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Apr. 30th, 2019 09:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyress((This is a pretty self-based entry, so there's names and terminology and stuff I don't bother to elaborate or footnote or expand on. If there's anything you can't guess from context, feel free to ask for specifics. Unless it's the name of the school I work at, which I don't share online.))
I am feeling weirdly morose today, forno good reason. We did have a Very Hard PD in NEST today where we talked about grading and what freedoms we have. What would it look like if we asked the students how they wanted to be graded? How would that change things?
Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is and try out a class where I do promise the students a passing grade? I don't know. That's a lot. I'm terrified of trying to negotiate some of that with a class of students where they don't speak the same language.
And it's _so hard_ to decouple passing grades from graduating classes. If I could just say to a student "yes, you did a really good job with effort and showed that you are willing to put in the work, but you still Just Don't Know The Content so you get a passing grade but have to take Algebra 1 again next year" like...that would be such a good option! That would help a lot with the ability to run classes faster or slower, and try to actually pace them to student needs. But as things stand, if a student passes, they go to Geometry. A student cannot go to Geometry without a working knowledge/background of Algebra.
How do we fix a broken system when we're in the middle of a broken system?
And I mean, I feel like I can do a _lot_ of this nonsense with my Discrete/Data classes (where I am not beholden to anyone but myself and the kids will never take math again) and a fair amount with Calc (where the students do need a working Calc knowledge, but aren't going to Major Examinations or anything.) But Algebra1...it is _so_ foundational to the rest of their high school career, and then we compound that with the fact that Here Comes MCAS and honestly fuuuuuck that noise, it's SO PROBLEMATIC.
Anyways, it's the first PD where I've had to blink back tears since the trans 101 one at the start of the year, and for a very different reason. I just...I want this, I do, but I feel like such a coward that I can't figure out how to make it work with the other constraints. I wonder if Emily would be willing to meet with me and have a talkdown/solution brainstorming session sometime? You know, in the copious free time that a classroom teacher and a department head collectively have.
(I mentioned to Jessie that it would be so different if I didn't _have_ to pass them on at the end of the year, and could keep them in the program, and her response was to encourage me to talk to Emily about actually having that kind of class. Which like...wow that would be So Much but it would also be So Good.)
SOOOO yeah. I really really love my job. But education is a fundamentally broken and flawed institution in this country. Buy a teacher dinner next week, we fucking deserve it.
~Sor
MOOP!
I am feeling weirdly morose today, for
Am I willing to put my money where my mouth is and try out a class where I do promise the students a passing grade? I don't know. That's a lot. I'm terrified of trying to negotiate some of that with a class of students where they don't speak the same language.
And it's _so hard_ to decouple passing grades from graduating classes. If I could just say to a student "yes, you did a really good job with effort and showed that you are willing to put in the work, but you still Just Don't Know The Content so you get a passing grade but have to take Algebra 1 again next year" like...that would be such a good option! That would help a lot with the ability to run classes faster or slower, and try to actually pace them to student needs. But as things stand, if a student passes, they go to Geometry. A student cannot go to Geometry without a working knowledge/background of Algebra.
How do we fix a broken system when we're in the middle of a broken system?
And I mean, I feel like I can do a _lot_ of this nonsense with my Discrete/Data classes (where I am not beholden to anyone but myself and the kids will never take math again) and a fair amount with Calc (where the students do need a working Calc knowledge, but aren't going to Major Examinations or anything.) But Algebra1...it is _so_ foundational to the rest of their high school career, and then we compound that with the fact that Here Comes MCAS and honestly fuuuuuck that noise, it's SO PROBLEMATIC.
Anyways, it's the first PD where I've had to blink back tears since the trans 101 one at the start of the year, and for a very different reason. I just...I want this, I do, but I feel like such a coward that I can't figure out how to make it work with the other constraints. I wonder if Emily would be willing to meet with me and have a talkdown/solution brainstorming session sometime? You know, in the copious free time that a classroom teacher and a department head collectively have.
(I mentioned to Jessie that it would be so different if I didn't _have_ to pass them on at the end of the year, and could keep them in the program, and her response was to encourage me to talk to Emily about actually having that kind of class. Which like...wow that would be So Much but it would also be So Good.)
SOOOO yeah. I really really love my job. But education is a fundamentally broken and flawed institution in this country. Buy a teacher dinner next week, we fucking deserve it.
~Sor
MOOP!
no subject
on 2019-05-02 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
on 2019-05-03 10:43 am (UTC)...I feel like I ask this question at least thrice weekly. I really hate the slippery sick feeling of helpless confusion it leaves me with. Healthcare, waste production and management, political, education... :-(