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I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/20/2012 7:42:51 AM

The E Man molds young minds

5/20/2012 11:09:04 AM

Anyone else doing National Boards this year?

<-- Adolescent/Young Adult English Language Arts

10/13/2012 10:47:00 AM

thought about it but too much going on with the new curriculum and whatnot.

10/13/2012 11:13:57 AM

Nope. Applying for Principal Fellows program instead.

10/13/2012 11:23:53 AM

Understandably. It worked out for me that six or seven teachers in my building were doing it, so I have a cohort of folks to work with in addition to the county people I've been attending info sessions with.

10/13/2012 11:24:24 AM

http://www.wral.com/durham-teen-17-accused-of-shooting-68-year-old-man/11674035/

former student!

10/18/2012 5:46:48 PM

Why did you mold him into a fucknut?

10/18/2012 5:50:55 PM

oh he was a fucknut long before he got to me.

10/18/2012 5:54:10 PM

Nope its the teachers fault.

10/18/2012 6:00:43 PM

http://www.wral.com/perdue-moves-20m-to-expand-nc-pre-k-to-6-300-more/11673325/

pre-k is a waste of resources. jesus christ. 20 million dollars so 6300 low class people don't have to pay for a baby sitter basically. (I've read studies that there is no difference in performance by the time kids are in 3rd grade between pre-k attendees and kids who didn't.)

10/18/2012 8:06:10 PM

Jeez, Smath, that's insane. I hope my kids never shoot anybody

I'm on the fence about pre-k/head start/etc.. I understand why would want it, and it seems like a well-intentioned program, but the realities of its successes are debatable, I know. It seems like it needs an overhaul rather than reclassification. What are the actual policies/goals in these programs?

10/19/2012 9:15:11 AM

Wouldn't extending the school year and eliminating summer vacation be much more effective than pre-k and early start programs? The gap always widens during the summer and closes during the school year, so why not keep the school year going?

10/19/2012 9:35:13 AM

^ Because fucktard upper middle class families bitch and moan about losing a month to go to the Outer Banks whenever a school gets converted to year round. They don't get that for the average family sending their kid to public school, year round school helps out with childcare costs, etc in addition to knowledge retention benefits.

10/19/2012 9:46:13 AM

^^There are year-round schools that do just that. The kids go to school the same number of days (and the teachers work the same number of days) but the breaks are spread around the calendar.

now if you are just trolling and think they should add 2 months of school days to each year, that would cost just a little bit more than the 20 million she is talking about. (that would be 2 extra months salary for every teacher for one)

^year round schools are not appropriate for everyone. (teachers, parents, and students)

[Edited on October 19, 2012 at 9:48 AM. Reason : ]

10/19/2012 9:47:08 AM

Quote :

"year round schools are not appropriate for everyone."

True, but whenever the county talks about converting a school to year round, who do you see at the board meetings pissing and moaning?



These sorts. "Oh no you are breaking up our time to ride a yacht around Hilton Head how dare you!" And in the same breath bitch about the schools being overcrowded and their precious Timmy having to ride a bus for 30 minutes because there isn't enough space at the school they want him to go to. Or god forbid you stick him in a trailer because the school didn't get converted over to a year round calendar.

The truth is, if year round had been implemented across the board in elementary and middle school 20 years ago when they really started having overcrowding issues in Wake, nobody would even think twice about it now.

10/19/2012 9:54:20 AM

farms don't rely on kids for labor during the summer anymore. give me time out of school during the fall and spring when the weather is nice.

10/19/2012 10:11:10 AM

y'all are all jerks



you can find research to support or disprove just about any side of any education argument. it's all in the spin.

personally, i believe in supporting young children who are lacking similar abilities as their peers.

[Edited on October 19, 2012 at 10:38 AM. Reason : ]

10/19/2012 10:25:15 AM

as a teacher i prefer the two consecutive months off so I can get a summer job. It would be really hard to have random weeks off here and find a job for each of those breaks.

10/19/2012 10:34:37 AM

a lot of yr teachers sub during breaks

10/19/2012 10:36:17 AM

k. subbing is shit money.

10/19/2012 10:58:33 AM

i guess you could do better doing private tutoring, or waiting tables, or something else. $91/day isn't too bad though.

10/19/2012 10:59:57 AM

what sort of summer jobs can a teacher take that pay better?

10/19/2012 11:00:04 AM

nothing comes to mind at the moment. ask smath. he must have the hook up.


[Edited on October 19, 2012 at 11:02 AM. Reason : ]

10/19/2012 11:01:49 AM

Quote :

"y'all are all jerks"

I'm not sure what about being for year round school makes me a jerk.

As far as Head Start or whatever they're calling it these days goes, I think it's a great program. It's really sad to me how many kindergartners are woefully unprepared for basic school skills when they start school. Anything to help with that is okay in my book.

10/19/2012 11:16:58 AM

wasn't referring to the yr stuff, annoyed with the comments about pre-k

10/19/2012 11:17:57 AM

but there are a bunch of studies that show that the learning gap (difference in amount learned) among kids of various backgrounds is very small during the school year, but is drastic coming back to school after the summer. Some kids maintain their lead only because some groups have to play catch-up each year.

10/19/2012 11:23:52 AM

Quote :

"what sort of summer jobs can a teacher take that pay better?"

Any decent waiting table job should make an easy $100+ a shift...and that's cash money. I feel like waiting tables is the main side job for most young teachers.

10/19/2012 11:40:10 AM

I don't know why people are getting so pissy in this thread.

pre-k doesn't work and takes resources away from real school.

year round works well for some people, not so well for others.

10/19/2012 11:45:29 AM

Quote :

" It's really sad to me how many kindergartners are woefully unprepared for basic school skills when they start school. Anything to help with that is okay in my book."

parents?

10/19/2012 11:46:20 AM

let me elaborate a little... pre-k IS beneficial if there is support at home to reinforce the things they learn. However the typical person enrolled in public pre-k does NOT have support at home. Does it help a few people? maybe. Does it help the vast majority of kids enrolled in the program? no.

I'm all for education (and public education at that), but this is a program with a high cost with low benefit.

10/19/2012 11:52:43 AM

It'd be nice if all parents were involved in education but the sad reality is a large number of parents in this country simply don't give a shit. Yes, most children in public pre-K are never going to be as prepared for school as those who have parents that give a damn, but I'd be honestly surprised if those kids are at the exact same low level as their peers who had no pre-K at all before entering school.

10/19/2012 11:56:54 AM

it's all a wash by the time they get to 3rd grade anyway.

10/19/2012 12:05:38 PM

The same can be said about parents of children at any age. Why have public education at all??

[Edited on October 19, 2012 at 12:10 PM. Reason : damn autocorrect]

10/19/2012 12:09:30 PM

I wonder if members of the public would like to read this thread?

10/20/2012 6:35:51 AM

Don't extend the school year but make students complete a mandatory, specialized program during the summer break. Kind of like winter terms in college.

study abroad
work study
internship
community service
subject-specific camp (arts, science, math)
subject-specific credit recovery

teachers can sign up to run the programs are opt out and take the break.

10/21/2012 3:58:32 PM

that sounds like a good plan, although i don't know if i'd make it mandatory.

10/21/2012 6:03:32 PM

Ok teachers/lecturers/profs, I've got a question for you regarding formal observations:

So I'm a newer university lecturer and it's my first full semester of full-time employment. During grad school I was formally observed and my feedback was really positive and I received an outstanding review, but I was observed for the second time last week. The person observing me hasn't really been teaching very long either (3-4 years), so I was kind of confused why she was selected to observe me in the first place. All things considered, I thought my lesson plan/activity/lecture for the session went pretty well- my students were engaged, they demonstrated that they understood my directions and the material, etc. Before I met with her to discuss her observations, I was feeling pretty confident and that I'd done exactly what I had planned to do and that my students had actually learned something.

During our post-observation meeting in her office, however, she was rather aggressive towards me and I'd even argue that she was bordering on hostility/condescension. It was NOTHING like the previous evaluation I'd had with the director of the program where we had an actual, two sided conversation about things that worked, things that didn't, and what to work on in the future. This woman, spent practically zero time talking about what went well during the period and spent the majority of it criticizing/attacking an activity I had designed (even though my students successfully completed the task and showed they understood what I was trying to teach them). The majority of our meeting was focused on her offering what SHE does in her own classroom and telling me that I should be doing what she's doing that works for her. Instead of being confrontational and defensive, I politely listened to her go on and on about what a great teacher she thinks she is and and tried my best not to start attacking her in return. Seriously? Her jobs was to OBSERVE me teach a class and provide constructive feedback, NOT talk about how great of a teacher she is and how I should be more like her...

Anyway, I was seriously thinking about contacting my supervisor, complaining about the situation, and asking to be observed again since I got absolutely zero positive feedback and her aggressive demeanor seemed really unprofessional. I had no idea what my overall score was either when I left (Outstanding? Adequate? Poor?) since she didn't even bother show me the evaluation sheet. But before I even got around to drafting an email, I got my results in my mailbox and this woman ending up giving me an outstanding evaluation anyway! WTF?? Not only am I pissed that I had to sit there and listen to her nonsense and criticism, I'm confused why she would give me the highest possible rating?

Most of me says, fuck it and that I should just let it go since it doesn't have any negative effect on my teaching career. But part of me thinks that the department shouldn't allow her to observe anybody at all since she's doing such a poor job.

Any thoughts?

[Edited on December 1, 2012 at 1:45 PM. Reason : .]

12/1/2012 1:42:36 PM

Forget it; let it go. I've had a few post-ob conferences like that one, and it's never amounted to anything other than a difference of opinion. Some teachers can only see the one way of doing things. It's not worth the static it could cause in your department especially if the observation doesn't do anything to your record.

12/1/2012 2:10:15 PM

FOOD FIGHT

(I just wanted to come in here and say that)

12/1/2012 2:20:24 PM

^^ that's pretty much what I figured. Thnx

12/1/2012 3:09:49 PM

Quote :

"Some teachers can only see the one way of doing things."

Wife agrees with you.


I saw Smath say something about about, but wife wants to know how many of you read about former students who have died, committed a crime or been in the news for one reason or another? She had a former student die in an auto accident recently, she was a little sad over that one. Earlier she had a former student who burned down a complex so he could play "hero". She remembered him because he wrote an essay about his time as a volunteer firefighter and how he wanted to be one when he graduated. That invoked a dumbass from her.

12/2/2012 12:39:15 AM

With common core focusing even more on the reading skills "stretch" and non-fiction pieces, I'd love some suggestions for essays that 14-year-olds would find interesting. All genres/subjects welcome as long as they're school appropriate.

12/5/2012 8:39:55 AM

Does Verizon offer teacher discounts in NC?

9/14/2013 2:36:30 PM

they did when I was with verizon several years ago. (not much... same discount for all state employees)

9/14/2013 3:24:35 PM

Thanks

9/14/2013 3:38:58 PM

They still do unless I was grandfathered in or something. 20% off bills and purchases

9/14/2013 3:45:32 PM

back to the year round teacher discussion.

Has anybody in here actually taught at one or know of somebody that has? My wife is thinking about it and I think I'd actually prefer that she did but I want to hear some firsthand experiences to help her try to make the decision.

1/23/2014 12:46:39 PM

A friend taught a modified year-round high school where they did the typical 9-weeks on/two-weeks off schedule, but they still got a six week summer. She had nothing but good things to say about it. In comparison to the traditional schedule that I work, it seemed like she was always off.

Other friends at year round middle schools have had no complaints. I think there's less of a battle to build inertia at the start of school or to supply motivation at the end because there's less down time.

1/23/2014 1:11:17 PM

I just don't see any benefits of the traditional schedule for her actually, especially since she won't get a summer job. We have no kids and I'm working all summer so her break is mostly her sitting around by herself watching movies and laying out by the pool. I feel like the "just make it to the end of the semester" routine and then getting used to nothing and having to snap out of it at the end of the summer is already wearing her down and she's only 7 years in.

Selfishly, I'd like her to do it simply because we have to take our week vacations in the summer now. This frees up a lot more possible dates.

1/23/2014 2:05:15 PM