I'm back!

Hello,

I still need to make up four conferences due to the snow day, but so far, so good.  It is very motivating to meet with parents and be reminded about the importance of my job and what your children mean to all of you.  I take away a feeling of determination that I will do everything I can to make this year as successful as possible for your child.  Your continued feedback can only help with this.

I have decided to add an optional Monday after school help session.  You can look at it as homework help, if you like, but I'm hoping that it can be more than that.  Students can stay up to school for an hour or two (whenever pick-up is convenient) for some extra help.  I only ask that you send a permission slip and an extra snack for them.  Everyone is welcome.  My plan is to give some more one on one time than I am able to during the regular school day.

I also wanted to say a few things about the report cards.  By now most of you have seen that they weren’t a very good reflection of work done for the quarter.  I don’t think going to a standards based report card is a bad thing.  It would be nice for parents to know exactly what skills that their kids are supposed to learn and where they are for each skill.  Common assessments would make it so students from each grade level would be responsible for the same knowledge and would be graded on the same skills. These concepts have merit.

My biggest issue comes from the idea that everyone should be teaching the same concepts at the same time.  In math, we have nine different classes, teaching students with very different skill sets.  Teaching the same thing at the same time would have been very difficult under these circumstances.  It is near impossible when we have had nearly a third of the school year go by before being told that this is the goal.  The train has left the station.  Should the higher skilled classes now back pedal for the rest to gain?  Should the lower level blow through some things to catch up?  I feel that it is too late to ask us to do that now.  Personally, I don’t agree with it under any circumstances. 
I feel that it flies in the face of what assessments are for in the first place.  If I assess my class on a skill, and they don’t get it, it is a reflection of my ability to reach them.  I need to spend more time on it and I need to try something new.  I wouldn’t want my next day’s lesson to hinge on what some other class was or wasn’t able to do.  I also fear prearranged time-tables for how long something will take to teach, especially in math, where so many concepts build on each other. 

These are my opinions.  You will get a chance to give your opinions on an upcoming questionnaire.   

It’s late.  Thank you for reading.

Mr. Shea