.... is a good thing for kids?In the corporate world stress may be looked at as a beneficial (I don't agree). But stressed workers doesn't have an emotional impact on widgets. But our widgets walk and talk - and are little or even if big, still not fully mature. Think they're not affected by the national mania for turning schools into mini-corporations?
Middle school blogger Have A Gneiss Day writes:
Administration is barely holding it together. Most of the staff is living on the edge (except for the ones that are either too new or too arrogant to care). What bothers me most is our stress is slowly but surely finding its way to the kiddies.
And NYC Pubic School Blue wrote:
chronic teacher fatigue?
CTF? I doubt the AMA recognizes such a condition, but if they did - I suspect I'm suffering from it.
Perhaps it's just the ELA prep that's getting to me. The simulation exams, the "incorporation" of testing skills in all subjects, the "pumping them up for the exam" hype ... it's all a bit much. The kids are trying their best; that I have to admit. But even they begin to become tired and need an outlet. Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly at the time of my class. So today's chatty class got the consequence for not completing their work. A 30 minute lunch detention. 30 minutes of agony for me. But once you say you're going to do issue a consequence, you have to follow through. Even if that means a loss of one's own lunch.
I'm slipping further and further behind in the curriculum due to this damn test. I can't wait for it to be over.
Here's an idea for all the gaggle of Whitney Tilson-like ed reformers. Let's do stress tests on kids and rate schools A-F based on the lowest (or highest in BloomKleindom) scores.
you can tell that teacher fatigue was creeping into the edublogosphere for quite some time now, but it'll get better after all the testing is over and our breaks are done, too. we'll hit a nice stride where there are no high stakes and it'll just be about teaching. we better cherish it while it lasts ...
ReplyDeleteBe careful what you wish for.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with that is when the test is over the kids start acting like it's the end of June and you then have 5 months of hell. Either way you can't win.
Be careful what you wish for. Once the test is over the kids think it's the end of June and you are in for 5 months of torture.
ReplyDeleteIf you're a middle school teacher of Science or Social Studies, there's a lot of testing left that takes us well into June. I don't believe that teachers of either of those subjects will get rest anytime soon.
ReplyDeletefirst day teaching i thought "why in hell cant they get this one kid out of here" i was told "well you just cant do that" 14 years later after quitting it remains the core issue--if we cant do administratively for poor, lower and middle class kids what is done through real estate prices in wealthier districts, namely sorting out kids, then i dont see anything changing anytime soon. One percent of the kids dominate and ruin the schools in nyc esp. in moderate and lower income neighborhoods--deal with that and you change everything
ReplyDelete