Choices

[ringsandcoffee]

I can either try to take 6 more units to meet the new middle grades subject requirements, or I can wait until next spring and try to pass yet another test that "proves" I know what I'm doing.

I'm a very good test-taker.

I'd actually like to take a class or 2, and maybe pick up some more practical ideas that apply to the population I teach. Time and money might overrule this. Well, unless I want to blow all my 301 bonus on online classes, and maybe finally a computer upgrade.

I wish NCLB was never invented.

Comments

[orogenesis11.livejournal.com]

NCLB = No Child Left Behind?

I haven't met a single teacher who's a fan of it. And frankly, I'm glad it wasn't the norm when I was a kid.

Remember when they used to split us up for math and reading? We always had the advanced group, the average group, and the slow group. I'm not advocating that, necessarily. But it is so different now.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

They still split kids up in places, and the 7th and 8th grades for the last 2 years or so have been tracked. The tracking was mainly for math, but most who were struggling in math struggled elsewhere. A few teachers don't want to track next year, but they are also going to different grade levels.

I can see how NCLB came out with good intentions, but it wasn't well thought out, and they keep implementing changes that make teachers lives more difficult (like my above dilemma). We keep having to jump through more hoops to prove we are "highly qualified" teachers, even those who have been teaching for years. As for the kids, everything has been shifted to standards-based teaching, which is really teaching to each state's standardized test. It's sucked the creativity out of teaching because in areas like mine, students have a TON of catching up to do, and they are expected to keep up with the grade level work they are presented with. I was talking to the teacher who will be 7th grade English next year, and I had to convince her that she should do some things that are not in the standards, like give speeches or presentations. In 10 years, most employers won't care if students can describe the setting of a story, but they will care if a person can express themselves clearly.