Teacher Appreciation

Apparently, I was a teacher in the golden years of teaching.  I feel so blessed that I was there then and not now.  Suddenly, the test seems to be the thing.  Kids get tested regularly no matter how old they are.
When I taught school, the kids were the thing.  I spent time getting to know children and focusing on their needs and learning styles.
I worked hard to present concepts that my students would need not only in the classroom but in life.  That included socialization and teamwork and responsibility.  I think it's sad that a first grader in Ohio is expected to know where to put a comma in a dictated sentence they are writing rather than know how to get along with the kid in the next desk.
I worked in Kindergarten for many years.  Sometimes I was the first person to say NO and mean it.  Sometimes I was the first adult that a kid could trust to be there.  Sometimes I was the person who fed them.  I got to introduce my students to good literature and wonderful songs.  We laughed and did silly things.  We worked in teams and played in centers and guess what, THEY LEARNED.
It probably looked like chaos to some but it was organized chaos where children chose activities from the ones I presented and then went to it.  At the time we called it taking ownership of the learning.
You know who has the ownership of the learning now?  It's not teachers, it's sure not the kids, it is state government. The only way the state knows how to evaluate children is to give a test and another test and another test.  Teachers are bogged down in paperwork and children are presented material that they are developmentally not ready for.
Everyone says that education is in a terrible place.  Kids graduate from school unable to read. Well, I think I have the answer to that and it isn't a test.  Let kids be kids when they are little.  Stop forcing them to be little adults before their time.  Let kids from Kindergarten to third grade have fun.  Let them learn at their own pace. If we build a strong base of knowledge, the students will be able to thrive.
Now in Ohio, if you can't read at the 3rd grade level by the end of third grade, there you stay until you do.  That seems so wrong to me.  Why not extend the time kids spend in K-2?  Let them grow.  They'll learn I promise.
So, thanks teachers.  I feel your pain and I am so proud to know that you never give up on your students or yourselves.  Keep up the good work and keep praying for the golden years to come back.

An Educational Rant

I am so angry and upset about the education of our young children I can hardly speak.  I am so tired of hearing data, data, data.  Children are not data.  They are unpredictable little entities that surprise you when you least expect it.
Support the data.  What does that even mean? Children are not a science experiment. Children need to explore and try and choose.  They need to take ownership of their learning.  Now what the heck does that mean?  It means the child has to buy into what you want her to do.  Our responsibility as educators is to set up the environment so the child wants to perform or try or take a chance.
There is no scientific pattern for how a child learns.  There are stages that every child passes through but not on an assigned day at an assigned time.  In other words, If Jo and Moe were both born on May 1, 2000 you would not expect them both to learn to walk on May 1, 2001.  That would be downright silly, right?  But Jo and Moe are expected to enter school on the same day, learn the alphabet letters on the same day, etc.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  Setting up unreasonable goals is setting our education system up for failure.
Then the blame game begins.  The superintendent blames the principal and the principal blames the teacher.  There is no one to blame, the blame is in the fundamental idea behind the program!  Why can't anyone see that?  If you exit the classroom and go on to bigger and better things( a matter of opinion) why do you forget what children are like?
And politicians are the worst.  They are supposedly educated people who went to college even.  Didn't they take psychology 101?  A lot of them are parents too.  Did they not see their children develop?  Why is this such a hard concept for them--every kid is different and learns in her own time.  This is not hard to catch on to.  It is as plain as the nose on your face.
Teachers of young children know that school has to be fun and engaging and well-rounded for every kind of learner.  When you take away their ability to do that by standardizing and data collecting you take away the opportunity for them to do their job.
Once again, I ask that you look back on your school years.  Which classes did you like the most?  Which teacher was your favorite?  I bet if you think about it  you liked those classes and teachers because THEY WERE FUN!
Children are not guinea pigs or lab rats.  They are developing human beings who need to be taught from the heart and the mind.  Give children a chance to be children and they will grow to be educated adults.