[etni] Re: Fwd: Bravo Renee!
- From: sommer ben <sommerbtch@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "etni.list@xxxxxxxxx" <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>, Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2014 06:53:47 +0000 (GMT)
Greetings all,
 the following may well be of interest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/31/i-would-love-to-teach-but/
 In this piece she
describes students who donât want to work, parents who want their children to
have high grades no matter what, mindless curriculum and school reformers who
insist on trying to quantify things that canât be measured.
As the old adage goes, âlife
isnât fair,â and education should prepare students for life. Life may not be
fair, but it is predictable in a statistically significant way; success
generally
follows hard work, doing something is typically more effective than doing
nothing, and asking questions leads to answers.
Teacher planning time has
been so swallowed by the constant demand to prove our worth to the domination
of oppressive teacher evaluation methods that there is little time for us to
carefully analyze student work, conduct our own research, genuinely better
ourselves
through independent study instead of the generic mandated developments, or talk
informally with our co-workers about intellectual pursuits.Â
Ben Sommer
On Tuesday, 7 January 2014, 7:10, ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Esther Revivo <estherrevivo@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Bravo Renee!
Renee wrote, "What I mean with my comments is that one size does not
fit all. This program is going overboard. There are other teachers
who feel suffocated by the program and its demands."BRAVO Renee! I
wish I could hug you! I cannot count the number of colleagues I know
either planning or hoping to retire primarily due to this program.
I have been ENSLAVED since September subbing for a colleague on
maternity leave with a weak yud aleph class in addition to my own
classes. I'm proud to say that the majority of them WILL successfully
pass their 4 point bagrut exams, G-d willing. However, this HOTS
nonsense, (sorry folks, I am still allowed my personal opinion, and in
my humble opinion HOTS should be taught in L1 from 7th grade on,) has
meant that I can no longer spend time doing what I adore: teach
LITERATURE!! Rather, I have become a glorified clerk with the online
handbook open, carefully checking that indeed I am both composing and
marking Summative Assessments accurately according to the current
rubrics.
I have no doubt that had I had opportunity (like my esteemed colleague
and dear friend Bari Nirenberg) to teach 5 pointers rather than
extremely weak 4 pointers, my opinion regarding the new literature
program might be different. Sorrowfully, I am not in her shoes and
find this program has drained all of my joy out of teaching
literature. Yes,I come to class enthused. Yes, I come to class well
prepared, often with wonderful ideas to teach the HOTS (See the p.s.
to this missive.) However, as we are doing the log, too much time is
wasted on paperwork, time that in the 'good old days' was utilized in
activities such as class debates; acting out scenes and so on.
Additionally I cannot refrain from mentioning the ridiculous fact that
the MOE chose the very beginning of the year to publicize changes in
the existing program. Changes that teachers like myself who do NOT
vacation abroad would have gratefully accepted during the summer. Then
we'd have been able to tweak material or draft new assessments at our
leisure rather than scramble like 'eegits' at the start of the school
year.
Despite these complaints, I salute Dr. Judy Steiner for lessening the
number of works we must cover. For, as the vast majority of schools do
not give adequate hours to teach English, it was a blessed relief to
have less pressure this year due to this decision!
To summarize: I love my job and my pupils. But I'm grateful to be at
the tail end of my career rather than at its commencement with what I
consider an attempt to 'tack on' HOTS material better taught in L1 to
already overburdened high school EFL teachers!
All the Best (and good luck to everyone on Thursday!)
Esther Revivo
Ulpanat Tzvia Sedot Negev
P.S. Someone sent me a marvelous short youtube clip for "predicting":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XRZmTQuYP0&feature=related
I stop the video twice in the middle and ask my girls to predict what
will happen next. The end is so unexpected- it's awesome!
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