From a reader:
We 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.
Testing 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.
We 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.
Testing 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.
Well, that would actually cost some time and money. I have a single desktop in my room. Explain to me how I am supposed to require Achieve 3000?
ReplyDeleteThe laptops are a nuisance; they never work. Ask the kids. They will tell you.
My kids also freaked out about the Scrimmage; why should they? It doesn't matter. None of it matters. It is a waste of time and money, but people do need to justify their jobs so....
We do it because the bullies downtown say we have to.
ReplyDeleteLooking at you Dr CD.