I moved into my new classroom yesterday. That made me happy, but my poor school is such a raggedy school. The white boards are crappy, the desks are crappy, the walls need painting, TVs have no cable, so they’re useless. Too bad too because there are some good teachers and kids there. If ever there was a school population that deserved state-of-the-art, it’s this school. I did find out that they have these little computers that allow students to type papers at their desks. I’m going to look into those. I just know the kids will write more if they can get to type. Plus, the school does have a nice computer lab, which I have used a few times, and plan to use more. Now that I have a room with a ceiling mounted projector AND an Elmo, I will be putting the technology to full use. Can you believe that room was previously occupied by ISS? Total waste. And then the printer in my classroom broke down, and I was informed by IT that it will not be replaced. I tell you, I don’t understand what’s important to this district.
I need to grade a ton of papers, but I’ve been putting it off today. I was too tired to do any last night after moving my classroom, so I guess it’ll take up my Sunday. Kids like getting their graded papers back. Plus, there are a slew of assignments due on Monday, so I don’t want to get too behind. I’m usually too tired to get much done in the evenings after school.
I found a website that will let me create tests that are graded immediately. I plan to take advantage of that. I wish there was one that would grade essays. Sometimes it’s painful reading them, with so many kids struggling to write. I tend not to want to grade them harshly because I don’t want to discourage their efforts, but if I did, they’d mostly get “F’s.” Oh well…
It occurred to me that I probably should be teaching high school. My degree is for 7-12, and I find it challenging to teach children who read and write below grade level. I’m not trained to work with 4-6th grade reading levels. Plus, now the board has gone full steam with inclusion – which means special ed kids are mainstreamed into core classes. The concept is fine, but I, and other teachers like me, don’t have the training for special ed kids. It sometimes feels like we are doing them a disservice, and it certainly affects the brighter kids when we have to slow everything down for the low readers and special ed. It adversely affects the behavior of both groups.
Something’s definitely wrong. The art teacher couldn’t do a project with the kids because they can’t read rulers. The math teacher can’t teach grade level math because the kids can’t do math on their own. They need calculators, yet they don’t even understand math concepts well enough to know if the calculator is showing the right answer. The geography teacher can’t get the kids to pass her very simple tests because they can’t read. We’re all just spinning our wheels. Somewhere along the line, some non-teaching idiot got the bright idea that kids should be given ‘fun’ activities to help them learn. Plus, they should be allowed to ‘draw’ pictures of their thoughts and ideas. What that’s led to are kids who are constantly complaining about being bored and others who will sneek and draw through whole class periods in core subjects. We ain’t Sesame Street doggoneit! They need to back off of that process. Getting educated is hard work – not games and doodling!
Ok, rant over. Actually, I’m in a good mood. I guess I’m just being contrary ’cause I can be. LOL.
