An Educator Struggling With Education
The other day a woman at Josh's work was telling him how pleased she was with her daughter's third grade teacher and what a nice start to the school year it was. The two of them talked briefly about how Nolan and Judah were doing at the beginning of the year as well.
She then asked Josh, "With Kristin being a teacher, do you find that she is highly supportive of other teachers? Extra critical of them?"
Josh smiled and answered, "Yes."
#nailedit.
That one word answer is not only the truth, but is a short, concise way to say a mouthful. Although he could've left it there and got a point across, he elaborated a little saying that I am HUGELY supportive of the educators themselves, and extra, super critical of the institution of education in general.
Also, #nailedit.
Teachers as a whole are absolutely amazing: steadfast, unwavering, determined, kind, compassionate, empathetic, intelligent, loving, hardworking, and passionate. I love my students like they are my own and I can see very obviously that my boys' teachers have loved them like their own children as well.
I stand behind and beside these humans who have CHOSEN to take this calling to serve kids as educators.
Teachers, as a whole, are also overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. The third one, for me, might be the worst of them all. You can't find a more educated, caring group of professionals and yet our professionalism is questioned at every turn....
You can't possibly know how to teach kids how to read so let me give you a boxed program that strips you of your creativity.
You can't possibly know the skills of your students or where they are achieving so let me require you to test your students to death. You won't be able to pick the way your students are assessed or what they are assessed on either, by the way.
You can't possibly know how to create an engaging, integrated storyline in your curriculum so let me decide exactly when you're going to teach something and how you're going to teach it.
You can't possibly know anything about what school is like so let me put policy makers in our government to speak for you and make decisions for you who have never been teachers.
Although I am highly supportive of teachers, my disdain and frustrations for the broken systems within education and schools have grown exponentially over the years.
When I don't feel passion for content in the classroom, it bothers me.
When my highly active boys are asked to sit still all day, it frustrates me.
When recesses and playtime get cut, it infuriates me.
And when PACKETS and WORKSHEETS get done in the classroom or sent home for homework, I want to unleash a wrath unlike you've ever seen.
As first grade has started, one of the procedures is that students do 'race-track' math. This is a TIMED test, five minutes, to do as many addition and subtraction problems as one can do. When it was explained to us as open house, Josh immediately saw my face turn to annoyance... he knew I was not going to dig this and I do not have a poker face.
I waited for an explanation- the pedagogy behind it, the data to support it, or the rationale or the why, so that I could maybe be okay with it, but that never came.
Herein lies the struggle for me- I want to be so on board with the teachers, but then I hear routines like that and I want to puke. I am always going back and forth, back and forth. I believe in education SO MUCH and want to be the biggest cheerleader for it and public schools and then I also want to run away from all the crap and homeschool. Sigh.
I knew these timed tests were not going to be good for either of my two first graders...
- One would worry about when it was happening, stress out about how much time was left, race like crazy to finish the whole thing, and ultimately make errors because of his rushing even though he knows that math for sure.
- One wouldn't give two rips about how much time was left and would probably forget he was being timed at all, would watch a butterfly flying out the window and only get a few done even though he knows that math for sure.
But somehow, my boys were going to be operating under a system that tells them they should race to do math facts and that score tells what kind of a mathematician they actually are. HORSE APPLES.
Sure enough, one of my boys brought home his first race-track math sheet.
It had a 3/60 on it.
He had done three problems correctly and three incorrectly. He didn't notice it was switching back and forth between addition and subtraction and so he got the subtraction ones wrong. NOTHING came home with this sheet of paper so I had no idea if this was extremely concerning or on par with how everyone else did the first time or if he was a first grade genius. I think I knew which one of those it was, but I would be inferring. I had no idea when they would take one of these again or what might follow up from this data.
You can see, again, why Josh answering yes to that woman's questions was spot on. I know these teachers are amazing, I just hate some of the things they do (or are probably being forced to do). I tried not to get worried about this race-track math knowing that there are a million other ways to show how much math my little guy knows, but in the back of my mind I knew he'd be judged heavily by this and it bothered me.
More similar pages came home over the next several days. I guess his classroom does this ridiculous math THREE TIMES A WEEK. Josh finally called his teacher because #mycrazy (or in this case #ourcrazy) was out in full force and we needed some answers.
The conversation was more than lovely, of course, because teachers are amazing.
My son's teacher hates this race-track math and basically doesn't care at all how he does on it. It was a directive from administration to do this. She's checked in with him numerous times and he always know the answers. The phone call also prompted her to remember that she's blown up the sheet before to help students, who struggle to write, have more space to write bigger numbers. She said the space they want these kids to write in is absurd and very NOT age appropriate... PREACH.
Within a few days, my son brought home this sheet. He ripped it out of his backpack and showed it to me like he had won an award.
It was a 58/60. It's hard to see, but this is double the paper size of his previous test.
He needed a bigger sheet and more than five minutes, but he's showing he knows the math. Isn't that the freaking point?! I hate this race-track math, but I hugged him, told him how proud I was of his hard work, and openly sobbed.
When you take out all the bull, all the hoops, all the politics, and just let caring, intelligent teachers DO THEIR JOB, school is an absolutely amazing place to be. All the money in the world can never add up to the joy of watching a student finally see what an incredible learner they are.
This educator (me) will always struggle with the institution of education- I will keep being frustrated, I will keep asking questions, I will keep being critical, I will likely keep pushing back. But, just as much as that, I need to always remember how many times teachers do what they need to do, over and over and over again in a million different ways, to help each kid's crown shine.
She then asked Josh, "With Kristin being a teacher, do you find that she is highly supportive of other teachers? Extra critical of them?"
Josh smiled and answered, "Yes."
#nailedit.
That one word answer is not only the truth, but is a short, concise way to say a mouthful. Although he could've left it there and got a point across, he elaborated a little saying that I am HUGELY supportive of the educators themselves, and extra, super critical of the institution of education in general.
Also, #nailedit.
Teachers as a whole are absolutely amazing: steadfast, unwavering, determined, kind, compassionate, empathetic, intelligent, loving, hardworking, and passionate. I love my students like they are my own and I can see very obviously that my boys' teachers have loved them like their own children as well.
I stand behind and beside these humans who have CHOSEN to take this calling to serve kids as educators.
Teachers, as a whole, are also overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. The third one, for me, might be the worst of them all. You can't find a more educated, caring group of professionals and yet our professionalism is questioned at every turn....
You can't possibly know how to teach kids how to read so let me give you a boxed program that strips you of your creativity.
You can't possibly know the skills of your students or where they are achieving so let me require you to test your students to death. You won't be able to pick the way your students are assessed or what they are assessed on either, by the way.
You can't possibly know how to create an engaging, integrated storyline in your curriculum so let me decide exactly when you're going to teach something and how you're going to teach it.
You can't possibly know anything about what school is like so let me put policy makers in our government to speak for you and make decisions for you who have never been teachers.
Although I am highly supportive of teachers, my disdain and frustrations for the broken systems within education and schools have grown exponentially over the years.
When I don't feel passion for content in the classroom, it bothers me.
When my highly active boys are asked to sit still all day, it frustrates me.
When recesses and playtime get cut, it infuriates me.
And when PACKETS and WORKSHEETS get done in the classroom or sent home for homework, I want to unleash a wrath unlike you've ever seen.
As first grade has started, one of the procedures is that students do 'race-track' math. This is a TIMED test, five minutes, to do as many addition and subtraction problems as one can do. When it was explained to us as open house, Josh immediately saw my face turn to annoyance... he knew I was not going to dig this and I do not have a poker face.
I waited for an explanation- the pedagogy behind it, the data to support it, or the rationale or the why, so that I could maybe be okay with it, but that never came.
Herein lies the struggle for me- I want to be so on board with the teachers, but then I hear routines like that and I want to puke. I am always going back and forth, back and forth. I believe in education SO MUCH and want to be the biggest cheerleader for it and public schools and then I also want to run away from all the crap and homeschool. Sigh.
I knew these timed tests were not going to be good for either of my two first graders...
- One would worry about when it was happening, stress out about how much time was left, race like crazy to finish the whole thing, and ultimately make errors because of his rushing even though he knows that math for sure.
- One wouldn't give two rips about how much time was left and would probably forget he was being timed at all, would watch a butterfly flying out the window and only get a few done even though he knows that math for sure.
But somehow, my boys were going to be operating under a system that tells them they should race to do math facts and that score tells what kind of a mathematician they actually are. HORSE APPLES.
Sure enough, one of my boys brought home his first race-track math sheet.
It had a 3/60 on it.
He had done three problems correctly and three incorrectly. He didn't notice it was switching back and forth between addition and subtraction and so he got the subtraction ones wrong. NOTHING came home with this sheet of paper so I had no idea if this was extremely concerning or on par with how everyone else did the first time or if he was a first grade genius. I think I knew which one of those it was, but I would be inferring. I had no idea when they would take one of these again or what might follow up from this data.
You can see, again, why Josh answering yes to that woman's questions was spot on. I know these teachers are amazing, I just hate some of the things they do (or are probably being forced to do). I tried not to get worried about this race-track math knowing that there are a million other ways to show how much math my little guy knows, but in the back of my mind I knew he'd be judged heavily by this and it bothered me.
More similar pages came home over the next several days. I guess his classroom does this ridiculous math THREE TIMES A WEEK. Josh finally called his teacher because #mycrazy (or in this case #ourcrazy) was out in full force and we needed some answers.
The conversation was more than lovely, of course, because teachers are amazing.
My son's teacher hates this race-track math and basically doesn't care at all how he does on it. It was a directive from administration to do this. She's checked in with him numerous times and he always know the answers. The phone call also prompted her to remember that she's blown up the sheet before to help students, who struggle to write, have more space to write bigger numbers. She said the space they want these kids to write in is absurd and very NOT age appropriate... PREACH.
Within a few days, my son brought home this sheet. He ripped it out of his backpack and showed it to me like he had won an award.
It was a 58/60. It's hard to see, but this is double the paper size of his previous test.
He needed a bigger sheet and more than five minutes, but he's showing he knows the math. Isn't that the freaking point?! I hate this race-track math, but I hugged him, told him how proud I was of his hard work, and openly sobbed.
When you take out all the bull, all the hoops, all the politics, and just let caring, intelligent teachers DO THEIR JOB, school is an absolutely amazing place to be. All the money in the world can never add up to the joy of watching a student finally see what an incredible learner they are.
This educator (me) will always struggle with the institution of education- I will keep being frustrated, I will keep asking questions, I will keep being critical, I will likely keep pushing back. But, just as much as that, I need to always remember how many times teachers do what they need to do, over and over and over again in a million different ways, to help each kid's crown shine.
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