Teachers all across the district are being told to use more IReady the district's computer program du jour as it hastens the replacement of its teachers with trained chimps who can press pay on a VCR. I kid some but the use of EngageNY has already eliminated a significant amount of creativity and innovation that teachers used to be encouraged to do.
One elementary teacher explained that since the computer lab was often used for the ad naseum testing the district claims to have scaled back that just leaves the four computers in her class and that there just isn't enough time in the day to carry out the districts new computer plan.
Other teachers lucky enough to have access to computer carts lament the loss of time it takes to get them, unpack them and set children up on them which was already substantial but is bound to increase as the district mandates they use them more.
Then everyone is concerned how this will affect ESE and ESOL learners who often need more individual and small group instruction.
Nobody is against using technology to help their kids learn but at the same time few people think it can be used to replace our teachers. The district also needs to rethink it's policy of frequently changing course in the middle of the nine weeks and requiring teachers to do more than what is possible, which are both SOP in the district..
Ultimately the district needs to decide what they want, the trained chimps from paragraph one or competent professionals practicing their craft. Unfortunately it seems like they want more of the former.
One elementary teacher explained that since the computer lab was often used for the ad naseum testing the district claims to have scaled back that just leaves the four computers in her class and that there just isn't enough time in the day to carry out the districts new computer plan.
Other teachers lucky enough to have access to computer carts lament the loss of time it takes to get them, unpack them and set children up on them which was already substantial but is bound to increase as the district mandates they use them more.
Then everyone is concerned how this will affect ESE and ESOL learners who often need more individual and small group instruction.
Nobody is against using technology to help their kids learn but at the same time few people think it can be used to replace our teachers. The district also needs to rethink it's policy of frequently changing course in the middle of the nine weeks and requiring teachers to do more than what is possible, which are both SOP in the district..
Ultimately the district needs to decide what they want, the trained chimps from paragraph one or competent professionals practicing their craft. Unfortunately it seems like they want more of the former.
Our school was 1 minute...I kid you not, 1 minute short of the "acceptable" usage minutes on I-Ready....a district coach was sent to check things out! SERIOUSLY!
ReplyDeleteAt every conference I've attended for my son the past 2 years, teachers went from suggesting to recommending he get on i-Ready more at home. At the end of the day, these children need to be READING and WRITING more, not being stuck in front of a computer for 30+ minutes at school and some more at home for some ridiculous quota. I feel bad for the teachers, they really want to do everything they can to help their students. But I am seeing more and more that this county does not respect teachers or parents. I am considering moving my child to a private school, where at least I know he will receive direct instruction from an adult, not a computer program.
ReplyDeleteWe had a big meeting today at my elementary school. We aren't using i-Ready and Achieve3000 enough.Too bad most of our laptops on the big and expensive carts don't work. The District has told us repeatedly that they won't fix them because they no longer service Apple computers. In the meantime, my kids will be waiting ten minutes for the few working computers that we have to boot up and log in. That doesn't even include the time it takes for the web browser to open and for my kids to figure out their user name and password.
ReplyDeleteTesting over the past week has been fun as well. I had students sobbing because their computers stopped working in the middle of the test and they thought that they were going to be punished for not completing it. Seriously! Performance Matters kept having connection issues and caused a box to pop up that blocked text and wouldn't go away. I had a few browsers crash. The internet dropped out numerous times. The mice and keyboards randomly stopped working. I had one kid hit the exit button for Session One that completely ended his test. The list goes on and on. It was a complete fiasco. At least those students had a computer. I had several who didn't because there weren't enough to go around.
If the District wants to require our students to do an increased amount of work on the computer, then fine. However, they need to stop yelling at us until they give us what we need to do what they want.