Can you sit still for 2 hours?

[sammytko]

I'm back in school working on an interdisciplinary degree - 4 - 8th grade Math. Some of our ed classes require that we put in some hours at local schools. This is not student teaching, but just observation. This helps you decide if you are in the right field.

I started out working with elementary - not for me. Now I'm at the Jr. High level and again, its just not working out. It's not the kids; it's the system.

The class periods are 2 hours long! Heck even in college the old Tues/Thurs classes have been shortened to 70 minutes. I was used to spending a solid 90 minutes in class during my college days back in the 70s. Even in military classes we had breaks every 50 minutes.

I swear the school feels like a prison. The teacher follows a strict day by day schedule developed by a math consultant. She teaches 3 2-hr classes and says the same thing. She is exhausted by the end of the day, so was I. It seemed more of a performance than teaching.

i worked with some of the kids when they were in 5th. A couple of them couldn't do multiplication then and they still can't. This is Texas - land of "NCLB" - I think someone is cheating on the TAKS - how else did they pass? How do they not have individual help.

I was excited when she told me that they did enrichment training after lunch for the low performers. I thought great! i want to work with those kiddos. But it turned out to be 20 minutes of math bingo or some little worksheet. Nothing one on one or getting to the root of the problem.

And what is with the planners. The teacher has to go around stamping thier planners whenever they finish a sequence. It feels very CYAish.

I think i'm done with public school. i'll go ahead and get my degree and certification. Then maybe start a tutoring service or small charter school...

[Captain Hilts]

1. No, I cannot. nt

[FSogol]

2. Instead of giving up teaching, why not look for a more progressive school system? n/t

[sammytko]

5. that's why I'm thinking of doing my own thing

i love it when a kid "gets" it. No other feeling in the world.

[ret5hd]

3. Do i get ritalin first?

[ensho]

4. if interested in something I can sit for 2 hrs. - and tutors will be and are

in demand.

a growing business.

[Obamanaut]

6. Start a small charter school? I thought we don't like those here. It's

public school or nothing, or so it seems. Doesn't matter that they are failing - both the schools and the kids.

[madfloridian]

8. Yes, start your own charter school. Then you don't have to keep kids who don't do well.

You just send them back to the public schools that are being destroyed so charter schools can bloom.

No regulations, just do your own thing.

There are so many groups and corporations starting up charter schools, soon there will be too many to fill.

And there won't be a public school there waiting to take those kids back.

[sammytko]

10. no, my school would be for the low performers

those are the kids i want to work with.

[MilesColtrane]

19. But, you won't be taking low performers who can't pay....right?

[sammytko]

20. yes, why not

[sammytko]

21. should add that i am independently wealthy

don't have to work or go to school - just something i like to do.

[Brickbat]

15. +1.

Well said. I can't add a thing.

[Peregrine]

16. Then you don't have to keep ...

Yes you do. Charters are under the same rules for attendance as public schools. Now you can suggest to a parent that he/she should move his/her beloved, but they don't have to. The charter established by the public school board can set entrance requirements for a charter, but once in a student can only be removed by the parent or the public school board.

We actually have parents threatening to take their children out because our teachers are too hard. We have "honor" students from last year (under a different company) that scored below grade level on the FCAT that are now getting D's and F's.

[sammytko]

17. you are correct peregrine - can't just kick kids out

one charter school in San Antonio tried to do that, and boy was there hell to pay. They didn't want a couple of students to mess up their test scores.

[madfloridian]

7. It's called a scripted curriculum. It will kill public schools....just like the NCLB is doing.

There were many years when teachers were allowed to be creative and design their own lesson plans. Then Reagan decided that public schools were bad, and he and the Republicans spent the next two decades tearing them down.

The Democrats with their DLC think tank leading the way got on board the "public schools are bad" train.

It is the death of schools by testing and rote learning, and Arne Duncan loves it.

[sammytko]

9. i was shocked when she told me they had a consultant

our district is not exactly swimming in money. And for what they pay for - I could do the same thing in my spare time.

There was another strange incident. I spoke with 2 of the teachers after school for a few minutes. They kept saying the same thing over and over again. I was in the military for 22 yrs. I'm used to "say it once" and move on. These were 2 adults having a conversation. I don't think I could handle that all day long.

Maybe we've both been institutionalized - military and school. Spending too much time in both.

[meow2u3]

11. I can't sit still for 30 minutes, much less 2 hours!

I'm a middle-aged woman struggling with a lifelong state of ADHD and I couldn't sit still for as much as half an hour without unwittingly annoying the people sitting next to me--at least, not without first taking my Ritalin!

I could never sit through this instructor's classes without being distracted by internal restlessness.

[debbierlus]

12. I can.

But, I am just really slow paced. As is my daughter (too much so)...

Laid back family here

:)

[sammytko]

13. She sets a timer for each worksheet she hands out

They have 10 minutes or so to complete. They go over it and then another project is handed out. No time for the slow ones.

[debbierlus]

28. Oh, that wouldn't work with my girl. She has a bit of a willful personality

She would throw it in her face, tell her it is too much pressure and just leave the room for the principle's office.

Needless to say, I have to go to more then a few parent/teacher meetings.

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. I would go crazy if it was that regimented.

I don't care if it was a 30 minute block. I'd go crazy.

If the school isn't mandating that she teach with such a structure, then I'd want to rethink it. If that's the only way to get through each section, then it's stamp the planner or her job.

[sammytko]

18. the school paid for this curriculum

[Are_grits_groceries]

24. I'm outta there if

it has to be run that way. i would go crazy, and the kids aren't learning a damn thing except that they are failures. They aren't failures at anything except the curriculum from hell. However, they won't feel it like that.

If I was a smart kid and had to go through that rote shit, I probably would screw it up just out of boredom.

Welcome to Arne's world.

When I taught, my kids would sit at their seats in godawful positions at times. I didn't care as long as they were paying attention and doing the work. One week, I let them make themselves at home however on the huge science tables in the room. they got the work done and were more comfortable to boot.

I was reported to the gestapo and had to quit it.

Meh!

[Ron Green]

22. There's nothing wrong with 2-hour classes, but it's got to be done right.

Brain research shows that 20-minute activities are optimal chunks of time for learning, and a 2-hour block allows for six of these. I think a good teacher can make a long block of time work very well, as opposed to the 50-minute (or shorter) period that throws the whole school into class-changing hell every hour, six or seven times a day.

[moc]

23. Just curious what school district you're in. I've got two school-age kids in PIano

schools - one in 2nd and one in 8th. Nothing they experience in the classroom sounds remotely like what you describe. Class length in middle school is about 45-50 minutes.

[Ron Green]

25. That's just the insanity to which I'm referring above.

A 45- or 50-minute class means that just as everyone is settled in and moving in the appropriate direction, it's suddenly time to get back out in the hallway for grab-ass and socializing. This kind of scheduling assures that the short attention span is maintained, officially sanctioned by the school district.

[niyad]

26. only if reading a really good book

[Jakes Progress]

27. Best not to try teaching.

If you think that a two hour time block is supposed to be two hours of sitting, then you need more education. I taught 60 and 90 minute blocks and would have been thrilled to get 2 hours. My classes never sat and listened. Learning is an active experience. Kids have to go after it, not have it given to them. Teaching is about creating the kind of place where the kids go get it.

Best system I ever saw was in a New York City school that used three hour blocks - one for Math/Science and one for Humanities. When I visited that school, which I did four times, kids were alive and humming. Teachers were totally involved.

You are in a crap school. You will find the same percentage of crap in private schools, charter schools, and in home schools.

And yes all my years of teaching were done in Texas schools.

[a la izquierda]

29. I can't sit still for 30 minutes...

thankfully, the class i teach is only 50 minutes. It keeps me from getting totally bored.

[Barack_America]

30. Have you looked into Waldorf Schools?

Based on the education philosophy of Rudolf Steiner?

http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/

They are basically the "anti-teach to the test" schools.

[conscious evolution]

31. Waldorf gets my reccomendation

There is one next door to me.The kids there seem to be getting a very good education.

And I was extremely skeptical of them at first.