Six students and how they work after CSAP Tests
There were the two weeks of nothing but CSAP testing in March. And then there was a ragged week of make-up tests mixed with remnants of projects and curricular themes still remembered that were cobbled together in those four days of the last week of school before spring break.
Returning to school as we turned the page to April, how did our six students restart and recover from this long pause that featured such intense scrutiny of what they had learned?
Mason has been mostly adrift, unable to remember his enthusiasm for the Marco Polo report he started sometime… Continue reading
On the Brink of the 2009 CSAPs
This morning I have a few extra minutes before leaving for school. The administration has canceled all morning meetings for faculty so that we can be ready for the CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) tests, which begin today. NEVER on Mondays! I’m trying not to be cynical, not to think too much about the implications of canceling meetings for these tests. Trying not to dwell on the many many morning meetings that have prevented me from being adequately prepared for the lessons of the day—introducing the Periodic Table, for example. Or organizing my notes so… Continue reading
January Report and Looking Down the Second Semester Road
Time Keeper Collects and Analyzes First Semester Data
Teaching with Gatto in mind
First week back and only three days with the students, but I notice my decision-making is different, each utterance and move I make tinged now with Gatto’s thinking. Over the holidays I read his new “Weapons of Mass Instruction,” which pulls together all of his thinking since that fateful designation in 1991 as New York State’s “Teacher of the Year.”
Gatto’s chapter on the “history of education” presents damning evidence that compulsory education is a highly successful arm of a government determined to control its population for capitalist ends, to use schools to “dumb down the population”… Continue reading
Week Fifteen: Time to Teach/Time to Learn Tally of Hours
November 24 – 25, 2008 Tally of Curriculum and Instruction Time
Monday, November 24 Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Tuesday, November 25: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Wednesday – Friday, November 26, 27, 28 were Thanksgiving Holidays
NOTE: A substitute supervised the class on the two school days, and he reported that students had a moderately productive two days. I surmise that they learned about independence and self-reliance to make the classroom function normally. That’s real curriculum!
Total C & I Time = 10 hours
Week Fourteen: Time to Teach/Time to Learn Tally of Hours
November 17 – 21, 2008 Tally of time for teaching and learning
Monday, November 17: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Tuesday, November 18: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Wednesday, November 19: Routine interruptions for art and gym = 3.5 C & I hours
Thursday, November 20: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Friday, November 21: Specials art/gym in the morning. Total = 3.5 C & I hours
Week’s Total C & I hours: 22 hours
Personal Note: I am teaching double time this week because I will… Continue reading
Reflections on John Gatto
Week Thirteen: Time to Teach/Time to Learn Tally of Hours
November 10 – 14, 2008 Tally of time for teaching and learning
Monday, November 10 Veteran’s Day Holiday = Zero C & I hours
Tuesday, November 11: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Wednesday, November 12: Routine interruptions for art and gym = 3.5 C & I hours
Thursday, November 13: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Friday, November 14: Specials art/gym in the morning. Total = 3.5 C & I hours
Week’s Total C & I hours: 16 hours
NOTE: Discipline problems have compromised Curriculum and Instruction time very seriously… Continue reading
Week Twelve: Time to Teach/Time to Learn Tally of Hours
November 3 – 7, 2008 Tally of time for teaching and learning
Monday, November 3: Uninterrupted day at school = 5 C & I hours
Tuesday, November 4: Uninterrupted day = 5 C & I hours
Wednesday, November 5: Substitute hired for my class so that I could attend the annual Shakespeare Workshop for teachers who coordinate their school’s Shakespeare program aimed at performing at the Denver Shakespeare Festival in May. Unfortunately, the report from the substitute was dismal and I am quite certain that very little curriculum or instruction occurred. Behavior problems trumped. Zero… Continue reading
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