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Back To School
A year ago at this time I was correcting essays every Sunday afternoon, working on report card grades and planning vocabulary tests. Anyone who ever saw me teach knows that from my first day in September 1970 until my final day in June 2005, I gave 100% in and out of the classroom. I enjoyed my career immensely and the 35 years seemed to fly by.
Those years gave me the opportunity to see several changes take place in education. Over the three and half decades several new teaching methods or philosophies were introduced. Anyone remember Career Education? Thousands of dollars were spent training teachers and buying materials so that all teachers in all disciplines could teach students to prepare for the "world of work" and it was teacher's task to discuss jobs related to the subjects they taught. As soon as workshops were given and some of the lesson plans implemented, it was time to move on to the next new idea.
At Stafford Middle School, my second home for all those years, many changes occured. "Teaming" became the catchphrase, and, before long, other schools were modeling their curriculum around the Global Citizens of SMS. Special education students moved out of their isolated rooms, sometimes in the basement of the school, and became part of the regular curriculum, often accompanied by a teaching assistant. And then, of course, "accountability" became the catchphrase. State testing became the focus and often the top priority. While understanding the need to evaluate students and programs, I often became frustrated late in my career with the amount of time needed to properly prepare students for, initially, the New York State Writing Competency and, later, the ELA Assessment. Neither test did anything to evaluate a student's creativity.
Of course, computers have become a necessary part of every teacher's classroom. I will admit I fought computers for years. Early on, I recall losing half of my class for 20 minutes every other day so that the students could go to the "computer room" to be taught by a computerized program. I considered the computers an infringement on my time with the students. I felt that nothing could beat the "human contact" of a real live teacher, especially one who was short and balding. That particular program never lasted long, because, as noted earlier, in education it is often time for a new program or new philosophy.
Computers eventually found their way into my classroom, and, eventually, I accepted student work "printed out" instead of the old-fashioned pen-on-paper method. I should point out, however, that I find it interesting that for state testing, students are required to put pen-on-paper and they are restricted from using computers for their essays.
Sometime in the future I'll come back to this topic, because this blog only briefly touches on several changes I saw during the 35 years I worked in a classroom. Technology in the classroom gets a big plus. "Mainstreaming" get a big plus. The death of "tracking" hurt top-level and lower-level students, in some cases, but greatly aided the "average student." Now, there's a phrase -- "average student" -- having taught over 3000 eighth graders in my career, I'm not sure that I ever met an "average student." They were all special and memorable in some way!
Comments
Hi Foxy,
Was just reading Back to School and it made me think of the days I worked at middle school in the Special Ed. dept. with the handicapped kids. I enjoyed working there and with my kids so much. They were indeed special, not by their mental compacity but by the way they treated others and the love they showed.
Just wanted to say hello and say, "good job", to you. You were wonderful with the kids and they liked you.
Thank you for being you!
Posted by: Darlene Fallon | March 15, 2006 7:23 AM
Yes, computers have taken over, but, I was only at stafford for a year and then i moved to florida. I am the gurl with the longest hair remember foxy?
(Foxy's note: Wow, that was a long time ago!)
Posted by: AJ Portera | March 14, 2006 10:17 PM
Ouch W, she got you! Foxy, we need spellcheck with your application.
Posted by: G | March 14, 2006 7:56 PM
Hi Ray:
As a parent of one of the 3000 students THANK YOU! for a job well done.
Posted by: RICHARD BRENNER | March 14, 2006 3:39 PM
Kind of ironic that "Valedictorian" was misspelled by Mr. Gump. Wonder if he was number 1 in his class at the Academy?
Actually I was a bit disappointed that the Mayor of Vocabularyville didn't catch the mistake.
Posted by: Merriam Webster | March 14, 2006 8:24 AM
Oops, forgot one more thing about the education back in the olden days. Corporal punishment! You didn't get to meet the board of education or Sister's ruler because you were doing what was expected of you. Boy, is my self esteem in shambles because of being whacked a couples of times.
Posted by: J | March 14, 2006 6:57 AM
Wow Forest, you and Foxy have probably come very close to the truth about today's educational system. Foxy mentions too many distractions after school so study time takes a backseat and Forest talks about "No Special Ed Teacher, no Phys Ed Teacher, no Music Teacher, no Guidance Counselor, no Art Teacher, no Teacher's Aid, no Technology Specialist, no Reading Specialist, no Speech Teacher, no Librarian, no School Psychologist, no P.T." So how did we do it back in the olden days? (1962 high school graduate myself). My parents played a major part in my education. Does the light bulb come on now? Mom was home to raise the children. Dad ensured the homework was done. Heaven forbid you had a note sent home! A major factor was teaching us things that should be taught at home. Let the professional educators teach us the basic skills, reading, writing & arithmetic. Remember those, Forest? You turned out to be a smart, successful adult because you had a good Mama.
Posted by: J | March 14, 2006 6:51 AM
Foxy,
I graduated from high school the same year (1966) as you and have an observation. I know you were the Salutatorian of your class since you gave a speech at graduation, but do you remember the Valadictorian who beat you out for the number one spot?
As I remember, class sizes back then were quite different, and teachers must have either been better or students more astute to achieve the same results as we get today. Since you've been in the business all these years, who better to answer that question than you. You've been successful on both sides of the fence. I don't have any experience in that area since I've been shrimping, but you can get an image by clicking on my name. And "that's all I've got to say about that".
(Foxy's note: Our Our Lady of Victory graduation class of 1966 had 28 graduates. The #1 student, as I recall, was Linda Torrance, who later married classmate Gilles Maille. I was second and Gary Hebert was third in the class rankings. I think students in the Sixties had far fewer distractions than students today. Hey, what else to do on a Monday night but study for the Latin test? No cable tv 100+ channels, no videogames, no cellphones on our hip, no iPods or computers, no jobs at Subway Subs, no cars to ride around in, no movie rentals. Get my point? )
Posted by: Forest Gump | March 13, 2006 9:28 PM