Jumping the Shark is a television term which basically says a show has run out of idea so it tries ridiculous things. Well friends in today's Times Union, Superintendent Vitti jumped the shark.
From the Times Union:
Him saying and thinking so shows he does not have idea one what teachers do and think.
That however wasn't the only ridiculous thing that he said. When addressing recess he said.
“At this point, I don’t feel comfortable putting constraints on our teachers,” Vitti said.
Um has he not seen the pacing guide, the scripted lessons, the two page lesson plans, is he not aware of the gotcha walk throughs from district staff, their insistence that all classrooms be uniform? All the district does is put constraints on its teachers and he has to know that!!!!!!!
He has no problem putting ridiculous constraints on teachers in other areas but hey with recess, he can't touch that one.
Friends, um, err, what?!?
Vitti continues to fundamentally misunderstand teachers and then in my opinion attempts to blatantly mislead about how the district is run. For shame.
From the Times Union:
Money could also be a factor. Prior to last year, pay wasn’t tied to student gains. Now, the district determines salaries based on teacher performance — and one way of determining performance is through state testing.
That, Vitti said, leads teachers to become more possessive of their classroom time.
Sorry I just spit out my milk. There are zero teachers in Duval County who say to themselves let me make my kids miserable and lets drill a little more so I can get paid. None. Nadda, Zilch. There are also zero teachers in Duval County who think their kids need two and a half hours of ELA each and every day and couldn't use 20 minutes of free play. Him saying and thinking so shows he does not have idea one what teachers do and think.
That however wasn't the only ridiculous thing that he said. When addressing recess he said.
“At this point, I don’t feel comfortable putting constraints on our teachers,” Vitti said.
Um has he not seen the pacing guide, the scripted lessons, the two page lesson plans, is he not aware of the gotcha walk throughs from district staff, their insistence that all classrooms be uniform? All the district does is put constraints on its teachers and he has to know that!!!!!!!
He has no problem putting ridiculous constraints on teachers in other areas but hey with recess, he can't touch that one.
Friends, um, err, what?!?
Vitti continues to fundamentally misunderstand teachers and then in my opinion attempts to blatantly mislead about how the district is run. For shame.
It is so constrained that on 2 different occasions at my school teachers that teach the same subject on the same grade level have been called in after walk throughs to be asked why they were not on the same lesson. So now, even though they supposedly put 'flex' days in the curr guide, we are still expected to be on the same lesson on the same day. What if my kids need more review? What if I have the inclusion class and I need to do go slower? After all, Vitti is the ESE advocate right? NOT!!!
ReplyDeleteThis would be a comedy if it weren't so tragic. First let me say, yes, as teachers we want to spend 2 and 1/2 hours on literacy skills. What we don't want to do is spend 45-60 minutes reading text to children that does not improve their own ability to read and that is out dated. While this K-2 read aloud program may improve listening and speaking skills is does nothing to make children better readers. I am including the 3-5 curriculum here because it too has teachers reading to children before they are expected to read the text. Even the research done on the program tells us that without the supplemental text in Children's hands they will not be able to read by te end of grade 2. We are reaping what we sow right not in first and second grade. No, we did not get these promised huge classrooms libraries. Yes, we did get some phonics books with Saxon, and these are very useful, but it is not what the program's research calls for. So, my first graders could tell me that we have an esophagus, they can't read the word lungs. Maybe being able to read independently and discern infomation On your own is not important to someone who relys on the gift of gab. Maybe being dyslexic and making it so far in life which is something to be proud of; worked for someone, but it won't be the same for our children. We do want to teach children to be literate, not at the cost of being mathematical or scientific thinkers, but we want to do it with materials and the support we need not mandates and bullies.
ReplyDeleteOur principal told us that the State is breathing down our necks about recess so she suggested we take our students outside for different structured activities. But isn't this missing the point. Recess is unstructured play. I don't understand why Vitti is so against this. I remember having recess twice a day growing up. Once in the morning. Once after lunch. Even on days we had PE(gasp). I'm sure we were more productive. Of course we didn't have this silly curriculum either.
ReplyDelete