Inside Four Walls: This is our future...

A teacher was telling us a story about some senior in her class. Apparently, he ran a Stop sign and missed a day of school to fight the ticket. He took in a picture of the Stop sign and told the judge he couldn't see it because it was blocked by overgrown trees. The judge looked at the picture and agreed with him and dismissed the ticket. Here's the kicker, he told his teacher and friends at school that he just ran the Stop sign, but didn't want to pay the ticket. So he took a picture of the sign and photoshopped in a bunch of trees to make it look like he couldn't see the sign.

So here is a senior going into the real world who obviously sees nothing wrong with lying in court and then bragging about it.

I don't know what is wrong with this generation, but this behavior to me doesn't make sense. Maybe it is our school, because we are hearing rumors that someone broke into the room with the AP exams to steal a test. That's pretty extreme, except we have heard now that this person went through the ceiling to get into that room...true story.

Inside Four Walls: Not Quite Ready for AP

Another no-brainer here. Administrators are in a rush to put everyone in AP classes and then this happens.

Even though students had marked deficiencies in basic reading and writing skills, and little desire to work hard, and even though they made repeated requests for transfers, the dragooning of students into my AP course persisted. 

My frequent reminders to school officials that students’ reading and writing levels and willingness to work hard were more important indicators of AP success than their perceived academic potential were berated and ignored. Administrators and some teachers countered with the “data-driven’’ argument that, not only does more exposure to AP courses and tests benefit students by preparing them for the rigors of college, but it signaled our high expectations of them.

It’s a great read about the frustrations that all AP teachers are going through right now.

I have a colleague who teaches AP Government for seniors, government is a required course to graduate. He has been trying to get parents and the counselors to remove the students that weren’t able to make it in an AP level course. So now he has a couple that might now graduate because they are failing. He feels bad and is considering something to help them out, like extra credit or taking the regular civics final and taking off the AP designation on their transcripts, which might not be legal. I told him that by doing it he would be enabling the administrators to continue to put lower level students into AP courses just for numbers sake. He’s a good teacher and realizes that the parents also pushed them in this direction, so he thinks the students shouldn’t be punished for their mistakes. I don’t know what he will do, but once again the administrators cause this mess and leave it to the teachers to sort out.

Inside Four Walls: AP failures

I got this from Darren's blog, which is a daily stop for me. I can't add anything to it. It is perfect. I will post an excerpt and you can go to his blog for the rest.

Begin with a quote from the article;

Educators say the hardest-working students at schools like Carver and John McDonogh benefit immensely from exposure to higher-level courses, both in self-esteem and in tangible skills such as test preparation, even if few end up passing the AP exam.

Again, what does self-esteem have to do with this? They have failed. And to be honest, they've failed at something that they should have been prepared for. It's not like they failed rowing alone across the Atlantic, they failed at a course in high school. How does one get self-esteem from that? How does one look in the mirror and feel good about himself because of that? And how do so-called educators convince themselves that allowing students to take courses for which they are not prepared is actually a good thing?

It's a great read, check the rest out HERE. He has a great education blog. Add him if you haven't already.

Inside Four Walls: interesting story part 2

So a couple of days ago I talked about an AP teacher who had to have a parent conference after her son's acceptance was revoked after he earned a D in the course. So how did it go?

Well, to make matters worse it was a minimum day and who wants to stick around after school on a minimum day? Much less to a parent conference...for a student who graduated already! He told me the mom was giving dirty looks to anyone who would look at her. And she never really specifically came out and said 'change the grade', but that's what she wanted.

The highlight came about 20 minutes or so into it. The son said he pushed himself by taking 2 AP courses his senior year and it caught up to him. So the principal starts talking about how they relaxed the requirements so more students could have the opportunity to take an AP course. He was talking about how it helps out the students when the mom got up and interrupted him. She starts raising her voice saying, "you're not helping him, you're holding him back!" She kept saying that, then she opened the door to the main office and said it again loud enough for everyone to hear her. Then she stormed out of the building...oh yeah she left her son in the room.

He said it was awkward for a few seconds, then the principal started asking the student what his plans were etc. The teacher told him it wasn't anything personal. The student knew he just didn't cut it.


So what did we learn? Nothing. The mom had nothing to stand on. His grades were bad and he scored a 1 on the AP test. Yet, the teacher still had to go in and sit through this on his own time. Why did I become a teacher again?

Inside Four Walls: interesting story

First week is winding down, but this story doesn't involve me or deal with this year.

An AP teacher has a conference on Friday with the principal, his dean, and a parent from last year. Seems like the student ended up with a D on his report card and the school revoked his admission. So obviously the parents are coming in to demand to know why he got a D and if he can change the grade to a C.

Seems like a big challenge considering he failed the final & got a 1 on the AP test. So why is the parent wasting this teacher's time by coming in to discuss this? Why is our administration even bothering to take this as well? Clearly, the student is at fault. He didn't study for the final or the AP test or he would have done better. Seriously, a 1?

Once again, instead of the parents being parents and coming down on their child for not preparing, they are redirecting it at the teacher.

Should be interesting. I will update this one when the meeting is over.

That time of year again

So testing season is upon us again. When teachers are frantically trying to cram the remaining material to their students before the big tests. We start off with the CASHEE next week, then it's onto STAR testing, and some AP testing. The schedules get so messed up this time of year. Imagine having 1st period after lunch...that's right after lunch. How messed up is that?

The entire school seems to stop teaching for those 2 weeks of STAR testing. It's all about review during that time and creating a relaxing evironment.

I still don't understand why we continue to teach new material that isn't needed the next year. The students can't re-take their STAR test a month later. I said it last year, and it seems like more regular ed teachers are agreeing, regular ed classes are like AP classes. It's all about the test. And after that...what's the motivation?