I have recently become aware of a totally outrageous fact about the reading program at our local elementary school. At our school there are two rankings of readers the Alligators and the Bears. The Alligators are the higher ranking students and the Bears are the lower ranking students. Now the students become aware of these rankings and what they mean very early on. They start out being labeled the smart ones and the dumb ones, and you may nicely call it Alligators and Bears, but the kids know what you mean. It is not bad enough that these kids have to spend all their time feeling like the dumb ones, but these kids were ranked this way about 4 months prior to kindergarten. That’s right. They are labeled this way before they ever get into school and based on one quick overview test and interview and on one persons opinion. If they don’t perform well on that particular test, then they are ranked as a bear. And even worse yet, if they are ranked as a Bear, they then are a bear for the rest of their school career. I was informed directly by a reading teacher at this school that once your child is a Bear, they can never be an Alligator.
What an amazingly negative concept! Can you believe that a school would create such a negative air around their reading program? They will never be able to be an Alligator. How horrible is that? They place them there and no matter how they succeed from their on out they can never rid themselves of the stigma of being dumb. Now the parents think that their kids are dumb and the kids think that they are the dumb ones and they have to stay like this forever, because of one test when they entered school?
I just think that we should build are kids up, not label them dumb at 5 and keep them in that category for the rest of their lives. I saw a child go from a Kindergarten reading level at the beginning of 2nd grade to a third grade reading level at the end of 2nd grade, and this child will remain a bear forever and ever even though he is actually on grade level now. A child who can go up 3 reading levels in one year is not stupid. I think that reading is a developmental process and that we can not force kids who are not developmentally ready to read before their time. Labeling them in this manner just creates for them a feeling of failure right from the start. Now I notice with many of these lower 2nd grade readers that they do whatever they can to avoid having to read. Of course they do, I mean if you had something that everyone was telling you that you were a failure at, wouldn’t you give up.
I think it is important to teach the children that hard work pays off, and that through hard work you can do anything you set your mind to, even become an Alligator.
Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:54 AM by Carol Ann
Recently my husband told me that he would like to start keeping a gun in the house for protection. I told him, I will not live in a house with a gun. I don’t like guns and think that there are already too many of them in the world today. It seems like every time you turn around there is another accidental shooting, kids shooting kids, someone cleaning their gun and it accidentally going off and stuff like that. We live in a house with four kids and I could never sleep at night thinking that the possibility exists that one of them could accidentally or purposely have access to a gun.
I don’t believe that owning a gun makes you any safer than not owning one does. I think if anything quite the opposite is true. When you own a gun, and you hear a noise at night and get frightened, what is the first thing that you will do…grab that gun. You won’t mean to hurt anyone, but what if the noise you hear is one of the kids or your spouse, you might pull the trigger out of fear and hurt someone totally by accident.
I don’t believe in the right to bear arms, I think that the more guns that are out there, the better the chance that they could fall into the wrong hands. I won’t fill the world with anymore violence than is necessary and I won’t contribute to the downfall of our society. I don’t allow my kids to play with guns. I think that playing with them, just allows them to become numb to the harm that can be done with one of these things. I didn’t even allow brightly colored water guns until very recently. I don’t allow games that require shooting at people. I don’t like violence and I don’t ever want my kids to become numb to it, especially the boys. I have had many an argument with my 12 year old son about paintball guns and pellet guns and bb guns. I don’t care how many of his friends have guns to play with, I won’t allow it. I don’t want them to accidentally get an eye taken out by these “toys”. My nine year old actually has friends who own their own real guns already. I try to explain to my kids that this is not acceptable in my mind, but they hunt. Now my oldest son says that he wants to hunt. I don’t really believe in hunting and don’t even really like to eat meat. I think that mostly it is inhumane to treat any of God’s creatures this way. I know I am in the minority on this one…but that’s just me.
Posted on Monday, April 28, 2008 9:52 AM by Carol Ann
What is the deal with kids and the ADD diagnosis? I am not sure if this is really as big an issue as everyone is making it out to be. I have been spending a lot of time in the schools and quite honestly, I think that the real issue is that we are asking too much of these kids. I watch kindergarteners taking word study tests and having homework every night. Now the new initiative is that every child should be enrolled in school by 4. I did some substituting in a local elementary school, and they won't even let their kindergarten students play in the learning centers anymore. Then I watched as these children were only given a 15 minute recess (play time) and then were expected to sit at their tables doing nothing for about 30 minutes, while kids were bath rooming and waiting for other children on that grade level to bathroom as well. Needless to say, these kids were bored out of their minds, and eventually I would say after about 15 minutes of sitting, some of the kids began playing with the crayon baskets on the tables. They were reprimanded for this behavior. Now I ask you as an adult, if asked to sit there for 30 minutes with nothing to do, would you not have started playing with the crayon basket too? I think some of you probably would have.
I think it is great to start the learning process at an early age, however, I also believe that there are both good and bad ways to do this. For instance, why does everything that we teach them have to be taught while sitting and being quiet? Why can't we sing our ABC songs while jumping up and down? People are always saying that our society has become too lazy and overweight, and yet with the youngest of the people in it, all we can tell them is to sit down and be quiet. Don't express yourself! No playing! We really as a society need to find a balance between having children learn and having them be still. Playing, running, laughing, socializing, are all part of learning.
My own experience is that we are pushing children to learn things before they are developmentally ready for them, and therefore our level of education is suffering. I was told this about my daughter and her pre algebra class. She took her class the first time and although she has always been an A and B student, mostly A's, she struggled with pre algebra and barely made a C. When she went to take the class the next year, I discussed this with her new teacher and she said that this was quite normal. That developmentally some children, no matter how smart, just are not ready for certain concepts until their brains mature to a certain point.
I think this is why so many children are struggling with reading and attention. I think they are just not ready for all this stuff, they are still developing as people, and as educators we not only need to acknowledge this, but work to change a system that is not working. I know from my perspective, I stayed at home with my mom until I entered kindergarten, and was not asked to read, take tests or do homework at that age, and yet somehow, I seem to have gotten a more well rounded education, then I find that my children are receiving today…Why is that?
Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:34 PM by Carol Ann
Working in the school systems has been my motivation to return to school and get my degree in early childhood education with a secondary in elementary education. As I am watching the way things are changing, I am not sure that they are changing for the better.
The only reference point I have is from when I was a kid. I remember you had only one teacher and sat in class everyday doing your school work. Now, it seems like they are trying to make everything a game for these kids. We have reading games and math games and the focus is on playing the game. What ever happened to telling kids that this is what you need to know? I have even seen some teachers afraid to tell the students that they are taking a test; I am not really sure why this is. I personally would try harder if I knew I was taking a test, if I thought it was just class work, I might not try as hard. Also, they move these kids around every 45 minutes and I really think that if they would keep them in one classroom with one teacher all day long, the children would have more consistency and probably better behavior. I watch kindergarten children (mostly 5 year olds) have to go from one teacher and one set of rules to another, and they are expected to keep track of it all. In my opinion, if we were to keep them in one place with one teacher and one set of expectations, we would probably see better results.
I have a son who is in middle school now and a daughter who is in high school and neither of them ever have to take notes. They just keep coming home with ditto sheets and preprinted notes. Then I am being told by the middle school that my son is not paying attention and all I can think is, if he were taking notes, he would have to pay more attention, wouldn't he? I just don't really understand it. What happened to the days where school was a serious business? I remember when I was in school in 3rd grade we wrote cursive letter over and over and over again, until you hand was going to nearly fall off. You would never complain or moan at a teacher. Today, that is all you hear is whining. Maybe, we are taking spoiling these kids way to far. A little hard work never hurt anyone. How can we ever expect to make productive members of our society out of these kids, if we never expect enough out of them? Today's kids are really smart, let's give them credit and teach them a work ethic that will last them a lifetime.
Posted on Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:31 PM by Carol Ann
I was in the school volunteering, which is where I truly enjoy being. I go and help this one teacher at the local school in the afternoon and I really get a kick out of it. I normally assist with her reading group and she is a really fun teacher and good with the kids. Well, yesterday, while she was testing and she sent me and the remainder of her reading group into the next classroom, so she could test the children individually. I thought, okay why not? The other teacher claimed that she would need my help, and I was glad to assist her.
When I entered the room of twenty two second graders, you could have heard a pin drop. It was so strange to me that I leaned over and whispered to her "have you put corks in them or something?" Well, needless to say she did not find this comment amusing. Then she proceeded to play a getting to know you memory game with each person saying their name and something that we could associate with them. I am really not sure if she did this so the kids would know each other, or so she would know everyone's name. This process took about 15 minutes. Then she proceeded to pass out workbooks and have each child look through them. Then she collected all the workbooks again telling the students that they would work on them tomorrow, there was no time for them today. She then proceeded to pass out some hard covered reading books. She reviewed the Table of Contents with them, and then had them turn to section and called on the first person to read. She had supplied me with a reading book, so I took a seat at a desk and had my book open. Needless to say, this whole process was getting a bit long and drawn out for me, so I began to look for the clock which I located behind her desk, and could only see the hour hand on. No minute hand visible. I began to search visually around the room for a clock I could actually see. When all of a sudden she called on ME to read! A classroom of 22 kids and she called on me to read because I wasn't paying any attention and she knew it! Well, needless to say, I was still kind of in a haze about the situation and as I began to read, I messed up a word in the second sentence and went back and corrected my mistake and continued reading. When I finished she says to the class, "Now notice class that she misread a word in sentence number 2, but she went back and corrected herself. This shows that she is a good reader because she went back and corrected her mistake."
Needless to say, I thought I would die. I could not believe that she would not give me anything to help with, and then on top of that called on me to read, because I was drifting off into la, la land! Well, obviously when I returned to the other classroom, I told the teacher I am normally with, to please never send me to that classroom again. She laughed and said that the kids would at least be glad when they got her back.
Posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:37 PM by Carol Ann
It seems like day in and day out I come across parents who put on a good act about their kids being the most important things in their lives, but really they are just very self centered with their lives.
For example, at the school I know two kids that seem to have it all. They are in kindergarten and third grade. They dress well and take several vacations a year with their parents. Well, the boy who is the one in kindergarten was absent because he went to the beach with his parents for the week. When I saw his sister at school, I asked her why she was in school and not with her family, and she told me it was because she had tests this coming week, so she had to stay with her grandma so she would be here for the tests. This kind of thing just blows my mind. I don’t mean to question it, but instead of staying home as a family they had to just leave their kids behind while the rest of the family was at the beach. I mean school will be out in 3 weeks, they couldn’t wait and take a vacation together then? I don’t know, but this makes no sense to me at all.
Let me give you another example. My one son plays both baseball and soccer. On the baseball team, one of the coach’s wives with 4 kids also, has her two older kids playing baseball, and the two little ones are only four and six. She has recently started asking my daughter to watch her younger kids in the evenings so that she can go to the ball field and watch her older boys play. Sounds good right? Well, the other night, she sees me on the baseball and asks me if I have spoken to my daughter (who was babysitting for her that evening) when I said no, she proceeded to tell me that her 4 year old had a fever, so she gave him some motrin and she was wondering how he was feeling. She never called herself to see how he was doing. Then she proceeds to tell me that he didn’t seem right when she picked him up from the babysitter’s house today, the one that he spent all day with. She is not even watching the game of her son, has no idea what the score is, doesn’t call to check up on her four year old or anything. Now I am all for occasionally leaving your kids with a sitter, but I don’t get why she wouldn’t miss this one ball game and stay home with her four year old to keep an eye on him, especially on a day where he has already been with a babysitter for the entire day. Not only that but I have recently found out that both of her older boys are actually bullies on the bus and complete trouble makers at school. Is it really any wonder why?
I can site many other examples of these types of families, however, I think that might get a little too lengthy and off topic, but in all these examples you will find kids who are experiencing either behavior or learning difficulties and in some cases both.
Now if you met either of these families, you would think that they were great people and excellent parents. What gets me is that I am constantly trying to spread myself thin enough to take care of my four and do what is in everyone’s best interest all at once. I just don’t get how these people can just dump their kids and run no matter what.
Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 9:05 PM by Carol Ann
This time of year is really crazy. When school is wrapping up, a lot of the kids are already on summer break, at least in their minds. With my own finals closing in, I am a bit overtired and overwhelmed, and with kids acting out all day long it is really hard to keep my patience with my own children. By the time evening rolls around, I just long for a little quiet time a time to myself without interruption. Needless to say in a house with four kids this does not happen.
I remember a younger day, when life was way simpler, a time before I became pregnant with my daughter when I lived in an incredible apartment with a loft. This apartment was awesome, and originally I was supposed to get a roommate, however, that did not happen. This is probably about the only time in my life that I have ever lived completely alone. It was a grand time, life was simple. I remember things like soaking in the tub, while listening to the sounds of nature CD by candlelight. I also remember reading an entire book in a 24 hour period. These times seem so far removed from me that it almost seems as if these experiences are someone else's, even though I can see the images of this time crystal clear in my mind.
I feel sometimes, like my life is just run, run, run with no break in sight. Working and going to school plus taking care of the kids and the house, I feel that life is just work all the time. I am disappointed with myself, that I can't focus more energy on my kids and I know that I don't appreciate them in near the way I should.
It is really hard to remember what it was like to read a book or have a clear thought. I miss those days, when I still had a mind. When I was younger, if I met someone who didn't want kids I thought they must be crazy. I have always wanted kids, lots of kids. I guess now I do understand why people would not want children. I mean there is never a time that I can leave my house clean and come back and it still be clean. As a matter of fact I have backed off of a lot of cleaning, because it is a pointless and disappointing process. Always, coming back to the same messes over and over again without fail is an extremely frustrating process. My mom keeps telling me that I need to be harder on the kids and I do keep on them from time to time, but to keep on them all the time, is quite honestly a difficult task. If I come in to find a mess, most of the time I get the It Wasn't Me or the I didn't do it. It is amazing how many things are done wrong in my home by absolutely no one.
I am glad to be a mother and can't imagine life without my children, I am very proud of who they are and who they are becoming. I think that for the most part they are on a pretty good path in life, and I think we have a pretty good relationship. My kids know that they can talk to me about anything, and they do. They even most times will rat themselves out to me, which I really think is awesome. I wouldn't trade being a mom for anything in the world, but there are some moments where I hang on by a string, wondering if I am doing a good job, or messing them up for life. I guess that answer will lie in the future, but for now all I can do is try to keep my sanity. People say that I will miss these days when they are gone, and I say, will I even know my name by then?
Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 11:16 PM by Carol Ann
Who ever said that children bring a couple together must have been out of their mind! With four kids in our household, my husband and I are hard pressed to carry on a conversation much less spend some good quality time together. We work really hard to make sure the kids get what they need, but at what expense? The truth is that no matter how hard we try to do for them, they seem to never be satisfied and we don't even have to time to worry about or seek out what we want.
In our household, we are working to change this. We are now expecting more out of our children, which has been working so far. We have determined that if they are going to take our time away from working in and around the house, by taking them to activities or transporting them and their friends, then we are going to expect them to cut our work load down in order to get our time. Up until now, we have been desperately running our bottoms off trying to get everything done, while they sit on theirs in front of the TV or play in the yard, or hand with their friends or sleep late on the weekends. My husband says I spoil them, which I am now seeing is definitely true. They need to have more responsibility and more work before play. They are becoming lazy and complacent and need to get motivated. I don't want them to become lazy adults, I want them to be driven to achieve their goals and become productive members of society. For me I know that one of the hardest words is no. I have found that in the past I have had difficulty saying no to co-workers, neighbors and friends, and have come across some people who are more than willing to take advantage of me for it. The problem is I wind up becoming a resentful door mat, hating every minute and still doing whatever anyone asks of me. I am the all time sucker.
When I truly took a look at this behavior, I started being really careful about not saying yes all the time. I have determined that my own needs and self respect are important. Only now I am discovering that I have stopped letting strangers do this to me, and have started letting family do this instead. I almost never say no. I mean I do say no to my kids, but not often enough and I rarely ever even say no to my husband. I am really surprised as I did not realize that I was doing this. It is really upsetting to me that I have yet to break this pattern, but once again, I need to put my foot down and just say no. I need to stop over extending myself, even if it is for a good cause and bring the tempo of my life down, before my life is no more. If I keep up this pace I will be dead before I hit 45 and then who will I be able to help? No one, not even myself!
Posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 6:47 PM by Carol Ann
My son this year has a teacher that just lets the class run wild. I am not really thrilled with her teaching methods as she does not provide very much structure in a class that very much needs some. She has a class that is about ¾ boys and of these boys I would say at least half have difficulty with attention and keeping still. Many of these boys have low IQs and are struggling in school. I really think that although her teaching methods are not bad, I think that in this particular class she really needed to adapt her teaching style and classroom set up a little bit. At the end of each day, I go in to pick up my son, who is not struggling with attention and a very good student. There are kids everywhere. Even when I enter the room while she is still instructing, some of the kids are sliding across the floor. She says that some of these kids have had tough lives and that is why she tends to be so lenient with them, but I think that she is truly doing them a disservice to allow them to behave like this in the third grade. I know the fourth grade teachers are not going to be thrilled with these behaviors that she has allowed, and these children in my opinion are getting a bit to old to be sliding across the floor.
For a while, at the beginning of the year, some of the other parents and me were discussing this and they were noticing as was I, that their children were sliding across the floors and crawling around at home. We were all really surprised that our kids were doing these things. The class has not gotten near as far in the areas of Social Studies and Science as the four other 3rd grade classes have, and we are all a little uneasy about how this will affect our students next year.
I do understand that each teacher has their own methods and teaching styles, but as some one who is looking forward to teaching in the future, I hope that I can adapt my style to fit the class that I am dealing with each year. I am watching as all the students in this particular class are suffering. I love the teacher, she is a really lovely person, but as far as her effectiveness with this particular classroom of children, it is definitely lacking something. I have also noticed that her methods are not serving her either, as most days by the end of the day, she looks like she is going to burst into tears and really seems like she can’t take much more. I feel for her, however, I also feel that she has created her own circumstances in this particular situation. I do think that there are good teachers out there that find it hard to adapt to the needs of their students. I do however think that this is probably the most important part of their job, to be effective for all their students and to adapt to each group as needed. I will use this as a lesson for myself in the future.
Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008 9:06 PM by Carol Ann