Blog 14-Get ready for the "K-SAT"

I have taught kindergarten before and currently teach first grade so I have participated in kindergarten screening and I do find it an important tool for the school and future teachers. I recently found an article in the New York Times about the screening tests that are used for kindergarteners who want to get into a private school. On the east coasts kindergarten students are being assessed as part of an application process to the school. What is becoming a problem is that some parents are paying for special tutoring sessions to prep their youngster for the admissions test. Private schools are saying they frown upon tutoring for these students because they want the assessment to show the child’s true abilities not the tutoring sessions that teaches to the test.
I find all of this very interesting! First off, I agree that the screening or assessments used are only beneficial if is the true child’s abilities showing. I also cannot believe that parents are paying up to $1,000 for this special tutoring or books for home use that cost up to $90. These are four year olds so the information they need to know if information all parents should know and be able to teach. In my opinion a little parent involvement goes a long ways. I strongly believe that if parents play with their child frequently and “teach” them (play games, read books, talk about the world around them, etc) their child be a successful preschooler and do well in kindergarten. I also think these tutoring sessions are way too stressful for such a young child. The tutoring sessions work on aspects of the test and prepare a child to sit for an hour. An hour! I find that shocking. I have students who are six and seven and can’t sit for an hour, I don’t know if I believe that a three or four year old should be forced to sit that long. These are some of my own personal professional opinions on the matter and I would be interested in what others think. Would you pay for special tutoring?

Blog 13-To restain or not to restrain?

We all have diverse students in our classroom and in my personal opinion we are seeing more and more students with labels and unique situations. If you live under a rock or have a perfect classroom I’m talking about emotionally disturbed students, special education students, autistic students, etc. I had a large number of classes on these disabilities but I don’t think anything can train you for the real life situations. I currently have an emotionally disturbed child but his meds keep him in control and I’ve been lucky so far this year but that doesn’t mean I haven’t restrained a child. I work in a school with six classrooms (only K and 1) so we find out pretty quick if a child is losing it and if back up is needed. In the last couple years we have had a large number of students with emotional problems that cause them to be physically dangerous to themselves or others. Our district did its part and provided free training on how to properly deal with these students. The first steps are to prevent blow ups and the last resort is physical restraints. You might think, great you should be set to go but sadly I feel far from trained. I can’t even remember what the official class was called or the exact procedures.
I have had to restrain two separate students and it was very interesting. Neither of them were my students but I was a backup in one situation and I was the one teacher right there who had to handle the student before they ran away. It was a very tiring process and we honestly did not have any other option although I can say those two situations have been the only two in the last two years. Sadly, this isn’t the case in Texas.
I read an article from The Texas Tribune that stated there were 18,000 restraints used last year in their schools. There have even been a number of situations where a student was injured and in one situation a student died of suffocation when a teacher was sitting on him to restrain him. The article includes pictures of one injured student. Many Texans are outraged over these statistics. I understand that these statistics are scary but many of these situations are very dangerous at times. In one situation in Texas a student was restrained after he stabbed his teacher, call me crazy but I think restraints were necessary here. Another example I have happened right here in ND. A first grade student was going belligerent and could not be controlled but restraints are very much not urged. The special education teachers were doing their best without restraints and he ended up kicking a window and breaking it. Do you think a restraint should have been used before a window was broken? Have you had to restrain students? What should be done? Some schools have hired professionals that are very educated to handle these students but many schools might not have this privilege. What are your thoughts?

Blog 12-Teachers getting a grade

As teachers we are constantly assessing our students to ensure that they are being successful. We want our students to be given the best education so they can succeed in the future. Their best education starts with great educators and we know that there are fantastic educators out there; many of you are reading this. President Obama made a recent speech in Wisconsin stating that we need to give our students the best education so they can get degrees and work successfully in the job world. What can schools do to provide students the best education? To start we can make sure that the best educators are in the classroom. I think this is where we can start making some changes. I want you to think about how you as a teacher are evaluated. Currently in my teaching position I am evaluated once a year by my principal. After he observes one of my lessons we discuss what my strengths and weaknesses are and what needs to be improved. That right there in a nut shell is how my performance is evaluated. Once in awhile my principal pokes his head in and looks over my lessons plans when I email them weekly. In your opinion is this enough to evaluate a teacher’s performance? If we were grading our students, would one assessment be enough? Are you evaluated differently? Do you think schools are doing enough to evaluate their teacher’s performance?
In the article it discusses the current “firewall” that does not allow student’s test scores to measure teacher performance. Some propose that this changes. Wisconsin is possibility going to get rid of the current firewall and use test scores in the future to grade teacher’s performance. What are your thoughts on this? I think this could be a small component to use as a teacher evaluation. Do you think I’m totally crazy thinking this? I understand that a class can be very unique but some tests (MAP for example) shows growth for each student as individuals. Again, I think this should be a small way to evaluate a teacher. If a teacher’s students are continuously not showing progress on assessments wouldn’t that show something about the teacher? In Wisconsin, if test scores are eventually used to evaluate teacher’s performance it is guaranteed that teachers cannot receive suspension or terminations from their job from these results. I believe it would take more than test scores for that type of action.
More about Wisconsin’s decision to use test scores is included in this article. Some Chicago schools may also be starting to evaluate their teachers by student’s progress. This new move is being supported by Obama’s administration and has very mixed feelings. What are yours?

Blog 11-Bullies...what now?

I’m sure we can all think of a student who was/is bullied in school or on the school bus. It’s a sad situation and it seems to be getting worse. I have read a few articles about recent bullying and I’m starting to think it’s becoming more noticeable in younger grades and we aren’t doing enough about it.
I have seen two personal examples of recent bullying of a sixth grade and ninth grade boy. In both situations the bullying has been ongoing. In one situation spitting was the main form of bulling and it ended in punches and stolen money. The sixth grade situation was the typical vocal blows but it involved large amounts of swearing. It just amazes me that kids are swearing at such a young age and are using it bully situations. In an article from the New York Times a girl was raped by a group of men. It was done at the end of a dance in the school courtyard. The school has now increases security. Another article I read was from a local Mississippi newspaper. It discusses the rise of female bullies. Girls take bulling to a new level. They get very personal and emotional. This has become so popular that they have even made a movie called, Mean Girls.
So now that we know there is a huge problem what do we do as educators? Well I wish I had that easy answer but I don’t know if anyone does. I do have a suggestion for myself and any other educator. I think we need to start early, really early! I have seen kindergarten and first grade students (mainly girls) start “popular” groups or leave the same students out. As a teacher I know that some students don’t mesh well together and to be honest I try to avoid confrontation and I do not push students to work with students they don’t care for. I’m starting to think that I need to stop that and teach student’s tolerance and acceptance of different people. I want my students to learn that we don’t have to be best friends with everyone but we need to show mutual respect for everyone I think the younger we can start teaching this the better off we will be. As a teacher I also hope to promote an open door policy where student can always come to me if someone is bothering them. This is something I need to take seriously. I also want to be a fly on the wall as much as possible so I can know my students and try to prevent harmful bully situations.
I do not work with any type of older students and my bully problems can usually be handled easily but is there anything new happening out there to decrease bully situations? I was crushed when I heard of the two situations. I never would have guessed that students could be that mean. I feel that something has to be done or else we are going to have some scary situations to deal with.