<p>In my urban district, they sent out curriculum cops to the elementary schools to ensure that they were on the <em>correct</em> less on on the <em>correct</em> day!!! Forget that maybe some classes learned some concepts early and others not. And in mixed grade classrooms, the teacher could not go over one concept with the entire class because it appeared at a different point in the curriculum of each grade. Due to the various types of mandated testing, the teacher told us that from January on, one out of three school days was taken up with testing – not learning. Due to frustration with the foregoing followed by having to work under an incompetent principal assigned to the school, the kids lost a talented classroom teacher, a Stanford grad no less.</p>
<p>To the OP, I suggest you use your veteran status more to break rules, think way outside the box and stand up to the petty administrators younger than yourself. I did that in poor rural districts at 1st and 2nd grade. </p>
<p>Breaking Rules/Standing Up: When a student came to school exhausted, in urine-soaked clothing pulled from a mixed pile of clean and dirty laundry, distracted out of her mind from the parents’ arguments and TV noise that kept her up most of the night… I didn’t have her do any work. I took out my coat, laid it on the floor under her desk, and told her to take a nap. When the young barbie-doll Vice-Principal came by and asked huffily what was going on, I told her exactly what. When she didn’t get it, I demanded meeting with the principal (yes, during my half-hour lunch) who did get it and left me alone. My point: the litttle student can’t learn anything exhausted; at least with this nap she has a chance to learn in the afternoon. Use the power of your experience more and push back.</p>
<p>Example of thinking outside-the-box: Pro-actively, I got a lot of mileage by visiting the doorsteps of every student. An Irish teacher-educator said it’s done there before each opening day. I didn’t think it would transfer from small villages to the U.S., but it was so powerful. Leave the school building, call ahead and just spend 5 minutes on their doorstops. Give them a pencil and say “hi.” I never had trouble after that with parent support. I walked past some dangerous chained dogs, etc., but it was time well-spent. I didn’t get to them all because cell-phone numbers change constantly (this you know), but if you can visit at least half the class at home, not to issue a report but simply to greet, it’s revolutionary.</p>
<p>I agree that the amount of time spent monitoring, checking and being frustrated over homework is not worth it at that age in stressed-out districts. You can offer optional homework as some parents truly want to supervise spelling lists and things that are very finite drill. If you used classtime for all the functions you send home, I bet it would be a net gain. You will get criticized if your school has a “must give homework” policy as ours did. Again, roar back, veteran. You know best what works. Good luck.</p>
<p>PS: Pedagogic theory here: “Curriculum is the intersection of teacher, subject matter and student.” What you need to adjust here is for more consideration of your students, and compromise on subject matter. Then the teacher might be able to breathe and recharge her batteries. If one aspect of curriculum (you) isn’t strong, the other two won’t advance. It’s a 3-legged stool.</p>
<p>Take the hits to your test results; you’re old enough to handle that embarrassment among colleagues. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad teacher; it might mean you’re the best teacher in the building. Stay strong; you ARE serving these kids. They’re just a different bunch than years ago. </p>
<p>PS does faculty lounge conversation just vent and reinforce your dismay over changing demography within the building? If so, perhaps stop eating there or minimize it.</p>
<p>^^^^
Awesome!!!</p>
<p>Back to the OP’s original issue: I understand that a population that has shifted from more stable and affluent families to one with more lower-income and families under stress poses a lot of challenges for teachers and schools that are used to the former situation.</p>
<p>If it isn’t possible for you to transfer to a school that is more aligned with your experience and comfort, and retirement isn’t yet an option, then perhaps it is time to rethink how your classroom and teaching is organized. Your goal would be to find strategies that are effective for your students at a workload that is manageable for you. </p>
<p>A few suggestions: Susan Winebrenner has a good book on Teaching Kids with Learning Disabilities in the Regular Classroom. Especially with districts and schools moving heavily to RTI, and the increasing number of students presenting with LD issues, some new strategies are needed. Susan was a very effective classroom teacher, and teachers find her strategies and tactics more practical than those of many other authors.</p>
<p>I’d completely agree that homework needs to be very limited in the context of a student population that has few home resources. That’s a change, but you may find that it is a change for the better all the way around. </p>
<p>Kids learn a lot kinesthetically and through songs and chants. It may be different than the way you taught multiplication facts before, but take a look at some of the options out there. KIPP classrooms tend to use a lot of this, with significant success. </p>
<p>Recess may have been canceled, or reduced, but there is no reason you can’t do a minute or two of jumping jacks or just jumping during one of your transitions. Even a handclap chant can give kids a little movement with no real loss of educational time, especially if it is built into your transition.</p>
<p>Sticky-back Velcro placed on the underside of tables or student seats (where kids’ fingers can reach them) gives tactile stimulation and soothing to lots of kids with ADHD who can otherwise drive you nuts tapping pencils, banging water bottles, …</p>
<p>Does your school offer breakfast? Do many of your kids come in for it? A well-fed kid is a lot easier to teach than is one who’s starting the day hungry most days. </p>
<p>I don’t think that there’s any doubt that teacher preparation programs did not, historically at least, do a good job preparing teachers to teach in more challenging environments. That’s reality. But you will probably be happier – and hopefully even more effective in your current school – if you can find another teacher who does seem to be doing well with a similar population at a similar grade level, and then figure out how to take a day to go observe that teacher, and then reflect on how you can gradually incorporate some of those techniques into your classroom. Good principals will often figure out how to pay for a sub for that, but I’ve seen teachers take a personal day if that’s what it took.</p>
<p>Good luck – I hope you find a path that works for you and for the kids in your classroom.</p>
<p>Just as a minor point of interest… (well, major to me!). I… just…quit. After more than 18 years, I quit. Left my contract. I finally reached a point where I could not deal with the micromeddling, with being expected to teach the exact same thing at the exact same time as every other teacher on my grade-level using the exact same materials and lesson plans, and spending more than 20% of my time testing instead of teaching, and being treated as a cog in the whole wheel. Tired of endless demands, and no freedoms. I feel so relieved… I guess I’ll be job hunting soon. ;)</p>
<p>and I just went back and read the article posted earlier in this thread, “i just don’t want to be a teacher anymore!”. Great article. Absent the huge class size (I only had 22), just most everything she wrote applies to my school… We have 7 instructional coaches roaming the classrooms checking to see that our uniformed students, who march in straight lines without talking on their way to the cafeteria - never to recess- are all being taught what’s in the lesson plans for that minute of the day. Go* forbid, I grab an excellent library book and read them a story spontaneously, then spontaneously plan a relevant activity that furthers their learning and engages their interest…<br>
Am I bitter? Not really. But the education system needs to swing back towards “child-centered” before we lose the whole next generation of students and teachers.</p>
<p>anxiousmom, look for a PM in a little.</p>
<p>wow, so sad to hear some of these stories. but I do understand how an experienced teacher facing such restrictions might not be able to or want to teach in such an environment.</p>
<p>I have some sympathy for not wanting to be held to a schedule, but I must say that every time I went to a school presentation and heard the instructor talk about how they wouldn’t cover everything in the book and how they would use a “range” of materials, I always felt that it was simply a way to make sure that no one could possible measure them. </p>
<p>Teachers seem to have a a surprising resentment of being measured instead of doing the measuring. Its a little like a football coach who dislikes having the games and keeping score. [And I post this having two young family members who are teachers.] If the measurement is reasonable and the teacher is competent, there shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps both of those are the problem.</p>
<p>dadx-what is a reasonable measurement for this student? Should it be the same as a student that gets to bed at 8pm, is well fed and whose parents have her best interest at heart?</p>
<p>When a student came to school exhausted, in urine-soaked clothing pulled from a mixed pile of clean and dirty laundry, distracted out of her mind from the parents’ arguments and TV noise that kept her up most of the night… I didn’t have her do any work. I took out my coat, laid it on the floor under her desk, and told her to take a nap.</p>
<p>I have a “surprising” resentment about being told to teach like I’m not a professional. As a professional, I teach using my knowledge and skills - I adjust my teaching style and method depending on the needs of my students. If the students need more help, I might want to stretch a lesson out, or review, or drop the lesson all together and come back at a another time. I need to be able to seize the moment if a lesson is going well and go into more depth, or depart from plans to address issues in the classroom or build social and emotional health.<br>
Dadx, I don’t think you really understand the situations some of us work/worked in</p>
<p>Anxiousmom – it sounds like you made a good decision given your feelings. I hope you enjoy retirement or the new career you’re hoping to find.</p>
<p>However, I am struck by the notion that teachers as professionals should be left alone to teach what they want, when they want, and how they want, combined with frequent assertions that the work they do simply can’t be evaluated or measured. Or perhaps, shouldn’t be. That you get the kids you get, and given what they come to you with, who can expect more?</p>
<p>Anesthesiologists used to follow that line of reasoning too, and it lead to enormous patient mortality and morbidity, and extremely high malpractice rates. They decided to reform anesthesiology – to move away from the notion that anesthesiologists are professionals and thus should have the freedom to practice as they think best. Now there are standards of care, checklists, and hospital accreditation requirements that have together tremendously decreased the deaths and injuries associated with anesthesia. I don’t think that these doctors believe that they are less professional today even though they must abide by these procedures and processes – just that a lot more of their patients live, and that their rate of malpractice claims has fallen substantially.</p>
<p>It might not be as obviously life and death with teachers, but we truly are in the midst of an epidemic – fully half our low income urban high school students either fail to graduate or don’t graduate on time. Most of these students began high school working below 9th grade level – often far below – and even many who graduate are not literate or numerate enough to avoid remedial classes in college. If that isn’t reason enough to examine and attempt to improve the effectiveness of classroom instruction, I’m not sure what would be. Letting teachers choose to “do their own thing” isn’t working for those kids, or isn’t working often enough. </p>
<p>You seem to have resented the “seven instructional coaches” who roamed your school, but even faculty at our schools of education who do not support current assessments of students and teachers have strongly endorsed instructional coaches as an effective strategy to help teachers become more effective in the classroom.</p>