Friday, April 26, 2013

3rd Grade Student Asks: "Why did you give the curriculum to us before it was ready?"

Remember, MCPS gets royalties if the Pearson (MCPS) Forward curriculum sells! So listen to Superintendent Joshua Starr's answer about the Pearson/MCPS Curriculum 2.0.

14 comments:

  1. Hems and haws, rambles, dissembles, and in the end won't answer her question. Seems unable to give a straight answer. This guy is in over his head. I hope in the 2014 election the voters will not re-elect the board members that hired this guy.

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  2. "So, that's where we are.". Yup, got it.

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  3. "It hasn't been working for lots of kids".
    "It has been working for some kids."

    Where are the numbers? Is "lots" more than "some" in the data?

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  4. 12 weeks of fractions???????????????????????????

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  5. Has anyone seen the curriculum this student is talking about-specifically the 12 weeks of fractions? If so, could you post something about it. Thanks.

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    1. Pearson Forward

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    2. I got to cover some of it as a substitute in a 3rd-grade class of kids I already knew (so not a case of deer-in-headlights sub who doesn't know a kid in the room). Let's say it did not go well in the two separate occasions I was there.

      One lesson involved marking a paper ruler in ever-smaller gradations: whole numbers, then 1/2's, then 1/4's, and 1/8's; the brighter kids got the idea and finished the worksheet long before I got to the line with the 1/4-inch gradations, while the ELL's never did finish in the 40 minutes of that lesson till we had to go to lunch.

      The activity, some weeks later, involved a worksheet with Cuisinaire rods dividing into equivalent fractions: 1/2=2/4, 1/2=3/6, 1/2=4/8, 1/4=28, that sort of thing. It also did not go well: blocks didn't always "behave" (they're small and require some fine-motor coordination that not all kids had), crayons rolled off the table, and oh, the blocks were slightly different sizes than the squares and rectangles on the worksheets so kids kept trying to match the sizes and got the wrong blocks out. And again, the same 2-3 kids finished the sheet in record time and were done with the "extra" work long before the slower kids had muddled through the first SIDE of that worksheet.

      I have serious concerns about what my 2nd-grader will be doing in math next year. :-(

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  6. To those of you at the secret interviews that led to the hiring of Starr, was he this inarticulate during the interview?

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  7. Anonymous at 8:52 AM

    Every one of them was MCEA Apple Ballot recommended, and will be again.

    Can we somehow get the word out that the apple ballot is NOT a particularly effective guide towards elected competent leadership?
    Every teacher I ask is unimpressed with the Board of Ed yet they've had a hammerlock on its membership for 30+ years. How is it that the teachers union is so bad at picking candidates that they are unhappy with their own results?

    Methinks they need to adjust their priorities to value other criteria other than compliance to MCEA commands.

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  8. @Anonymous Apr 29, 8:11 am, the MCEA leadership is elected by the teachers. The teachers themselves stand out at the polling places at election time handing out the apple ballot, and it was the teachers who pushed in Annapolis to have the distance allowed to hand out political material at the poll place to be reduced to 25 feet. I know many teachers are not happy with MCPS. These people need to step up.

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  9. Fact check - Smondrowski is on the BoE and was not Apple ballot endorsed.

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    1. Fact check - the statement was about BOE members that hired Starr. Smondrowski wasn't on BOE when Starr was hired.

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  10. 100 views of this student speaking out.

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  11. 12 weeks of fractions would be an improvement over what my daughter is now doing in 3rd grade math at Ashburton...which is: telling time. Yes, the skill initially taught in 1st grade is back and more "challenging" than ever. Apparently the spin on the "new" skills being learned is a 5-minute resolution instead of 15 minutes. I guess the MSAs are over, so there is no point in doing anything new. This school system is pathetic.

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