Frustrations Abound
On Tuesday, the teachers in my school district were introduced to our new conservator. We had just spent a day of professional development creating "school-wide procedures," an idea that is great in theory but fell short in practice at our school. Basically the idea was to have some school-wide norms for things like how students should walk in the hall, behave in the bathroom and cafeteria, etc. Unfortunately, the procedures were created (by the teachers) in such a way that no controversy could possibly arise from their implementation. For example, recess has been a bit of an issue at the school. We don't have it. However, the kindergarten team was supposed to write a procedure for how everyone in the school would deal with recess. It included such illuminating information as, "Students will follow the recess procedures," and "Teachers will correct any behavior that violates the recess procedures." It reminded me of that programming language whose name references itself... I think it starts with a P...
The first grade team wrote the procedures for walking in the hall (which were already established) and for using the restroom (pretty much already established as well). We actually pushed the envelope a little bit, and now no student is allowed in the hall without a pass (a small step, but nevertheless a step towards a well-oiled accountable machine of a school). I tried to change the existing policy of no more than two bathroom breaks per day to no more than three (since well-hydrated people should urinate every 2 hours) but was shot down by the principal.
After we had created the procedures, we were told that the next three days would be devoted exclusively to the teaching of the procedures. NO academic work was to be conducted. The diagnostics we had been slated to give have been pushed of indefinetely, and the pre-tests for the quarter pushed off until next week. Then they brought in the new conservator. He made no speech and he didn't introduce himself. He looked around at our faces, the 18 teachers aching to teach our children who are so far behind and need all of the instructional time they can get, and said, "Anyone who doesn't think this is a good idea, and anyone who doesn't think they can teach these procedures to 100% mastery in three days... We will accept your resignation with pleasure. We will accept your resignation tonight." And that was all he said.
Welcome back to school, teachers.
So that's what I've been doing. And it has been driving me crazy. I want to teach. I want to teach my students! I want to read with them! Count with them! Add, subtract, make maps, change ice cubes into water. Draw shapes, name coins, sound out words. Wednesday and Thursday, I did what my school wanted me to do, and all we did was practice procedures. We paced the halls, went to the bathroom (but only twice), fire and tornado drilled, discussed intruder alerts, the telephone policy, and how we act in an assembly. On Wednesday, we wrote in our journals about hwo we should act in the bathroom. On Thursday, I read them a book about firefighters and we made posters of the classroom rules and presented them in a mock assembly.
Today I gave up on that. I was supposed to teach four procedures: phone, morning duty, recess, and visitor. I taught it in less than five minutes: "Class, you don't need to know anything about morning duty, the principal says we will never have recess, you are not allowed to use the phone, ever, and visitors need to go to the office before they go anywhere else." I don't know why I'm scared not to do what I'm supposed to do, but I follow the directions of my administration. I didn't have anything else to do with them. We reviewed the tornado drill procedure until it was seamless. By then it was... 8:30 in the morning. I broke out beans and math mats and gave them directives such as, "If you are supposed to have your hand in your pockets in the hall, put four beans on your mat. If you are supposed to have your hands on your head, add one bean. If you should throw food in the cafeteria, take away three beans. If you should eat your food, take away one bean..." When we were finihsed, they counted their beans to see if they had gotten all of the answers correct. Then they counted the rest of the beans in the cup. Then we put the beans in piles of ten, made patterns with them, and sorted them by color. We read "Ms. Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten" and wrote get-well cards for my assistant and the five students who were absent (the flu is going around). We went to lunch and the computer lab. I put them in quasi-centers -- addition puzzles, pattern blocks, word puzzles, Kaboom the sight word game and we rotated through that. In order to be in compliance I rang a bell twice during the rotations and made them practice a fire drill and a tornado drill. It was a wasted day.
I am going to the Mississippi Reading Association conference Monday and Tuesday while my assistant administers tests. There is school-wide testing. However, I found out today that we are not allowed to give the regular pre-tests for the nine weeks (i.e. written by the teacher, testing the skills we are going to teach) but that the first grade will be giving the end-of-second-grade MCT... again. We gave it at the beginning of the year, which was a huge waste of time, because it was two years too advanced. Now it's one and a half years too advanced and still ridiculous and unhelpful. The principal explained that we should be "accelerating the learning" of our students and teaching material one grade level above where they are. Not to be negative, but I can't teach them reading comprehension until they can read. They are BEHIND right now, and teaching them MCT-style test prep is not going to give them any real knowledge or understanding. We spend so little time actually TEACHING in my school district that it is ridiculous. Interruptions abound.
The rant is done, I'm going to bed. My one consolation is that I won't lose my fantastic pirate-themed lesson plan and that my students will still learn map-making and the "ar" sound from a teacher with an eyepatch. I think they'll love it. I'll take pictures. That will be next Wednesday, a full week after school has resumed, and the first day that teaching will go back to normal. Argh.
The first grade team wrote the procedures for walking in the hall (which were already established) and for using the restroom (pretty much already established as well). We actually pushed the envelope a little bit, and now no student is allowed in the hall without a pass (a small step, but nevertheless a step towards a well-oiled accountable machine of a school). I tried to change the existing policy of no more than two bathroom breaks per day to no more than three (since well-hydrated people should urinate every 2 hours) but was shot down by the principal.
After we had created the procedures, we were told that the next three days would be devoted exclusively to the teaching of the procedures. NO academic work was to be conducted. The diagnostics we had been slated to give have been pushed of indefinetely, and the pre-tests for the quarter pushed off until next week. Then they brought in the new conservator. He made no speech and he didn't introduce himself. He looked around at our faces, the 18 teachers aching to teach our children who are so far behind and need all of the instructional time they can get, and said, "Anyone who doesn't think this is a good idea, and anyone who doesn't think they can teach these procedures to 100% mastery in three days... We will accept your resignation with pleasure. We will accept your resignation tonight." And that was all he said.
Welcome back to school, teachers.
So that's what I've been doing. And it has been driving me crazy. I want to teach. I want to teach my students! I want to read with them! Count with them! Add, subtract, make maps, change ice cubes into water. Draw shapes, name coins, sound out words. Wednesday and Thursday, I did what my school wanted me to do, and all we did was practice procedures. We paced the halls, went to the bathroom (but only twice), fire and tornado drilled, discussed intruder alerts, the telephone policy, and how we act in an assembly. On Wednesday, we wrote in our journals about hwo we should act in the bathroom. On Thursday, I read them a book about firefighters and we made posters of the classroom rules and presented them in a mock assembly.
Today I gave up on that. I was supposed to teach four procedures: phone, morning duty, recess, and visitor. I taught it in less than five minutes: "Class, you don't need to know anything about morning duty, the principal says we will never have recess, you are not allowed to use the phone, ever, and visitors need to go to the office before they go anywhere else." I don't know why I'm scared not to do what I'm supposed to do, but I follow the directions of my administration. I didn't have anything else to do with them. We reviewed the tornado drill procedure until it was seamless. By then it was... 8:30 in the morning. I broke out beans and math mats and gave them directives such as, "If you are supposed to have your hand in your pockets in the hall, put four beans on your mat. If you are supposed to have your hands on your head, add one bean. If you should throw food in the cafeteria, take away three beans. If you should eat your food, take away one bean..." When we were finihsed, they counted their beans to see if they had gotten all of the answers correct. Then they counted the rest of the beans in the cup. Then we put the beans in piles of ten, made patterns with them, and sorted them by color. We read "Ms. Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten" and wrote get-well cards for my assistant and the five students who were absent (the flu is going around). We went to lunch and the computer lab. I put them in quasi-centers -- addition puzzles, pattern blocks, word puzzles, Kaboom the sight word game and we rotated through that. In order to be in compliance I rang a bell twice during the rotations and made them practice a fire drill and a tornado drill. It was a wasted day.
I am going to the Mississippi Reading Association conference Monday and Tuesday while my assistant administers tests. There is school-wide testing. However, I found out today that we are not allowed to give the regular pre-tests for the nine weeks (i.e. written by the teacher, testing the skills we are going to teach) but that the first grade will be giving the end-of-second-grade MCT... again. We gave it at the beginning of the year, which was a huge waste of time, because it was two years too advanced. Now it's one and a half years too advanced and still ridiculous and unhelpful. The principal explained that we should be "accelerating the learning" of our students and teaching material one grade level above where they are. Not to be negative, but I can't teach them reading comprehension until they can read. They are BEHIND right now, and teaching them MCT-style test prep is not going to give them any real knowledge or understanding. We spend so little time actually TEACHING in my school district that it is ridiculous. Interruptions abound.
The rant is done, I'm going to bed. My one consolation is that I won't lose my fantastic pirate-themed lesson plan and that my students will still learn map-making and the "ar" sound from a teacher with an eyepatch. I think they'll love it. I'll take pictures. That will be next Wednesday, a full week after school has resumed, and the first day that teaching will go back to normal. Argh.
posted by Jessica at 12:24 AM
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