5 things teachers want parents to know (CNN)

Parents Forum
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<p>Singapore was a third-world country back in the 1960s. How do you go
from being a third-world country to being one of the wealthiest
countries in the world with no natural resources in forty years?</p>

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<p>I haven’t looked at their educational spending numbers recently but
the last time I looked (which is within the last year), they spent
more than we did.</p>

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<p>Outside of my wife having grown up there, me living there for a few
months, talking to my relatives that live there, my kids spending
about five months there and visiting their schools and playgrounds?</p>

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<p>You could add South Korea, Taiwan and Japan if you wish.</p>

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<p>Teaching a kid algebra at 6 implies that you taught all of arithmetic,
including fractions, long division, word problems, geometry, number
sense, ratios, proportions, etc. when they were younger.</p>

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<p>Our son taught himself algebra at 6. We used Jacob’s Algebra which
would be considered an old-school book. It’s a wonderful book in that
it does a nice job explaining concepts and relationships in multiple
ways. The book is outstanding for self-study. We also used some
materials from the New Math back in the 1960s that covered
non-standard topics.</p>

<p>The exercise sections had brain teasers and included word problems.
I think that it would be hard to answer the brain teasers and word
problems with only a plug-and-chug approach.</p>

<p>I do know what you are talking about though. I once sat in on a
university calculus course. This was in the evening program where the
standards for admission are a lot lower than the regular full-time day
school. The professor was teaching plug-and-chug. I was astonished at
how little was taught. The textbook wasn’t used at all. It was all about
remembering patterns.</p>

<p>I spoke to the professor for an hour after class and he explained why
they do it this way - it’s the only way to get these students through
to a degree. I understand why the interview process is so tough at a
lot of employers now. A degree may mean very little depeneding on
where it comes from. This guy is a tenured professor with significant
research. I got the feeling that he was as sick at what he was doing
as I felt about the approach.</p>

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<p>Universities with Schools of Education typically have dedicated
libraries for these schools. Boston College and Boston University
certainly do. The Boston College SOE library was open to the public
when we were raising our kids and I used their resources (along with
those at BU) to learn what teachers learn, at least from the
perspective of textbooks and curricular materials. These libraries
typically have lots of sample curriculum sets - I assume that the
textbook providers send them free samples. We have another SOE library
that I had access to at a local college and our school district made
their curriculum library available to us (we didn’t use their
materials).</p>

<p>This was all back in the stone ages before the internet. It would be
considerably easier to get access to curricular materials today with
lots of free materials now.</p>

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<p>Unschooling is a range of educational philosophies and practices
centered on allowing children to learn through their natural life
experiences, including play, game play, household responsibilities,
work experience, and social interaction, rather than through a more
traditional school curriculum. Unschooling encourages exploration of
activities, often initiated by the children themselves, facilitated by
the adults. Unschooling differs from conventional schooling
principally in the thesis that standard curricula and conventional
grading methods, as well as other features of traditional schooling,
are counterproductive to the goal of maximizing the education of each
child.</p>

<p>The term “unschooling” was coined in the 1970s and used by educator
John Holt, widely regarded as the “father” of unschooling.[1] While
often considered a subset of homeschooling, unschoolers may be as
philosophically separate from other homeschoolers as they are from
advocates of conventional schooling. While homeschooling has been
subject to widespread public debate, little media attention has been
given to unschooling in particular. Popular critics of unschooling
tend to view it as an extreme educational philosophy, with concerns
that unschooled children lack the social skills, structure, and
motivation of their peers, especially in the job market, while
proponents of unschooling say exactly the opposite is true:
self-directed education in a natural environment makes a child more
equipped to handle the “real world.”[2]</p>

<p>– Wikipedia</p>

<p>If your child showed strong interest in doing algebra at 6-years,
would you provide the means for them to study it? If they showed
strong interest in playing the violin at 6-years, would you provide
the private lessons for them to pursue it?</p>

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<p>We went to parent/teacher conferences last night, for probably our last time in 20+ years of attending these things. In those 20 years and through 4 kids I can pick out exactly 2 teachers that had no business teaching. One was our oldest’s 3rd grade teacher and one was a high school math teacher 2 of our kids had as freshmen (who retired last year and that was more the issue than anything–still knew his stuff for math, just in the “senior” slide mode:D). Sure, some teachers are better than others, that is just life, but I can honestly say that other than these 2 teachers, all of their teachers have been very good to excellent. You can see that they love their jobs, they do a great job teaching the kids and the results show. I’m just glad we don’t live where some of you live that the schools are full of such incompetent people, wow.</p>

<p>I also STRONGLY disagree that “everyone can teach”. The vast majority of people can NOT teach. Sure, they know how to do their jobs and know their fields well, but teaching OTHER people what they know is VERY different. Most people cannot pass along their knowledge to others in a way that everyone will understand what they are talking about or in a sequential fashion so one topic builds on another, keeping in mind that most people need significant repetition to learn something well. If you think teaching is so easy, I challenge you to volunteer at your district middle school for 2 weeks to teach a class of your choice then come back and report to us how easy that was and how well you were able to connect with those kids and how much they learned and retained.</p>

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<p>Typically 6 year olds, doing advanced mathematics, are doing those lessons in the same space of time that other 6 year olds are learning addition/subtraction/etc. They have just as much time for “typical” 6 year old activities. Some of these children may spend more time on math than the average 6 year old because they think math is more fun than TV or computer games. If young children are strongly supported in following their own intellectual interests they will probably accelerate academically beyond their peers in those areas of interest. For elementary aged children there is really no reason most learning can’t be “fun” and not a chore. The stereotype that accelerated children have been pushed by parents is just that. They are generally children whose parents just answer their questions and provide materials that address their interests. The children take it from there.</p>

<p>Loremipsum asked in an earlier thread about what a parent does with a toddler who really wants to read. My parents would tell you their biggest mistake was thwarting my efforts to learn to read. Their circle (lots of psychiatrists) had the idea children shouldn’t be taught reading or math before going to school - so they wouldn’t be bored. When they discovered I was memorizing words from my bedtime stories (I was tattled on after making the mistake of sharing this rather inspired idea with my friend next door) in an effort to teach myself, they began paraphrasing anything they read to me. Also I wasn’t allowed to see the page. I can still remember how angry and frustrated that made me. At age four. At age three I had already given up on ever learning to write after bringing my own paper and pencil to the table where my mother was writing her letters and asking her to tell me how to spell various words… and being told I wasn’t allowed to write till I went to school. And I couldn’t go to school for a few more years. And a year was much longer than the time from summer to Christmas. So probably forever. It really sucked being three. They did get me a puppy. And a pony. I would rather have been able to read and write!</p>

<p>Long, long ago, I was a homeschooling mom and have a lot of years to think about early education. It is not clear to me that even in a classroom of 20 or 30 students, children couldn’t be self-directed learners if they were given the proper materials. NOT the standard one-size-fits-all worksheets. I am thinking there really can be a one-on-one kind of experience in a classroom. It would also seem to me a much more efficient use of a child’s time.</p>

<p>edit: cross posted with BCEagle #41 - Excellent Post!</p>

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<p>My son was programming computers in second grade. You can’t do that without being capable of algebraic thinking. My mother relates a story of understanding algebra at an early age when her grandfather did the parlor trick where you take your age add, subtract and multiply a bunch of numbers and end up back where you started no matter what your age is. </p>

<p>As for teachers, except for a very few exceptions, even my kids bad teachers were willing to talk to me, and brainstorm for ways to make school work better for my kids. (One of whom was miles ahead of the curriculum in both reading and math at an early age, the other who, because of mild LDs was always about six months behind.)</p>

<p>Shoot4Moon is making me feel guilty I didn’t do enough for the really good teachers! I did write a thank you to my older son’s third grade teacher (cc copies to principal and superintendent). She was the one who let him work on math on his own and also do a lot of computer programming.</p>

<p>PG, my kids spent plenty of time outside, but my older son in particular, came home asking for more math. I wasn’t pushing it. He wasn’t happy if he didn’t learn new things every day.</p>

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<p>I first saw this in a math puzzles book back in jr high school.</p>

<p>I believe that this is the approach used in the first lesson in Jacobs Algebra. If not the first lesson, then definitely in the first chapter. I looked for my copy but couldn’t find it. I may have loaned out the first copy and the second copy is in a box of textbooks somewhere. It’s definitely something that can provoke curiosity in children.</p>

<p>Another approach is to play around with proofs as seen in the first chapter of Spivak. Formally describe the rules without using numbers. There are all sorts of other ways to play around with rule-based systems that use everyday things.</p>

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<p>This is a point I made in another thread. We (collectively, as a nation) wait too long to expose kids to “higher level” concepts: logic, algebra, foreign language, composition, etc. Learning is FUN. It’s just as fun as video games. </p>

<p>I wish I could have homeschooled mine all through elementary. It would have been so awesome.</p>

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<p>At the elementary level, I felt I had a number of opportunities to communicate with, and get to know my kids’ teachers, by volunteering in the classroom, chaperoning on field trips and attending teacher conferences.</p>

<p>These opportunities were not available to me in the high school years. There are very limited ways to meet, let alone communicate with our high school teachers, and the students have 6 different ones every year. Teachers don’t have phones in their classrooms anymore, or give out phone numbers. They are available only by email. Appointments are possible, but limited - I don’t know how a working parent could ever get to know all of his child’s high school teachers, and a non-working one would need to be making appointments quite frequently.</p>

<p>How were you all able to communicate so well with your kids’ high school teachers, to conclude that they were so good? Smart kids will do well regardless of the teacher (probably most of CCer’s progeny); it is the students who need real teaching to understand the material who suffer from mediocre teachers. It is easy to conclude that a teacher is good when your kid gets an “A.” But how do you know it was because the teacher taught the material well?</p>

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<p>Bay, in my case, it wasn’t as much my relationship or communication with the teachers as it was my relationship and communication with my children.</p>

<p>My CHILDREN would come home excited about “what they learned in English today”, and talk about what the teacher said, and what the class did. Usually, I could tell the good teachers from the mediocre by how they engaged the students as evidenced by my kids’ reactions.</p>

<p>However, I did exchange emails with teachers often. I also sent appreciation/thank you cards if my kids had some kind of academic breakthrough (finally getting a concept, etc.). Just fostered a friendly and cooperative relationship as much as I could and as much as I felt was appropriate on my end.</p>

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<p>Yes, that was my experience also, and my children not infrequently used the phrase, “S/he doesn’t teach.”</p>

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<p>I agree with cromette–I can get some sense of how good a teacher is by how my kids react to him/her. If they have a lot of really stupid homework, I see that. If they are reading really good novels and getting excited about them, that suggests a good teacher.</p>

<p>Even in elementary school, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to volunteer for things at school. I did go to conferences, and chaperoned a few field trips. But on field trips I often spent very little time with the teacher. Even though I spent more time with those teachers, that didn’t have much to do with whether I thought they were good or bad. Most of that was based on the type of homework the kids had, how quickly teachers responded if I wrote a note or emailed with a concern, etc.</p>

<p>And for the record, most of my kids’ teachers have been good or very good. One really bad one in elementary school. And in middle school, where they started having several, it seems like often they would have one who was just kind of meh. Not bad for having 6 or more teachers… Luckily it wasn’t always in the same subject. so they didn’t get turned off a subject by bad teachers.</p>

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<h1>48 right. You can see their homework, papers, etc. They are either progressing or not.</h1>

<p>I was an interfering parent. By winter holiday of freshman year, the administration decided my husband and I would be allowed to pick all our children’s teachers. This was after they made the mistake of telling us they couldn’t give our child the “good” math teacher because, with such a precedent, everyone would insist on a good teacher :eek: and we then wanted to follow-up on this idea the teachers weren’t universally good. We did not call any teacher good or bad. We had framed it as a personality/learning style difference. On two occasions teachers we chose hugged me on our first meeting. So I guess I wasn’t all bad.</p>

<p>I requested the AP results from the administration for various classes/teachers. This gave a pretty clear idea of what AP classes were worthwhile. Our HS had an agreement for students to take classes at the local university so that was an option.</p>

<p>At our local HS there were open houses with parent/teacher meetings early in the fall and that was an opportunity to meet the teachers. By the time that meeting happened, my husband and I had reviewed any material that had come home and could ask questions, if we had any, about the course.</p>

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<p>I don’t know what this means. Could you give an example of a teacher not teaching?</p>

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In our case, by the enthusiasm our kids had for their teachers; dinner table conversation about their classes; materials they’d show us, challenging assignments they’d discuss, etc. I found that I didn’t need to know my kids’ teachers any more deeply than was possible via elective half-hour conferences, occasional emails, and the annual curriculum night. That was a well-run evening event at which parents would follow an abbreviated version of their kids’ schedule in their actual classrooms. Each teacher would have 15 minutes or so in each period to present an overview, discuss expectations, and tell parents the best way to be in touch.</p>

<p>I was a frequent volunteer in my kids’ classes in elementary school but didn’t at all mind when the district weaned us off of in-class participation in middle school. My kids were probably relieved, as well. :D</p>

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<p>Yes. According to my kids, the teacher would spend time talking about his/her private life, or rambling on about issues not related to the subject matter, or gloss over and not review the concepts well enough that my child understood them.</p>

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<p>So how did you deal with that?</p>

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<p>My smart kids studied and learned the material on their own. My other kid - I hired a tutor.</p>

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<p>So - was the time spent in class a waste of time for both kids?</p>

<p>edit: Was this the same teacher? more than one teacher?</p>

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<p>More than one - I have three kids! And yes, that time was wasted.</p>

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<p>Did you discuss your concerns with the teachers and/or administration?</p>

<p>Do you still have one in HS?</p>

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<p>alh - I’ve have the same experience with my middle D and a teacher who “didn’t teach.” And she wasn’t the only student who felt that way.</p>

<p>In her case, everything was straight out of the textbook, and homework assignments were worksheets based on the textbook. She then went over it by rereading the textbook to the class. She first had this teacher for 6th grade math and science, and had a terrible year (went from loving science to hating it). Managed with OK teachers in 7th grade - probably would have been great if 6th grade had been decent. Then had the same 6th grade teacher again in 8th grade for Science. I asked to have her switched either to a different team, or a different science teacher and was told in no uncertain terms that wasn’t going to happen; the teams were carefully balanced. She was told to stick it out one marking period and the principal might reconsider. Then when she didn’t do well in the class, she was told she wasn’t going to be moved because it was her own fault she didn’t do well (because she scores extremely well on standardized tests, and there’s no reason she should be doing so poorly).</p>

<p>I raised the concern that she has struggled since 6th grade, because the reading requirements were greater, and was told that she is just lazy. A student who scores in the top percentiles on standardized testing, and qualifies for our gifted and talented program can’t possibly have reading problems or a learning disability. This particular teacher had the attitude that D just isn’t as smart as she (or we) thinks she is. Now in high school, she is failing English and History, and maybe we’ll get her the help she needs. But those two teachers aren’t willing to offer any accomodations, as suggested by the guidance counselors, without an IEP or 504 plan. By the time we get those in place, she may already be unable to bring her final grades up to a decent place. </p>

<p>The bad teachers are absolutely horrid. The good teachers are worth their weight in gold. She has her Geometry teacher for homeroom, and he is wonderful. It was a rocky start, and after I had her moved from Academic level to Honors, she suggested she might be better of back in Academic (first unit was difficult). I felt she belongs in Honors, and wanted to wait. Sure enough, on the second unit, she had one of the best grades. He was baffled that he couldn’t find her mistakes on 2 questions she got wrong - until he finally noticed that she transposed “+” and “-” signs, due to a reading disorder.</p>

<p>One accomodation we requested was to have worksheet printed on colored paper (related to the reading disorder, and intensity of light). Some teachers won’t comply because of no IEP yet. Her band director has a supply of her paper in her color, and has given her access to his copier, so she can copy the worksheets, and has worked with her on other class work while they’re on the bus going to competitions. And no, marching band is not an EC, it is a required part of her Band class and a significant portion of her grade, in an important class since she wants to become a music educator.</p>

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<p>“The bad teachers are absolutely horrid. The good teachers are worth their weight in gold.”</p>

<p>Totally accurate. The problem is the union won’t let you get rid of the bad teachers and god forbid if your child is stuck with one of them. No one is minimizing the skills it takes to be a good teacher, but the number of good teachers is far fewer than people want to admit.</p>