Comments on NYC Educator: Doesn't Ring Nobels

I'm with Invictus. I think this is about the ...

2012-01-25T16:56:28.589-05:00

I'm with Invictus. I think this is about the 45th Listening Passage I've read over my career, and I'd have to rank it among the most boring I can recall.

Those in charge of writing the Regents English tes...

2012-01-25T16:05:41.368-05:00

Those in charge of writing the Regents English tests need to all be put through the NYCDOE version of the Danielson framework and be rated "ineffective" in terms of engagement and everything else. And these people who write these tests and attempt to dictate what should work in a classroom in NYC are simply out of their mind. Have they ever sat down and read the passage to their own children? The reading about Alfred Nobel was one of the most boring pieces I have ever come across you need to see the tortured, blank expressions in the face of those students I was proctoring.

The tests for ESL placement are ridiculous, partic...

2012-01-25T15:31:43.295-05:00

The tests for ESL placement are ridiculous, particularly the city's version. This certainly results in beginners testing out of ESL. Sometimes they come to us and ask to be put back.

I've taught former ESL AP calculus students wh...

2012-01-25T09:26:27.971-05:00

I've taught former ESL AP calculus students who ace out of ESL class but can't write a coherent sentence. They fail college placement tests and end up back where they started, depressed and far from success. The system in place to help these kids suck. And, in spite of all this NY has gone up in its ratings.

i proctored the exam yesterday and it just about b...

2012-01-25T08:45:30.154-05:00

i proctored the exam yesterday and it just about broke me. even though the students knew i couldn't help them, they would occasionally call me over and sheepishly ask me to define a word for them. i also had two students in an absolute panic because neither one could remember the name of one author for the final essay - both somehow equated this to not passing the exam.

today my students are taking their regents - will they be as stressed out as the kids from yesterday? i know i'm stressed out just thinking about them being stressed out.... *sigh*

In the past few years there was time taken out of ...

2012-01-25T07:08:46.992-05:00

In the past few years there was time taken out of our already over-scheduled workload to attend workshops/demonstrations on the varied learning styles. In my last school we spent an entire school day giving those cutesy learning style tests (the ones with the little stickers that wound up all over the school building and I can attest to the fact that they were very very very hard to remove -- whose bright idea was that one?). One of the things that I confirmed for myself was that I was a visual learner -- in other words, even though I have been an English teacher for centuries, have a high I.Q., and have administered more listening sections than I care to admit, I WOULD FAIL THE LISTENING SECTION OF THE REGENTS! I suspected it for some time but confirmed it for myself when I sat in on a mock listening section and tried to answer the questions. I could not answer them all! So I can only imagine what must happen to those kids who can just barely understand the language, much less those of my students who, like me, have to SEE it to get it.
So why spend so much money on developing learning style professional development, why spend so much money on tutoring for the ESL kids, why spend so much money on a flawed test?
But then, no one asked a teacher, did they?

Another point about the English Regents and its ad...

2012-01-25T06:19:54.103-05:00

Another point about the English Regents and its administration for ELLs: along with the issue of test topics being culturally remote for immigrant students is the use of idiomatic expressions in the various texts, none of which appear in the student's dictionaries, and which teachers are explicitly forbidden from assisting students with.

Ok, teachers, shut up and move along now, nothing to see here. Be good Germans, and no excuses!

The Read Aloud section has always seemed strange t...

2012-01-25T05:00:55.502-05:00

The Read Aloud section has always seemed strange to me. Listen to a long speech, write notes about this long speech, DO NOT look at the questions that are important to your test success, listen a second time, you MAY NOW look at the questions and answer them.

I thank God for three things about this part now...

1. Kids no longer have to write a silly essay restating the read aloud.

2. No read aloud about Wendy Kopp and her "wonderful" TFA organization.

3. No read aloud about a grocery boy who everyone liked because he worked hard bagging groceries.