We Now Bring You The Previously Scheduled Lesson, Already In Progress
By now, everyone knows that the holiday season has the potential of being a rather stressful time. With numerous get togethers, gift giving and card sending it's a wonder any of us manage to accomplish anything else between the months of October and January.
Well I'm here to tell you the same applies in the world of education. The first four months of schools are ruled by milestone holidays. Everything from your writing assignments to your math activities have a Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas slant. The only problem with this is while the holidays keep on coming, so do the assessments. State mandated tests, I'm afraid, don't break for Santa Claus.
As a child, I relished any interruptions from my mundane, everyday school routine. Any chance to have an assembly that might prolong taking that test or getting less homework that night and I was all for it. It's only now as a teacher, however, that I know better.
In my district the entire month of November in particular is pretty much a joke. In order to better understand this, let me go through this November's activities with you.
November 1st-3rd ran like any other beginning of the month. But then the week after that we had "fall break". Some schools only have off the last two days of the week for the teacher's conferences in Atlantic City that very few teachers actually go to. Instead they're taking long weekends to beds and breakfasts or trying to get a leg up on holiday shopping. Best case scenario they are taking this time to come up with wishful thinking lessons they won't get to share with their class for weeks to come anyway. I hate to shatter the illusion, but it's true.
So finally, you return to school after a week of being lazy. Mind you this is a mere two months into school, period, so at this time the children were just getting over the lazy summer blues. Then November comes and you have to start all over again. So they return, sluggish and unsure of concepts they knew pretty well before they had the break. You want to proceed, full speed ahead, and then something happens.
The week after being off proved to be just as much of a joke this year. I was back on Monday and then off again on Tuesday for a professional workshop. Of course school was still in session, so then I had to come up with review/busy work for a substitute to do. What we'd be "reviewing" considering we'd only been back a day, beats me, so you end up giving them more practice on what they worked on their week off. You might think this is redundant but trust me, every little bit helps where I teach.
So Wednesday should resume as normal right? Wrong. That's because last Wednesday was class picture day! Not only was it class picture day, there was also Benchmark testing in the computer lab, something the kids have to do every nine weeks admist trick or treating and stuffing stockings. Constantly you're see sawing back and forth between having fun and assessing, you wonder how they know which mode to be in.
Now having class pictures and a test on the same day aren't that bad, but then they went and added another event to the same day. Apparently Wednesday also just had to be Take Your Parent To School Day. Not only was it Take Your Parent To School Day, there was NO LIMIT on how long the parent could attend and they could come and go as they pleased throughout the day.
Call me crazy, but when planning an event like this you might want to pick a month where things were slightly less insane, like May. May is good. School is almost over and the pressure is therefore, off. There are no big holidays looming and the kids are pretty much on automatic pilot anyway. But noooo. We schedule an event like this in the midst of the craziness. Normally I'd love to cater to the parents and have them do a fun, out of the box activity with their child. But time is of essence and craft making is just not high on the priority list of things to do. So you press on, hoping the parents who do attend understand.
I was worried about all of these things occuring at the same time, and with good reason. I had two parents in my room during Calendar math. It was the period before we were going for the computer test and I told them both that while under normal circumstances I'd love to have them, they really can't follow them to the lab as they might serve as a distraction. Both parents seemed to understand. It was the kids, however, who sometimes do not.
Right before we went to the computer lab we had this awkward amount of time. So I decided to go over another benchmark test the kids had taken, a pen and paper one. These are the kids of tests we have to give, but the parents never really have to see. Still I thought it might be interesting for them to see a different way their children were assessed. But after the parents left and the children went to the lab, one of the girls whose mom had gone started hysterically crying. This was because she didn't do so great on one part of the last benchmark test and she was afraid her mom was mad at her. I had to spend 10 minutes trying to calm her down, not only about the last test, but for the new test that sat before her. Naturally, since she was upset, she bombed it.
And this my friends concludes the tale of why we shouldn't have these events scheduled on the same day.
By the time Thursday rolled around I actually welcomed them throwing extra activities at me. This was because the rest of the week was a wash anyhow, so we might as well go 0-5. So Thursday morning, when they said we were having a Fire Safety Presentation in the cul-de-sac I got that hysterical, high-pitched insane laughter that kicks in when I'm under stress. Nevermind that fire safety month was October and that these kids know how to stop, drop and roll with the best of them. No, for some reason we had to have this event in the middle of November, too. It's like being on The Amazing Race and thinking you're done with this leg of the race and then Phil throws in another roadblock for you.
Of course, no week would be complete without Friday. On Friday we had the guidance counselor come in and teach. She was making up for another day she had missed as she felt the crunch, too. We also had something called RIF which stands for Reading Is Fundamental. A middle school student comes in and reads a story to the class. The kids also get free books through the program. The whole thing only lasts about 20 minutes, but when it's right in the middle of a day in the middle of a week where you haven't been able to accomplish much of anything, it wouldn't matter if it were 20 minutes or two hours. Numerous interruptions, no matter how big or small, or still interruptions, plain and simple.
So now we are headed into this week of school. Of course you can't really call it a week considering we will only be there two and a half days before it was Thanksgiving. And on Monday the "pilgrims land" landed our shores, Tuesday we had the 4th Grade Show and today is only a half day.
Have no fear. When we return after Thanksgiving we have a solid week of school! Oh, did I mention this is also the same week we have parent/teacher conferences and report card distribution? You know, to give out all the grades for the assignments the kids haven't gotten to do?!
I'm dead serious about the May suggestion. May's like the awkward kid out in field, just waiting for you to pass him the ball. Put him in coach. He's ready to play.
Well I'm here to tell you the same applies in the world of education. The first four months of schools are ruled by milestone holidays. Everything from your writing assignments to your math activities have a Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas slant. The only problem with this is while the holidays keep on coming, so do the assessments. State mandated tests, I'm afraid, don't break for Santa Claus.
As a child, I relished any interruptions from my mundane, everyday school routine. Any chance to have an assembly that might prolong taking that test or getting less homework that night and I was all for it. It's only now as a teacher, however, that I know better.
In my district the entire month of November in particular is pretty much a joke. In order to better understand this, let me go through this November's activities with you.
November 1st-3rd ran like any other beginning of the month. But then the week after that we had "fall break". Some schools only have off the last two days of the week for the teacher's conferences in Atlantic City that very few teachers actually go to. Instead they're taking long weekends to beds and breakfasts or trying to get a leg up on holiday shopping. Best case scenario they are taking this time to come up with wishful thinking lessons they won't get to share with their class for weeks to come anyway. I hate to shatter the illusion, but it's true.
So finally, you return to school after a week of being lazy. Mind you this is a mere two months into school, period, so at this time the children were just getting over the lazy summer blues. Then November comes and you have to start all over again. So they return, sluggish and unsure of concepts they knew pretty well before they had the break. You want to proceed, full speed ahead, and then something happens.
The week after being off proved to be just as much of a joke this year. I was back on Monday and then off again on Tuesday for a professional workshop. Of course school was still in session, so then I had to come up with review/busy work for a substitute to do. What we'd be "reviewing" considering we'd only been back a day, beats me, so you end up giving them more practice on what they worked on their week off. You might think this is redundant but trust me, every little bit helps where I teach.
So Wednesday should resume as normal right? Wrong. That's because last Wednesday was class picture day! Not only was it class picture day, there was also Benchmark testing in the computer lab, something the kids have to do every nine weeks admist trick or treating and stuffing stockings. Constantly you're see sawing back and forth between having fun and assessing, you wonder how they know which mode to be in.
Now having class pictures and a test on the same day aren't that bad, but then they went and added another event to the same day. Apparently Wednesday also just had to be Take Your Parent To School Day. Not only was it Take Your Parent To School Day, there was NO LIMIT on how long the parent could attend and they could come and go as they pleased throughout the day.
Call me crazy, but when planning an event like this you might want to pick a month where things were slightly less insane, like May. May is good. School is almost over and the pressure is therefore, off. There are no big holidays looming and the kids are pretty much on automatic pilot anyway. But noooo. We schedule an event like this in the midst of the craziness. Normally I'd love to cater to the parents and have them do a fun, out of the box activity with their child. But time is of essence and craft making is just not high on the priority list of things to do. So you press on, hoping the parents who do attend understand.
I was worried about all of these things occuring at the same time, and with good reason. I had two parents in my room during Calendar math. It was the period before we were going for the computer test and I told them both that while under normal circumstances I'd love to have them, they really can't follow them to the lab as they might serve as a distraction. Both parents seemed to understand. It was the kids, however, who sometimes do not.
Right before we went to the computer lab we had this awkward amount of time. So I decided to go over another benchmark test the kids had taken, a pen and paper one. These are the kids of tests we have to give, but the parents never really have to see. Still I thought it might be interesting for them to see a different way their children were assessed. But after the parents left and the children went to the lab, one of the girls whose mom had gone started hysterically crying. This was because she didn't do so great on one part of the last benchmark test and she was afraid her mom was mad at her. I had to spend 10 minutes trying to calm her down, not only about the last test, but for the new test that sat before her. Naturally, since she was upset, she bombed it.
And this my friends concludes the tale of why we shouldn't have these events scheduled on the same day.
By the time Thursday rolled around I actually welcomed them throwing extra activities at me. This was because the rest of the week was a wash anyhow, so we might as well go 0-5. So Thursday morning, when they said we were having a Fire Safety Presentation in the cul-de-sac I got that hysterical, high-pitched insane laughter that kicks in when I'm under stress. Nevermind that fire safety month was October and that these kids know how to stop, drop and roll with the best of them. No, for some reason we had to have this event in the middle of November, too. It's like being on The Amazing Race and thinking you're done with this leg of the race and then Phil throws in another roadblock for you.
Of course, no week would be complete without Friday. On Friday we had the guidance counselor come in and teach. She was making up for another day she had missed as she felt the crunch, too. We also had something called RIF which stands for Reading Is Fundamental. A middle school student comes in and reads a story to the class. The kids also get free books through the program. The whole thing only lasts about 20 minutes, but when it's right in the middle of a day in the middle of a week where you haven't been able to accomplish much of anything, it wouldn't matter if it were 20 minutes or two hours. Numerous interruptions, no matter how big or small, or still interruptions, plain and simple.
So now we are headed into this week of school. Of course you can't really call it a week considering we will only be there two and a half days before it was Thanksgiving. And on Monday the "pilgrims land" landed our shores, Tuesday we had the 4th Grade Show and today is only a half day.
Have no fear. When we return after Thanksgiving we have a solid week of school! Oh, did I mention this is also the same week we have parent/teacher conferences and report card distribution? You know, to give out all the grades for the assignments the kids haven't gotten to do?!
I'm dead serious about the May suggestion. May's like the awkward kid out in field, just waiting for you to pass him the ball. Put him in coach. He's ready to play.
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