Teachers strike

[Angel]

Re: Teachers strike

So what's Jessica's issue, out of curiosity? Is it the math or the reading? Or both?

Reading she is getting better at but she has the infamous Dart memory (my family) and she only needs to hear something a couple of times before she has memorised the whole thing, so reading to her is pointless as she can hold the book up, recite it to you, but not actually know the words, just remember them from what you said.

Writing is hard for her - being a leftie like me I can understand her frustrations because we are taught the right-handed way of doing things which is actually quite tough. She can't spell even the most simple words and is supposed to be able to read and write 145 words by July. She can read 35 and write about 20 - if that.

Maths is something she cannot understand - they are taught the logic behind the maths; they have to show HOW they arrived at such and such an answer, rather than just answering it. I get why they need to do this but she's 6 for goodness sakes. She is sent home with work she cannot understand and then told off for not understanding it. It's like me going in there and yelling at them for not understanding nuclear physics...

She's been tested for special needs before at her old school and they said she'd be ok but since she's come to this school she has gotten worse and worse to the point where they've had me in for parent/teacher night and said "she won't pass her SAT's and she won't meet the required targets by the end of the school year so it is likely she will struggle in Year 3" - but not one person has offered to help out. And that's what annoys me. Sure, go on strike and demand better pay but do your damn job in the first place.

 

[cometojames]

Re: Teachers strike

turns out my school isnt closing but some teachers are going on strike which means we have free lessons where we are supurvised, not tought. This is because the union NUTS who are going on strike advised the strikers not to get a cover teacher.

 

[Father of Skorm]

Re: Teachers strike

yea, thats the general rule, no cover, and no cover work. or else they might as well be there...

angel, have you tried phonics? i am not in the slightest bit wat mite b called an expert, but it sound a bit like jessica may be dyslexic... and thats wat the dyslexic kids at my school used 2 do 2 help their reading etc. dunno if its ne help...


yea, in general the teachin quality in this country is, well 2 be honest, s***. every1 is put in2 2 groups. the really 'special needs' and evry1 else. we need different levels for different abilities. there is currently little or no provision for the 'gifted' (those that can do the work with such ease that they get bored, and thus dont do the work and are sometimes labeled as 'thick'), which is, granted, improvin. but, there is nothing for the variance in ability, nationwide, in the middle section whatsoever! it is all down to the school, and more often than not it doesn't even consider that until you are higher in the schooling system. the best we had in mt priary school was ppl being put down a year (which is stupid as they were really unprepared come their SATs) and 1 person put up a year (and he was a cocky b****** in the 1st place...). i got extra homework for maths, because i was good at it, but i had 2 go out of my way for it and after a while the will to learn just gets sucked out of you...

 

[Angel]

Re: Teachers strike

We did try phonics but she gets confused - it doesn't help that stuff you can buy in the shops to assist your child at home is never taught at school... I think she could be dyslexic but it's hard to say without further testing which is not routinely offered to kids in this country who are struggling...

Schools these days cater for the average - those who are more advanced are left to stare vacantly at the ceiling on boredom and those who cannot keep up are largely ignored in the hope that some other poor sap of a teacher will pick up on it and have to deal with it instead. Jessica's best friend is incredibly smart and is not being pushed enough so she finds school boring and easy. Jessica struggles with everything aside from physical education and art but because those are not "real" subjects, she is offered no encouragement in those areas but instead is dumped in a group with kids who are still better than her and told to "keep up".

They keep having these retarded education reforms but clearly are basing these "ideas" on second-hand reports that OFSTED people (you know, the angry guys who couldn't cut it out to be teachers so they get to be the ones who assess them instead) churn out. It's all about school ratings these days, not about educating children and supporting them in the areas they are going to excel in. Sure, an all-round education is necessary but if the child has no concept of maths, is it really worth making them take GCSE level if all they are ever going to need in life is the ability to operate a simple calculator?

And you're right, FoS - abilities are not considered until you reach high school age and by then the damage has already been done if you are needing special help. No one ever bothered to find out if I was dyscalculic and they just called me stupid. I am by no means stupid and my IQ is probably higher than those who taught me - I just struggle with logic and mathematics. There are insanely intelligent people out there who cannot make toast or have no concept of what a kettle is for - doesn't mean they are stupid, just not adept at things which do not apply directly to their area of genius.

 

[Father of Skorm]

Re: Teachers strike

OFSTED is getting more towards the helping of the extremes (including the extremes of average ). my school just underwent an ofsted, and was, um, in need of improvement? i think that was what was sed... basically its a good school, tidy, well behaved mostly, but we dont really do anything for the special cases. so we failed. or as close 2 as u can get w/o getting shut down or getting a serious lookin at...

mymaths.com (or co.uk im not sure...) is quite good for helping to understand maths stuff, not sure if it goes down to primary education tho...

 

[Goretex]

Re: Teachers strike

The teachers just need more cowbell.

 

[Skormsarrow]

Re: Teachers strike

The college isn't =.= they tried on tuesday 4 teachers came and they lasted 30 mins lol so no1 will take anyattention of them now

 

[Walker]

Re: Teachers strike

Your views sound remarkably similar to my mom's, entertainingly. We don't have this OFSTED, but we have our own meaningless acronym-- NCLB, the No Child Left Behind Act. And they get up to some pretty stupid crap via standardized testing.

And I can't give any sanctimonious advice, but I will say that I dimly remember having trouble reading when I was in kindergarten and first grade; then ended up reading obsessively by fourth grade. Things can change with time. Even things like dyslexia can change, if I remember right.

 

[Angel]

Re: Teachers strike

Things had better change - I just spoke to one of the school governors who is a friend of mine and also in charge of the Special Needs department who was quite surprised to hear no one had done anything to help Jessica so far. I'm making an appointment with her teacher and going to see what exactly is going on - to my knowledge, Jessica doesn't often say she can't cope at school because she's afraid she'll be either humiliated or shouted at and she just wants to get through each day asap...of course, if it's pure laziness that is holding her back then she will be in for a kicking afterwards ^_^

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Teachers strike

Things had better change - I just spoke to one of the school governors who is a friend of mine and also in charge of the Special Needs department who was quite surprised to hear no one had done anything to help Jessica so far. I'm making an appointment with her teacher and going to see what exactly is going on - to my knowledge, Jessica doesn't often say she can't cope at school because she's afraid she'll be either humiliated or shouted at and she just wants to get through each day asap...of course, if it's pure laziness that is holding her back then she will be in for a kicking afterwards ^_^

Hell has no fury like a crippled woman in a wheel chair. :lol:

 

[Angel]

Re: Teachers strike

Absolutely :lol:

She's been sent home with three sheets of homework all about fractions or some such rubbish and hasn't the first clue about what a fraction is or how you find it. This weekend is going to be soooooo much fun

 

[Walker]

Re: Teachers strike

Oooh! I know how to do fractions! What I have troube with is the whole log thing. What do cut-down trees have to do with anything?

The signs confuse me, too. There aren't any damn signs!

This is only funny if you realize I want to be an engineer. Which requires LOTS of math.

 

[Angel]

Re: Teachers strike

The way I see it is this:

Question: If you cut this cake in half, how would you write that as a fraction?

Answer: Who gives a crap? - it's my damn cake and I don't share cake with anyone. Least of all you.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Teachers strike

Yeah. I hate the whole triangle thing. Why do I need to do all this complicated maths to find out the length of the other side when I can just measure it?

 

[Walker]

Re: Teachers strike

Yeah. I hate the whole triangle thing. Why do I need to do all this complicated maths to find out the length of the other side when I can just measure it?

Well, for a semi-engineering example: okay, I need to build... a suspension bridge. I have a tower, I know its height, and I know where it is on the deck. I need a cable going from the top of the tower to a point on the deck, How long does the cable need to be?

Actually, I could just use the Pythagorean Theorem for that, but I can't come up with a place where I'd need sines, cosines, tangents, et cetera because I was out the day my class learned those and never did get around to learning them on my own.

There are uses for this crap... I just can't thyink of any for anyone who ISN'T an engineer.

Answer: Who gives a crap? - it's my damn cake and I don't share cake with anyone. Least of all you.

[weeps] No cake??? But... but... I like cake. Come on, just mail me a slice. My address is 630 Achorage-Richmond Avenue, Boring, Maryland, 28336.