Comments for Teaching in the Haze of corruption http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com observations on a failing Title 1 school district finally discovering the magnitude of corruption in its administrative ranks. Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:54:45 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on reality left behind by sandrar http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-18 sandrar Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:54:45 +0000 http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-18 Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post... nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R. Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

]]> Comment on reality left behind by Crucify http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-17 Crucify Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:35:19 +0000 http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-17 Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation :) Anyway ... nice blog to visit. cheers, Crucify. Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation :) Anyway … nice blog to visit.

cheers, Crucify.

]]> Comment on out of the haze and into…. by Marijo Cook http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/out-of-the-haze-and-into/#comment-3 Marijo Cook Sat, 27 Oct 2007 15:41:12 +0000 http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/out-of-the-haze-and-into/#comment-3 This was always a source of confusion to me as a parent. I went to a private school from 6-12th grade, and my parents never participated in my education beyond buying the supplies that I needed-- they couldn't; I was learning things that they had never been taught. So, even though I was better-educated when my daughters were in school, I was perplexed by this idea that I was supposed to continue educating them after they came home from school. Also, we had little money, and I worked a hard 8-10 hours every day in addition to transporting the girls to their athletic and social activities. I really did not have time or energy for 'tutoring' every evening. The freaking annual science projects were the worst. As a humanities major, I had little interest in science experiments, and yet we were supposed to do this thing with data and displays and etc. entirely at home, and exactly one science teacher in all the years that my 2 girls were in school offered any guidance whatsoever. Whew, I'm glad all that is over! And my girls came out being pretty well educated in spite of my resistance, largely I think because of the two or three things that I could do that made a huge difference: we had no television in the house at all, the girls had an unlimited budget for buying books for themselves (mostly through the Scholastic program), and we kept a computer working and available for them, which was, for us, a pretty big expense. Anyway, I'm not sure that you need to convince parents to do more. They do a lot already, and children are naturally curious and interested in learning. Maybe you just need to get them to turn off the TV. This was always a source of confusion to me as a parent. I went to a private school from 6-12th grade, and my parents never participated in my education beyond buying the supplies that I needed– they couldn’t; I was learning things that they had never been taught. So, even though I was better-educated when my daughters were in school, I was perplexed by this idea that I was supposed to continue educating them after they came home from school. Also, we had little money, and I worked a hard 8-10 hours every day in addition to transporting the girls to their athletic and social activities. I really did not have time or energy for ‘tutoring’ every evening. The freaking annual science projects were the worst. As a humanities major, I had little interest in science experiments, and yet we were supposed to do this thing with data and displays and etc. entirely at home, and exactly one science teacher in all the years that my 2 girls were in school offered any guidance whatsoever.

Whew, I’m glad all that is over! And my girls came out being pretty well educated in spite of my resistance, largely I think because of the two or three things that I could do that made a huge difference: we had no television in the house at all, the girls had an unlimited budget for buying books for themselves (mostly through the Scholastic program), and we kept a computer working and available for them, which was, for us, a pretty big expense.

Anyway, I’m not sure that you need to convince parents to do more. They do a lot already, and children are naturally curious and interested in learning. Maybe you just need to get them to turn off the TV.

]]> Comment on reality left behind by The Spokesman http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-2 The Spokesman Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:56:58 +0000 http://backoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/reality-left-behind/#comment-2 This is just one more thing to cram into an already crammed school scheduled class. They barely have time to teach what they have to (between kids causing trouble, and more and more things to teach every year). All that this test will do is produce more memorization and not actual understanding. That's all the system thinks teaching is I guess. The Spokesman This is just one more thing to cram into an already crammed school scheduled class. They barely have time to teach what they have to (between kids causing trouble, and more and more things to teach every year). All that this test will do is produce more memorization and not actual understanding. That’s all the system thinks teaching is I guess.

The Spokesman

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