From a reader
This is so sad. I can say without a doubt that NBE was and is a truly excellent school. My daughter had the most wonderful teachers in her 6 years there! She's now with me at the middle school where I teach. (she doesn't go to the local Oceanway MS) We are experiencing the same insanity on the middle school level. She keeps up with her assignments, studies and understands the material. I'm very involved and hands-on like this mother mentioned, but it's never enough.
Here's just one example from her 8 classes. (Seriously! Last year they were in elementary and in MS there are 8 classes!!!!) She is really great in math and was placed in pre-algebra which is basically the standard for students a grade ahead of her. But.... her teacher has told me they have to move so fast to stay on the pacing guide. (Her math teacher is wonderful, BTW) This means that we can expect minimum of 1 hour of math per night. My daughter doesn't really mind because she loves math, but the problem is when she takes a test in that class she gets maybe a C. Strange, considering all her other math grades are A's. As a teacher, I can clearly see that they are moving so fast that they don't have time to truly MASTER and RETAIN the content before moving to the next concept. This is very frustrating!!
This is pretty much the way it's going in all 4 of her core classes. Oh and don't get me started on the projects they expect an 11 year old to produce on their own. I'm really seeing how many of our students are set up for failure.
All of this crazy DCPS insanity was stressful enough from a teaching standpoint, but having a front row seat to what's happening with my own child is making me angry. I'm thinking of quitting to home-school her. That might be better for both of us.
So, here's a thought. What if all the veteran teachers that know how things should be just up and decided they're going to work one day to teach the material the way it should be taught? Like a non-strike unified effort to take back the system and give these kids the education they need and deserve!! Seriously, think about it.
This is so sad. I can say without a doubt that NBE was and is a truly excellent school. My daughter had the most wonderful teachers in her 6 years there! She's now with me at the middle school where I teach. (she doesn't go to the local Oceanway MS) We are experiencing the same insanity on the middle school level. She keeps up with her assignments, studies and understands the material. I'm very involved and hands-on like this mother mentioned, but it's never enough.
Here's just one example from her 8 classes. (Seriously! Last year they were in elementary and in MS there are 8 classes!!!!) She is really great in math and was placed in pre-algebra which is basically the standard for students a grade ahead of her. But.... her teacher has told me they have to move so fast to stay on the pacing guide. (Her math teacher is wonderful, BTW) This means that we can expect minimum of 1 hour of math per night. My daughter doesn't really mind because she loves math, but the problem is when she takes a test in that class she gets maybe a C. Strange, considering all her other math grades are A's. As a teacher, I can clearly see that they are moving so fast that they don't have time to truly MASTER and RETAIN the content before moving to the next concept. This is very frustrating!!
This is pretty much the way it's going in all 4 of her core classes. Oh and don't get me started on the projects they expect an 11 year old to produce on their own. I'm really seeing how many of our students are set up for failure.
All of this crazy DCPS insanity was stressful enough from a teaching standpoint, but having a front row seat to what's happening with my own child is making me angry. I'm thinking of quitting to home-school her. That might be better for both of us.
So, here's a thought. What if all the veteran teachers that know how things should be just up and decided they're going to work one day to teach the material the way it should be taught? Like a non-strike unified effort to take back the system and give these kids the education they need and deserve!! Seriously, think about it.
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