Monday, March 17, 2014

A Massive rant - ignore this post

It sure has been a frustrating day so far - and it is far from over.  I really hate to use this platform as a place to vent and rant - but I am going to - and since few people actually read these posts - I'll not fear too many fellow slicers think ill of me.

Day 5 of SBA state testing!  Second session of Math.  We have worked on most of the concepts tested today ALL YEAR LONG.  Multiplication!!!???  Have we not practiced multiple ways to solve multiplication problems over and over and over again.  So tell me..... why are you - a gifted student - doing repeated addition and tally marks???   Division????  Have we not taken large numbers and broken them into equal groups repeatedly?  Have we not discussed what to do with remainders?  So - how can one kid spend almost 45 minutes staring at a division problem - knowing it is division - but not knowing how to even get started?
Then of course, there are all the problems that cover topics YET TO BE TAUGHT SINCE WE STILL HAVE 2 WHOLE MONTHS LEFT OF SCHOOL.  It is beyond frustrating to watch student after student - good students - great students - wither and frown because they don't know what the question is asking or they don't know how to solve it.

Add to this the kid who has spent all year not being his own self, but copying and mimicking absolutely everything his friend does or says.  I literally mean everything.  Not letting them work together has not solved the problem.  If E says something, J will say the same thing.  If E left his coat on the playground, so did J.  If E gets hurt, lo and behold, J gets hurt.  Today I once again found them both downstairs at the nurse's office.  E had a stomach ache.  I didn't stick around to hear J's complaint.  I was too mad.  Parents have been informed but have refused to reply.

Finally, I learned that one male teacher told a brand new, young female teacher today that he could no longer work with her or collaborate with her because his wife would not allow him to work with young, pretty women.  She went crying to a colleague and then they both went to the principal - who decided to back the male teacher - saying this was his right to do.  She feels discriminated against simply because of how she looks.  Hmmmmmmm - sounds like sexual harassment to me.

I feel this place has gone crazy - or I have.  Or both.

Quote of the day: My recipe for dealing with anger and frustration: set the kitchen timer for twenty minutes, cry, rant, and rave, and at the sound of the bell, simmer down and go about business as usual.
          ~Phyllis Diller

5 comments:

  1. Oh I know these rants! It is not you - hang in there! Spring is coming the crazy tests will end and you can hope to really teach for a few more weeks.
    Thinking about you! Breath! :)

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  2. Oh, no! I'm so glad I'm not the only one! Well, I have to say that back in February I was feeling this way -- before testing! But the predictive assessment showed my students were fine, and 23 out of 47 of them increased their standardized test "predictive" scores by at least 5%! It will be ok once spring shows. Hang in there!

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  3. So frustrating to watch kids take these tests! I stopped looking too closely so as not to cause myself agony. Of course, on the last round of testing one of my strong readers managed to not put any answers in the answer booklet!

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  4. Sometimes you just have to take a moment to rant. It is frustrating to see kids not do what you know they are capable of doing. When will the testing madness end?

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  5. Your frustration about testing is understandable. When I get frustrated with MAP test, I remind myself that I have my own assessments and evidence to show student learning and growth. The situation about the teachers sounds ridiculous. I have never heard of anything like that.

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