Making the rounds is this video of teachers in the Beaufort area complying with asinine preparations for teaching Everyday Math. No matter that the dance has absolutely nothing to do with math. No matter that Everyday Math is hated and reviled in all other parts of the country as being ineffective and detrimental to student math proficiency, these hapless victims of in-service bravely attempt to follow an idiotic dance with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
FYI--almost all teachers have encountered some idiocy like this one on an in-service day. During one particularly inane and demeaning exercise, I walked out, ready to confront anyone who got in my way. Probably the rest thought I was ill or had an emergency. More likely, at least half were wishing they had the nerve to follow.
Thanks to The Palmetto Scoop for the memories!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
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10 comments:
What the hell is Everyday Math anyway? This video clip may explain a lot. One thing I know is the 7 year old in my house would know nothing of multiplication if it was left up to his current school. I'm trying to teach him multiplication tables through baseball. At this rate we'll be home schooling him without his ever leaving his current school.
As a former teacher, I can attest to the fact that most in-services are for the birds!! There were a few over my 30 years of teaching that were helpful, but for the most part, they were a waste of time. On top of that, many of the presenters (outside the district) for the in-services were paid a lot of money.
Our tax dollars at work, huh?
Thanks for the laugh (if I didn't laugh, I'd cry).
It brought back some crazy memories.
This is humiliating. Nothing professional about it. My hat's off to anyone who has the courage to walk out when confronted with this. It's childish and demeaning. I would also like to know how much money CCSD is spending on bringing in facilitators for garbage like this.
I don't think you want to really know how much money we spend on garbage like this. It will make you sick.
To the parent at the first comment: my hat is off to you. Thank you for recognizing and expecting more of your child. I just met an 8th grader today who still doesn't know her times tables. Yes, she's entering 8th grade in CCSD schools next year. How does that happen?
It's sad that we send our kids to school, yet can't be assured they're learing what they need to know. "Home schooling (our children) without (them) leaving (their) current school" is probably one of the best quotes I've heard in a long time.
That was painful to watch.
It strikes me that using this video to represent Everyday Mathematics may be akin to using a video of your worst day as a teacher to represent your entire teaching career. What do you make of the fact that of over 70 curricula reviewed, only Everyday Mathematics was found by the What Works Clearinghouse to show promise in helping improve children's scores on standardized tests?
If you look into the What Works Clearinghouse data more closely, you will find, as others have, that its conclusions are overblown and in large part based on inconclusive data. The basic objection to EM is that students do not learn math facts in any organized way (like learning the multiplication tables--note the first comment here)and rely too much on calculators and peer groups. And, yes, I do have a major in mathematics.
No joke. I did that "dance" as a summer camp counselor. I quit in the middle because it was such a waste of my breath. To this day, 10+ years later, my former co-counselors and I joke about that dumb exercise in entertainment.
What Works Clearing House recommendation was based on almost nothing......it was a very weak positive recommendation.
It seemed to be based on McGraw-Hill political connections and little else.
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