Frustrations

I know this course is about balancing acts and getting things done in a pinch, but man the stress this year is crazy! Our campus is not better than last year. We started out a bit better, but quickly have fallen into the same old same old. I don't know how to help and make our campus better and still work on my project!
It is crazy! I hope all is going well. I am working on my vocabulary test for my campus vertical alignment.
See ya soon!
Terri

School Law

I have started my next class on the road to my masters!
We read about NCLB last week and this week the various cases about student expression and free speech.
NCLB..... hmmm I have never taught without the legislation, but I do know that each year more stuff is handed down to us. I am a 5th grade math/science teacher and the fact that my kids are in an SSI grade is hugely important. Since they took SSI out of 3rd grade reading, this puts our grade as the first time there is a stop-gap in place. Parents and students are extremely nervous and teachers are extremely stressed.
On our campus there is almost a zero retention policy, so when they get to us, I can have kids with 3 years gap in math. We have just started Tier II for math and that has left us with huge holes to fill every year. I get frustrated when the walk into my classroom and cannot do the work. It is not the kids that I am frustrated with, but the system. I have sent at least 4 kids onto middle school that are totally unprepared and are now failing because I was told that keeping them in 5th grade makes them at risk or dropping out. I have done the research and sending them to Middle school unprepared makes them pretty much a guaranteed drop out. If they cannot keep up, they will get retained at some point and the later they are retained, the more likely they are to drop out.
I am glad we are now implementing Tier II in math, but there has been VERY LITTLE training on it. I have been in the developmental stage of RTI before and it is a struggle to get all on board. I feel we are leaving many children behind even with federal law because there are so many loop holes to get around the retention points. Parents, principals (most likely guiding the process) and teachers can all say, "send them on " and off they go our next group of drop outs.

First meeting

We had our first vertical alignment meeting. I was a little bummed, because we have some teachers that are not wanting to be on board with the plan. They are supporting me in the assessments that I will be doing to see where they are in vocabulary development, but they don't necessarily see the need for alignment.
They were in a hurry to be done with the meeting. We did discuss our new math program, Investigation. It was a good conversation, so at least that was positive. I found a district that has a lot of vocabulary done and I am excited to be using that as a resource!
Have a good week!

Research

I can't believe I have almost survived the research class! It seems like a lot of work, but so very worth it. I knew this would be tough while teaching 50 5th graders, but it is helping me focus on my teaching as well. I realize that I have be "doing" action research in my classroom for a long time.
I have had many, many great mentors! it is the beginning of a long journey that I hope never ends! I know that I will hit snags in the road and it will become difficult at times, but right now I am ready to lead my first vertical alignment meeting and be done with it!

Have a great week all! I am working on the last assignment tonight and Saturday and I submit on Sunday morning after I proof read it, has worked so far!
See some of you in school law and I am so excited it is Dr. Abshire again!

Peace to all!

My revised action plan ---- I hope I fixed the lines on the posted version this time!

Action Research plan

<iframe width='500' height='300' frameborder='0' src='https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AodnW0kyFhE3dFNXa0VSTXBnUk44YXlTQWFHN2s5M2c&single=true&gid=0&output=html&widget=true'></iframe>