Sunday, April 28, 2013

Kindergarten Comparison

Kindergarten 2010-2011
When my daughter was in K, her experience fostered a love of learning and for school.

Sabrina’s kindergarten Experience consisted of: Hands on projects every day, learning through experiences, daily centers, basic letter sounds and words, a little independent reading at home , a lot of family reading, foundational math, patterns, colors, shapes, coloring, recess for 30 minutes, socialization, show and tell, no tests, homework related to letters 2x a week, and units such as the community and fire safety included field trips, had a thorough focus and students worked in groups and with the teachers. She always had a smile when I picked her up at the bus stop.





My son’s Kindergarten(2012-2013) experience has been hijacked.
 Kindergarten(2012-2013)
Mikey's Kindergarten experience consisted of: Very few projects, centers 1x a week, 5 or more black and white math pages daily, writing stories, spelling and spelling tests which are graded, editing sentences, 1 page of homework a night plus independent reading, family reading is not encouraged, abstract math skills before learning foundational skills, multiple choice math tests which are given number grades, 20 minutes tops of recess, units on fire safety and community condensed and students work independently.  When he comes off the school bus, he looks depressed to me. When I think of his experience, I want to cry. 






Please Sign the Petition to withdraw New York from The Common Core!


14 comments:

  1. Why don't you take your son out of this school? You could do a better job homeschooling him. He will never get these years back, and if he develops a distaste for learning, it could be difficult to reverse. What more evidence do you need that our public schools have been taken over by an adminstration and corporate donors that do not have the best interests of children?

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  2. 1. PLAY is important for all students.
    "The Standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach. For instance, the use of play with young children is not specified by the Standards, but it is welcome as a valuable activity in its own right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this document." This is from:http://creativeliteracy.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-is-not-covered-by-common-core.html

    I think what has happened in your son's kindergarten is a REACTION to the standards, not a requirement of the standards. I am a Kindergarten teacher, and am finding that many of the skills that I have taught in kindergarten, are actually listed as First Grade standards. (i.e. Reading Standard: Foundational Skill 3.b. Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.) is found under Grade 1, not kindergarten.

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  3. Is it Common Core that causes these issue? I don't think saying what the standards are automatically requires that we abondon good classroom practice, does it?

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  4. The problem is the misguided notion that student assessments are tools teacher review. The common core isn't a bad idea. But it wasn't put together by teachers. Again, a problem of undervaluing teachers as professionals. Perhaps the problem is really that we have put our children in the care and education of people that no one seems to respect -- which is smoke screen produced by the PR people that want to provide you with more of the "business" of education and less of that which cannot be measured. Teachers realize the importance of play and developmentally appropriate curriculum. Business people want only the key performance criteria in schools across the country the businesses: test prep, canned worksheets, test producers, educational management organizations have taken over and, of course, grinding down the respect of teachers means that they can force the older (less likely to play along) and higher paid teachers out (keeping their costs down) while continuing to convince state legislature that the idea of "educators" should be replaced with "facilitators" which can be done by anyone and no certification is necessary to be a teacher or superintendent. Only a good understanding of business and the ability to present canned materials in a way that will get test results. People who know nothing of educating children throwing years of good educational research inspired teaching models out the door dis-spelling the notion of science while using soft-science to point to their own temporary results. People who know nothing of education making the decisions that affect millions of well trained professionals in the field of education. People who refuse to participate standing aside and letting their public schools be dismantled by the paid for legislators of large pro-business lobbies and well funded foundations whose goal is to be sure that there is no longer a public education. Rather the design be left to those who are really in the business of educating and are closest to the children and understand the development and proper ways to teach have their hands untied and be allowed to produce results the way that Finland has. But, as it stands there are many Americans who have little respect for professionals and even less respect for education--making the PR work of the businesses who hope to take over education all the easier.

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  5. Yup, it really sucks. This is why I have elected to homeschool my daughter for kindergarten this upcoming school year!!! Although this will take a huge financial sacrifice, I am so grateful that I can make this work.

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  6. What you described here with the son's kindergarden experience is not Common Core at all. I am not for any kind of standardized testing, however, as a teacher, I do find appreciation for the 7 Common Core practices. If you are not aware of what these practices are then you need to do a little more research before you go any further.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Good post An interesting discussion is worth a comment as in this age group children learn quickly and as they grow older they start exploring.
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  11. Nice Article, So when you visit Good Playgroup In Chennai
    look to see if teachers smile and are generally encouraging of children. Look to see how the teachers interact with the other children in the classroom and if there seem to be strong connections between them. Also talk to parents at the school about their experience.

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  12. My spouse and I have invested time at the school, while class was going on, and really like the way they handle the young ones.
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