Someplace Better

A thug gave a teacher a teary-eyed hug a few days ago. The hug made the thug a child and saved education from losing a heroic teacher.

The thug was a nightmare in the teacher’s classroom from the first day in September; violent, confrontational, angry, abusive, and defiant.

The teacher stayed professional; prepared, motivated, charismatic, dedicated, and passionate.

As the weeks passed, the teacher’s initial passion was exhausted trying to engage the thug who disrupted the 34 other students in the room from their academic assignments. The nightmare destroyed the teacher in soul-crushing, incremental degrees until the teacher’s spirit was all but dead. A parent teacher meeting was called when the thug’s behavior became dangerous.

“You are worthless,” the dad said to the thug at a parent teacher meeting. The thug’s lip quivered and the teacher’s eyes welled with tears. The meeting ended and the thug left with the parent, but the teacher stayed in the principal’s office with his head in his hands sobbing. He was inconsolable.

Outside the principal’s office, the parent and the thug waited for the teacher. Apologies were shared. A civil handshake was given to the parent. The teacher extended his hand to the thug and the thug clutched the teacher and hugged his hero. The hero hugged a child.

A short time later, this child’s home was on the news and the real nightmare was exposed. The classroom was where child cried for help. The classroom was where the child cried for love. The hero gave both.

The teacher and the thug helped each other with an act of love. The child learned the meaning of compassion from the teacher. What the hero got from the child was a career-saving reminder that teaching is not his job; it is his purpose. And his purpose is to meet the child where he is and take him someplace better.

The story is not over and one can hope it will continue to get better.

Something is inherently wrong when we have to clarify directions about what happens to children becoming ill during high-stakes tests.  These rules are in place for one simple truth- THESE TESTS MAKE CHILDREN SICK! 

 For the infinitesimal value these tests give us, are they are really worth getting sick over????  NYSED seems to think so. 

 

 http://www.p12.nysed.gov/assessment/sam/ei-samcc13rev.pdf

Illness

If a student becomes ill during a part of the tests, the student should be excused until well enough to continue. The principal should estimate the time that the student had remaining to complete that part of the test. When the student is well enough to complete the test (and as long as the testing or make-up period has not ended), the student may be given the remaining time for that part. Other unadministered parts of the test should also be administered according to the Teacher’s Directions as long as the testing or make-up period has not ended. When the student is taking a partially completed part of the test, the student must be closely supervised so that the student does not go back to previously completed questions on the test.

 

 

 

Lace to the Top

 

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It is time to take back our communities!

The corporate backed/high-stakes test agenda of NYS is no longer a myth. Your children were never part of the equation when this plan was formulated and for that reason alone, this regime will land flat on its face.  http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Wealth-backs-reform-team-5006670.php 

In the next 2-3 months, our politicians will take part in a well publicized finger pointing fiasco, hopefully not the Gov. Christie literal finger pointing… While this is taking place our children will continue to suffer. Any recommendation made is already a year and a half late.

It is time to take back our communities! Our schools need to operate in the best interest of the students and community they serve. Your children are more than a test score. Anyone that claims otherwise has their hand in the wrong cookie jar and we are going to slam it shut!

Lace to the Top
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Corporate Bus to Nowhere

Tags

education, parents, testing

Schoolhouses once stood as the symbol of the community.  They prepared students to become productive members of society and preserve the future of the community.  Schools are now overrun by corporate driven agendas.  Teachers are reduced to reading scripts.  The creativity of the student is only allowed to grow as large as the module/script permits.  The focus of schools has become the tests built by for-profit companies.  In the error of “data”, our request for proof is met with silence.

No one is going to give us our schools and communities back.  We must take them back!  The parents and teachers did not cause these issues, but WE are the solution.  We stand united in green laces, a loud and impossible to ignore symbol of good people protecting their kids.

As one…

Lace to the Top

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