Your thoughts on "Common Core" (i.e. Teaching philosophy)

[Fx51LP308]

Late to this conversation, so apologies if this is a repeat of other's comments. Common Core was a hot topic during the 2016 campaign season. Fat assholes like jeb bush, bill bennett, and mike huckabee were pushing it as they would make a lot of money on the voluminous amount of testing that the program was requiring. If memory serves me, a fee was charged for every test administered. It's my guess that the swamp critters were lobbied heavily for their support. My friend who has taught for well over forty years, at both university and h.s. levels, refused to use the program and threatened to quit when it was proposed in the school district. Fortunately, it was not adopted in this state.

Be aware that there is never a lack of corruption when it comes to education. The last thing the system wants is truly educated students. There are other programs that are just as dysfunctional and the bottom line, at least when it comes to district funding here, is statistics. Graduation numbers is what drives the system here and it plays into the funding that the state provides to a district. The more grads, the more $$. It doesn't matter if they are functional illiterates in the end..............Just push them out with whatever program there is to accomplish such goals.

Bottom line, pick your battles wisely so that you can sleep at night. The public schools are a wasteland of property tax $$. Knowing that, also realize that other industries are also corrupt i.e. court system, l.e., defense industry, ect., yet people still have to make a living. Try to save the occasional student that shows promise and that is probably the best that you can hope for. If stuck between a rock and a hard on, you really have no other choice than to earn a living or leave the system.

As long as property taxes exist, the corruption will continue in the public schools. Not until there is real reform in the property tax system, will there be a chance of reform.

Interesting perspective! I think this is one of the best reasons for the promotion of "homeschooling."

 

[BLEE]

I hope the OP finds a way to teach the tried and true methods that made American students great, before CC and No Child Left Behind. The reason students are having trouble with math is because they won't learn the RULES. It's a reflection of society, as a whole. Half of the American society doesn't want to accept rules and math is, with a few exceptions, a bunch of rules, applied algorithmically. The cool thing about most K-12 math is that it is black and white. It's the easy math. Just learn the rules. Half of kids these days are considered ADHD and on drugs that make them appear calm, but the same drugs impair critical thinking in many kids. Not to mention, so many parents let their kids set their own bedtime, so kids are exhausted in class and can't think straight. My local district adjusted high school to start at 9am, so students could sleep in and not be so tired. This is because parents won't take away the cell phone and set a 10pm lights out, like many of ours did. Math is the same as it's always been. The rules are the same. Kids are different, but you cannot accommodate dysfunction and expect a good outcome. Common Core is an utterly ridiculous and asinine solution to a societal problem and it should be eliminated from American teaching.

 

[Fx51LP308]

I hope the OP finds a way to teach the tried and true methods that made American students great, before CC and No Child Left Behind. The reason students are having trouble with math is because they won't learn the RULES. It's a reflection of society, as a whole. Half of the American society doesn't want to accept rules and math is, with a few exceptions, a bunch of rules, applied algorithmically. The cool thing about most K-12 math is that it is black and white. It's the easy math. Just learn the rules. Half of kids these days are considered ADHD and on drugs that make them appear calm, but the same drugs impair critical thinking in many kids. Not to mention, so many parents let their kids set their own bedtime, so kids are exhausted in class and can't think straight. My local district adjusted high school to start at 9am, so students could sleep in and not be so tired. This is because parents won't take away the cell phone and set a 10pm lights out, like many of ours did. Math is the same as it's always been. The rules are the same. Kids are different, but you cannot accommodate dysfunction and expect a good outcome. Common Core is an utterly ridiculous and asinine solution to a societal problem and it should be eliminated from American teaching.

Trust me, I'm working on it. I'm finding the PPT slide decks are generic enough to allow me to teach via my own methods. And the students and I whip through them so quickly that it leaves me a good 10-15 minutes at the end of each session to teach the same topic "my way." After all, I can't leave "dead air" in the lesson, right?

In re: the ADHD thing, I can't for sure say it's real ADHD, but I do see a bunch a students that are quite "restless." It's like they have this energy and the only way to expend it is to "act out" and disrupt the other students, especially if I let them turn on their video cameras. Sheesh! But I find that I have to do that to ensure they're paying attention and not drifting off somewhere. You also encounter the other side: the ones that drift off to sleep or are so tired, etc. like you say above where they're up all night on their phones/pads, etc. I tend to think the "restless" ones actually know the material very well and want to demonstrate that but are hindered by those students that aren't so quick. They often blurt out the answers without letting the other kids take their time t answer. I have to slow them down and tell them to allow the slower kids the time they need to answer. And they get it, eventually. They just need a bit more time.

Funny you mention "rules" when it comes to Math. I always like to tell my students that Math is one of those subjects for which there is, usually, only one correct answer for the problem. And once you get it, no one can take it away from you (i.e. unlike English where they can take points off if you say the correct thing but use a word they don't like, etc. etc.).

I will definitely stick with this group of kids and welcome new ones in early 2025. We can get through this.

 

[Aftermath]

I hope the OP finds a way to teach the tried and true methods that made American students great, before CC and No Child Left Behind. The reason students are having trouble with math is because they won't learn the RULES. It's a reflection of society, as a whole. Half of the American society doesn't want to accept rules and math is, with a few exceptions, a bunch of rules, applied algorithmically. The cool thing about most K-12 math is that it is black and white. It's the easy math. Just learn the rules.

I agree that this is the main issue. A lack of learning the simple rules.
From my very own experiences as a Secondary Math teacher (High School) and teaching some collegiate courses and Adult Basic Ed courses, it is not that the student did not learn the rules or algorithms.

They were not TAUGHT these rules and algorithms.

Why not?
Because the VAST majority of Elementary teachers don't know the rules and algorithms. The VAST majority of elementary school teachers are mouth breathing idiots blindly following the administration (AFT, NEA, DOE) and enthusiastically misleading their students.

Before NCLB (thanks Hillary Clinton), which predates CC, LONG LONG before NCLB, back in the days that America was Great and designed things that can land on moons and planets, there was no need for 2 incomes to raise the idiot that has become the norm. Those idiots grew up to be the idiots teaching the young ones to be even less intelligent and less sure of what gender they were.
Those fucking idiots need a script.

 

[Aftermath]

Funny you mention "rules" when it comes to Math. I always like to tell my students that Math is one of those subjects for which there is, usually, only one correct answer for the problem. And once you get it, no one can take it away from you (i.e. unlike English where they can take points off if you say the correct thing but use a word they don't like, etc. etc.).

I taught Math as a religion. I am a true believer and high priest.

A religion is based upon a belief in something that is imaginary (at best) that was thought up by man with rules like no premarital sex or no dancing.

Math is a religion. Take, for instance, the number 2. It is a construct of man. You can see 2 things. You can count to 2. But you cannot touch a 2. Sure, you can draw the curly q on the paper and touch that but that curly q is nothing more than some fucking ARab's idea of what it should look like.

Oh, and no dividing by zero.