PLEASE SHARE #stopcommoncore FROM DARE TO DREAM TO DATA DRONE Recollections of my days as a teacher. This actually happened to me on more than one occasion. I had a scheduled absence to attend a conference this particular time. I had a prearranged substitute to cover my class. Yet, things did not go as planned. My sub did not show up. So, my first class of students followed the directions on the board. They got the handouts off my desk, passed them out, completed them, took attendance and sent it to the office. They remained very quiet and focused on completing the work. They collected the work and put it in a stack with a paper clip on my desk. At time for class change, they told the next class what they had done, and told them if they did not want some mean teacher to cover the class to just run the class themselves the way I, as their teacher, had done every day, which was productive, engaged, and stress free. So, they did. This continued until lunch time when that class took themselves to lunch. One of the other teachers asked a student, an honest conscientious student, if I was coming to the cafeteria for lunch because she needed to ask me something. The girl could not lie and admitted that there had been no teacher in my classroom all day. Well, it was on administration that they had not checked on my classroom knowing I was scheduled to be out that day and a sub would be in the classroom. The principal sent a letter home to parents explaining what had happened and accepting responsibility. She complimented the students for their excellent behavior, focused work ethic, and willingness to follow school rules and procedures. This occurred with my wonderful students because of mutual respect, care, and compassion. I took the time to get to know my students, their home situations, their likes, dislikes, interests and aptitudes. They knew I truly cared about each one of them. I made learning fun and laughed and enjoyed being in class with them each day. We all learned together and I made them want to come to class and comfortable coming to me with any kind of problem, academic or otherwise. But, with government intervention through first No Child Left Behind, which is still in effect along with Common Core, this kind of student-teacher relationship was lost. They became lab rats and I the facilitating data drone. My classroom became a center for testing preparedness and my lesson plans of creativity and innovation became drill and practice with test prep booklets and pretests designed to analyze test readiness. It was and more than ever NOW IS ALL ABOUT THE TEST! Teachers are now to be evaluated based on student performance on standardized Common Core aligned tests. Even student surveys on teachers are being used. There is no longer an emphasis on getting to know students and encouraging their individual strengths and aptitudes. There is no longer a desire to challenge ALL students to strive for excellence. It is about mass producing workforce ready skilled laborers. It is about putting a diverse group of individuals through an educational process called rigorous (but is really developmentally inappropriate) to have them come out the other end all equal and ready to fill slots in a labor force. Common Core does not prepare students to be quality individuals with integrity, citizenship, and contributions to society. It does not prepare them to be decisive, independent, and truly critical thinkers. Its goal is to stifle creativity and individuality in efforts to control both mind and action.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 20:42:06 +0000
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