This site is a class blog space for new Career and Technical Specializations and Heathcare Science teachers enrolled in the New Teacher Institute (NTI) at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Another Beef about GHSGT's
This week they are conducting GHSGT tutorial sessions in our auditorium for the juniors. I have four juniors in my 2nd block. The problem is I only have a total of 8 students in that class. So, for the remainder of this week they will be in the auditorium all day everyday then next week they will be testing all day everyday. So, that means that I won't see these kids for 2 weeks! When they return to class they will be 2 weeks behind! So for their sake I'm going to slow the pace down to a slow crawl. I don't see where I have a whole lot of choice. Why do they have these "cram sessions" anyway? Can we call this a real "learning process"? Even if they do pass how much of these "cram sessions" will the kids retain after the testing is over? Who really benefits? Truth be known I think the state is just trying to save face on this one!
My solution to that was to give them "take home" units to complete by next Friday. We are going to work in the preschool next week since she will be short staffed. I am down to 2-3 a class period next week.
ReplyDeleteNo Child Left Behind has good points and bad points. In my opinion these students should be receiving tutoring either in the class or before or after school. Everything stops so that the school can "help" these students, in reality it is to "help" the school stay off the needs improvement list. Don't get me wrong - the students that need help should have the opportunity for remediation - but not at the expense of totally destroying their other classes.
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