Elementary school rant

[PrincessFiona]

1. Schoology.

Groan.

Our elementary school teachers have picked this annoying form of social media up. I call it social media because that's how it's being used. Now, every day, I'm getting multiple schoology messages from each teacher. "Today, the kids learned xxxx." "Today, X was the student of the week." "Don't forget x tomorrow." These aren't compressed into one message. I'm getting 10 messages/day in my inbox.

I'm feeling so fed up with technology lately.

2. The color system. We Switched over to it. Now kids are in the zone OR they pull a color. Fabulous. Zoe already pulled a yellow card and came home upset about disappointing her teacher.

3. Homework. Every night, Zoe has a math worksheet, 15 minutes of reading and spelling words to do. I just think it's overkill. Because of how she rolls, this takes us an hour. At this age, I'm opposed to the idea of homework.

rant over.

Kris

[peggyfromwastate]

My ds9 is required to have 40 min of homework a night. This is a state law. That means 2-3 LA worksheets, 2-3 pages of math, spelling words, 30 min of independent reading, and he needs to write a "reflection" on the reading. Granted the creme of the creme could get through this on maybe 40 min (not counting the 30 min of reading) but my ADHD son--- not happening. Homework has become a huge problem. He's at it for 2 hours usually. It's a childhood killer.

This year has made me want to homeschool for real. Spending 3 hours in the car just for drop off and pick up, another 3 hours at least driving to activities, and squeezing in ridic amounts of homework. Not worth it.

And the emails---- our K teacher is sending out several with google docs, but everyone is having trouble with the google docs so it's a mess.

Sorry about the color chart. It's so ridiculous. Dd5 landed on yellow yesterday for not picking up blocks after a kid hit her with blocks while they were cleaning up. WTF. Dd didn't tell the teacher about the "assault", but there are 27 kids in there to 1 teacher. I'm horrified actually and would try to pull her out now but I just can't. CA is a tough state to deal with. At least there are lots of parents starting to volunteer in the class so things might improve.

School sucks.

I feel your pain on all fronts.

[alison]

Wait, how are the parents THERE having trouble with google docs?

Kris, that sounds excruciating!

[SuzySunshine]

Yep we are starting over at square one researching schools, I have no idea where the kids will be next year and it could be where they are now but we're looking at everything completely differently.

[houseelf]

I'm sorry. I swear the schools are out of control.

I'm happy with my kids' school but the mean girl stuff has started hard core. It is only 4th grade.

[Vanquisher]

I feel you. I am against homework for elementary students too. In fact, we mostly haven't done it. It's only 10% of the grade here, so when it's been to much, we've just blown it off. This is the first year (4th grade) where we've been pretty good about getting it done, but it's because Lexi finally has the maturity required to do it pretty much on her own. I let her have a snack and watch t.v. While she does it, and I know it takes her longer because of this, but it's not a battle this way. I just don't want the battle.

Projects though have me seeing red. I can not support them and won't.

My kids have always had a behavioral chart system, like colors or colors themselves. I don't know if they're more lenient here as far as moving the kids to different colors, but neither of my kids have ever had anything but green, or smiley faces, or whatever the "good" marker is. I know Alexia is talkative, unorganized, and slower than molasses, so I imagine they save yellows and reds for egregious behavior here.

In general, I'm not a fan of the direction education has gone in the past 15-20 years.

[Sheherezade]

In general, I'm not a fan of the direction education has gone in the past 15-20 years.

Exactly. I'm comforting myself these days with the knowledge that my youngest is a high school freshman. Only 3 more years of this!! That's sad, isn't it? I honestly think the schools have taken over too much of the role of parent. I'm not sure why they think that's the direction they need to take. I noticed that trend in MA and it's certainly more prevalent in the democratic led states. (We've got less of it here in Ohio, I think.) I don't care what your political leanings, I think it rubs ALL parents the wrong way. Many of these roles are parenting.

Behavior charts? Hey, if little Johnny can't sit still or talks at circle time, call his mom. Talk it out. If that doesn't work, tell them little Johnny needs to stay home for a day or two until they can figure it out. I don't think the school should be doing so much manipulation to change the behavior. Just make reasonable and limited rules and if they are broken, have a consequence.

Our homework here has been reasonable but mostly because it is teacher controlled and we have great teachers. Many assign homework and tell the kids that they randomly check it just to see if they've done it. No grades. That's worked for my kids because they do it, no pressure. If they've got a paper to flash at their desk if the teacher decides to ask everyone to take out what they worked on last night as he walks by, they are fine. They don't spend hours on busywork. If they understand the work, they do a problem or two and call it quits. If the grades are fine on tests, why and the hell would they need to do hours of homework? *sigh* If a kid is struggling, assign some homework for them to try out and give them help after school. Do it without a grade because it's about learning, not evaluating.

I think it is easier with the kids in high school because they treat them more like adults. The younger the kids are, the more infuriating the school intervention seems to be. Not too sure why, but I suspect it's linked to schools and parents sorting out whose job it is to raise these kids. It's not a great working relationship they've got going....



Again, just so glad I'm almost DONE with parenting school kids. It's just so much harder every year. I feel for parents that have to battle this out. Now, I'm focusing all my angst on the college stuff Kris is posting. New worries always come in.

[spotty_dog]

I specifically requested a teacher who doesn't do classroom discipline systems or incentive systems. However, we got the teacher who's known for being "structured" and "strict", she has a clear set of rules and consequences but it makes my little rule-follower anxious. Like, *really* anxious. Sigh.

I hate homework, but I feel like it is the only form of communication with the teacher right now. Based on what she sends I can guess at what they do in class; based on what I have him do, I hope she can start to gather that he is capable of more! Eg. he loves math and they do very little in class, so we do extra enrichment work when he feels like it. Now, for "homework" we've been asked to go on the IXL website regularly. So sometimes I skip the stuff we would have done with paper and pencil, and make him do IXL instead so she sees his results and maybe starts considering differentiated instruction? I dunno. :\

[ladymoreta]

You guys are scaring me!... I'm really hoping that being in a small rural town will help. Maybe the schools won't be as trendy? Ugh, I really, really don't want to homeschool! (No offense to those who do it. It's just not something I think I would be good at or enjoy.)

[diggitydot]

Our kids have had the color system in most of their elementary schools, very little difference between red or blue states with that issue. They biggest difference between those states is how they're used. In the Midwest it was WAY over relied upon by burned-out teachers who came across as VERY lazy and not wanting to deal. West coast? Seems to only be used as a communication tool to clue wildly out of control kids and their parents in that shit isn't cool beans.

I think a lot of the "parenting" in education these days is because a lot of students lack people who actually parent them. My sister is a 6th grade teacher and I can't tell you how many times and how many different stories she's had over the years of parents just simply not giving a fuck about their kid. These aren't, "Hey, your kid isn't doing their homework," conversations. These are "Hey, your kid is constantly falling asleep in class because they're too terrified to go to sleep while home alone all night until you get home from the bar," conversations.

Unfortunately, involved and caring parents aren't always the norm.

[peggyfromwastate]

You guys are scaring me!... I'm really hoping that being in a small rural town will help. Maybe the schools won't be as trendy? Ugh, I really, really don't want to homeschool! (No offense to those who do it. It's just not something I think I would be good at or enjoy.)

I thought "hell no" about homeschooling. But with online programs and homeschooling "classes" I think it's more reasonable. My ds12 and ds9 really want to homeschool. Dd12 is a social maniac and so she really wants trad school.

After going into dd5s k class to volunteer last week, they did one worksheet of value in 1.5 hours. The teacher said that was a productive day bc she got to work in small groups with the students on reading skills which she usually can't do. She could bc she had 2 parents in the classroom managing the worksheet fiasco. This is a good, veteran teacher. But 27 kids? 2 are special needs and the district is "mainstreaming" them? I could cover that info with dd5 in about 5 min and she could watch Sesame Street the rest of the morning and probably get more out of it. This is WAY different from my twins kinder though- that's the last one I volunteered in. They had only 18 kids in the class.

And the amount of time I spend with ds9 on his homework basically teaching him the concepts, I'm pretty much homeschooling now. Except the poor kid never gets any down time bc of all the homework.

Ds12 is so busy with swim. He needs some time to chill. And swimming only gets worse. He most likely will need to start homeschooling within 2 years if he sticks w swimming bc he will need to add morning practices, and a day that goes from 4 am to 7 pm then you have studying after that--- too much. He's super independent though. I think I could send him to college now and he'd be ok.

Like dd, I don't see this so much a red state blue state issue. Most of this shit is a result of no child left behind, IMHO. Worst thing ever. There is getting to be very little ability to have diversity in education (common core is taking over on a federal level)---- I think things will just get worse.

And the email and texting and face booking to keep in touch with teachers??? So frustrating. It's all an effort to engage the less engaged, but I think just overwhelms the already engaged.

I'm thankful I even have the option to homeschool. It would be a monumental commitment for me and scares me mostly bc I know I'd have to find done social groups and what not--- the introvert in me just hates this thought.

Lets all get started on the commune pls. There are teachers among us, doctors galore, gardeners, photogs.... Even soap maker, quilters, chefs. We can do this.

[HouseofWool]

Lets all get started on the commune pls. There are teachers among us, doctors galore, gardeners, photogs.... Even soap maker, quilters, chefs. We can do this.

Sweet baby cheezez, please? I am so over everything.

While I like C's teacher, I am done with asshole kids making life difficult for everyone. The other day a 4th grader was giving a teacher a hard time and C came home in tears over it. And this was on an awesome field trip day. The asshole completely obliterated any positive feelings C had about the day.

[spotty_dog]

You guys are scaring me!... I'm really hoping that being in a small rural town will help. Maybe the schools won't be as trendy? Ugh, I really, really don't want to homeschool! (No offense to those who do it. It's just not something I think I would be good at or enjoy.)

I'm in a small semi-rural town and a tiny district. We are very under-resourced. It's a frustration in itself.

[diggitydot]

I'm in a small semi-rural town and a tiny district. We are very under-resourced. It's a frustration in itself.

We're in a very rural/agricultural community and our schools have surprisingly great resources. The disparity between districts is so weird.

[spotty_dog]

We're in a very rural/agricultural community and our schools have surprisingly great resources. The disparity between districts is so weird.

Your district has over 4.5 times the students of my district. However, wow, your district gets $7983 per student and only $616 of that is from local tax. We get $9486 per student, $2702 of it from local tax, but we still don't even have music in the elementary school or gifted & talented elementary education or very many course offerings at the middle school and high school level. We had a budget crisis two years ago that we're still trying to pull out of (can barely afford to bus the kids) and we wouldn't have field trips without the PTA fundraising. We've had a lot of turnover in superintendents.