Tennessee Parents - Reclaiming Public Education for our children
  • HOME
  • OUR VOICES/BLOG
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • CONTACT US

Bah Humbug! No holiday program this year due to reforms

11/30/2013

 
Our music teacher is has a new evaluation process which includes a lengthy portfolio process. Since she only sees our students once every rotation, there is not time for her to have them practice holiday songs. Also, it is frowned upon for us to miss "teaching time" for anything at all. Award programs were cut this year, too.

This isn't right... even jails have fairly elaborate Christmas programs for the inmates! We are becoming more of an institution than actual institutions. We are taking all of the fun out of learning, out of life. Everything we do has to be tied to a "tested objective." I am really becoming ashamed to be a part of teaching. We used to have freedom to make learning fun, now we don't. We are strictly limited to what we can and cannot do.

Since there are so many components that have to be completed by a certain deadline, our music teacher can't stop to practice holiday songs. Basically, it sounds like what has happened with classroom teachers. If we can't tie the activity to an actual tested objective, we can't do it.
 
For example, this week my students are participating in short plays for reading. There is a wealth of research showing that practicing the scripts over and over through repetition helps build reading fluency and comprehension. However, to fully put on one of these short plays, technically called "readers' theaters," I have to give the students a small amount of time to decorate their scenes, work on simple props etc. Since drawing the background for the play is not assessing a tested objective, we aren't supposed to do it at school. It doesn't fit into our evaluation model. However, I cheated today and gave my students about 30 minutes to create their props for their performances tomorrow. Everything we do, and now our music and art teachers do, must be tied to an assessed skill. Since there isn't a music portion on TCAP, yet, our teacher has to turn in portfolios showing the different skills she is teaching the students. Apparently it is extremely rigorous, and she can't miss a single day of teaching what the state deems important to stop and actually sing in class.  
 
We have CC standards that guide our instruction. Supposedly the PARCC test will test these standards. We have always had some sort of standards to guide our instruction. The actual standards are not the main problem. It's all the strings that come with them. I wouldn't focus only on them. It's some of the ways the skills are taught and questionable materials used to teach them. Right now we have tight schedules that squelch teachable moments and creativity.

At this point, they have developed portfolio evaluations along with the regular ones for art and Music teachers. PE teachers are next. I just wish they would leave us all alone to teach.
 
(This was posted anonymously, with permission, to protect the employment of these teachers in TN.  This teacher does not have the freedom to reveal her school district without the possibility of retribution.)

Comments are closed.

    Authors:
    real parents & real teachers
    from TN

    They are afraid to speak up and risk their jobs... They want to protect their children... This blog is for them:  Their voices need to be heard.

    These blogs are emailed to these TN officials:  
    the TN Board of Education, 
    the TN Commissioner of Education,
    the 99 TN House Representatives,

    the 33 TN Senators,
    the Governor of TN,
    every Superintendent in TN,
    hundreds of locally elected school board members across TN,
    and parents... lots and lots of parents.

    Categories

    All
    ALEC
    Arne Duncan
    ASD
    Barbic
    Campaign Contributions
    Charter
    Common Core
    Consultants
    CRA
    Crisis
    EOCs
    ESL
    Evaluations
    Faux Parents
    Governor
    Haslam
    Huffman
    Kindergarten
    KIPP
    Laws
    Legislators
    Lobbyist
    Mcqueen
    NAEP
    Next Gen Science Standards
    Opt Out
    PARCC
    Parents
    Petition
    Plan
    Pre-K
    Protest
    Pta
    Ravitch
    Reform
    RELAY
    Resolution
    Rocketship
    RSD
    SAT10
    School Board
    School Board
    Score
    Sneaky Politician
    Student Data
    Student Privacy
    Students
    Studentsfirst
    Superintendent
    TCAP
    Teachers
    Tenure
    Testing
    Tfa
    TNDOE
    TNReady
    Tree
    Tripod
    TVAAS
    University Of Memphis
    US DOE
    Vouchers

    Archives

    March 2017
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.