Hey Soy Boy, Deep State, China Paid, Antifa Libz...

[Dill]

(02-24-2021, 02:30 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Our county curriculum is developed by the individual departments at central office with the help of teachers recruited to write it during the summer. It's based on state standards and assessments developed by the state dept of education by a mix of political appointees and bureaucrats with influence from the state legislature and governor, as well as testing companies who design the assessments. 

I would say that, outside of the state standards (which are mostly based on what people far from the classroom think are relevant, with little corporate or union influence), the teachers most involved with their departments at the county level have the most control over the curriculum itself, with little influence from administrators at the school level. Like most things, the public can review it and complain the board prior to it being adopted, though that's not likely to change anything drastically. 

We're slow to enact major changes that relate to career prep because the emphasis is still college, college, college. There's a set of metrics from the state used to determine if students are "college and career ready" that include things like taking AP courses, scoring a certain level on the SATs, and other things associated with college. Taking work study isn't included, but that's far more relevant for being "career ready", so we get dinged if a student who takes career research classes but not the SAT. Testing matters far too much.

This is where Biden criticism comes in. His DOE pushing for all students to take assessments this year is asinine. Beyond the fact that assessments are far less valuable than we treat them and handcuff teachers, requiring it as many people are going hybrid eats up a ton of time and poses so many problems. 

There are some classes aligned to the local community college, primarily math. Two of our college algebra classes use a midterm and final create with the community college. Passing them with a B or higher gives you credit for two math classes there. You can also take classes at the community college while enrolled in high school. Unless we're referring to AP classes, there isn't an aim is to model higher education standards of curricula because that's a completely different format for education. As my advisor told me my first year, "professor lecture and teachers teach". We're task with ensuring that every student's diverse needs and learning styles are meet and are held accountable for failures. 

I'm teaching Sociology, Psychology, and Law and Citizen this year in addition to Government reg and honors. With 5 preps, I've changed my attitude towards the electives, especially since we're using a weird schedule with online learning. I'm pushing for them to be more of open discussion classes. We'll go through daily topics with notes, but there's a lot of breaks and discussion points added in so that we can go off on tangents if that's where the students take us. The assessments are a journal students keep that requires them to reflect on a weekly topic and how it applies to their life, with the endgame being a student create portfolio as the final where they reflect on how specific journal entries demonstrate their mastery of curriculum standards. We also mix in group activities. I want them to experience college level topics with college level dialogue without bogging them down with tests and busy work since many are taking honors or AP classes.

That is a WONDERFUL synopsis--informative, compact and professional.  I see my questions answered, along with some I didn't ask.

I understand your complaint about Biden. I remember my son was in HS when No Child Left Behind came out, which I believe instituted the idea of nationwide testing, linking test performance to federal funding. People who had never been in a classroom were among those deciding, for example, what English and math requirements should be. Teacher "accountability" was a sore point there too. Before long teachers were complaining how the focus on tests detracted from learning. But they "accountable" if student learning dropped.

I understood the motivation--the dropping performance of U.S. students. But I disagreed with the assessment of causes.  

Anyway, I have been interested in university curricula for years, but the Trump era has shifted my interest back to public schools. I have long suspected that Trump's success was in part a failure of the education system (along with other causes, like demographic shifts and income inequality).  So many in public discussion seem not to know the difference between authoritarian and democratic ideals. Many conflate rule of law with law and order. And of course there has been a shift away from grounded arguments and towards "truthiness" as a criterion of political judgment, so the kind of responsible public discourse needed for successful governance is disappearing. These are the kinds of things that probably cannot be taught without dialogue (I'm a big fan of Plato). But I meet so many people--including the occasional educator--who thinks all teaching is top-down transfer of specific content, best accomplished by repetitive exercises and testing.

But I don't want to be one of those who "knows better than the teachers" what ought to be taught and how. I have no idea what "5 preps" would be like, and for classes of students with widely different ability. 

[BmorePat87]

(02-24-2021, 01:53 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Good to see that the criminal justice system isn't the only area in which bureaucrats with no experience in the field thrown up insane amounts of obstacles to actually getting the job done.

This is why I will defend law enforcement. The stakes are far different, but we're both professions where our policy is controlled by those far from the job itself and we're blamed for the actions of a few. 

[BmorePat87]

(02-25-2021, 01:24 AM)Dill Wrote: That is a WONDERFUL synopsis--informative, compact and professional.  I see my questions answered, along with some I didn't ask.

I understand your complaint about Biden. I remember my son was in HS when No Child Left Behind came out, which I believe instituted the idea of nationwide testing, linking test performance to federal funding. People who had never been in a classroom were among those deciding, for example, what English and math requirements should be. Teacher "accountability" was a sore point there too. Before long teachers were complaining how the focus on tests detracted from learning. But they "accountable" if student learning dropped.

I understood the motivation--the dropping performance of U.S. students. But I disagreed with the assessment of causes.  

Anyway, I have been interested in university curricula for years, but the Trump era has shifted my interest back to public schools. I have long suspected that Trump's success was in part a failure of the education system (along with other causes, like demographic shifts and income inequality).  So many in public discussion seem not to know the difference between authoritarian and democratic ideals. Many conflate rule of law with law and order. And of course there has been a shift away from grounded arguments and towards "truthiness" as a criterion of political judgment, so the kind of responsible public discourse needed for successful governance is disappearing. These are the kinds of things that probably cannot be taught without dialogue (I'm a big fan of Plato). But I meet so many people--including the occasional educator--who thinks all teaching is top-down transfer of specific content, best accomplished by repetitive exercises and testing.

But I don't want to be one of those who "knows better than the teachers" what ought to be taught and how. I have no idea what "5 preps" would be like, and for classes of students with widely different ability. 

Yep, NCLB was my freshmen year of HS. Democrats and Republicans love testing. It is a bipartisan obsession. Obama's Sec of Edu Arne Duncan pushed for full testing even with special ed kids. It's infuriating. Gov't is the assessed social studies class in high school, so I have to hit all the assessment limits. After 10 years I've gotten to a place where I know the pacing so I have worked in my bonus lessons (particularly my public policy unit) and can say for certain assessment limits "Look, this topic is not as important, but the test wants you to know it. This is the way you'll see it written on the test."

So much of our achievement gap is tied into our high childhood poverty. We need to be developing schools that use the community based model where the school is a hub in the community. It should be a community center that can work with other agencies to provide health and food services. It should be in the middle of the community.

Well trained school resource officers are critical to this model too, which is why I oppose efforts to remove them.Our last SRO left to be a detective focused on kids in our county, but he was awesome. He coached, most of the kids loved him, and he made an effort to be involved with them in the community.

I teach at my old school. We are split between the side I grew up in (apartments and rentals, the working class, minority majority, mostly Black and Latino kids) and the newer part ($750k+ homes, upper middle class, mostly White and Asian kids). My elementary school is in the middle of wjere I lived, but they built our middle school and high school 10 minute drives away. The high school is down a highway while the middle school had $600k homes built around it. They give out free lunch during the summer for that part. Most summers it was at the elementary school, but one year they moved it to the middle school. They got a bus to drive kids, but it made no sense. The ones who NEEDED it should have been able to walk 5 mins to get lunch, but walk 5 mins to get one a bus to take a ride to get it and then ride to bring it back home. 

I keep telling my school, we're making a mistake by holding our after school help programs at the school. The kids who need it are lower income and cannot get rides home. They can't walk an hour down a highway either. Many need to be home for their little siblings. There's a new community center in their neighborhood next to the elementary school. We need to hold it there and the siblings can come join them. 

Little changes like these will make a difference. Not tests. Our approach cannot be based on standardization. It has to be tailored at the individual level 

[BmorePat87]

So the Saudi Crown Prince called for Khashoggi’s murder according to US reports, but Biden won’t do anything about it. Pathetic. Trump was wrong to deny it for years despite knowing. Biden is wrong to not act now that we know.

[GMDino]

Lightly saw this story yesterday, Something about them unable to come to the US is  the only punishment?

I didn't delve into what *could* be done by Biden either although I agree that something SHOULD be done if it can be.  At least we aren't simply senying it anymore because the guy told he didn't do it.  Progress?  

[BmorePat87]

(02-27-2021, 11:21 AM)GMDino Wrote: Lightly saw this story yesterday, Something about them unable to come to the US is  the only punishment?

I didn't delve into what *could* be done by Biden either although I agree that something SHOULD be done if it can be.  At least we aren't simply senying it anymore because the guy told he didn't do it.  Progress?  

Trump isn't even the floor, he's the basement. Our standards need to be high. 

[Belsnickel]

Got my Soros money, baby!

[GMDino]

(02-27-2021, 02:53 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Trump isn't even the floor, he's the basement. Our standards need to be high. 

Indeed.  And I'll have too look into it more.

[GMDino]

President Joe Biden trips climbing the stairs to Air Force 1 pic.twitter.com/x8UD7q0a48

— The Hill (@thehill) March 19, 2021

 

[BmorePat87]

(03-19-2021, 01:16 PM)GMDino Wrote:

President Joe Biden trips climbing the stairs to Air Force 1 pic.twitter.com/x8UD7q0a48

— The Hill (@thehill) March 19, 2021

 

Is it bad that I laughed?

Dude tripped 3 times...

[GMDino]

(03-19-2021, 01:20 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Is it bad that I laughed?

Dude tripped 3 times...

Nah.  You're human.  

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-19-2021, 01:20 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Is it bad that I laughed?

Dude tripped 3 times...

This is real and not altered?  I am increasingly worried that in the rush to remove Trump people voted for a man who is of increasingly diminished capacity.  How long until President Harris?  (Ugh, I hated typing that)  I'm willing to bet heavy that Biden doesn't even finish out this term.

[BigPapaKain]

(03-19-2021, 01:32 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: This is real and not altered?  I am increasingly worried that in the rush to remove Trump people voted for a man who is of increasingly diminished capacity.  How long until President Harris?  (Ugh, I hated typing that)  I'm willing to bet heavy that Biden doesn't even finish out this term.

I worry less about Biden's diminishing physical capacity than I did about Trump's diminishing mental capacity. FDR was in a wheelchair through WW2. Biden tripping is nothing.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-19-2021, 01:40 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: I worry less about Biden's diminishing physical capacity than I did about Trump's diminishing mental capacity. FDR was in a wheelchair through WW2. Biden tripping is nothing.

I can see why people would still prefer Biden to Trump, but I don't see how you could not watch that video and be at least a little concerned.  FDR having polio has no bearing on this discussion though.  Stephen Hawking could have been POTUS and it wouldn't have concerned me.  

[GMDino]

(03-19-2021, 01:40 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: I worry less about Biden's diminishing physical capacity than I did about Trump's diminishing mental capacity. FDR was in a wheelchair through WW2. Biden tripping is nothing.

I don't even know if its "diminishing physical capacity" as much as people always on camera are got slipping more. Mom came out of a restaurant restroom with toilet paper on her shoe once.  Only people who saw it was us.  For Trump it happened on the national news while getting onto Air Force One.

It's funny and we laugh.

Difference being that when we laughed at Trump we had TDS.  When we laugh at Biden they don't know what to call us.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/donald-trump-ramp-west-point-speech/index.html

I wonder if this incident will generate a similar article?

[BigPapaKain]

(03-19-2021, 01:46 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I can see why people would still prefer Biden to Trump, but I don't see how you could not watch that video and be at least a little concerned.  FDR having polio has no bearing on this discussion though.  Stephen Hawking could have been POTUS and it wouldn't have concerned me.  

It's an older guy tripping when he outpaced himself. I'm half his age and I trip myself going up stairs too fast. And FDR does have a bearing here - a physically sick/frail president is still capable of performing the tasks the office requires. When Biden comes out looking like the Grim Reaper himself, I'll be worried about the possibility of a President Harris (shudder). Until then, this screams nothing burger and will be looked back at much like Gerald Ford's inability to maintain any equilibrium. 

[BigPapaKain]

(03-19-2021, 01:58 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/politics/donald-trump-ramp-west-point-speech/index.html

I wonder if this incident will generate a similar article?

Depends on which sites you get your news from, I imagine.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-19-2021, 02:01 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Depends on which sites you get your news from, I imagine.

Well, in this case CNN.

[GMDino]

(03-19-2021, 02:01 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Depends on which sites you get your news from, I imagine.

(03-19-2021, 02:03 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Probably not considering that pretty much everyone has slipped on stairs before.

But pretty much anyone can walk up a ramp better than what the Donald did there.

And Biden didn't have his doctors saying what an amazingly fit specimen of a human being he is.  Trump had to "appear" perfect at all times.  That's why the tan and the hair.  So it's even easier to make fun when that fails.