New School standards

[horst]

My wife was talking to my aunt who is the pre school teacher, and to my daughters kindergarten teacher.Sounds like next year in preschool theres gonna be some new standards for learning.Before the end of the year preschoolers are gonna be required to read "sight words" whatever that means.Also the kindergarten will be getting the lessons that untill now were saved for first grade, first grade will be learning on a second grade level, etc...Might sound good but conside your talking about kids that are only 4 yrs old being required to read.Not many years ago when my son was in preschool they raised the standards and started teaching phonics, it worked pretty good for most of the kids, not all of them, and they were told they had to quit teaching phonics in preschool because they learned it in kindergarten and some of the kids were bored learning the same thing 2 years in a row.No mention of what happened to the other half who had trouble learning it at 4 yrs old.My daughters in kindergarten and now has homework every night.Shes going into 1st grade next year but will be expected to learn at a second grade level, kinda like skipping a year.

Happily my daughters very smart, must get it from her mom LOL, and so far hasnt had any trouble.But theres a lot of kids in her class that are struggling now with the material and are about to have the bar raised once again on them.Am I wrong or do they push these kids pretty hard, I remember when I was first in school, at 4 yrs old we werent required to read, we were learning the basics, alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, things like that.It just blew me away that once again they were talking about raiing the learning curve on them at that age, maybe Im wrong but the teachers didnt seem real happy about it either.

[LLBUX]

Re: New School standards

My little boy turned 5 in September and is in the second year of pre-K. He'll be going into kindergarden next year.

I am amazed at the number of words he can read on sight. I think the first one was Walmart.

As a teacher, I have seen kids who cannot read or write, even with a high school diploma. It cheapens the whole process.

We, as teachers, are supposed to challenge every student. In a small school with very few sections of math or science, it is not possible to do so. We have to be so careful as to not label kids into groups. Their mommys amd daddys will come in and raise hades. They won't allow them to be tested for learning disabilities, and they won't back up the teacher by checking homework and demanding good performance from their child. They get mad because their son or daughter is placed in a class where there are other students who learn slowly.

It is all frustrating.

Yesterday, Nov 5, I had a student in a Woods II class that started sanding some walnut strips on my belt sander. (I had told him that he may not like the results due to the courseness of the sandpaper and the thinness of the wood.) He chose to use it rather than block sand the pieces as I also suggested.

I was setting up the lathe for a student and I saw student X take a strip of the walnut from the belt sander and attempt to burn another kid with it by laying it on his bare arm.

I remained cool and let him know what I had just seen. I informed him he could no longer use the sander. X blew up, threw his project on the table and went to the classroom to sulk. I let him cool off since he has a huge temper and it would have gotten ugly if I had pursued the matter. In the end, he got a failing daily grade and I have another entry into my daily diary.

You no doubt are saying that you would have thrown him out and banished him from class or set him up for a detention or suspension from school.

X has an Individual Education Plan (IEP). X is ADD and had hyperactivity disorder(HD). Since this is in place, the school must handle him with kid gloves. His IEP says he must get extra time as needed and that I must put up with his outbursts. If I do not follow the IEP, I can get sued for damages.

Last week he loudly asked the other 13 kids in class how many of them smoked pot. He was disappointed when only 2 kids raised their hands.

There is an ugly thought, a kid with ADD and HD who smokes pot and also drinks.

Sorry to get on soapbox. You primed the pump and I had to vent.

Things will be so much better today, I plan to go hunting this afternoon.

Good luck!

[buckee]

Re: New School standards

My belief is that a child's ability to read in kindergarten or grade one, starts at home in the first 4 years of life.

My daughter was way ahead of most of her class, when she went to kindergarten. She was able to read quite well for a 5 year old.

It was all do to reading stories to her at bedtime and during the day. Not just reading stories while sitting on the bed beside them, but letting them get their nose in the book with you to follow along.

Besides all the great pictures for them to see, as you read, you point to each word as you read it. It isn't long before they can read, by association and memorization.

I laughed one time when we thought our daughter could read more fluently than she actually could. She announced that she was going to read to us (at age 4)..LOL...So we sat down and enjoyed the show. She was amazing . We were following along as she read and she never missed a beat, until she turned two pages instead of one ...LOL. It was then, that we realized she had memorized the entire book...LOL

It wasn't long after that that she was able to actually read many words.

I think if we, as parents, wait till are kids are in school at age 5, to learn to read, we have robbed them of a couple years of learning, right from the start.

[Tominator]

Re: New School standards

yep, state standards continue to stiffen up. lately you can point a finger at "no child left behind"

i try not to whine or cry too much. there are good points to no child left behind, but some bad points too. the worst point to NCLB is that we are eventually going to teach 5 subjects and to heck with things like wood shop, home ec., business, art, band, etc, etc. it's all about test scores in reading, writing, math, science and history. sad in a way, that our next generation is heading towards being a bunch of automatons.

[wtnhunt]

Re: New School standards

"site words" I believe are more or less words from memory. The kids are supposed to recognize them on sight. My 8 year old had to learn site words in kindergarten. They also had "coding". I never really got the coding crap they were doing and think it just confused them more than helped them.

Really amazes me how much more it seems kids are doing in third grade than I can remember doing when I was in the third grade.

[horst]

Re: New School standards

Ahh, "coding".Can you tell me what that is, I asked my 9 yr old but he just looked at me like I was a moron

[wtnhunt]

Re: New School standards

Yeah Chris, "coding" is how they break words down like phonics. I got lost quick trying to keep up with my older daughter when she would bring home her papers and I was supposed to check them, I tried. Basicall they use symbols over the letters similar to those in a dictionary to help identify the sounds of the letters, but there are a lot of symbols. Some of the stuff to me made it way too confusing for kids.