Vent ahead: THANK GOD MY COWORKERS ARE NOT ON LJ!!!
Before I start, a quick poll. (I know pretty much no one reads this journal, but bear with me....)
Can you identify these people and why they're important:
1. Akhenaten
2. Alexander the Great
3. Ashoka
4. Constantine
5. Hammurabi
6. Imhotep
7. Julius Caesar
8. Plato
9. Ramses
10. Sappho
I'm going to make a wild (optimistic?) prediction and say you know 3 of them. Maybe 4. Which is about to make my point for me....
My school is filled with English Learners who are living in poverty, who score horribly on any standardized test the state and/or federal government throw at them.
This year, a group of teachers have been working on a "6th Grade Redesign" to totally reimagine our curriculum, our practices, and our procedures, in an attempt to turn this around. I am heavily involved with this project - I have been working on the "Reach and Stretch" work crew, which focuses on academics, as well as planning the Humanities curriculum that will be used next year.
With guidance from the consultant who has visited our school several times throughout the year, we have decided to move away from a traditional "English" and "History" curriculum. The reasoning is that few people, even educated people, remember much of what they learned about ancient civilizations ten years down the line. Sure, if you're a History major, or someone who is really into History, you'd know more. But the average person? Not much.
So, we have decided (with input from B, the consultant) to shift our curriculum. We will merge English and Social Studies together into "Humanities". And, we will focus on social justice topics rather than moving through the traditional ancient civilizations curriculum. We are *hardly* the first middle school to do this! We will spend the whole year covering the question of universal human rights, pulling from Teaching Tolerance and Facing History and Ourselves. At a minimum, we will still be covering evolution, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and probably Egypt from the traditional curriculum.
Now, keep in mind. I *am* a History major. With a History credential. And, I'm pretty much the person who has spent the most time putting this curriculum together - the rest of the team was not available for the major planning day we had, so right now the majority is my work.
Wednesday we presented our vision at a "gallery walk" staff meeting where the redesign team was set up at different tables and explained to groups of our coworkers who are not on redesign. A couple of teachers expressed concern about "losing" the traditional history curriculum, but most seemed fairly excited and supportive.
Friday, many teachers were told that they will be moving classrooms.
Here are comments on Facebook from my coworkers, who are not on the redesign team:
D, who teaches 8th grade History and was my collaboration partner for many years. She is pissed off that she will have to move classrooms, and is now apparently planning to move to a different school if possible:
"I'm filling out the paperwork this weekend, I'm tired of it all; unfortunately History teachers are few and far between. In fact admin is in the process of dismantling History at OGMS instead we are teach a core of English and Social Justice. I really love teaching History and it saddens me to see it fade away. I know my time at OGMS has come to an end. I really don't feel my services are needed any longer and I will hopefully find a school site that wants me."
H, who teaches 6th & 7th grade Resource (special education) and is moving to a different school next year:
"I was saddened to learn about the move away from ancient civilizations to current events and social justice for sixth graders next year."
And C, who was a special education assistant (she retired last year):
Doing away with history! My goodness history must be taught. Kids need to know the past and all that comes from the past. Social Justice.......let that be a college course as it is. Eee gads......Look for another job where your talent can be used and respected.
I am really, really pissed off at these people right now. Because, NO, this change is NOT coming from our admin! They are not dismantling History at our school! *We* are not doing that either! Plus, this isn't even going to affect her teaching for at least two more years.... PLUS, show me any of her kids that remember anything from 6th grade now, because none of my 8th graders ever seemed to!!! But no, apparently I am not to be trusted to come up with new curriculum.
I'm really like, none of you had better even say anything to me for the next 5 days until school is out!
Oh, but I'm sure D will be there for the AVID conference in San Diego after that, which is basically a free vacation....
I haven't been so grateful for LJ in quite some time, because I *had* to get this all out.
Can you identify these people and why they're important:
1. Akhenaten
2. Alexander the Great
3. Ashoka
4. Constantine
5. Hammurabi
6. Imhotep
7. Julius Caesar
8. Plato
9. Ramses
10. Sappho
I'm going to make a wild (optimistic?) prediction and say you know 3 of them. Maybe 4. Which is about to make my point for me....
My school is filled with English Learners who are living in poverty, who score horribly on any standardized test the state and/or federal government throw at them.
This year, a group of teachers have been working on a "6th Grade Redesign" to totally reimagine our curriculum, our practices, and our procedures, in an attempt to turn this around. I am heavily involved with this project - I have been working on the "Reach and Stretch" work crew, which focuses on academics, as well as planning the Humanities curriculum that will be used next year.
With guidance from the consultant who has visited our school several times throughout the year, we have decided to move away from a traditional "English" and "History" curriculum. The reasoning is that few people, even educated people, remember much of what they learned about ancient civilizations ten years down the line. Sure, if you're a History major, or someone who is really into History, you'd know more. But the average person? Not much.
So, we have decided (with input from B, the consultant) to shift our curriculum. We will merge English and Social Studies together into "Humanities". And, we will focus on social justice topics rather than moving through the traditional ancient civilizations curriculum. We are *hardly* the first middle school to do this! We will spend the whole year covering the question of universal human rights, pulling from Teaching Tolerance and Facing History and Ourselves. At a minimum, we will still be covering evolution, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, and probably Egypt from the traditional curriculum.
Now, keep in mind. I *am* a History major. With a History credential. And, I'm pretty much the person who has spent the most time putting this curriculum together - the rest of the team was not available for the major planning day we had, so right now the majority is my work.
Wednesday we presented our vision at a "gallery walk" staff meeting where the redesign team was set up at different tables and explained to groups of our coworkers who are not on redesign. A couple of teachers expressed concern about "losing" the traditional history curriculum, but most seemed fairly excited and supportive.
Friday, many teachers were told that they will be moving classrooms.
Here are comments on Facebook from my coworkers, who are not on the redesign team:
D, who teaches 8th grade History and was my collaboration partner for many years. She is pissed off that she will have to move classrooms, and is now apparently planning to move to a different school if possible:
"I'm filling out the paperwork this weekend, I'm tired of it all; unfortunately History teachers are few and far between. In fact admin is in the process of dismantling History at OGMS instead we are teach a core of English and Social Justice. I really love teaching History and it saddens me to see it fade away. I know my time at OGMS has come to an end. I really don't feel my services are needed any longer and I will hopefully find a school site that wants me."
H, who teaches 6th & 7th grade Resource (special education) and is moving to a different school next year:
"I was saddened to learn about the move away from ancient civilizations to current events and social justice for sixth graders next year."
And C, who was a special education assistant (she retired last year):
Doing away with history! My goodness history must be taught. Kids need to know the past and all that comes from the past. Social Justice.......let that be a college course as it is. Eee gads......Look for another job where your talent can be used and respected.
I am really, really pissed off at these people right now. Because, NO, this change is NOT coming from our admin! They are not dismantling History at our school! *We* are not doing that either! Plus, this isn't even going to affect her teaching for at least two more years.... PLUS, show me any of her kids that remember anything from 6th grade now, because none of my 8th graders ever seemed to!!! But no, apparently I am not to be trusted to come up with new curriculum.
I'm really like, none of you had better even say anything to me for the next 5 days until school is out!
Oh, but I'm sure D will be there for the AVID conference in San Diego after that, which is basically a free vacation....
I haven't been so grateful for LJ in quite some time, because I *had* to get this all out.