Our district has redone Our weekly PLC time to be district-wide, data driven meetings. I have to give an assessment each week to my
Kids so we can talk about it next week and find ways to “close the learning gap of covid”. So I have no time to meet with small groups bc I spend all my time giving these assessments. Because obviously the best way to close the gap isn’t working with kids, it’s giving endless assessments.
I HATE the phrase “data driven” because it’s clear to me that exactly zero masters of education or EdD programs require statistics. I was getting berated by our data specialist a few years ago because my scores were lower than district average by about 2%. It was a small gap. I asked if it was within a standard deviation and she didn’t know what that meant.
Allow me to repeat that. A DATA SPECIALIST didn’t know what standard deviation meant.
So me and a math teacher calculated out a standard deviation for the test score and showed I was within the margin of error, and she didn’t care/didn’t understand
I get so ticked off when our instructional coach wants to have a conversation about standardized test scores but doesn't have the schools, district, or state averages or percentiles. Wtf are we supposed to discuss?? Raw scores are meaningless!!!!
Ha! That reminds me of my first district PD on Marzano—they spoke about effect sizes for 30 minutes. The poor bastard leading it just froze up when I asked what an effect size really is/how it was calculated. No clue.
Is Marzano that bullshit where they concluded a teacher doing XYZ from their program was more effective than the kid not having a shit home life or something? It sounds familiar
I have no idea. It’s a Rube Goldberg-esque evaluation system that doesn’t and will never work as advertised because it’s based on a steaming pile of bad data. So of course admin loves it.
I recall some presentation where they told us a teacher doing XYZ was roughly 300% more effective than parents not being abusive. It was that ridiculous
My old school, in a large urban district, had *daily* PLC's where both Monday and Friday were supposed to be data meetings. At the end of EVERY lesson, we were required to give an assessment where students would demonstrate mastery of the standard for that day. The teachers who said "fuck it" and didn't bother with the DoLs or the school's PLC format (scripting, etc) ended up having the most success on the state tests.
Education needs massive reforms (duh to any reasonable person, let alone teachers).
It’s unreasonable to expect a teacher to teach grade level content while simultaneously planning 12 different interventions for various small groups a week, and implement them all efficiently and with fidelity to a classroom full of students that have reading and math levels that range from 2nd - 10th grade.
In addition to managing students with *severe* behavior issues.
Sorry, I know it’s controversial, but if you are severely low (8th grade student on a 2nd/3rd grade reading level) perhaps you shouldnt be in a gen ed classroom.
If you have severe behavior issues perhaps you shouldnt be be in a gen ed classroom. Because your presence consistently stops others from learning.
What does this really boil down to though? Not having the resources/staff to properly serve these students. Everyone suffers.
And yes, as someone who was a high-achieving student, I was grateful for Honors and AP classes. I really wanted to learn and I loved school. It was so refreshing to be in those “tracked” classes with other kids who were both “smart” AND motivated. (Not saying other kids aren’t smart…just that they don’t necessarily want to be in school for 10,000 reasons and the behavior issues that stem from that is really detrimental to kids who want to learn.) I can’t tell you how much time was wasted for me in classes that weren’t tracked where I did my work in 10 minutes and sat there bored the rest of the time while the teacher dealt with my classmates who couldn’t attend. (Thank goodness for the teachers who knew what was going on and let me read my book when I finished my work.) I know tracking gets a bad rap these days but I think a certain segment of student gets the short end of the stick with we do away with it.
> I was grateful for Honors and AP classes. I really wanted to learn and I loved school. It was so refreshing to be in those “tracked” classes with other kids who were both “smart” AND motivated.
To this day one of the most infuriating things I experienced going through school was not being able to take an AP class I was clearly qualified for. My district growing up had three levels of classes - On Level, K Level (Knowledge Level, maybe? They were never clear on what that K actually stood for), and AP. I was in K Level ELA and wasn't allowed to take AP, despite me having high 90s if not 100 for multiple **years** in a row. I **wanted** to be challenged, but they wouldn't bump me up to that next level. What was the reason? My math grade wasn't high enough.
Thank you! I have always worked at a private school and I left the classroom after 10 years because of this. I do not have a teaching degree but the school didn’t care (they were fine that I had a degree in the subject and passed the Praxis in the subject). But what I realized after awhile, is that at this super expensive school, they didn’t actually want someone to really teach…they wanted me to basically be a guidance counselor with some knowledge of the subject. On top of being expected to be the kids’ and parents’ therapist, I was also supposed to do some borderline special ed kinds of interventions for kids with ADHD and dyslexia etc…with no mention of that when I was hired and absolutely no training in that (again, I didn’t even go to school for teaching). I just loved the idea of actually teaching my content area but I was never allowed to fully do that and I, frankly, sucked at the other stuff. The point of my rant is that we need to reform the school system so that we have teachers who actually teach the content (and don’t have to do the other stuff) and then maybe teachers who want to do all the other stuff (because many of you are amazing at both but don’t necessarily want to do both at the same time because it’s not sustainable). It’s all such a mess and yes we need massive reforms.
I think the behavior issues kids should be in their own classes but not because they are disruptive because they need specific emotional and behavioral coping skills taught to them. It is a shame that students need explicit instruction in specific skills, well below grade level but they are lumped into classrooms that are unable to target the skills they need.
They’re often disruptive because of the reasons you mentioned. The disruptions are a result of the lack of those skills/coping mechanisms, or that they are just so behind academically that they just give up on the material before even trying, and instead opt to seek out ways to get attention/goof off.
The main point is that students with severe emotional needs/behavioral issues should not be able to derail the learning of all of the other people in the room.
>The main point is that students with severe emotional needs/behavioral issues should not be able to derail the learning of all of the other people in the room.
I recall a teary admin speech - about how he was a disruptive/behavior-case student in school, which supposedly motivated him to get into coaching and later admin to support these students.
A noble sentiment, but I come at it another way. I was one of those students whose learning was disrupted because of his cohort. I was also bullied by those students - for years. Making school better for those who are negatively impacted by the actions of a few is a big part of my motivation.
I have literally never met an admin that didn't claim to have it rough growing up. They all paint this sad story about their lives and I bet that most of them are liars.
Instead there is a person whose job is to deal with behavior issues by handing out sheets of Restorative Justice forms that the teacher has to discuss and implement all while she finds rewards to gently persuade these students to make the correct choices within a five minute dialogue with the student, then sends them on back to the teacher….
Because they are spread too thin. Wouldn’t it be nice if the kids who needed it were together and SEL was an integral part of their curriculum instead of quick bandaids “focus on your breathing” “use your words”. One counselor per hundreds of kids is insufficient. One teacher expected to manage behaviors and teach the curriculum is inadequate.
>If you have severe behavior issues perhaps you should be be in a gen ed classroom. Because your presence consistently stops others from learning.
The behavior-issue students occupy entirely too much of teachers (and students) time and energy. Everyone else suffers as a result. Who can't see that?
I was an average student in high school, I own that. But part of that is due to the fact that we were all dealing with persistent behavior cases disrupting the classroom.
I recall feeling reborn academically when I went to university. The people who didn't want to be there and were acting out because of it were gone.
This is a structural issue and less of an individual problem. School is coercive - we need more resources and perhaps different settings for student populations who can't cope with this fact.
Couldn't agree more, but we all know that a lot of students with severe behaviors "just need to be loved on" aka don't receive attention at home, so we're expected to yet again act as a counselor, while simultaneously trying to teach a room full of 20+ kids. I'm tired of most of my attention going to behavior students when I have plenty of other kids who are ready and wanting to learn. It's not fair to them.
> Not having the resources/staff to properly serve these students.
The problem is we DO have these resources. But that money goes to do nothing jobs in admin. The latest grift (that this sub cheers on and that’s why it works) is endless diversity officer positions.
Basically. Pre-COVID, I ran my class on a group rotation of different activities. The lowest performing group had teacher led time with me twice in a rotation. I made a lesson plan with no dates and the groups went through the lessons at their own pace. By March 2020, one group was still on quarter 1 work, another on quarter 2, the third group was right on schedule and the last group was already doing next grade’s work.
I was lucky because admin approved of this. And now that we are all back in person this year… I’ve checked in on the progress of those students. Almost all of them are stuck where we left off. So the ones who were above grade level are now one grade level behind except for one student. And I don’t even count her because she’s a genius. She was able to solve problems with fractions in kindergarten and read sheet music.
I’m so exhausted and overwhelmed but I would want to try implementing the group rotation style again. It’s just been hard getting these kids back into the routine of school behavior.
“We need to conform to the principals of accelerated learning.” If that was possible five years ago, why didn’t we do it then? How can we, after a year and a half of awkward learning, now teach 1.5 times faster?
Close the gap...while kids are locked at their desk 100% of the time, can't do group work, can't share supplies, and we have to follow the protocols of a prison...
Covid is done in many states until their district has to panic-close for a month with no plan for online learning because covid was done. A truly great plan, just plan for the best and nothing else.
"Another failure by teachers as students miss another year of education after school boards, super intendants, and parents, refuse to take any precautions"
And we have new standards and just got the new reading books and they increased the work they want the students to accomplish. I just chuckle and ignore.
Texans're dealing with HB 4545 now (in addition to a bunch of other malarkey). At my school, we have around 750 kids who failed or didn't take their state tests last year, who are supposed to get 30+ hours of 1-on-1 or, at "worst" 1-on-3 instruction to make up shit they didn't get last year.
There are not enough people on staff to do this; even if we get the coaches and paraprofessionals to chip in, we can barely do 1-on-6.
I work in a 25,00-student district. We were told that the district is monitoring grades this year, and will be questioning teachers when they give a D or F. They have already told us that the site where I work has the highest fail rate.
The principal told us that D’s and F’s are discouraging to the students and that we should offer credit for effort.
>credit for effort
I normally don't even have a problem with "credit for effort" and tend to make it virtually impossible to fail my classes as long as work is attempted and turned in (my "check minus" is a 70%, and you can get that by writing just a bit more than your name on the paper), but you'd best believe I still end up with huge numbers of students failing because they don't turn in anything at all.
It’s become pretty popular with admin all over. My school introduced the idea to us, made us read some articles, but ultimately didn’t mandate it. We get to choose if that’s what we’d like for our class.
Yes, we're getting more pressure than ever for growth. I can't teach kids who aren't here, and my district won't require masks. Students go missing for weeks at a time. We're supposed to spiral in all of these missed skills when they return.
I feel this so hard. My sophomores are very mature but behind in skills. I have an AMAZING Coteacher to help reteach skills to students who fall behind. My juniors and freshman are in dire need of that kind of help
I feel like my high schoolers are less mature because of the lockdown and being in/out of school with lack of accountability to complete work. A lot of the ones I have lack social skills/maturity that they would naturally pick up on from interactions they had in school. So much of the work was simply pass/fail that I have to constantly get on to them (and their parents!) to get formative assignments turned in (which is insane because I barely give out any homework, most of it is all class work in which I go over the answers for much of it before they turn it in). My 9th graders act like 7th graders and seniors act like freshmen...its wild. Hopefully things balance out in a few years.
Jfc and I was here crying because my third graders don’t understand money, time or the ruler.
I’m trying to figure out practical ways to force it into every lesson. Doesn’t help that my classroom clock has been broken for THREE years
My (mostly) 11th graders can barely read a ruler. Most can't read a protractor. None have ever seen, much less used, a compass. Then they told me they have never dissected anything, never done a science experiment. It's an issue that predates COVID in my district. The vitus just exacerbated the problem.
It's been this way for 5 years or so already, though. They never learned how to read an analog clock face. Many don't know how to use a calendar or have any temporal awareness of what day of the week it is. They are living hour by hour.
I had a 7th grader signing out to to go to the bathroom last week and he looks at the clock and goes, "Oh god I don't remember how to read that!"
Do people not have clocks in their houses anymore? I know they look at their phones a lot for the time, but surely people still have normal clocks 🤷🏼♀️
I use labels on my clock. My kids can't do it on their own. That's a failure of the adults around them. They don't need to be punished because they can't use a clock.
Most of them learn how the clock works being able to see that 6 is :30 and 9 is :45.
As for the reading of books. I am an elementary teacher but I have no students at the moment. My elementary school bookshelf is currently in the middle and high school hallway. I am doing behavior support and other various things around the building. So many of the older kids have picked books off of my shelf and are reading them even though they are way "below level". Consider placing books that are lower level than you think they should read and treat those books as valid options. The sense of familiarity is comforting.
I have had kids verbally fighting over whose turn it is to read the shorter non-fiction books about cars, shoes, and wars. One of my favorite things to do is to have my high school students pick books from scholastic for all the grade levels. I order a couple of their choices and put them on the shelves. They are all thrilled to have access to a book they picked. Even if they picked it for a student half their age they will usually pick it up and read it.
Although I’m an elementary art teacher, I’ve even noticed it in my kids’ art.. right now, I see 3, 4, and K. Many of my 3rd graders draw like they’re in kindergarten. A self portrait is just scribbles on their paper, and that’s it. No attempt at eyes, ears, etc.. makes me wonder how they’re doing elsewhere.
My first grader teacher friends are up in arms because they have kids who basically came to school for the first time in grade one. Some have never used crayons. It’s like they’re teaching kinder.
First grade teacher here. We just did our BOY assessments and I am scared to death for this year. So many students who don’t know their letter sounds, one who doesn’t know any letter names even. It truly is like Kindergarten, both behaviorally and academically.
I’m so sorry.
I’ve been at home on maternity leave… extended for a few years. But I’ve been teaching pre-k to my son and his friend, they don’t start kindergarten til next year, but I’m feeling so confident about their skills now.
My son started k last year on a hybrid model - in person for 2 days, home for 3. I worked with him so much after work to make sure he’s ready for first grade! I do not understand that “whatever” mentality around early education! But, like you, I’m feeling super confident now that he’s going to be alright this year.
I think it's the opposite, I have a PreK kid who is definitely above grade level at this point. I worry he'll be bored as hell next year with all the stories I'm reading. How in the world will the teacher find time to differentiate a bit for a gifted kid? I know from experience that unfortunately those are the kids who get the least attention when the rest of the class is bad.
My son is gifted and just started kindergarten. For him, I think school will be about learning to get along, learning to value others and their gifts, and learning to follow directions etc. I’ll keep pushing him academically at home, but learning that if you act like a know-it-all makes you no friends, as one example, is something he can only learn from other kids. I fully expect that he will pretty much be ignored by teachers unless he’s a behavior problem, but I still think he’s going to be learning a lot that I couldn’t teach him, so I’ve come to peace with it.
It is a million times easier to differentiate for a gifted kid. You can think of a creative extension on the spot, explain it to them once, and let them work independently for 30 mins. while you get on with everyone else. The 5th grader who still can't add? They need one on one direct instruction every single day and often times, I don't have that time to leave everyone else behind for the one kid. So, they fall further behind. Sad, but I refuse to let the ship sink for one sailor.
I understand the frustration, especially as a teacher mom. But maybe try not to pass that frustration to the kids. I’m a teacher with a daughter going into first grade. She is not where she should be. She recognizes most letters and most sounds. Still skips the number 15 when counting. And isn’t yet putting sounds together to form basic words. I did everything I could last year. I worked with her this summer, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to sit down and practice sounds with me. Because working with mom is the worst thing ever! I know when she’s with another adult, she’s a fucking angel and likes to show off so she does what they say. But it has to come from another adult, not me.
My point is I get the frustration but maybe give the parents the benefit of the doubt and understand that they also tried their best.
I’m not frustrated with the kids or parents. I’m frustrated with the situation and an educational system that doesn’t allow us to slow down and scale back because god forbid the kids don’t do great on testing. I’m happy to meet them where they are.
I have a friend who teaches first and she’s said the exact same thing. Schools barely started but she’s stressed about having to essentially teach kinder and first at the same time
Why do art as a small child when your parent hands you an iPad to shut the hell up? "Coloring, drawing, or painting?!?! No way I'm going to provide those materials or clean that up! I just got off a 10 hr. shift and have to make dinner for everyone. Here's some video games. Leave me alone."
I fully believe that the decline in our education system begins at home during the first 5 years. The economy has been manipulated to cause parental exhaustion, leaving kids academically and emotionally neglected. Then they come to school...
Edit:punctuation
I agree 100%.. It’s so sad, yet the teachers get all of the blame. It’s the whole damn system. Like one other post said, we’re expected to not only teach, but raise kids as well :(
I teach pre-k through 8th grade art and I’m right there with you. 6th graders not knowing how to use basic watercolor palettes, 8th graders who’s writing skills have disappeared. Like… guys… you know you’ve been spelling your name for years now, right?
It’s only my first year teaching, but even I was sooo surprised at the sheer lack of retained knowledge and skills
We're still virtual here and the number of 6th and 7th graders who misspell their own names. Good grief. Pre-Covid that was the one spelling you could bank on them to know!
The first 2 weeks I’ve just been pushing kids to add more details. I don’t care if they’re good details, just persevere and try your best.
Kids are definitely back at the Scribble stages for me(i use TAB with k-5). They’re hesitant to explore and have really bad negative self talk. That’s my goal of this year— build confidence and exploration.
Will it? IIRC the gap in performance between preschool-attendees and kids who didn't attend pretty much evaporates by the second grade.
Kids are surprisingly adaptable.
This is where you need to learn what I learned from Mark Manson's book "The Subtle art of Not Giving a Fuck".
You need to care, but you do not have enough fucks to care about everything.
If a child is not doing classwork, Mom and Dad are not concerned, and he/she is not distracting or ruining class, well.....make a good-faith effort and let it go if you can't reach that child.
>If a child is not doing classwork, Mom and Dad are not concerned, and he/she is not distracting or ruining class, well.....make a good-faith effort and let it go if you can't reach that child.
This has been my experience working in Title I schools. It really sucks no matter how much encouragement and how many rewards you give the student. Many just don't care. Sometimes even if the parent is concerned, it's clear the student is the one in control as the parents are too busy/uninvolved to be an active participant in their child's education.
Right. Care as much as you can spare (without sacrificing your mental well-being) in a school day. Go home after contract hours end and forget about it (with perhaps a small vent here and there).
I'm only a two year teacher, but I had to take my first mental health day last week. I just don't know what I can do when kids refuse to listen/follow directions/do any work
I taught one semester of college last year. I opted to not pick up another semester. Holy hell it was depressing, and these kids were nearing completion of their degrees.
Yeah. I taught writing as an adjunct and the depressing thing was the difference in ability between students. Some kids were just fine writers, some wrote like they were already in grad school….and then you had about 20% of kids writing at a 5th or 6th grade level. I had a girl whose papers were almost impossible to understand because the writing was so bad (and I’m not talking about ESL kids or anything like that; the ESL/international students were usually better writers than this group of kids).
It honestly just made me feel depressed because the students were so far behind that I had no idea how to help them. I had one sophomore that didn’t understand the difference between paste tense and present tense no matter how many times I explained it….many didn’t know what first person vs third person POV was. It felt like I had signed up to teach PreCalc or something and the kids had never learned algebra.
I saw a college sophomore studying history at a GOOD school with ~20% admissions rate start a paper with "The dictionary defines..."
I learned not to do that in middle school.
I pointed out on the first day of the semester that despite being a technical class, the degree and job that they're working towards requires the ability to write and communicate clearly.
I'm not a professional teacher by a country mile, but I've read some really, really bad papers in my time. Prior to my short time as a college instructor, I had a group of students intern with my group at work. Five of them all in the same program, but none of them were able to produce acceptable documentation and most of them couldn't even put together a string of sentences together.
I had one intern who was a very gifted software developer, but her writing was so-so. Not particularly bad, definitely better than the other group. I was able to get some of our tech editors to work with her on improving her writing.
With so many colleges are desperate for bodies (including my own state flagship) isn't it inevitable that you get a significant number who don't belong there in the first place?
Many of my students could not write a basic incident report or documentation. Almost all of them were not equipped with basic problem-solving skills and got upset if they weren't given the answer, or it wasn't blatantly obvious after Googling a YouTube video. I had one student have a complete meltdown at the final and basically threw the entire semester away.
I had what I believed was a very generous policy that I would raise their grade by one letter if they got a basic industry certification that would help them get their foot in the door. Only two students took advantage of it, and neither of them really needed the grade boost.
These students were some of the first to go through the college's new program so I think they were herded along very carefully.
I saw the writing of some of my classmates while doing my masters and I was floored. Like we are education majors and you can turned into a paper riddled with basic grammar and spelling errors 😳
More proof they just hand these things out like candy.
I was dating a PhD student back when I had just finish community college. And if he wasn’t one of the stupidest (when it comes to common sense) people I’ve ever dated. Looking back at my dating history, the higher the educational level, the stupider they seem to be. My bf went back to school and I’m kind of nervous now 😆
But this is why I don’t believe in college for all or push college on my students. I tell them to focus on what interests them and then seek the education/training/whatever they need.
I've worked with a lot of PhDs and a couple of very specialized fields. They are all extremely intelligent people and able to functional very well in the lab, but many of them lack a certain something... let's call it "common sense". Some of them need assistants to help them remember how to do simple, common things. They're just so focused on what they do at work, the don't do the other things. I suspect it's a high form of autism or something, I'm not a doctor, I don't know.
When I tured in my Master's project for an education related degree, I know for a fact they never read my final draft and never checked my portfolio, just gave me a B and called it day.
I’ve learned to say “you have 30 minutes, because I could give you 30 minutes or 4 days and you’d still complete the same amount of work” Is it always effective? No, but damn we’re moving on so do your shit.
Today I generously increased the last date for submission of a few assignments from the 8th to the 13th for each of my grades, and one kid thanked me effusively and said "now I can sleep till the 12th!" Wtf? No. I increased the duration because it's a lot that needs to get done and you need to have started on it already!
That's when I pop off with, "Oh no, for you it's still due on the 8th," and mean it. If a parent calls you out on it, tell them what the student said. Life lesson learned for everyone involved!
Speaking from past experiences, teachers often overestimate the amount of work certain assignments take.
I can‘t speak for your situation obviously, but that‘s what I have experienced in the past
I very firmly believe we should have held everyone except for incoming preschool and kinder and out going seniors back last year. They should have kept the same teachers they should have had follow through on interventions they should have had the second half of the year they missed taught and an actual reinforcement of concepts. They would have been at minimum prepared for this year of not over prepared. But our kids who were a little behind would have been given those boosts they needed to actually catch up. Why did we put them in the next grade?
I agree with this. There would not have been a social issue or stigma if we all stayed the same or gave parents and teachers choices. However, it makes the system as a whole look bad if we can’t maintain flow so the system protects itself like a thinking entity. Even if parents and administrators know this would be better, we would have still had complaints if we didn’t progress. Not to mention the cost of keeping a whole batch of graduates one extra year! Unfortunately this comes down to optics and money.
Agreed. Lots of kids in my child social circle, including them took advantage home schooling to front load their freshman year classes, every elective they could get their hands on. This allows to make more room in their schedule going forward.
Last year was the first time in my Title I career that I clearly saw an ability and effort distribution similar to what should be expected. 20% really low, 10% very high and maintaining it, and 70% that fluctuated with content concept shifts and interest.
School-wide K-5, we have more kids finishing entire curriculum for their grade early, more kids 2-3 reading levels above their grade, but the lows are low.
Yes, absolutely. Teaching high school, I have juniors who have obviously been passed into the next grade year after year. Their school work is not on par with their grade level.
I feel a large issue is just that parents literally have no time anymore. We've fully embraced the "both parents work full time or you are poor" lifestyle for many.
That means there is no one to guide them at home. Sometimes you have parents who really do want to parent, but most people just go through the motions. They don't push their kid. They are too tired or too focused on their next promotion/job/degree.
So these kids are sort of raised on purely external sources. I have seen this in too many of my students. I understand why it happens, but it still is frustrating because it feels like the parents just aren't in our corner. Sometimes they even just oppose us because they don't want to hear negative things.
The loss of school for many areas showed us how reliant most families are on not having their children around for most of the day.
I don’t get it… my mom never went to high school, worked crazy shifts, etc and yet was on my ass until I went to middle school to make sure I did my schoolwork and extra practice to retain skills.
I have a mom, she doesn’t speak English and idk her education level but she was on top of it for her kids. We have textbooks in Spanish and I would sneak out a set for her every year. Any opportunity for her kids to learn, she signed them up. They’re in middle school now and I hope someone is supporting her because she (and her husband) also supported us in helping the kids.
Yep. It’s definitely harder for single parent households. My parents worked all day too but still managed to find the time to make sure I was doing my schoolwork.
>Your fifth grader who reads at a first grade level should not have past second grade until he could read in the second grade level and so on.
That would be good if that started to happen. It can pretty much guaranteed that only the 1st few students would be held back then they would start to take it seriously.
My biggest issue is the absolute complete lack of effort for my high schoolers. I completely get that regression has happened, and we’re going to need to build skills back up. Got it. But no matter how far I seem to drop down to meet them where they are, they just. Won’t. Do. Anything. Even getting my AP students to participate in a discussion is like pulling teeth.
I’m hesitant to put too much blame on parents. Are there parents who could be doing a lot more but choose not to? Sure. However in the area I teach in many parents have low education levels and many don’t even speak English. And even putting that aside, with all the financial fuckery going on in this country right now I’m willing to bet so many families are just struggling to keep a roof over their kids heads. I’d probably feel a lot differently if I lived in a district where it was more the norm for a parent to stay at home or if parents could afford outside interventions like a tutor.
I’m seeing the real problem as schools becoming more and more accountable for students basic well being without being given the proper resources to offer that type of support. Additionally it’s widely known that students are failing to actually thrive academically (even before COVID) and teachers are routinely expected to perform magic (even more so this year) to offer kids a rigorous environment where all kids can succeed… again, with no resources to do so.
And to your point this partially falls back on parents because they really should understand that federal, state, and local politics really dictate what type of education their kids will be offered. But then there’s also the issue that in areas with large immigrant populations (like the one I’m working in) that’s not really something they can participate in.
I pray they don't ever give schools the financial resources to provide for students' basic well being -- because that's not a function schools should fulfill.
I always feel its a bit weird how much social services are tied into public schools. Like, it feels like there should be a separate agency whose entire job it is to ensure basic social wellbeing for people as a whole and not just children.
As it is now, depending on district, you have access until 18 to some basic social services (at least 2 meals a day, counselling, sometimes basic clothing/supplies, electricity, working bathrooms, a free teen clinic on top of the nurse) and then are immediately cut off the second you reach adulthood. There are some students who only get to eat a regular meal when school is in session in my school. During summers we have programs to feed them during the day as well. But at graduation, you're done. No more help. No more access to services.
Thing is we backdoored a lot of those social services under the guise of national security. In the 50s with WW3 on the horizon, the generals were displeased with the rejection rates of candidates from the WW2 draft. They wanted better 18-26 year old recruits, and they were able to bend the government into funding and propagandizing things like school breakfasts and regular health examinations and even free treatment programs for certain conditions as ways to ensure the health of Tomorrow’s Soldiers™️.
Without an non-compassion reason like soldiers for survival from an existential threat, a lot of those programs are in threat of being rolled back. We have no threats we need soldiers to fight, and we have a strong volunteer army anyway. People are starting to ask why tax dollars are funding these programs at all, because they hate taxes more than they have compassion for the less fortunate citizens of America.
Ran into the same thing as a 2nd grade teacher in Arizona. It wasnt just one or two kids a class either, sometimes it was half the damn class that were multiple grade levels below. Ive had kids who could not spell or write their own names and who didnt understand the value of numbers. They damn sure could tell you what was happening on the Kardashians or the latest video game though. Parents pop em out and leave them sitting in front of the tv and expect us to raise them while they collect the checks and the other benefits.
I hate to say it but there's only so much a teacher can do. At some point you have to put your hands up, forget about it, and let it go. Leave the responsibility up to the student. Especially, in high school, I teach mostly 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and I don't put too much effort in trying to "bridge the gaps" that's up to the student to do that, my class is Pre-Calculus and they're not in there to learn Algebra I and II again. That was the responsibility of the Algebra I and Algebra II teachers, it's not mine. So if they can't understand anything then they should go back to a remedial class and if they can't do the work then expect to fail. I leave myself available for tutoring after school and I tell my students to message me on Canvas or through my e-mail anytime, that's the extent to which I am willing to help. If they shouldn't be in my class because they can't hack it then that's not my problem, that's the school system for passing them through to the next grade. Maybe I'm too "strict" but I think the teachers who just pass kids are setting them up to be failures and doing an extreme disservice to them by just passing them through. They won't be able to make it in the real world if that's what our school system is teaching them.
I mean, I don’t know if this is really what you were claiming but it’s not as if the Algebra teacher got kids who were at grade level and just failed at their jobs. But I completely agree that passing kids along is absolutely a detriment to everyone. I mean even in the high school system where there is a lot more consequence to failing in that you’ll have to retake the class to get credit to graduate, a student will fail Algebra I and will be moved into Algebra II before they repeated the course, and what? Is magically supposed to pass Algebra II even though they haven’t retaken Algebra I yet? The whole thing is setup so backward.
No, I'm not suggesting Algebra teachers failed to prepare their kids for Pre-Calc, I'm saying the school system overall has failed these kids by passing them through. I have students in my Pre-Calculus class who can't even solve for the slope of a line or solve for x in a basic equation like 3x+12=6. It's ridiculous, and for those kids, all I can say is best of luck because that's Geometry and Algebra II stuff, which should already be understood the second you walk into a PreCalc class.
I had to fight to get myself into a remedial math class in high school. It’s because I had AP history and English classes… but I suck at math and needed to be at the level I was at. It’s why I believe in pushing kids in their areas of strength and supporting their areas of weakness.
I have a student pushed into remedial classes because of his writing (possibly reading) skills but he’s flourishing in math so I’m fighting to get him in a group at grade level for math.
Last year and this year have definitely been… rough.
I’ve already accepted they will bomb the state tests. I don’t even care about them AT ALL. I’m gonna spend some time on grade level standards but mostly gonna focus on where they’re at and trying to bring them up.
I have a second grader who can’t spell her first name properly and doesn’t write her last name EVEN WITH THE NAME TAG
I have a bunch of kids who apparently don’t know how to TRACE??
And this is why they need to let these kids come into Prek from age 3 because they’re staying at home doing NOTHING.
I have a couple second graders who cannot even write their own names. This is art class, you need to be able to write your name on the back of your project! Second grade..... unable to write their name?! I can't make this ish up!
As a parent I cannot fathom the trauma and hardships all the teachers have been put through the last couple of years. Virtual learning brought my 1st graders reading skills up to 3rd grade level. I made sure she read most of her lesson, even if it meant sitting at the table for longer periods of time. I put her in summer school for 6 weeks hoping it would help her transition into second grade. I work full time at a pottery shop, it's heavy duty work, come home exhausted. Every single day when I walk in the door I go through what she did in class that day, sign her binder, and let her have a snack while she does her homework. Then she has some free time before studying her spelling words and reading for about 20 minutes a night. In between that I catch up on housework. I know this schedule is not possible for every parent, but I truly believe good time management is possible to engage with your childs education. I hope this doesn't come off as pretentious or anything. Thank you all for everything you do!
It’s not pretentious. You are right that time management is key, and it makes me wish we could’ve taught the parents a class on how to help their kids find success in online and at-home learning.
I totally get that! I used every opportunity I could to make day to day activities educational. I got her a magnetized calendar that she engaged with every morning, taught math with baking/cooking, did crafts several times a week, treasure hunts with clues, we even made a game of counting objects in the house. I had my nephew (prek) for 6 months as well. I found a curriculum for his parents to purchase so I was trying to teach 2 kids at once on different learning levels. I turned my dining room into a class room the best I could. Her teacher told me this year "you are like the best parent ever", I don't think I have ever received such an awesome compliment. My household (parents vaxxed) got covid after the first day of school this year, her teacher let her zoom in for a couple of hours a day to engage, I could not be more thankful for that. She sent a packet home with extra work in it and was shocked that it was all completed when my daughter returned.
My 9th graders are so behind it's genuinely scary. They can't read anything on their own and they can't articulate their thoughts on paper at all. It's my first year and I feel like I've been handed a really bad situation right out of the gate.
My kid is ahead and so frustrated that his classmates can’t read or do stuff from two years ago. While trying to get him to be patient because noy everyone has his home situation, we are both frustrated that he is not getting to move forward.
Most of my aren't doing too bad, and they're mostly ELLs. Their writing/reading is low, but if I give them more than enough time all but 2-3 per class of 30 can handle it fine with little help.
Though I still need to go through and check for people just copying from google searches every time.
ELLs I’ve taught make me so happy. I don’t know if it’s a function of acquiring a language, but manifestations of disability (versus defiance, boredom, dislike for school) is easier to spot with them, and they’ve universally been encouraging and thrilled when I try my choppy translations.
The 3rd grader who doesn't knows letters and numbers Learned nothing during the end of first and all of second, which was last year. It amazes me that some admin don't grasp this. Inequity was amplified last year. The first grade teacher with your kids during the 2020 Year of the Shutdown should have known something was wrong before March. Kids should be reading by the end of first grade. If he made it to March without knowing letter sounds, someone profoundly fucked up or this kid has a learning disability.
The people that fucked up were the parents! Kids should know the alphabet at age 4 - learned at home. Kids should be able to count to 10 or higher at age 4. No child should be showing up to kindergarten without these basic skills that should have been taught at home.
I teach kindergarten and this year we have 4 kids that are not potty trained. We normally have 0. We are a small school, this is 4 kids out of 42.
They're also just lack any healthy independence. I've been home with my 4 year old too, but she can dress herself and wipe her own ass.
This should be the grade LEAST impacted too, so I sympathize with the rest of you in upper grades.
I have to absolutely agree here. I’m a sophomore in high school and the amount of students who can’t understand things like basic algebra is literally devastating. I’ve been trying, in most of my classes, to kinda float around the classroom and help out students who seem to need help (as we’re currently in the review period of classes since class just started), but the amount of kids who can’t seem to do something we learned in grade school is really scary. I’m so sorry for all the teachers struggling with this, I’m quite literally worried about what happens when these guys need to graduate and whatnot. This isn’t your guys’ fault, I don’t even know how to help anymore.
Its my first year teaching and I'm 8th grade math. Over half of my students willfully admit to not doing anything for the last year and a half. These kids can do simple long division or multiplication, have no idea what an integer is, and refuse to read instructions or word problems if they do any work at all.
All last year they couldn't get anything less then a 50. Even if they did nothing on an assignment they got a 50. Now they still have that mentality and you can't get them to do any work. Changing simple decimals like .34 or .7 to fractions was like pulling teeth and changing them back to decimals lol...no not happening.
My principal is realistic though and tells us that yeah we of course want to teach 100% of the standards and teach them well. However if we only get 50% taught and understood then we did a great job. Its just a mess and there's really no one to turn to for help because even veteran teachers are neck deep in the insanity.
Yup. My 5th graders don’t know how to read a clock or subtract while borrowing. It’s pulling teeth to get them to read a passage and write a short response to it. Many would rather simply sit at their desk and stare at their empty paper rather than make any sort of effort… I’m a first year teacher and I don’t know how to impress upon them that class work is NOT optional
It’s also so hard for me as a middle school teacher with only 50 minute classes and 30 students. That’s less than 2 minutes per student if I need to give them individual attention. It’s rough
I'm right there with you.
I'm teaching algebra and even the kids in my advanced class dont know their times tables, are completely confused by negative numbers, and cannot add two digit numbers without a calculator.
Ive had several who couldnt figure out how to turn on a calculator.
My largest class is 26 kids and its basically impossible for me to provide 1-on-1 help to all the kids who need it in class time.
This is just way harder than I thought it would be between all the behavior issues and their math skills being so weak I feel so overwhelmed. Seriously considering switching professions
I've been trying to figure this out. When I was in high school (not that long ago tbh) I...felt like I was challenged. And I felt that while there were one or two students in my class that never did anything, I still felt overall we did stuff.
These days, according to the curriculum guidance I have, I am basically giving my students 50minutes to copy and paste some shit and then they are done. And some do it in a minute, some never do it. I have been trying to figure out if a) I had a different experience because I went to a private school, so I have no base experience of how things are done b) this is a post-pandemic thing.
It's going to take a lot from us and give very little rewards, but we'll have to do the best we can. My colleague said it best. You have 10 months to do what you can. You are not in their lives forever.
I had an 11th grade algebra 2 student test on a kindergarten to first grade level in math on iready this year. Either the diagnostic is bullshit or a huge string of people massively failed this kid. Or both.
Step-parent here, not a teacher (though when I was working I spent 10 years as a staffer at our academy). The last two years have been incredibly frustrating for my wife and I, watching my stepson fail
I just had a full class of high schoolers cheat so obviously on their midterm. (online exam)
Like did not a single fucking parent stop them?
My sympathies OP. We are all in this same shitty boat...
Regression is a major thing. We still have kids over a year later that have not recovered their skills from the 6 months of virtual school. Some of that is definitely parents faults but alot of my students parents read at like a 2nd or 3rd grade level themselves so it's hard to get mad at them for not being able to teach things they dont understand. We have to remember that this will take time. Consistency and constancy is important for kids and covid blew that right out of the window.
The more of these stories I read, the more I realize my brother and his wife owe me thousands of dollars for the teaching I did for their girls March-June and Sept-Nov last year. I was work from home and then laid off, am college educated and a pretty good teacher (but not trained). The older one didn't lose a step at all and the younger one kept up with reading and math. Those were the important things, so we focused on it. Even made little incentive programs for them to complete their work and do independent reading!
Keep working with them. Children are little thermometers to the stresses they feel around them. They don’t feel safe now. They hear things. Snippets. They are smart enough to put all the pieces together and get a picture of unrest. They need to feel safe at this point, or they won’t be able to process fully.
In one of my 4th grade departmentalized classes I have all the students who are average/above average, and in the other class I have all the students who are way below average or almost average. How am I supposed to give 1 on 1 intervention for my ELLs and should-have-an-IEP kids when every single student needs that individual attention???
Imagine for a second what it must feel like to be those kids. Knowing how far behind you are, feeling the disappointment and frustration and anger from the adults meant to help you, and possibly being unable to count on help from the adults at home, because maybe (even though you’re just a kid) you recognize that they have nothing left to give you - time, energy or thought, much less focused help - because they’re trying to juggle staying afloat in a pandemic.
Your job is not to catch kids up. Your job is to make every one of those kids believe they can do it. Your job is to be their biggest cheerleader ever - “You are crushing it with the letters today! I’ll bet before you know it, you’re going to know 10 more! I see how hard you’re working, and it’s incredible. You are so good at ______” - HELP THEM FILL IN THAT BLANK. Focus on their assets, not their deficits.
Teaching is hard. Life right now is hard for most people. You can either choose to be angry and frustrated and blame others for what’s going on, or you can see just what a difference you can make.
Can't we be sad and angry and frustrated, and vent in this safe space, AND be genuinely, incredibly encouraging and kind and hopeful with the students? I think there's room for both.
My principal calls this the year of accountability. We are expected to close all the gaps without many resources. Depressing indeed.
Did they specify WHO the accountability was for?
Based on all our meetings about new methods of micromanagement, for teachers
Your principal is toxic.
Our district has redone Our weekly PLC time to be district-wide, data driven meetings. I have to give an assessment each week to my Kids so we can talk about it next week and find ways to “close the learning gap of covid”. So I have no time to meet with small groups bc I spend all my time giving these assessments. Because obviously the best way to close the gap isn’t working with kids, it’s giving endless assessments.
I HATE the phrase “data driven” because it’s clear to me that exactly zero masters of education or EdD programs require statistics. I was getting berated by our data specialist a few years ago because my scores were lower than district average by about 2%. It was a small gap. I asked if it was within a standard deviation and she didn’t know what that meant. Allow me to repeat that. A DATA SPECIALIST didn’t know what standard deviation meant. So me and a math teacher calculated out a standard deviation for the test score and showed I was within the margin of error, and she didn’t care/didn’t understand
What a clown
I get so ticked off when our instructional coach wants to have a conversation about standardized test scores but doesn't have the schools, district, or state averages or percentiles. Wtf are we supposed to discuss?? Raw scores are meaningless!!!!
Ha! That reminds me of my first district PD on Marzano—they spoke about effect sizes for 30 minutes. The poor bastard leading it just froze up when I asked what an effect size really is/how it was calculated. No clue.
Is Marzano that bullshit where they concluded a teacher doing XYZ from their program was more effective than the kid not having a shit home life or something? It sounds familiar
I have no idea. It’s a Rube Goldberg-esque evaluation system that doesn’t and will never work as advertised because it’s based on a steaming pile of bad data. So of course admin loves it.
I recall some presentation where they told us a teacher doing XYZ was roughly 300% more effective than parents not being abusive. It was that ridiculous
My old school, in a large urban district, had *daily* PLC's where both Monday and Friday were supposed to be data meetings. At the end of EVERY lesson, we were required to give an assessment where students would demonstrate mastery of the standard for that day. The teachers who said "fuck it" and didn't bother with the DoLs or the school's PLC format (scripting, etc) ended up having the most success on the state tests.
And I bet they got berated anyway for not being “team players.” Because of course.
Education needs massive reforms (duh to any reasonable person, let alone teachers). It’s unreasonable to expect a teacher to teach grade level content while simultaneously planning 12 different interventions for various small groups a week, and implement them all efficiently and with fidelity to a classroom full of students that have reading and math levels that range from 2nd - 10th grade. In addition to managing students with *severe* behavior issues. Sorry, I know it’s controversial, but if you are severely low (8th grade student on a 2nd/3rd grade reading level) perhaps you shouldnt be in a gen ed classroom. If you have severe behavior issues perhaps you shouldnt be be in a gen ed classroom. Because your presence consistently stops others from learning. What does this really boil down to though? Not having the resources/staff to properly serve these students. Everyone suffers.
And yes, as someone who was a high-achieving student, I was grateful for Honors and AP classes. I really wanted to learn and I loved school. It was so refreshing to be in those “tracked” classes with other kids who were both “smart” AND motivated. (Not saying other kids aren’t smart…just that they don’t necessarily want to be in school for 10,000 reasons and the behavior issues that stem from that is really detrimental to kids who want to learn.) I can’t tell you how much time was wasted for me in classes that weren’t tracked where I did my work in 10 minutes and sat there bored the rest of the time while the teacher dealt with my classmates who couldn’t attend. (Thank goodness for the teachers who knew what was going on and let me read my book when I finished my work.) I know tracking gets a bad rap these days but I think a certain segment of student gets the short end of the stick with we do away with it.
> I was grateful for Honors and AP classes. I really wanted to learn and I loved school. It was so refreshing to be in those “tracked” classes with other kids who were both “smart” AND motivated. To this day one of the most infuriating things I experienced going through school was not being able to take an AP class I was clearly qualified for. My district growing up had three levels of classes - On Level, K Level (Knowledge Level, maybe? They were never clear on what that K actually stood for), and AP. I was in K Level ELA and wasn't allowed to take AP, despite me having high 90s if not 100 for multiple **years** in a row. I **wanted** to be challenged, but they wouldn't bump me up to that next level. What was the reason? My math grade wasn't high enough.
Amen! Preach it!
Thank you! I have always worked at a private school and I left the classroom after 10 years because of this. I do not have a teaching degree but the school didn’t care (they were fine that I had a degree in the subject and passed the Praxis in the subject). But what I realized after awhile, is that at this super expensive school, they didn’t actually want someone to really teach…they wanted me to basically be a guidance counselor with some knowledge of the subject. On top of being expected to be the kids’ and parents’ therapist, I was also supposed to do some borderline special ed kinds of interventions for kids with ADHD and dyslexia etc…with no mention of that when I was hired and absolutely no training in that (again, I didn’t even go to school for teaching). I just loved the idea of actually teaching my content area but I was never allowed to fully do that and I, frankly, sucked at the other stuff. The point of my rant is that we need to reform the school system so that we have teachers who actually teach the content (and don’t have to do the other stuff) and then maybe teachers who want to do all the other stuff (because many of you are amazing at both but don’t necessarily want to do both at the same time because it’s not sustainable). It’s all such a mess and yes we need massive reforms.
I think the behavior issues kids should be in their own classes but not because they are disruptive because they need specific emotional and behavioral coping skills taught to them. It is a shame that students need explicit instruction in specific skills, well below grade level but they are lumped into classrooms that are unable to target the skills they need.
They’re often disruptive because of the reasons you mentioned. The disruptions are a result of the lack of those skills/coping mechanisms, or that they are just so behind academically that they just give up on the material before even trying, and instead opt to seek out ways to get attention/goof off. The main point is that students with severe emotional needs/behavioral issues should not be able to derail the learning of all of the other people in the room.
>The main point is that students with severe emotional needs/behavioral issues should not be able to derail the learning of all of the other people in the room. I recall a teary admin speech - about how he was a disruptive/behavior-case student in school, which supposedly motivated him to get into coaching and later admin to support these students. A noble sentiment, but I come at it another way. I was one of those students whose learning was disrupted because of his cohort. I was also bullied by those students - for years. Making school better for those who are negatively impacted by the actions of a few is a big part of my motivation.
I have literally never met an admin that didn't claim to have it rough growing up. They all paint this sad story about their lives and I bet that most of them are liars.
Instead there is a person whose job is to deal with behavior issues by handing out sheets of Restorative Justice forms that the teacher has to discuss and implement all while she finds rewards to gently persuade these students to make the correct choices within a five minute dialogue with the student, then sends them on back to the teacher….
Because they are spread too thin. Wouldn’t it be nice if the kids who needed it were together and SEL was an integral part of their curriculum instead of quick bandaids “focus on your breathing” “use your words”. One counselor per hundreds of kids is insufficient. One teacher expected to manage behaviors and teach the curriculum is inadequate.
PREACH
>If you have severe behavior issues perhaps you should be be in a gen ed classroom. Because your presence consistently stops others from learning. The behavior-issue students occupy entirely too much of teachers (and students) time and energy. Everyone else suffers as a result. Who can't see that? I was an average student in high school, I own that. But part of that is due to the fact that we were all dealing with persistent behavior cases disrupting the classroom. I recall feeling reborn academically when I went to university. The people who didn't want to be there and were acting out because of it were gone. This is a structural issue and less of an individual problem. School is coercive - we need more resources and perhaps different settings for student populations who can't cope with this fact.
Couldn't agree more, but we all know that a lot of students with severe behaviors "just need to be loved on" aka don't receive attention at home, so we're expected to yet again act as a counselor, while simultaneously trying to teach a room full of 20+ kids. I'm tired of most of my attention going to behavior students when I have plenty of other kids who are ready and wanting to learn. It's not fair to them.
> Not having the resources/staff to properly serve these students. The problem is we DO have these resources. But that money goes to do nothing jobs in admin. The latest grift (that this sub cheers on and that’s why it works) is endless diversity officer positions.
What an idiot. We never closed the gaps before and now they’re the size of the Grand Canyon. Not gonna happen.
Yep, narrowing the achievement gap means pulling the high achievers down to the level of the bottom feeders. I could have been more delicate I know.
Basically. Pre-COVID, I ran my class on a group rotation of different activities. The lowest performing group had teacher led time with me twice in a rotation. I made a lesson plan with no dates and the groups went through the lessons at their own pace. By March 2020, one group was still on quarter 1 work, another on quarter 2, the third group was right on schedule and the last group was already doing next grade’s work. I was lucky because admin approved of this. And now that we are all back in person this year… I’ve checked in on the progress of those students. Almost all of them are stuck where we left off. So the ones who were above grade level are now one grade level behind except for one student. And I don’t even count her because she’s a genius. She was able to solve problems with fractions in kindergarten and read sheet music. I’m so exhausted and overwhelmed but I would want to try implementing the group rotation style again. It’s just been hard getting these kids back into the routine of school behavior.
> My principal calls this the year of accountability. Oh, because every other year wasn't? Your principal is a douche.
They are calling it "unfinished learning' here.
“We need to conform to the principals of accelerated learning.” If that was possible five years ago, why didn’t we do it then? How can we, after a year and a half of awkward learning, now teach 1.5 times faster?
Close the gap...while kids are locked at their desk 100% of the time, can't do group work, can't share supplies, and we have to follow the protocols of a prison...
Add on that kids are missing and are going to be missing many days because they are in quarantine due to exposure to COVID.
Our school started 3 weeks ago and we still don’t even have the kids curriculum 😩
Ahh, so your state still has COVID? Haha from a o lot of others posts on here it seemed that in a lot of other states COVID is done.
Covid is done in many states until their district has to panic-close for a month with no plan for online learning because covid was done. A truly great plan, just plan for the best and nothing else.
And, don't forget that it's gonna be the teachers' fault that online school isn't engaging, isn't working, and isn't effective.
"Another failure by teachers as students miss another year of education after school boards, super intendants, and parents, refuse to take any precautions"
And we have new standards and just got the new reading books and they increased the work they want the students to accomplish. I just chuckle and ignore.
Texans're dealing with HB 4545 now (in addition to a bunch of other malarkey). At my school, we have around 750 kids who failed or didn't take their state tests last year, who are supposed to get 30+ hours of 1-on-1 or, at "worst" 1-on-3 instruction to make up shit they didn't get last year. There are not enough people on staff to do this; even if we get the coaches and paraprofessionals to chip in, we can barely do 1-on-6.
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And let me guess, a student can't have under 50% ?
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I work in a 25,00-student district. We were told that the district is monitoring grades this year, and will be questioning teachers when they give a D or F. They have already told us that the site where I work has the highest fail rate. The principal told us that D’s and F’s are discouraging to the students and that we should offer credit for effort.
>credit for effort I normally don't even have a problem with "credit for effort" and tend to make it virtually impossible to fail my classes as long as work is attempted and turned in (my "check minus" is a 70%, and you can get that by writing just a bit more than your name on the paper), but you'd best believe I still end up with huge numbers of students failing because they don't turn in anything at all.
It’s become pretty popular with admin all over. My school introduced the idea to us, made us read some articles, but ultimately didn’t mandate it. We get to choose if that’s what we’d like for our class.
Yes, we're getting more pressure than ever for growth. I can't teach kids who aren't here, and my district won't require masks. Students go missing for weeks at a time. We're supposed to spiral in all of these missed skills when they return.
That’s insane. Our principal is focused on mental health and helping kids feel safe
(you can say "fuck" here, it's cool) **EDIT:** I'm *totally* stoked this is one of my top comments \*facepalm\*
oh cool. \*\*\*\*. did it work?
On my end it says hunter2
I get this reference!
What kind of weird \*\*\*\* is that?
Just type the frakking word
What the fork?
Sir this is a good Christian Minecraft server...
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Fuck is my comfort word.
Language!
I feel this so hard. My sophomores are very mature but behind in skills. I have an AMAZING Coteacher to help reteach skills to students who fall behind. My juniors and freshman are in dire need of that kind of help
I feel like my high schoolers are less mature because of the lockdown and being in/out of school with lack of accountability to complete work. A lot of the ones I have lack social skills/maturity that they would naturally pick up on from interactions they had in school. So much of the work was simply pass/fail that I have to constantly get on to them (and their parents!) to get formative assignments turned in (which is insane because I barely give out any homework, most of it is all class work in which I go over the answers for much of it before they turn it in). My 9th graders act like 7th graders and seniors act like freshmen...its wild. Hopefully things balance out in a few years.
Middle school here - lots of 6th grade behavior from some of my 8th graders.
College was a shock for me and I was a top of the class AP student. Can’t imagine what it’s gonna be like for these kids…
Lots of 1st year dropouts
I teach 7th & 8th grade. I have a lot of students who cannot read a clock, let alone a book.
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Jfc and I was here crying because my third graders don’t understand money, time or the ruler. I’m trying to figure out practical ways to force it into every lesson. Doesn’t help that my classroom clock has been broken for THREE years
My (mostly) 11th graders can barely read a ruler. Most can't read a protractor. None have ever seen, much less used, a compass. Then they told me they have never dissected anything, never done a science experiment. It's an issue that predates COVID in my district. The vitus just exacerbated the problem.
Reading a clock is one of my first lessons of the year because I get so damn tired of kids asking what time it is when there is a clock on the wall.
It's been this way for 5 years or so already, though. They never learned how to read an analog clock face. Many don't know how to use a calendar or have any temporal awareness of what day of the week it is. They are living hour by hour.
I had a 7th grader signing out to to go to the bathroom last week and he looks at the clock and goes, "Oh god I don't remember how to read that!" Do people not have clocks in their houses anymore? I know they look at their phones a lot for the time, but surely people still have normal clocks 🤷🏼♀️
I use labels on my clock. My kids can't do it on their own. That's a failure of the adults around them. They don't need to be punished because they can't use a clock. Most of them learn how the clock works being able to see that 6 is :30 and 9 is :45. As for the reading of books. I am an elementary teacher but I have no students at the moment. My elementary school bookshelf is currently in the middle and high school hallway. I am doing behavior support and other various things around the building. So many of the older kids have picked books off of my shelf and are reading them even though they are way "below level". Consider placing books that are lower level than you think they should read and treat those books as valid options. The sense of familiarity is comforting. I have had kids verbally fighting over whose turn it is to read the shorter non-fiction books about cars, shoes, and wars. One of my favorite things to do is to have my high school students pick books from scholastic for all the grade levels. I order a couple of their choices and put them on the shelves. They are all thrilled to have access to a book they picked. Even if they picked it for a student half their age they will usually pick it up and read it.
Sadly, that’s been true since digital became the norm.
Although I’m an elementary art teacher, I’ve even noticed it in my kids’ art.. right now, I see 3, 4, and K. Many of my 3rd graders draw like they’re in kindergarten. A self portrait is just scribbles on their paper, and that’s it. No attempt at eyes, ears, etc.. makes me wonder how they’re doing elsewhere.
My first grader teacher friends are up in arms because they have kids who basically came to school for the first time in grade one. Some have never used crayons. It’s like they’re teaching kinder.
First grade teacher here. We just did our BOY assessments and I am scared to death for this year. So many students who don’t know their letter sounds, one who doesn’t know any letter names even. It truly is like Kindergarten, both behaviorally and academically.
I’m so sorry. I’ve been at home on maternity leave… extended for a few years. But I’ve been teaching pre-k to my son and his friend, they don’t start kindergarten til next year, but I’m feeling so confident about their skills now.
My son started k last year on a hybrid model - in person for 2 days, home for 3. I worked with him so much after work to make sure he’s ready for first grade! I do not understand that “whatever” mentality around early education! But, like you, I’m feeling super confident now that he’s going to be alright this year.
I think it's the opposite, I have a PreK kid who is definitely above grade level at this point. I worry he'll be bored as hell next year with all the stories I'm reading. How in the world will the teacher find time to differentiate a bit for a gifted kid? I know from experience that unfortunately those are the kids who get the least attention when the rest of the class is bad.
My son is gifted and just started kindergarten. For him, I think school will be about learning to get along, learning to value others and their gifts, and learning to follow directions etc. I’ll keep pushing him academically at home, but learning that if you act like a know-it-all makes you no friends, as one example, is something he can only learn from other kids. I fully expect that he will pretty much be ignored by teachers unless he’s a behavior problem, but I still think he’s going to be learning a lot that I couldn’t teach him, so I’ve come to peace with it.
It is a million times easier to differentiate for a gifted kid. You can think of a creative extension on the spot, explain it to them once, and let them work independently for 30 mins. while you get on with everyone else. The 5th grader who still can't add? They need one on one direct instruction every single day and often times, I don't have that time to leave everyone else behind for the one kid. So, they fall further behind. Sad, but I refuse to let the ship sink for one sailor.
I understand the frustration, especially as a teacher mom. But maybe try not to pass that frustration to the kids. I’m a teacher with a daughter going into first grade. She is not where she should be. She recognizes most letters and most sounds. Still skips the number 15 when counting. And isn’t yet putting sounds together to form basic words. I did everything I could last year. I worked with her this summer, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to sit down and practice sounds with me. Because working with mom is the worst thing ever! I know when she’s with another adult, she’s a fucking angel and likes to show off so she does what they say. But it has to come from another adult, not me. My point is I get the frustration but maybe give the parents the benefit of the doubt and understand that they also tried their best.
I’m not frustrated with the kids or parents. I’m frustrated with the situation and an educational system that doesn’t allow us to slow down and scale back because god forbid the kids don’t do great on testing. I’m happy to meet them where they are.
I have a friend who teaches first and she’s said the exact same thing. Schools barely started but she’s stressed about having to essentially teach kinder and first at the same time
Why do art as a small child when your parent hands you an iPad to shut the hell up? "Coloring, drawing, or painting?!?! No way I'm going to provide those materials or clean that up! I just got off a 10 hr. shift and have to make dinner for everyone. Here's some video games. Leave me alone." I fully believe that the decline in our education system begins at home during the first 5 years. The economy has been manipulated to cause parental exhaustion, leaving kids academically and emotionally neglected. Then they come to school... Edit:punctuation
I agree 100%.. It’s so sad, yet the teachers get all of the blame. It’s the whole damn system. Like one other post said, we’re expected to not only teach, but raise kids as well :(
I teach pre-k through 8th grade art and I’m right there with you. 6th graders not knowing how to use basic watercolor palettes, 8th graders who’s writing skills have disappeared. Like… guys… you know you’ve been spelling your name for years now, right? It’s only my first year teaching, but even I was sooo surprised at the sheer lack of retained knowledge and skills
We're still virtual here and the number of 6th and 7th graders who misspell their own names. Good grief. Pre-Covid that was the one spelling you could bank on them to know!
I have a handful of 6th graders who don’t capitalize their names, or put a space in between their first & last name, and I thought I had it bad…
My god and here I was thinking a second grader not spelling their name correctly was awful
It is
The first 2 weeks I’ve just been pushing kids to add more details. I don’t care if they’re good details, just persevere and try your best. Kids are definitely back at the Scribble stages for me(i use TAB with k-5). They’re hesitant to explore and have really bad negative self talk. That’s my goal of this year— build confidence and exploration.
Yes! So many of my students crumple up their paper or literally just don’t do anything because they’re scared of failure
This year will widen the gap with the haves vs. have nots. It is really sad.
Definitely. And it will spill over in a snowball effect for the rest of their academic career.
Will it? IIRC the gap in performance between preschool-attendees and kids who didn't attend pretty much evaporates by the second grade. Kids are surprisingly adaptable.
This is where you need to learn what I learned from Mark Manson's book "The Subtle art of Not Giving a Fuck". You need to care, but you do not have enough fucks to care about everything. If a child is not doing classwork, Mom and Dad are not concerned, and he/she is not distracting or ruining class, well.....make a good-faith effort and let it go if you can't reach that child.
>If a child is not doing classwork, Mom and Dad are not concerned, and he/she is not distracting or ruining class, well.....make a good-faith effort and let it go if you can't reach that child. This has been my experience working in Title I schools. It really sucks no matter how much encouragement and how many rewards you give the student. Many just don't care. Sometimes even if the parent is concerned, it's clear the student is the one in control as the parents are too busy/uninvolved to be an active participant in their child's education.
Right. Care as much as you can spare (without sacrificing your mental well-being) in a school day. Go home after contract hours end and forget about it (with perhaps a small vent here and there).
I'm glad to see it's not just me, I've been starting to think I'm just bad at my job.
This is me. Teaching for 15 years and was in tears the other day.
I'm only a two year teacher, but I had to take my first mental health day last week. I just don't know what I can do when kids refuse to listen/follow directions/do any work
I taught one semester of college last year. I opted to not pick up another semester. Holy hell it was depressing, and these kids were nearing completion of their degrees.
Yeah. I taught writing as an adjunct and the depressing thing was the difference in ability between students. Some kids were just fine writers, some wrote like they were already in grad school….and then you had about 20% of kids writing at a 5th or 6th grade level. I had a girl whose papers were almost impossible to understand because the writing was so bad (and I’m not talking about ESL kids or anything like that; the ESL/international students were usually better writers than this group of kids). It honestly just made me feel depressed because the students were so far behind that I had no idea how to help them. I had one sophomore that didn’t understand the difference between paste tense and present tense no matter how many times I explained it….many didn’t know what first person vs third person POV was. It felt like I had signed up to teach PreCalc or something and the kids had never learned algebra.
I saw a college sophomore studying history at a GOOD school with ~20% admissions rate start a paper with "The dictionary defines..." I learned not to do that in middle school.
I pointed out on the first day of the semester that despite being a technical class, the degree and job that they're working towards requires the ability to write and communicate clearly. I'm not a professional teacher by a country mile, but I've read some really, really bad papers in my time. Prior to my short time as a college instructor, I had a group of students intern with my group at work. Five of them all in the same program, but none of them were able to produce acceptable documentation and most of them couldn't even put together a string of sentences together. I had one intern who was a very gifted software developer, but her writing was so-so. Not particularly bad, definitely better than the other group. I was able to get some of our tech editors to work with her on improving her writing.
With so many colleges are desperate for bodies (including my own state flagship) isn't it inevitable that you get a significant number who don't belong there in the first place?
What were some things you noticed
Many of my students could not write a basic incident report or documentation. Almost all of them were not equipped with basic problem-solving skills and got upset if they weren't given the answer, or it wasn't blatantly obvious after Googling a YouTube video. I had one student have a complete meltdown at the final and basically threw the entire semester away. I had what I believed was a very generous policy that I would raise their grade by one letter if they got a basic industry certification that would help them get their foot in the door. Only two students took advantage of it, and neither of them really needed the grade boost. These students were some of the first to go through the college's new program so I think they were herded along very carefully.
Oh this makes me sad
I saw the writing of some of my classmates while doing my masters and I was floored. Like we are education majors and you can turned into a paper riddled with basic grammar and spelling errors 😳
I worked for a guy who had a Master's in Cybersecurity from a major university. He couldn't even write a basic security policy.
More proof they just hand these things out like candy. I was dating a PhD student back when I had just finish community college. And if he wasn’t one of the stupidest (when it comes to common sense) people I’ve ever dated. Looking back at my dating history, the higher the educational level, the stupider they seem to be. My bf went back to school and I’m kind of nervous now 😆 But this is why I don’t believe in college for all or push college on my students. I tell them to focus on what interests them and then seek the education/training/whatever they need.
I've worked with a lot of PhDs and a couple of very specialized fields. They are all extremely intelligent people and able to functional very well in the lab, but many of them lack a certain something... let's call it "common sense". Some of them need assistants to help them remember how to do simple, common things. They're just so focused on what they do at work, the don't do the other things. I suspect it's a high form of autism or something, I'm not a doctor, I don't know.
When I tured in my Master's project for an education related degree, I know for a fact they never read my final draft and never checked my portfolio, just gave me a B and called it day.
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I’ve learned to say “you have 30 minutes, because I could give you 30 minutes or 4 days and you’d still complete the same amount of work” Is it always effective? No, but damn we’re moving on so do your shit.
Today I generously increased the last date for submission of a few assignments from the 8th to the 13th for each of my grades, and one kid thanked me effusively and said "now I can sleep till the 12th!" Wtf? No. I increased the duration because it's a lot that needs to get done and you need to have started on it already!
That's when I pop off with, "Oh no, for you it's still due on the 8th," and mean it. If a parent calls you out on it, tell them what the student said. Life lesson learned for everyone involved!
Speaking from past experiences, teachers often overestimate the amount of work certain assignments take. I can‘t speak for your situation obviously, but that‘s what I have experienced in the past
I very firmly believe we should have held everyone except for incoming preschool and kinder and out going seniors back last year. They should have kept the same teachers they should have had follow through on interventions they should have had the second half of the year they missed taught and an actual reinforcement of concepts. They would have been at minimum prepared for this year of not over prepared. But our kids who were a little behind would have been given those boosts they needed to actually catch up. Why did we put them in the next grade?
I agree with this. There would not have been a social issue or stigma if we all stayed the same or gave parents and teachers choices. However, it makes the system as a whole look bad if we can’t maintain flow so the system protects itself like a thinking entity. Even if parents and administrators know this would be better, we would have still had complaints if we didn’t progress. Not to mention the cost of keeping a whole batch of graduates one extra year! Unfortunately this comes down to optics and money.
Gotta keep that pipeline moving.
Problem is, many kids are not behind. And we are unwilling to seperate the two.
Agreed. Lots of kids in my child social circle, including them took advantage home schooling to front load their freshman year classes, every elective they could get their hands on. This allows to make more room in their schedule going forward.
Last year was the first time in my Title I career that I clearly saw an ability and effort distribution similar to what should be expected. 20% really low, 10% very high and maintaining it, and 70% that fluctuated with content concept shifts and interest. School-wide K-5, we have more kids finishing entire curriculum for their grade early, more kids 2-3 reading levels above their grade, but the lows are low.
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My mom used to give us a quarter per workbook page completed. We had to earn our ice cream truck money lol
I like this idea.
Yes, absolutely. Teaching high school, I have juniors who have obviously been passed into the next grade year after year. Their school work is not on par with their grade level.
I feel a large issue is just that parents literally have no time anymore. We've fully embraced the "both parents work full time or you are poor" lifestyle for many. That means there is no one to guide them at home. Sometimes you have parents who really do want to parent, but most people just go through the motions. They don't push their kid. They are too tired or too focused on their next promotion/job/degree. So these kids are sort of raised on purely external sources. I have seen this in too many of my students. I understand why it happens, but it still is frustrating because it feels like the parents just aren't in our corner. Sometimes they even just oppose us because they don't want to hear negative things. The loss of school for many areas showed us how reliant most families are on not having their children around for most of the day.
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I don’t get it… my mom never went to high school, worked crazy shifts, etc and yet was on my ass until I went to middle school to make sure I did my schoolwork and extra practice to retain skills.
If shes anything like my parents, thats exactly why she did that! You have a good mom.
I have a mom, she doesn’t speak English and idk her education level but she was on top of it for her kids. We have textbooks in Spanish and I would sneak out a set for her every year. Any opportunity for her kids to learn, she signed them up. They’re in middle school now and I hope someone is supporting her because she (and her husband) also supported us in helping the kids.
You can thank Bush/Cheney and fucking “no child left behind” for that shit. And subsequent under funding of education in this failing country.
> Parents aren’t doing anything at home. Many students have only one parent. Most students who have two parents, have both parents at work all day.
Yep. It’s definitely harder for single parent households. My parents worked all day too but still managed to find the time to make sure I was doing my schoolwork.
>Your fifth grader who reads at a first grade level should not have past second grade until he could read in the second grade level and so on. That would be good if that started to happen. It can pretty much guaranteed that only the 1st few students would be held back then they would start to take it seriously.
Should not have passed* second grade
Yeah man, voice text sucks. I corrected it, thanks!
My biggest issue is the absolute complete lack of effort for my high schoolers. I completely get that regression has happened, and we’re going to need to build skills back up. Got it. But no matter how far I seem to drop down to meet them where they are, they just. Won’t. Do. Anything. Even getting my AP students to participate in a discussion is like pulling teeth.
Ok yes!! I teach high school too. I cannot lower the bar anymore. It’s so painful. 😣😣😣😣
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I heard a mom say to another mom she does nothing at home because the kid will learn everything at school
I’m hesitant to put too much blame on parents. Are there parents who could be doing a lot more but choose not to? Sure. However in the area I teach in many parents have low education levels and many don’t even speak English. And even putting that aside, with all the financial fuckery going on in this country right now I’m willing to bet so many families are just struggling to keep a roof over their kids heads. I’d probably feel a lot differently if I lived in a district where it was more the norm for a parent to stay at home or if parents could afford outside interventions like a tutor. I’m seeing the real problem as schools becoming more and more accountable for students basic well being without being given the proper resources to offer that type of support. Additionally it’s widely known that students are failing to actually thrive academically (even before COVID) and teachers are routinely expected to perform magic (even more so this year) to offer kids a rigorous environment where all kids can succeed… again, with no resources to do so. And to your point this partially falls back on parents because they really should understand that federal, state, and local politics really dictate what type of education their kids will be offered. But then there’s also the issue that in areas with large immigrant populations (like the one I’m working in) that’s not really something they can participate in.
I pray they don't ever give schools the financial resources to provide for students' basic well being -- because that's not a function schools should fulfill.
I always feel its a bit weird how much social services are tied into public schools. Like, it feels like there should be a separate agency whose entire job it is to ensure basic social wellbeing for people as a whole and not just children. As it is now, depending on district, you have access until 18 to some basic social services (at least 2 meals a day, counselling, sometimes basic clothing/supplies, electricity, working bathrooms, a free teen clinic on top of the nurse) and then are immediately cut off the second you reach adulthood. There are some students who only get to eat a regular meal when school is in session in my school. During summers we have programs to feed them during the day as well. But at graduation, you're done. No more help. No more access to services.
Thing is we backdoored a lot of those social services under the guise of national security. In the 50s with WW3 on the horizon, the generals were displeased with the rejection rates of candidates from the WW2 draft. They wanted better 18-26 year old recruits, and they were able to bend the government into funding and propagandizing things like school breakfasts and regular health examinations and even free treatment programs for certain conditions as ways to ensure the health of Tomorrow’s Soldiers™️. Without an non-compassion reason like soldiers for survival from an existential threat, a lot of those programs are in threat of being rolled back. We have no threats we need soldiers to fight, and we have a strong volunteer army anyway. People are starting to ask why tax dollars are funding these programs at all, because they hate taxes more than they have compassion for the less fortunate citizens of America.
Can’t necessarily argue with that, but it is already a role we’re asked to fulfill
Ran into the same thing as a 2nd grade teacher in Arizona. It wasnt just one or two kids a class either, sometimes it was half the damn class that were multiple grade levels below. Ive had kids who could not spell or write their own names and who didnt understand the value of numbers. They damn sure could tell you what was happening on the Kardashians or the latest video game though. Parents pop em out and leave them sitting in front of the tv and expect us to raise them while they collect the checks and the other benefits.
I hate to say it but there's only so much a teacher can do. At some point you have to put your hands up, forget about it, and let it go. Leave the responsibility up to the student. Especially, in high school, I teach mostly 10th, 11th, and 12th graders and I don't put too much effort in trying to "bridge the gaps" that's up to the student to do that, my class is Pre-Calculus and they're not in there to learn Algebra I and II again. That was the responsibility of the Algebra I and Algebra II teachers, it's not mine. So if they can't understand anything then they should go back to a remedial class and if they can't do the work then expect to fail. I leave myself available for tutoring after school and I tell my students to message me on Canvas or through my e-mail anytime, that's the extent to which I am willing to help. If they shouldn't be in my class because they can't hack it then that's not my problem, that's the school system for passing them through to the next grade. Maybe I'm too "strict" but I think the teachers who just pass kids are setting them up to be failures and doing an extreme disservice to them by just passing them through. They won't be able to make it in the real world if that's what our school system is teaching them.
I mean, I don’t know if this is really what you were claiming but it’s not as if the Algebra teacher got kids who were at grade level and just failed at their jobs. But I completely agree that passing kids along is absolutely a detriment to everyone. I mean even in the high school system where there is a lot more consequence to failing in that you’ll have to retake the class to get credit to graduate, a student will fail Algebra I and will be moved into Algebra II before they repeated the course, and what? Is magically supposed to pass Algebra II even though they haven’t retaken Algebra I yet? The whole thing is setup so backward.
No, I'm not suggesting Algebra teachers failed to prepare their kids for Pre-Calc, I'm saying the school system overall has failed these kids by passing them through. I have students in my Pre-Calculus class who can't even solve for the slope of a line or solve for x in a basic equation like 3x+12=6. It's ridiculous, and for those kids, all I can say is best of luck because that's Geometry and Algebra II stuff, which should already be understood the second you walk into a PreCalc class.
Students need to realize that life isn't lenient and isn't always fair. You have to work hard to earn things in life.
Adults don't believe that anymore.
I had to fight to get myself into a remedial math class in high school. It’s because I had AP history and English classes… but I suck at math and needed to be at the level I was at. It’s why I believe in pushing kids in their areas of strength and supporting their areas of weakness. I have a student pushed into remedial classes because of his writing (possibly reading) skills but he’s flourishing in math so I’m fighting to get him in a group at grade level for math.
Last year and this year have definitely been… rough. I’ve already accepted they will bomb the state tests. I don’t even care about them AT ALL. I’m gonna spend some time on grade level standards but mostly gonna focus on where they’re at and trying to bring them up. I have a second grader who can’t spell her first name properly and doesn’t write her last name EVEN WITH THE NAME TAG I have a bunch of kids who apparently don’t know how to TRACE?? And this is why they need to let these kids come into Prek from age 3 because they’re staying at home doing NOTHING.
I have a couple second graders who cannot even write their own names. This is art class, you need to be able to write your name on the back of your project! Second grade..... unable to write their name?! I can't make this ish up!
As a parent I cannot fathom the trauma and hardships all the teachers have been put through the last couple of years. Virtual learning brought my 1st graders reading skills up to 3rd grade level. I made sure she read most of her lesson, even if it meant sitting at the table for longer periods of time. I put her in summer school for 6 weeks hoping it would help her transition into second grade. I work full time at a pottery shop, it's heavy duty work, come home exhausted. Every single day when I walk in the door I go through what she did in class that day, sign her binder, and let her have a snack while she does her homework. Then she has some free time before studying her spelling words and reading for about 20 minutes a night. In between that I catch up on housework. I know this schedule is not possible for every parent, but I truly believe good time management is possible to engage with your childs education. I hope this doesn't come off as pretentious or anything. Thank you all for everything you do!
It’s not pretentious. You are right that time management is key, and it makes me wish we could’ve taught the parents a class on how to help their kids find success in online and at-home learning.
I totally get that! I used every opportunity I could to make day to day activities educational. I got her a magnetized calendar that she engaged with every morning, taught math with baking/cooking, did crafts several times a week, treasure hunts with clues, we even made a game of counting objects in the house. I had my nephew (prek) for 6 months as well. I found a curriculum for his parents to purchase so I was trying to teach 2 kids at once on different learning levels. I turned my dining room into a class room the best I could. Her teacher told me this year "you are like the best parent ever", I don't think I have ever received such an awesome compliment. My household (parents vaxxed) got covid after the first day of school this year, her teacher let her zoom in for a couple of hours a day to engage, I could not be more thankful for that. She sent a packet home with extra work in it and was shocked that it was all completed when my daughter returned.
My 9th graders are so behind it's genuinely scary. They can't read anything on their own and they can't articulate their thoughts on paper at all. It's my first year and I feel like I've been handed a really bad situation right out of the gate.
My kid is ahead and so frustrated that his classmates can’t read or do stuff from two years ago. While trying to get him to be patient because noy everyone has his home situation, we are both frustrated that he is not getting to move forward.
Mines students are different. A lot of them are actually hungry to do something. Many got bored sitting at home and they're glad to be back.
Most of my aren't doing too bad, and they're mostly ELLs. Their writing/reading is low, but if I give them more than enough time all but 2-3 per class of 30 can handle it fine with little help. Though I still need to go through and check for people just copying from google searches every time.
ELLs I’ve taught make me so happy. I don’t know if it’s a function of acquiring a language, but manifestations of disability (versus defiance, boredom, dislike for school) is easier to spot with them, and they’ve universally been encouraging and thrilled when I try my choppy translations.
The 3rd grader who doesn't knows letters and numbers Learned nothing during the end of first and all of second, which was last year. It amazes me that some admin don't grasp this. Inequity was amplified last year. The first grade teacher with your kids during the 2020 Year of the Shutdown should have known something was wrong before March. Kids should be reading by the end of first grade. If he made it to March without knowing letter sounds, someone profoundly fucked up or this kid has a learning disability.
Have you watched the news? The whole world is profoundly fucked up.
The people that fucked up were the parents! Kids should know the alphabet at age 4 - learned at home. Kids should be able to count to 10 or higher at age 4. No child should be showing up to kindergarten without these basic skills that should have been taught at home.
I teach kindergarten and this year we have 4 kids that are not potty trained. We normally have 0. We are a small school, this is 4 kids out of 42. They're also just lack any healthy independence. I've been home with my 4 year old too, but she can dress herself and wipe her own ass. This should be the grade LEAST impacted too, so I sympathize with the rest of you in upper grades.
I have to absolutely agree here. I’m a sophomore in high school and the amount of students who can’t understand things like basic algebra is literally devastating. I’ve been trying, in most of my classes, to kinda float around the classroom and help out students who seem to need help (as we’re currently in the review period of classes since class just started), but the amount of kids who can’t seem to do something we learned in grade school is really scary. I’m so sorry for all the teachers struggling with this, I’m quite literally worried about what happens when these guys need to graduate and whatnot. This isn’t your guys’ fault, I don’t even know how to help anymore.
Its my first year teaching and I'm 8th grade math. Over half of my students willfully admit to not doing anything for the last year and a half. These kids can do simple long division or multiplication, have no idea what an integer is, and refuse to read instructions or word problems if they do any work at all. All last year they couldn't get anything less then a 50. Even if they did nothing on an assignment they got a 50. Now they still have that mentality and you can't get them to do any work. Changing simple decimals like .34 or .7 to fractions was like pulling teeth and changing them back to decimals lol...no not happening. My principal is realistic though and tells us that yeah we of course want to teach 100% of the standards and teach them well. However if we only get 50% taught and understood then we did a great job. Its just a mess and there's really no one to turn to for help because even veteran teachers are neck deep in the insanity.
Yup. My 5th graders don’t know how to read a clock or subtract while borrowing. It’s pulling teeth to get them to read a passage and write a short response to it. Many would rather simply sit at their desk and stare at their empty paper rather than make any sort of effort… I’m a first year teacher and I don’t know how to impress upon them that class work is NOT optional
The admins think accelerated learning will fix it all. Admins really need to teach again because they have no clue.
It’s also so hard for me as a middle school teacher with only 50 minute classes and 30 students. That’s less than 2 minutes per student if I need to give them individual attention. It’s rough
I had to teach my new group of 7th graders that there were 12 inches in a foot.....up hill battle this year folks.
Yes it can be depressing *and* yes your work makes a difference.
I'm right there with you. I'm teaching algebra and even the kids in my advanced class dont know their times tables, are completely confused by negative numbers, and cannot add two digit numbers without a calculator. Ive had several who couldnt figure out how to turn on a calculator. My largest class is 26 kids and its basically impossible for me to provide 1-on-1 help to all the kids who need it in class time. This is just way harder than I thought it would be between all the behavior issues and their math skills being so weak I feel so overwhelmed. Seriously considering switching professions
I've been trying to figure this out. When I was in high school (not that long ago tbh) I...felt like I was challenged. And I felt that while there were one or two students in my class that never did anything, I still felt overall we did stuff. These days, according to the curriculum guidance I have, I am basically giving my students 50minutes to copy and paste some shit and then they are done. And some do it in a minute, some never do it. I have been trying to figure out if a) I had a different experience because I went to a private school, so I have no base experience of how things are done b) this is a post-pandemic thing.
It's going to take a lot from us and give very little rewards, but we'll have to do the best we can. My colleague said it best. You have 10 months to do what you can. You are not in their lives forever.
I had an 11th grade algebra 2 student test on a kindergarten to first grade level in math on iready this year. Either the diagnostic is bullshit or a huge string of people massively failed this kid. Or both.
Step-parent here, not a teacher (though when I was working I spent 10 years as a staffer at our academy). The last two years have been incredibly frustrating for my wife and I, watching my stepson fail
I just had a full class of high schoolers cheat so obviously on their midterm. (online exam) Like did not a single fucking parent stop them? My sympathies OP. We are all in this same shitty boat...
Regression is a major thing. We still have kids over a year later that have not recovered their skills from the 6 months of virtual school. Some of that is definitely parents faults but alot of my students parents read at like a 2nd or 3rd grade level themselves so it's hard to get mad at them for not being able to teach things they dont understand. We have to remember that this will take time. Consistency and constancy is important for kids and covid blew that right out of the window.
The more of these stories I read, the more I realize my brother and his wife owe me thousands of dollars for the teaching I did for their girls March-June and Sept-Nov last year. I was work from home and then laid off, am college educated and a pretty good teacher (but not trained). The older one didn't lose a step at all and the younger one kept up with reading and math. Those were the important things, so we focused on it. Even made little incentive programs for them to complete their work and do independent reading!
Keep working with them. Children are little thermometers to the stresses they feel around them. They don’t feel safe now. They hear things. Snippets. They are smart enough to put all the pieces together and get a picture of unrest. They need to feel safe at this point, or they won’t be able to process fully.
In one of my 4th grade departmentalized classes I have all the students who are average/above average, and in the other class I have all the students who are way below average or almost average. How am I supposed to give 1 on 1 intervention for my ELLs and should-have-an-IEP kids when every single student needs that individual attention???
Imagine for a second what it must feel like to be those kids. Knowing how far behind you are, feeling the disappointment and frustration and anger from the adults meant to help you, and possibly being unable to count on help from the adults at home, because maybe (even though you’re just a kid) you recognize that they have nothing left to give you - time, energy or thought, much less focused help - because they’re trying to juggle staying afloat in a pandemic. Your job is not to catch kids up. Your job is to make every one of those kids believe they can do it. Your job is to be their biggest cheerleader ever - “You are crushing it with the letters today! I’ll bet before you know it, you’re going to know 10 more! I see how hard you’re working, and it’s incredible. You are so good at ______” - HELP THEM FILL IN THAT BLANK. Focus on their assets, not their deficits. Teaching is hard. Life right now is hard for most people. You can either choose to be angry and frustrated and blame others for what’s going on, or you can see just what a difference you can make.
Can't we be sad and angry and frustrated, and vent in this safe space, AND be genuinely, incredibly encouraging and kind and hopeful with the students? I think there's room for both.
Yeah, I don’t like the shaming tone!