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In Reply to: RE: Art Dudley - Listening, Nov. 2014 posted by RGA on November 17, 2014 at 00:02:16
Much of what is stated is true, but i have no issues with teaching the special needs students and many that I do teach will receive reg ed diplomas, which is a good thing. Many of them work harder than some reg ed students. The issue is that you cannot come to high school with very poor basic skills, the inability to work simple problems in your head (thinking on your feet), and spend more time worrying about your next text message or tweet. There are kids who never put their cells phones away and are constantly trying to find a place to charge them. In my room all the wall outlets have their circuit breakers off as there is no charging in my classroom. Administrators do nothing about this issue which is really hurting ed in America.
If we don't start creating proficiency standards that are part of the End Of Course Mastery tests we will never improve our system. By 3rd & 4th grade you must be able to complete 100 addition, 100 subtraction, & 100multiplication problems in 8 minutes; 2's through 9's. They should each be their own test. At the end of 5th grade that same time must be under 5 minutes. Most competent adults can do it in 2.5 minutes. There can be no alteration to this standard if you want successful high school math students. This would be a tremendous help to middle school math teachers as their curriculum does not afford them the time to catch these shortcomings up. So on their master tests getting 50% right is passing. That is no standard to be proud of.
Eventually the Kiosk at fast food places will be turned around, customers will place their own orders and no cash exchanged hands, but will be dispensed by a machine that will take $1, $5, and $20's and spit out your change. We have too many people now in this country who can't give out proper coinage. More jobs will be lost.
I'm afraid we are too far down this slippery slope to fix it. Certainly not coming from Washington of in Common core.
Jim Tavegia
Follow Ups:
James I teach English in Hong Kong and have three special ed kids in my main class and there are several I'd rather have than some of my regular kids. Some special ed kids are far easier to teach. Why? Because they have less FEAR of speaking English - they don;t have the "shy trigger" of worrying about being perfect. So in fact these students are dream boats to teach because I can actually have a conversation with them. And when you've been here 4 years you really want to be able to have some conversations. Being essentially an ESL teacher the entire school for me is a special educational need. They are all low level students in English, but they are also generally poor in all their other subjects. We have a 17% mathematics passing rate. We may have 2-3 students out of 100 (equivalent grade 12) that will make the minimum to enter a university. And I am being optimistic. Out of those 2-3 it is more than likely they will fail something that will have them fall short. They will have a chance at an associate degree though.
In your case it seems to me that some of this seems to be because at certain points pendulums swung away from wrote learning and memorizing the times table. I know some hate the word "Times" but...
Cell Phones are a disaster. In Hong Kong (the land of cell phones) students come to school with their cell phone in a zip lock bag and hand it over to the main entry secretary. They have their name, class, number on the bag. You get it at the end of the day. No cell phones are allowed in class. PERIOD!
Sometimes they get caught. If so parents are contacted. Student gets 1 demerit. 10 demerits in the year they repeat the entire grade and all subjects. Students can get merits for good behavior but it takes 10 good merits to erase 1 demerit.
But the west continues to coddle kids ridiculously and so basically teachers get walked on, and there isn't thing one you can do about it. In England it was to the point where if a student physically assaulted you you were not allowed to defend yourself. If you did you would be fired. Don't worry - if it hasn't already started in the US it soon will.
No I'm not suggesting corporal punishment but High Schools often look more like prisons these days rather than safe and warm and inviting and fun educational centers. It's kinda hard to learn diddly when you're looking over your shoulder for the bully or seemingly these days much much worse than the bully.
Lastly, In Hong Kong we have the Octopus card. You can fill the card with money at any 7/11 or train station or various other shops. Put $100 on it. You then don;t need to carry cash. You can go to McDonalds and swipe the card, or Starbucks, or use it at vending machines, taxis, buses. It is entirely possible to walk around and never carry any cash. therefore no one has to give change. It's rather brilliant. You can also buy a watch that has the card built in so just swipe the wrist over the reader - beep - done. FAST. And it always tells you how much you have left on your card.
With a 17% passing rate in Math - well it's kind of a necessity. :-)
Thanks for sharing that info. It is very enlightening, and sad for sure. if kids ever needed a reason for a distraction surely our electronics has done that.
I'm 67 and still teach, but I think that I will see a cashless America before I kick. I'd be very surprised if I didn't. I never carry and cash anymore.
Jim Tavegia
Thanks for clarification. This forum is hardly the place to get into a real discussion over the Common Core, standardized testing, or what skills students should master by a particular grade. No doubt you are doing your damndest to teach your students. One thing is easy to agree on: this is a very tough time to be a teacher.
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