still had severe deficits in the subject.  Thankfully the high school he attended made him repeat the class.  He did well that year and went on to pass geometry and trigonometry.  Failing didn't destroy him.  It made him stronger.

I also tutored Fey, another charmer.  Luckily for her, the charm did not work her first two years.  She struggled, but succeeded.  Good grades were important to her. The third year was her down fall, as she had done service for this teacher and, no matter how badly she did on exams, she still passed the class.  Because she was passing, she never pushed herself. Her parents, seeing her grades were happy as well.  Regents time came and Ashley  failed big time.  She was crushed and had to spend her summer repeating the course.  She did learn a lesson about studying.

Maybe the results of the Common Core exam are misleading and based on some topics students have not been taught, but these exams should be an eye opener.  Exams of the past have had grades so inflated that they had no validity at all.  Years ago teachers wrote exams.  I know many who spent a week in Albany doing just this.  Teachers, not book companies, made the exams and tested what kids have been taught.

Please, don't cry over failing test grades.  Cry over the lack of education today's students are suffering with.

Common Core Scores

I keep reading about how this year's test scores are low and so many more kids are failing than ever before.  This test might be flawed, but the ones before it were flawed too.  As a former high school teacher, and a current junior college adjunct, I see kids daily who can't read and can't do math.

Let's stop worrying about the exams and start worrying about the education kids of today are not getting.

Value Of Fiction



When I was in high school I thought English teachers scoured library shelves to find the worst possible books to assign.  The only thing I remember enjoying back then was Cantebury Tales.  And, it wasn't that my teachers weren't engaging and talented, because they were great.  But, memorizing passages from Shakespeare or reading Ethan Frome was just not for me.

As a teacher, I remember being thrilled to see my students walking around with books I had recently read and enjoyed.  I was so happy to see them reading contemporary literature and I enjoyed discussing these books with them and getting their recommendations for books I had not yet read.  I loved seeing them read, on their own, books by authors of required reading.  I loved seeing reading being back in vogue by many students, not just honor students.  I even enjoyed seeing them read classics and, after a glowing recommendation, went out and got copies of The Great Gatsby and To Kill A Mockingbird, two books around for years that I never read.

Fiction brings made up stories to life.  I have always loved historical fiction and now, with my I-pad or Nook, I fact check and explore things I have read.  I google places I have never been.  Reading fiction has widened my world in a way reading non fiction (books I usually don't read) never could.

I was saddened to see fiction, except for a small splattering of books, will no longer be part of the ELA curriculum.  Removing them deprives students of a meaningful learning experience.  This common core curriculum was thought of by people with no common sense.

Common Core English Curriculum