Is Anyone Happy with the State of Education??

Maybe Pearson? Or Bill Gates? Who is benefiting from our current educational system? I can say it's not the teachers and it's certainly not the students.

I'm fed up! 

I have children on both ends of the spectrum, SPED and GT. Neither is getting their needs met. My youngest GT child began third grade this year, full of excitement to meet her teacher and see her classmates and learn cool new things. She wore her back pack for the whole week preceding the start of school and had me pack her lunch to eat at the dining room table. She LOVED school.

This is not the smiling face I'm greeted with when I pick her up. The pressure of testing and content and curriculum (that isn't even developmentally appropriate), the lack of play and choice and exploration, compounded with inconsistencies with staffing and stressed out teachers are all making my little eight-year-old's passion for learning disappear.

Sadly, I don't see any of this changing any time soon. Am I to just roll with it, tough it out, and send her off to test or practice for the test or "build stamina" for testing everyday with a knot in both of our stomachs? Everyday--for the next 9 years?? I can't do it. She cries at night. Complete meltdowns. 

Her class recently took Unit Assessments in ELAR and Math. She received a 73 and 81 and was overcome by anxiety and the feeling of failure. This is not okay. At what point do we do something? What can we do? I'm a teacher in the same district and don't see any enjoyment---staff, students, no one. 

What are we doing to our schools? What are we doing to learning? What are we doing to our future? Who's going to say enough is enough? How do we change this? We're all dying inside--our creativity, our passion, our love for knowledge, all of it. What are we going to do and when? 

Thank you, Swivl!

I often wonder how I leave school feeling beaten up, run down, and truly exhausted--while my students leave with as much excitement as when they arrived. Do they have a way of sucking the life right out of me and filling their little bodies with all of my energy? I really don't think non-educators, test-creating companies, and politicians have a clue what we do every day in our classrooms.

So, Monday morning I recorded a lesson. Our school just got a Swivl, and I was eager to try it out. Every other week, at 7:45am, a group of fifth grade students who struggle in reading come to me for reading intervention. We use Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention kits to help bridge the gap from where they are to where we're heading.

I now know why I'm so warn out and they are not...I'm doing ALL of the work. As teachers, we try to squeeze in so much in such a limited amount of time. We often don't give students enough time to process. Granted, my students are Tier 3 students with limited experiences and reading difficulties, but I definitely can see lots of room for improvement on my part. 

With technology literally at our fingertips, teachers everywhere need to seek it out and use it to reflect on their practices. Watching my lesson has proven to be far more valuable than any walk-through or PDAS I've ever received.

How many times do I really need to say "Ummmmm" anyway? 

Monday, Monday