Rebel
Gold
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Post by Rebel on Mar 9, 2023 11:19:04 GMT -6
The institution of public school isn't adapting fast enough to the current world if both students and teachers are struggling so much. Who do we put the pressure on- school boards? Higher up? What do we think needs to change? The problem is so ingrained and systemic at this point, I can't even begin to consider a solution. Unfortunately, the kids will suffer which in turn will strain the workforce and the economy. At that point people will either realize the failing and try to fix it, or chastise education even more and continue to gut it and devalue it. I don't know. I think it continues to devolve. Class sizes increase because they can’t hire enough teachers. Accommodations aren’t met. Kids fail. Parents pull them and go elsewhere. I am super pro public Ed, but have considered pulling my struggling 5th grader and going elsewhere. She isn’t getting the individual attention she needs. So we are spending 1-2 hours most afternoons working outside of school so that she keeps up. Long term this will lead to her hating school and I’m not ok with that. We are sticking it out this year so she can finish up some education in her pull out class, and then we will reconsider. This was their plan. They want people who can afford to, to pull their kids. Defund public education. Privatize it so they can profit and teach what they want. I’m surprised it happened so fast. And that so many of my neighbors still don’t realize it’s happening, even when our district is locally one of the worst off. I feel like a crazy person sometimes when I explain some of the issues my kiddo is having and then explain why I’m not willing to yell at a teacher or admin to fix it. Because those people are the only reason it is still working in the first place. The problems are systemic. As far as who to talk to….ugh. I’ve been speaking at school board meetings for years now. It used to make an impact. Now they literally stare at their computers and probably online shop while community members speak. They don’t take public opinions into consideration - that was made obvious when 80% of the community spoke vehemently against arming educators, and they voted to do it anyways. There is also no way to remove these members from their seats, at least in our district. And they certainly aren’t willing to write those amendments into their bylaws now 🫠 So where do we go…..I don’t know. That’s why I feel hopeless. ETA: Jeez. I’m sorry y’all. All of my comments were terrible downers. I know there’s hope! That’s why I’m working on campaigns! Just had an off moment. 1 more day til spring break! Lol
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cnf
Ruby
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Post by cnf on Mar 9, 2023 11:25:08 GMT -6
I’m teaching right now. A school reached out and desperately needed help. I’m not necessarily qualified (have a MEd but not any real background in music & theatre which is what they have me teaching). I love it. I love the kids. I love my admin. I love the lessons we do. But I spend 70% of my time dealing with behavior issues. It’s not all kids. Not even the majority. But the ones who are an issue, command the majority of my attention. Which isn’t fair to the rest. And in my situation, the worst outcome is they lose group project time because that’s most of what my class is, but in subjects like ELA, math, etc…..the entire class gets behind. My own kids are in a different district than I teach in. One that has made the news a ton and is currently under multiple investigations. They are losing teachers left and right for a few reasons- 1. They are spending a fortune on attorney fees due to those investigations which is leading to a lack of funds to spend on staff, technology, even fixing building HVAC- which in TX is an absolutely necessary expense. Student and teacher school provided computers are slow and buggy and must be replaced, they are obsolete. Which makes teaching with them in the classroom next to impossible, even while the district is demanding everything be moved to computer based bc the state test is computer based. 2. Eliminating planning periods- they are moving from a scheduled planning period every day to every other day, for MS and HS teachers. This is how they plan to help address vacancies. More teachers will leave. This means they have to do more of their work on their own time. 3. Community members watching for and jumping on any believed “wokeness”. It’s terrifying. They have found what they believe are examples that violate their morals and beliefs and plastered teachers names and details all over community FB pages and groups and those teachers have been harassed. 4. The behavior issues. I think exacerbated by Covid- a conglomeration of trauma, learning loss and frustration, undiagnosed individuals due to unaffordable care and/or stigma, no real repercussions, and a lack of parent & administrator support. Why the fuck would anyone want to deal with the above for $52,000 a year? And hell, I haven’t even mentioned the gun violence issue which is a whole other can of worms, especially here where our district just voted to arm our educators. Ugh. I’m feeling hopeless at the moment. There isn’t a chance my youngest makes it through before public ed collapses. What!?!!? You guys will be armed?? Can you opt out? A teacher is going to shoot a kid. It's inevitable. It might be an accident but it sure is an accident waiting to happen.
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origami
Amethyst
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Post by origami on Mar 9, 2023 11:26:50 GMT -6
Also, lobby your state legislatures for more education funding. Pay attention to what bills come up in education and appropriation committees and show your support or disapproval for them. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and focusing mostly on federal means the squeakiest at local and state level aren't always good actors. Oh and look at ed bills that aren't specifically about instruction. Are their school lunch or mental health bills that could pass and ease the burden on schools and teachers? Even republicans in the states I'm familiar are aware of the mental health crisis kids are facing and maybe that can get funded and get more supports in schools and let teachers teach. Or bills that markedly improve toxic stress in a child's life like rent increase caps, utility shut off moratoriums, childhood dental health funding etc etc etc. Things that will make a child's life materially different can change the way they interact in school. We have to think outside the box.
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sweetpea
Platinum
Posts: 1,813 Likes: 7,898
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Post by sweetpea on Mar 9, 2023 11:29:37 GMT -6
I was looking at WP and they had something about Sen. JD Vance and that is how I remembered he won his election. I, then, had to Google his opponent because somehow I completely forgot about this nightmare. But if anyone has questions about the VPR scandal, I'm your girl
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cnf
Ruby
Posts: 20,944 Likes: 101,112
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Post by cnf on Mar 9, 2023 11:33:57 GMT -6
cnf Our district went through something similar where people just decided to completely gut the schools because they didn’t feel it was their responsibility to pay. The rude, disrespectful comments people made about justifying salaries, programs such as art/music - I am not in the education field at all and I am still pissed years later. It’s unreal. Getting back to the grades, I will say that I think they actually mean less to me. I am really just trying to keep my kids OK (mentally, physically). As long as they are putting in effort, behaving appropriately, involved in something and comfortable at school, I am happy. It’s really tough right now. I have friends whose kids are struggling with big things. The college/tuition issue comes into play here also, we can’t afford the dream schools. Working in education and going to school for policy I've met so many very smart people that blew their k12 grades but still went thru college into advanced degrees and high powered positions in politics because of lived experience and grit. We can absolutely encourage our kids to do well and also decide that maybe this metric we hang over heads just doesn't matter as much as we want to think it does. In my experience, community colleges have some of the best teaching staff I've encountered and they'll take high school drop outs and still "churn out" scholars. I mean, there's a reason standardized tests are falling by the way side. NY is finally going to drop the regents. They're so arbitrary to the individual success of students.
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Post by enchanted on Mar 9, 2023 11:34:23 GMT -6
Rebel Don't apologize. Everything you've said/feeling is valid and needs to be known.
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Post by enchanted on Mar 9, 2023 11:40:16 GMT -6
*snip* A teacher is going to shoot a kid. It's inevitable. It might be an accident but it sure is an accident waiting to happen. Yep. And then the very people who wanted to arm the teachers are going to use that as just another reason why public schools are bad and further defund them.
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Rebel
Gold
Posts: 934 Likes: 9,437
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Post by Rebel on Mar 9, 2023 11:47:55 GMT -6
I’m teaching right now. A school reached out and desperately needed help. I’m not necessarily qualified (have a MEd but not any real background in music & theatre which is what they have me teaching). I love it. I love the kids. I love my admin. I love the lessons we do. But I spend 70% of my time dealing with behavior issues. It’s not all kids. Not even the majority. But the ones who are an issue, command the majority of my attention. Which isn’t fair to the rest. And in my situation, the worst outcome is they lose group project time because that’s most of what my class is, but in subjects like ELA, math, etc…..the entire class gets behind. My own kids are in a different district than I teach in. One that has made the news a ton and is currently under multiple investigations. They are losing teachers left and right for a few reasons- 1. They are spending a fortune on attorney fees due to those investigations which is leading to a lack of funds to spend on staff, technology, even fixing building HVAC- which in TX is an absolutely necessary expense. Student and teacher school provided computers are slow and buggy and must be replaced, they are obsolete. Which makes teaching with them in the classroom next to impossible, even while the district is demanding everything be moved to computer based bc the state test is computer based. 2. Eliminating planning periods- they are moving from a scheduled planning period every day to every other day, for MS and HS teachers. This is how they plan to help address vacancies. More teachers will leave. This means they have to do more of their work on their own time. 3. Community members watching for and jumping on any believed “wokeness”. It’s terrifying. They have found what they believe are examples that violate their morals and beliefs and plastered teachers names and details all over community FB pages and groups and those teachers have been harassed. 4. The behavior issues. I think exacerbated by Covid- a conglomeration of trauma, learning loss and frustration, undiagnosed individuals due to unaffordable care and/or stigma, no real repercussions, and a lack of parent & administrator support. Why the fuck would anyone want to deal with the above for $52,000 a year? And hell, I haven’t even mentioned the gun violence issue which is a whole other can of worms, especially here where our district just voted to arm our educators. Ugh. I’m feeling hopeless at the moment. There isn’t a chance my youngest makes it through before public ed collapses. What!?!!? You guys will be armed?? Can you opt out? A teacher is going to shoot a kid. It's inevitable. It might be an accident but it sure is an accident waiting to happen. I won’t be. At this point, the way the policy reads is educators have opt in. And can be denied if the district doesn’t believe it’s in the best interest. But they have already said they don’t see that happening- “the more prepared (meaning armed) we are, the safer our campuses are”. It’s bullshit. Districts in TX have been doing this- but it’s been only rural districts that I know of so far. Which is still fucking terrible, but then at least there are less staff and maybe LEO can get to know who the armed staff are, so they don’t accidentally confuse them for an armed aggressor. Not going to happen in our 50,000 strong district that splits 2 cities police forces. A superintendent in a rural district a few hours from me took his weapon off to use a restroom in an elementary school. Then he forgot to grab it and it was discovered by a 3rd grader. Then NO ONE BELIEVED that 3rd grader, that he found a gun, so the teacher sent the kid + a friend to confirm. Sure enough. Loaded weapon. Source: www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna71567This will happen constantly. I lose my phone during the school day, even though I’m constantly using it to set timers, pulling up notes, emailing a parent mid day, googling something with a student, playing music, etc. I couldn’t imagine the stress of having to keep up with a loaded firearm. And if it doesn’t stress you out, you aren’t the right person to be carrying on a campus of 500 children. 😞
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Post by imapenguin on Mar 9, 2023 11:48:43 GMT -6
I think about this all the time. For a variety of reasons that I can’t concisely explain we consider private education for our oldest every year. But we live in one of the best districts in the state (Texas, so a bit of a sharpest spoon in the drawer situation) and are at one of the best schools in that district, so there’s really no reason why she shouldn’t thrive here but I just feel like we can do better. She’s had amazing teachers but they just can’t address everyone in a class of 20+.
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fatpony
Amethyst
Posts: 5,582 Likes: 30,826
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Post by fatpony on Mar 9, 2023 12:41:52 GMT -6
Apparently only a concussion.
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byjove
Ruby
Posts: 15,365 Likes: 75,071
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Post by byjove on Mar 9, 2023 13:03:17 GMT -6
Apparently only a concussion. Can we hope it knocked some sense into him?
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athn64
Ruby
Posts: 17,414 Likes: 76,728
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Post by athn64 on Mar 9, 2023 13:03:55 GMT -6
Apparently only a concussion. Can we hope it knocked some sense into him? Don't think that will ever happen
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mc13
Sapphire
Posts: 3,414 Likes: 12,121
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Post by mc13 on Mar 9, 2023 13:28:09 GMT -6
cnf Our district went through something similar where people just decided to completely gut the schools because they didn’t feel it was their responsibility to pay. The rude, disrespectful comments people made about justifying salaries, programs such as art/music - I am not in the education field at all and I am still pissed years later. It’s unreal. Getting back to the grades, I will say that I think they actually mean less to me. I am really just trying to keep my kids OK (mentally, physically). As long as they are putting in effort, behaving appropriately, involved in something and comfortable at school, I am happy. It’s really tough right now. I have friends whose kids are struggling with big things. The college/tuition issue comes into play here also, we can’t afford the dream schools. Working in education and going to school for policy I've met so many very smart people that blew their k12 grades but still went thru college into advanced degrees and high powered positions in politics because of lived experience and grit. We can absolutely encourage our kids to do well and also decide that maybe this metric we hang over heads just doesn't matter as much as we want to think it does. In my experience, community colleges have some of the best teaching staff I've encountered and they'll take high school drop outs and still "churn out" scholars. Yes yes! My husband had an IEP in school, was a B and C student, then went to an average college to major in sociology. He now works for one of the top tech companies and is one of a handful of people who specialize in what he does. Lived experience and learning things you enjoy on your own time (coding for him) often doesn’t get enough credit.
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dc2london
Admin
Press Secretary
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Post by dc2london on Mar 9, 2023 14:45:03 GMT -6
I second everything @minerva says too. Look into full service community schools and see if there are any in your state and if not find out if any are striving towards it. The idea is that the school is a hub of the neighborhood and that creates incredible buy in. There are amazing things happening at schools across the country and a lot of grant money for community schools as a strategy. Google: coalition for community schools Communities in schools Strive together Institute for educational leadership National family support network Promise neighborhoods I promise we are out here trying to change the game, but we need more folks demanding this strategy not just in their schools but in their communities Communities with community based schools also topics have lower crime rates than their similar counterparts
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cnf
Ruby
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Post by cnf on Mar 9, 2023 14:50:14 GMT -6
I will forever sing the praises of the Syracuse City School District's high school model. They have five high schools and each is a different career track. Kids can choose which school to attend and then can choose to do a regular gen ed degree or a career track. One high school is all technology and IT, one is all public service jobs (teacher training, police academy, fireman training, EMT, etc). The one I taught at was all health careers. Basically kids would graduate with their high school diploma and some sort of career certification or associates degree depending on what they did. So kids who chose the nursing track graduated with a nursing associates degree. They could take courses in lab technology and graduate as certified lab techs. It was so cool and so smart. It placed emphasis on things beyond grades and kids walked out of high school at 18 with a full set of employable skills and credentials to walk straight into real careers. Or they could choose to go to college and further their education. Like a lot of the nursing track students went on to get RNs.
College isn't for every kid. Regular classroom based, graded school classes aren't for every kid. Education needs to be fluid and adaptable. We need to offer what kids need to feel motivated, regardless of what the motivating factor is for each kid, be it grades or skills or whatever.
But alas. Money and support, two things public education doesn't have. These kids are only the literal future of our country. Not important or anything. Stick them in a one size fits all box then cry failure when the box doesn't fit them. So much easier and cheaper.
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addymac
Emerald
Posts: 12,713 Likes: 54,197
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Post by addymac on Mar 9, 2023 16:29:46 GMT -6
Apparently only a concussion. 😒
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byjove
Ruby
Posts: 15,365 Likes: 75,071
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Post by byjove on Mar 9, 2023 17:09:41 GMT -6
My body is ready
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RajahMD
Amethyst
Posts: 6,973 Likes: 41,656
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Post by RajahMD on Mar 9, 2023 17:12:05 GMT -6
Apparently only a concussion. I'm still holding out hope for a subdural hematoma. Old people bleed really easily.
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trueblue
Sapphire
Posts: 4,533 Likes: 16,361
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Post by trueblue on Mar 9, 2023 18:31:48 GMT -6
I will believe it when it happens, I have lost all hope and faith in our judicial system regarding his behavior.
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Post by mrsweasley on Mar 9, 2023 20:16:45 GMT -6
cnf every time we have a fight over a school levy, even if it's a renewal that costs ZERO additional dollars, I spend all my time yelling at the Olds on Nextdoor that these children are our future and we need a well educated and trained populous to take care of them. It's unfortunately probably mostly a waste of my energy
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Post by gymngemini on Mar 9, 2023 21:42:16 GMT -6
cnf every time we have a fight over a school levy, even if it's a renewal that costs ZERO additional dollars, I spend all my time yelling at the Olds on Nextdoor that these children are our future and we need a well educated and trained populous to take care of them. It's unfortunately probably mostly a waste of my energy School levy times are some of the most stressful elections. We are fortunate that most of ours pass without much fuss but we are up for one soon that I'm worried about. We have one of, if not the highest property tax rate in the state.
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Post by mrsweasley on Mar 9, 2023 21:49:55 GMT -6
cnf every time we have a fight over a school levy, even if it's a renewal that costs ZERO additional dollars, I spend all my time yelling at the Olds on Nextdoor that these children are our future and we need a well educated and trained populous to take care of them. It's unfortunately probably mostly a waste of my energy School levy times are some of the most stressful elections. We are fortunate that most of ours pass without much fuss but we are up for one soon that I'm worried about. We have one of, if not the highest property tax rate in the state. I hope it passes! Ours is definitely not the highest, but it's pretty high. People love to bitch about how other states like CA have lower property tax rates but forget there are more factors at play. When we moved from CA to OH I got a refund on my car registration that covered literally 4 years of OH registration. Sales tax is higher and I think the income tax might be too, but there are also other sources of revenue for CA. There's just no good comparison. It's insane how clueless people are.
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Mar 10, 2023 5:12:11 GMT -6
Hard no to this
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elle
Ruby
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Member is Online
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Post by elle on Mar 10, 2023 6:45:15 GMT -6
Well clearly I gave her too much credit. Wtf.
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starbuck
Emerald
Posts: 12,464 Likes: 81,139
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Post by starbuck on Mar 10, 2023 7:05:35 GMT -6
I am continually amazed, but not surprised, at the things right wingers can morph into signs of "govt overreach," like in this case, parental consent.
But not book banning, attacks on black history courses, or legislating Trans people out of existence...
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Post by Wtfshouldmynamebe on Mar 10, 2023 7:39:32 GMT -6
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elle
Ruby
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Post by elle on Mar 10, 2023 7:44:52 GMT -6
A little thread cleanser.
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byjove
Ruby
Posts: 15,365 Likes: 75,071
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Post by byjove on Mar 10, 2023 8:02:49 GMT -6
That was 6 years ago?! What is time.
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Post by notblanche on Mar 10, 2023 8:09:58 GMT -6
A little thread cleanser. I used this picture, with an empty chair and his daughter running in, as my Zoom background in 2020–21 and it was so perfect.
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Post by notblanche on Mar 10, 2023 8:11:05 GMT -6
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