All my kids have brought home this week is SOL prep material. Oh, and of course the May field trip materials. June is movies and cleaning up the classroom and field days and such.

Fully one quarter of the school year wasted. This at a school with a 90%+ rate on all SOL's, some at close to 100%.

And if teachers gave more work you would say "These heartless bastards loaded up my kids over spring break". In case you didn't know, teachers HAVE to get the kids through the SOLs- so yeah, when those tests get closer they give SOL review packets. I suppose they think it is better to do that than to have some kid not pass the SOLs and then have to hear about it from the administrators, parents, etc.
Why don't you shut the fuck up and take responsibility for your own children's education if you know so much. home school them.
Anyone who enters education as a profession must be crazy- you truly are damned if you do and damned if you don't

fed up Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Fully one quarter of the school year wasted. This
> at a school with a 90%+ rate on all SOL's, some at
> close to 100%.

All we can do is pray that your kids don't grow up to be as stupid as you are.

School should be year-round.

Teachers are usually a bunch of lazy asses to start with, that's why their teachers.

Well judging from the fact that you reference a 70s TV show, I can only assume you are an adult which makes it even more sad that you don't know the difference between "their" and "they're". Don't blame teachers for your stupidity, blame your genes (or, for you, jeans).

That's why their teachers what?

Run for the school board and change things, or STFU.

Maybe you should complain to the state--why are schools required to start after Labor day which makes school end in late June, but then also required to give the SOL in May?

Fed up, You are wrong. I am still teaching new material.

You are definitely wrong! I am teaching new material as well. Maybe you should spend a day in your child's classroom, you will see that it is not drill and kill SOL review.

Go to a classroom ?! It is so much easier to come to some conclusion and complain based on that conclusion from the comfort of one's house or office.

You are so wrong! I am a teacher too and we have many more weeks of learning new material left!!

yup - I am still teaching new stuff to the freshmen in my classes and will be through the first week in June. SOL prep stuff is coming home because we need the kids to take this test seriously, since their scores seem to mean so much to everyone outside of my classroom. I hate testing. Hate watching kids sit in my room taking an eCART test, a warm up SOL quiz, a practice SOL test, etc. But how else can we combat the stupid 'attendance doesn't matter - homework doesn't matter - working your tail off to really LEARN something doesn't matter'? Look - I don't really care HOW kids learn the material. If they can show me that they have learned - or already know - some concept from my class, then they can move on. I don't hold them back - don't shove busy work at them, etc. But there are MANY who just don't do SQUAT in terms of studying to learn. They walk in to the room at the start of class - do a little work here and there for 80 minutes and then walk out of the door and don't do another thing in my subject until class starts 2 days later. Unless I give them homework, they just don't even think about the subject. HEY! This is HIGH SCHOOL - you have to WORK to learn.
We can't even point out the jobs that they will have to do if they DON'T study, because that would be politically incorrect. Working at McDonalds used to be the thing that adults would point at and say 'do well in school or that is where you will end up working', etc... Now, any job is a good thing, and cannot be used as fear motivation for students.

So chill out 'fed up' - I agree you need to get in to your child's school and join in. Put up or shut up.

And while you're there - why don't you take a look at the IDIOTIC administrators who are running the show these days. THAT ought to make you 'fed up'. It makes teachers sick.

I agree about June being pretty much a waste aof time fter the SOLs.
So can you just cut out early, say around June 13th with impugnity? (school ends June 21 which is of course, ridiculous). Has anyone pulled out earlier than one week early?

cutoutearly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree about June being pretty much a waste aof
> time fter the SOLs.
> So can you just cut out early, say around June
> 13th with impugnity? (school ends June 21 which is
> of course, ridiculous). Has anyone pulled out
> earlier than one week early?

Well we go back to India for one month about Christmas-time each year, so the children are out of school for three weeks. Yes we do get some snide looks from the school administrators but no one dares say a thing to us. So I do not see how leaving 7 or 8 days early is going to be any problem.

Yeah, they claimed to have slotted for the latest SOL slot, but it's two weeks earlier than normal. They might as well end the school year early, because the kids really slump after the SOLs.

==================================================================================================
"And if any women or children get their legs torn off, or faces caved in, well, it's tough shit for them." -2LT. Bert Stiles, 505th, 339th (On Berlin Bombardier Mission, 1944).

Yesterday, my kid did nothing but watch movies all day. The school now sends out an e-mail soliciting who will be out the day(s) before Christmas, Spring Break, etc. It's an implicit approval for for pulling kids out of school days early for breaks.

Kotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Teachers are usually a bunch of lazy asses to
> start with, that's why their teachers.

Kotter, first I would like to know what your chosen profession is? Second, do you bring work home with you when you are off the clock?

Kotter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Teachers are usually a bunch of lazy asses to
> start with, that's why their teachers.


Kotter...Me thinks you are the dumbass.

There vs. their vs. they're. I guess with so many choices for one word it is understandable how one could be confused.

Maybe next time you will actually try and listen and learn when you repeat the 3rd grade.

Can we please get back to discussing the point of concern of the OP--as an FCPS parent, I too find it very problematic that in this era of high-stakes testing, our children spend an ordinate amount of class time all school year essentially prepping for the SOL tests--and there doesn't seem to be any curriculum or expectations for learning beyond March.

I do not believe the SOLs are preparing students today to think critically and learn creatively so that they may someday lead innovations in U.S. industries and thus build and sustain a stronger economy in the future. I'm thinking of sending my children to a good private school where the instruction is better b/c the teachers are less restrained by this SOL nonsense.

I meant to write "inordinate" in relation to how much instructional time is wasted on SOL prep thruout the school year.

Stay with the topic. Teachers are lazy. Jackass.

Please get off this thread if you're only interested in trolling (by taking cracks at teachers)! I'm guessing you don't have schoolchildren and don't feel directly impacted by the SOLs' adverse impact on the breadth of learning in our schools. However, as a citizen, you should recognize the relevance to you that if our education system fails to keep the nation economically competitive into the future.


Again, the topic is how the SOLs are constraining teachers from cultivating a lifelong love of learning and attaining mastery of a broad base of knowledge. How can they meet students' academic needs if they are forced to spend such a large chunk of instructional time drilling on the limited content of standardized tests?

There vs. their vs. they're Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Stay with the topic. Teachers are lazy.
> Jackass.


I think it is with topic. How can somebody call another person lazy when they can't spell. Pot calling the kettle black.

SOL

teachers and students SHIT OUTTA LUCK

haha I love the logic you cant call someone lazy unless you can spell. I know plenty of day labors who cant spell but can work their asses off.

Salvaging this thread,

Your concerns are shared by many other parents and teachers, from what I can see.

I do not think that it's fair to blame this solely on No Child Left Behind, at least not in FCPS. Most FCPS students could pass their SOL tests without year-round SOL prep, but FCPS admins don't want to limit SOL prep to the kids who might need it.

Salvaging this thread Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can we please get back to discussing the point of
> concern of the OP--as an FCPS parent, I too find
> it very problematic that in this era of
> high-stakes testing, our children spend an
> ordinate amount of class time all school year
> essentially prepping for the SOL tests--and there
> doesn't seem to be any curriculum or expectations
> for learning beyond March.
>
> I do not believe the SOLs are preparing students
> today to think critically and learn creatively so
> that they may someday lead innovations in U.S.
> industries and thus build and sustain a stronger
> economy in the future. I'm thinking of sending my
> children to a good private school where the
> instruction is better b/c the teachers are less
> restrained by this SOL nonsense.

SlavesofFCPS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> haha I love the logic you cant call someone lazy
> unless you can spell. I know plenty of day
> labors who cant spell but can work their asses
> off.


They can't spell because the majority of them can't even speak english. If they can speak english and they are working as a day labor it is because they were to lazy to get an education you fucktard. Pub. Ed. in fairfax county is one of the best in the country. It is there for the taking. You get out of it what you put in. Leave the teachers alone. If you people only knew half of what they have to deal with. It is a thankless job. I would like to see how many of you can hold down a job and get your masters. Teachers are far from lazy!

What do they have to deal with that is so different from any other job? They get a winter, spring and summer break? They get off on every major holiday? Working ending before 4pm? Oh ya and the health and retirement benefits? Sounds real thankless. In my opinion they are thanked too much?


Oh ya and I got my undergraduate and law degree while working. So get back to the point of teachers having it easy with the SOL's.

What do they deal with? Well, aside from morons like you, they have all the kids (probably yours or your future kids) that have no home schooling that have never been taught to respect others, all the parents bitching and complaing that their little angels can do no wrong, then they have to deal with the "no child left behind" that expects every single kid handicaped or not to pass the SOL's.

I doubt you bring work home that does not go on billable hours. The fact that you have a law degree speaks loud and clear of your personality.

If you do not get health or retirement benefits you are the idiot. Why didn't you choose a profession that has them? Did you go into your field totally blind?

Please Don't Feed the Trolls.

Folks-There is a danger here from assuming that because things appear to work a certain way from your vantage point, that is how they are operating in every classroom in your kids' schoolsand in every school in the county. My kids have told me of teachers that operate the way the OP complains. They have also told me of classes where the SOLs were a minor blip on the radar.

JW-Are you nuts? FCPS gets 9 and a half months of the year to teach my kids what they want. I get the rest to teach them what I want. Kids who are warehoused in daycare or who get left home alone might be better off in school, but some of us still try to arrange our kids summers so that they are educational as well as fun.

Kotter sounds like an administrator at our school. hates teachers, hates parents, hates anyone with more intelligence.

If that you say is true I learned all I can after SOLs and I should stay home. School is about other things besides textbooks. The last months have best memories of school.

Field days all week this week at my kid's ES. SOLs are over, homework no longer being assigned. June is a waste at FCPS. I expect they'll start the desk dumps and movie watching next week.

it's a field day Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I expect they'll start the desk dumps and movie watching next week.

I believe my middle-schooler said they were starting the video watching today in at least one of her classes...and, for some unspoken reason, she took a DVD to school today.

Assembly to watch the local dance troupe this week - how educational.

if some of you werent complete dumbasses is that SOL's are a crock.. All it is, is a standardized metric to push kids along and to have statistics saying their students are learning, so give me more money.. If you truly want to teach kids, SOL's are not the way to do it. It changes the ciriculum as well as compresses many topic areas into a strict amount of time. Not all people learn at the same pace, so it is an in-equitable system.

As in every job, you have lazy fucks, people who coast, people who are go getters, and people who are complete stick in ass dbags. Same applies to teachers, as well as students the teach. Rather than be the parent or lowlife piece of shit that comes on anonymous message boards to bitch and moan, do something about the issue.

keep them home then

My kid is having his best classes of the year right now. Group work. Designing games and projects. Presentations. It's the stuff he should have been doing all year, but they were too busy "teaching" and getting ready for SOL's. Let your kids enjoy and have some fun at the end. Yes, the teachers have probably stopped introducing new material, BUT the students are still engaged in projects of their own choice. This is how it should be more often throughout the year! There is nothing wrong with kicking back and reflecting a bit at the end. These are some of the days they will remember the most.

It's not as bad as you think Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My kid is having his best classes of the year
> right now. Group work. Designing games and
> projects. Presentations. It's the stuff he
> should have been doing all year, but they were too
> busy "teaching" and getting ready for SOL's. Let
> your kids enjoy and have some fun at the end.
> Yes, the teachers have probably stopped
> introducing new material, BUT the students are
> still engaged in projects of their own choice.
> This is how it should be more often throughout the
> year! There is nothing wrong with kicking back
> and reflecting a bit at the end. These are some
> of the days they will remember the most.


Completely agree. I wish it happened at my kids school. After all the complaining about teaching to the test, the teachers are given 20+ school days at the end of the year that are really completely unstructured. They could do anything they want, make it fun, different, unique. I don't care if it's getting a jump start on next year, or just some bit of curriculum that the teacher loves that's not in the SOL standards. Instead, what I see at my kids school is that the last 20 days are parties, field days, movies, etc. Just very expensive babysitting.

>
>
> Completely agree. I wish it happened at my kids
> school. After all the complaining about teaching
> to the test, the teachers are given 20+ school
> days at the end of the year that are really
> completely unstructured. They could do anything
> they want, make it fun, different, unique. I don't
> care if it's getting a jump start on next year, or
> just some bit of curriculum that the teacher loves
> that's not in the SOL standards. Instead, what I
> see at my kids school is that the last 20 days are
> parties, field days, movies, etc. Just very
> expensive babysitting.

It doesn't make sense that grades my grades were due June 8 (this may vary by school, when the last day of school is June 21. I've never understood that in 18 years of teaching elementary students. Another thing that bothers me is the last day. The kids are there for approximately 2 hours. We don't take attendance and no lunch is served, yet it counts as a day. Can't figure that one out.

Grades due Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> It doesn't make sense that grades my grades were
> due June 8 (this may vary by school, when the last
> day of school is June 21. I've never understood
> that in 18 years of teaching elementary students.
> Another thing that bothers me is the last day. The
> kids are there for approximately 2 hours. We don't
> take attendance and no lunch is served, yet it
> counts as a day. Can't figure that one out.

Why don't they make grades due the day or two after school ends, so teaching and tests will count all the way to the end? Oh yeah, if FCPS did that, the teachers wouldn't be able to follow the kids our the door 5 minutes after the last bell rings.

Other than perhaps meeting a State-Gummamint requirement for minimum number of school days it's not clear to THIS reader why the last three days of school (at least) are even bothered with. My daughter finished all tests on Friday - tomorrow, Tuesday, and the few hours of Wednesday will be spent goofing off in ALL classes (before end-of-day Friday a few classes were still doing something more meaningful than watching movies the prior few days).

no surprise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Grades due Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > It doesn't make sense that grades my grades
> were
> > due June 8 (this may vary by school, when the
> last
> > day of school is June 21. I've never understood
> > that in 18 years of teaching elementary
> students.
> > Another thing that bothers me is the last day.
> The
> > kids are there for approximately 2 hours. We
> don't
> > take attendance and no lunch is served, yet it
> > counts as a day. Can't figure that one out.
>
> Why don't they make grades due the day or two
> after school ends, so teaching and tests will
> count all the way to the end? Oh yeah, if FCPS
> did that, the teachers wouldn't be able to follow
> the kids our the door 5 minutes after the last
> bell rings.

As a teacher, I have to say that I wish grades weren't due so early. I definitely won't be out of school right after the kids leave either. I'll have plenty left to do on Wednesday.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, school is for TWO HOURS. Not two hour early dismissal, but two hours long. What exactly is the point of that?

june 21 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tomorrow, Tuesday, school is for TWO HOURS. Not
> two hour early dismissal, but two hours long.
> What exactly is the point of that?

Just to piss you off. How do you like FCPS now BITCH!?!
Attachments:

She is always to blame.

fed up Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All my kids have brought home this week is SOL
> prep material. Oh, and of course the May field
> trip materials. June is movies and cleaning up
> the classroom and field days and such.
>
> Fully one quarter of the school year wasted. This
> at a school with a 90%+ rate on all SOL's, some at
> close to 100%.
Attachments:

june 21 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tomorrow, Tuesday, school is for TWO HOURS. Not
> two hour early dismissal, but two hours long.
> What exactly is the point of that?

18 years of teaching and every year I ask myself the same thing.

tgbwc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> june 21 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Tomorrow, Tuesday, school is for TWO HOURS.
> Not
> > two hour early dismissal, but two hours long.
> > What exactly is the point of that?
>
> 18 years of teaching and every year I ask myself
> the same thing.

I wish we could see the incremental cost of today's two hour session. Gas for the buses alone must be in the 5 figures. To show up for two hours. I asked my kid this morning what he was going to do today, and it was yearbook signatures and art. For that, they should have just wrapped up on Friday. In fact, if grades are due June 8th as an earlier poster said, they could have wrapped up then and saved a whole bunch of money.

LDOC Wrote:

>
> I wish we could see the incremental cost of
> today's two hour session. Gas for the buses
> alone must be in the 5 figures. To show up for
> two hours. I asked my kid this morning what he
> was going to do today, and it was yearbook
> signatures and art. For that, they should have
> just wrapped up on Friday. In fact, if grades are
> due June 8th as an earlier poster said, they could
> have wrapped up then and saved a whole bunch of
> money.

That's probably correct for elementary school. My grades were due on the 9th, which was a later date than we originally had at my building. To get them done by the 9th, we have to start "bubbling" the scan forms a few days earlier.

How soon before the first "I'm bored" gets uttered by The Kiddies?

tgbwc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> That's probably correct for elementary school. My
> grades were due on the 9th, which was a later date
> than we originally had at my building. To get them
> done by the 9th, we have to start "bubbling" the
> scan forms a few days earlier.

The teachers are contracted for 194 days. The kids are only scheduled for 183. There is a teacher workday scheduled after the last day of school. Why aren't grades done after classes end - even if it means shifting another teacher work day to after the end of classes?

There were 9 days of school after June 8th - that means that 5% of class time was just written off. And if it doesn't count for grades, neither the students nor the teachers will take it seriously.

LDOC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tgbwc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > That's probably correct for elementary school.
> My
> > grades were due on the 9th, which was a later
> date
> > than we originally had at my building. To get
> them
> > done by the 9th, we have to start "bubbling"
> the
> > scan forms a few days earlier.
>
> The teachers are contracted for 194 days. The
> kids are only scheduled for 183. There is a
> teacher workday scheduled after the last day of
> school. Why aren't grades done after classes end
> - even if it means shifting another teacher work
> day to after the end of classes?
>
> There were 9 days of school after June 8th - that
> means that 5% of class time was just written off.
> And if it doesn't count for grades, neither the
> students nor the teachers will take it seriously.


Unfortunately you're asking the wrong person and preaching to the choir.