Submitted by cristina (not verified) on March 1, 2007 - 07:05.
Do people really know what the NCLB curriculum is?? It is a book with 'stories' and and a list of words. Each word needs to be repeated out loud after the snap of the teacher's hand. If not everyone participates, you have to repeat the word list. After the boring process of repeating about 20 words, the 'story' is read. "How The Mustard Seed Becomes a Spy" was one of the 'stories' for 16 year olds. Yup.
Most of the kids in the class were smart, but somewhat delinquent. They did not show up for the State testing, so they were put in this class. They were 'problem kids', always getting in trouble. They had bad home lives. English Language Learners and some special ed kids who did not score well on the Star test (California) were also put in this class. A Boot Camp Monitor from NCLB would come once every 2 weeks to "check" on the progress of the 'snapping".Teaching these classes was a nightmare.
The kids HATED being in the class. After 3 months of torture, I got through the next 3 months by bribing them. If the Boot Camp Monitor was coming on a Thursday, we would practice, perform and then they could watch a video on Friday. Awful? It was a relief! FINALLY, the monitor stopped coming. I threw the workbooks out, got some classic plays, created Mystery Friday( Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe) and we actually read literature for the rest of the year. The kids loved the plays and I did not have to call Security every other day. That was my first and last year teaching high school.
Do people really know what
Submitted by cristina (not verified) on March 1, 2007 - 07:05.
Do people really know what the NCLB curriculum is?? It is a book with 'stories' and and a list of words. Each word needs to be repeated out loud after the snap of the teacher's hand. If not everyone participates, you have to repeat the word list. After the boring process of repeating about 20 words, the 'story' is read. "How The Mustard Seed Becomes a Spy" was one of the 'stories' for 16 year olds. Yup.
Most of the kids in the class were smart, but somewhat delinquent. They did not show up for the State testing, so they were put in this class. They were 'problem kids', always getting in trouble. They had bad home lives. English Language Learners and some special ed kids who did not score well on the Star test (California) were also put in this class. A Boot Camp Monitor from NCLB would come once every 2 weeks to "check" on the progress of the 'snapping".Teaching these classes was a nightmare.
The kids HATED being in the class. After 3 months of torture, I got through the next 3 months by bribing them. If the Boot Camp Monitor was coming on a Thursday, we would practice, perform and then they could watch a video on Friday. Awful? It was a relief! FINALLY, the monitor stopped coming. I threw the workbooks out, got some classic plays, created Mystery Friday( Sherlock Holmes, Edgar Allen Poe) and we actually read literature for the rest of the year. The kids loved the plays and I did not have to call Security every other day. That was my first and last year teaching high school.