Welcome! You made it through 166 other blogs to find me. If
you did, you probably read through several other blogs and coming to this spot
you hope to find something useful. I guess not. I read through several of them
every day but tend not to find much new material. It seems most people do not
blog on a regular bases. Teachers just do not have time to sit a blog when they
are trying to get ready for another day, another conference, another student, another
lesson, another dollar.
I don’t have that worry anymore. Oh I am still teaching but
only part time. I left my high pressure, full time job of 167 students a day
for a more LOW pressure private school with only 30 students a day. Most of
them are a handful each day but there are a few that I will really miss come
May. I have taught these students for the last two years – as 7th
graders in a weekly Art in Literature and now in history class. Some of them
have been angels and some have become the devil.
I try to love them and give them everything I have but some
just don’t want to become ‘students’. Many of them have attitudes that the
world owes them everything. They are in a private school and their parents have
PAID for their education so they want an “A” no matter how much or how little
they do. I am tired of that. I saw it last year with a girl how should have
failed but the administration wanted her to pass – they even changed one of her
history grades so she would pass. This year she is struggling big time in high
school and can’t even change school because she didn’t take the LEAP test to
get into public school.
She has to stay at the local Catholic school and just make
what she makes. I could have worked with her last year but was told NO….. and
off she went to fail somewhere else. At the Catholic high school she no longer
has ‘helicopter’ parents who can force the school to GIVE her the grades. She
was ‘babied’ through our campus for 8 years I am told.
I want to help students since I HAVE been in public middle
schools for the past 23 years. I know what is expected and I know what they need
to learn but the administration tells me to just get them through school.
The administration is a little bit better this year than last
year and I am a little bit better by not failing anyone due to the administration’s
push. I just “go with the flow” and earn my check. I hate this bit “it is what
it is”.
Where I used to teach, in Illinois, no student ever failed because it was deemed detrimental to his/her social-emotional wellbeing. Now, teaching in Louisiana, I have multiple students who have failed grades. At first, I thought this was great because it meant there was some accountability. I personally believe that grade levels should be determined by ability, not age.
ReplyDeleteI learned quickly, however, that there are still too many students who get passed through the system because it's easier than dealing with them year after year (and because of the pressure on teachers to pass Special Education students). Now, I'm stuck with 8th graders who "must" pass the LEAP to get into high school but can't read beyond a first grade level. It's so frustrating!
I hate it now, but hey, the school pays me the same if they fail or if they pass. Oh well, it becomes someone else’s problem. I just work with all those who will let me. Next year's eighth graders will be all mine. They have known I will be teaching 8th grade La history all along so things will be a bit better.
DeleteI hope I can get back to doing what I love and in a way that benefits all the students.
I wish I could say the same. Unfortunately, my salary is directly tied to how well my students perform on the LEAP.
Delete