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Making a move

waltesefalcon

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After increasing the amount of testing the district saddles our kids with for the second time in as many years and being given a new evaluating principal whom I feel is inept, I have decided to tender my resignation and move onto greener pastures. I felt pretty conflicted about it at first, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that the district is hamstringing us with all of this testing (for eleventh grade they now want one assessment online per week) and that it is only going to get worse. If I want to teach I need to go elsewhere, if I want to babysit kids on computers I need to stay where I am. I just finished my resume and will write my resignation tomorrow.
 
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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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I'll stay in Oklahoma; I am looking at Apache, which is only about fifteen to twenty minutes away, and Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, which is also only about twenty minutes away from my house.
 

Bob McElwee

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Good luck in your search, Walt. I have a daughter in law and niece that are both grade school teachers in OK.
 
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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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Bob, thank you and what parts of the state are they in?
 

Bob McElwee

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One is in Edmond and the other in Checotah. Both love the teaching part of the job, not so much the BS part.
 
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DavidApp

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Understand where you are coming from. I am not a teacher but my wife teaches Kindergarten. How many meetings do you need to teach Kindergarten?

The school system she works for have changed the company that supplies the teaching material (going back to a company they dropped 4 years ago). On a visit to the school before the start of the school year I noticed the halls filled with pallets of boxes lined up down the hall. The cost of all this material must be considerable. Trouble is in a year or two another company will come in and all this stuff will be junked.
This is the third or fourth change they have gone through in the last 15 years.

David
 
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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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Bob, Checotah is a pretty small place, how bad is the BS there? I have to agree though I love the teaching part it is the BS that I find distasteful.

David, our district is so cash strapped that this year has been the first year in over ten years that we have received new English textbooks. Of course, the district didn't order enough textbooks for entire classroom sets much less enough to check out to the kids. The district's reasoning is that the books are accessible online and out students can just log onto the website using their chromebooks or ipads. To which we said, what chromebooks and ipads? Granted our school does have ninety chromebooks but we have a student population of around 1400.
 

Bob McElwee

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As i think back on it they both were upset with the OK legislature, a year or two ago, over something that had 7's in it - bill, proposition, or admendment. Other stuff was mentioned in passing and probably upset me (HS grad in 1957) more than it did them!
 

DavidApp

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The Testing obsession seems to be the thing these days. The school systems seem to be dropping things to make time for more testing.

One subject that seems to be going away is handwriting/cursive. If you can not read cursive think how many documents will be unavailable to you.

Below is a photo of the marriage license of my Grand parents 4 generations removed. All done in dip pen and has The Mark of *** for those that could not write.

David
James Aplebee Sarah Norman m1805.jpg
 

PAUL161

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Seems like handwriting has always been a problem for some people, even though they can write, they put it down on paper like scribble. Ever try to read a doctors report, hand written? Highly educated, but always in a hurry, which I would assume comes from med school cramming. I think cursive taught to children is a good thing, as long as they adhere to their teachings later in life. In the Navy, we had to print everything, I got so good at printing, I could print almost as fast as I could write, but then again, my writing leaves much to be desired also. Brings to mind something I read once, some collage students were never taught the basics of how to write a check! Now if they were never taught how to use a credit card, that would be a good thing! LOL. Sorry for going off the beaten track. PJ
 

Basil

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Seems like handwriting has always been a problem for some people, even though they can write, they put it down on paper like scribble.

That would be me. I've tried in vain over the years to improve my handwriting but just can't do it.
 

DrEntropy

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I very much admire teachers, but I'd never do well as one. AFAIC they're underpaid and overworked. I've Infinite patience with inanimate objects, very little with people. :smirk:

Paul said:
In the Navy, we had to print everything, I got so good at printing, I could print almost as fast as I could write, but then again, my writing leaves much to be desired also.


I rarely use cursive for anything other than on a check. My lettering is a result of my father's teachings and years of drafting and drawing courses. It has been referred to as looking like it was done by an architect. And I'm fairly quick with it, too. At least as fast as with cursive.
 

DavidApp

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From my earliest report cards I get a "Hand writing MUST improve" It never did improve and I do print to help people read what I have written. The poor hand writing may have been an attempt to disguise my poor spelling. Look it up in the dictionary does not help if you can't spell it.

David
 

JPSmit

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In the midst of various discussions that periodically emerge about whether cursive should even still be taught - was talking to a friend recently who taught her kids cursive - because they could only print - and couldn't print fast enough to complete exams in time - one angle I hadn't considered.

Walter, my siblings are educators and the obsession with standardized testing is crazy on both sides of the border - for reasons good and bad mostly bad to my mind - all that said, in my world at least it is a pretty firm principle that I never quit an old job till the ink is dry on ther new one - please don't find yourself stranded. A lousy job is still better than none at all and it is always easier to get a new job if you already have a job. (and 95% certain I'll get the job is not the same as 100% - ask me how I know)

Good luck - sounds like you want what is best for the kids.
 
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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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Doc, I used to feel the same way but I have found that students are much like mechanical things, they require just as much work and with a little effort you can see some good results. The people I don't have a lot of patience for are my co-workers. So many of them have never worked a job outside of education and have such a narrow point of view as a result. It can be scary how sheltered they are and how easily they are frightened into doing something they don't agree with because they believe they can't find another job.

OK did away with teaching cursive about ten years ago and now has seen the error in that and has started teaching it again this year. My students have always learned cursive because I don't print, I feel it is important for the kids to know so I force them to learn it.

The testing issue is one that has only gotten worse since the passage of the NCLB back in Bush jr.s first term. Luckily many places are starting to back off of it, including OK, but while my state has cut back my district has doubled down on it. It almost makes you wonder if someone at the board is being paid by a testing company to collect data for them.

JP, for the time being I am staying put and don't plan on leaving until either the end of the year or the semester. Things are bad but they aren't so bad as to make me do something really rash yet. I do sometimes think about getting out of education. I was pretty happy as a mechanic and it wouldn't take much to open up Kerrick Garage again. If I could get a loan for an old tow truck that would even be better as I would be happy running a wrecker. I also have a standing offer from a local jeweler to repair clocks and watches for her part time. Hmm... Now that I start thinking about it I have many more options.
 

Bayless

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Options are a good thing.
 

judow

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Love the cartoon.

On a frustrating day we are keenly aware. On a good day we are aware. I guess what I am saying is we should do what makes us feel fulfilled and if teaching doesn't and mechanics does - Go for it! Life is way to short to be unhappy if we can change it. Good luck in whatever you decide.
 
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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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Judy, I find teaching to be very fulfilling, my issue is how backwards my district is in regards to testing. Over the past five to ten years a multitude of studies have shown that excessive standardized testing is detrimental to education, yet my district has decided to ramp up our standardized testing while the state and surrounding districts are doing the opposite. I am just frustrated with the situation I have found myself in teaching a core subject in a district like mine right now.
 
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