Wow that is wild. That was not the case at my school. I was under the
impression that we started early so that we would finish the first semester before
winter break. Ending by the end of May also made it easier for students and
teacher to attend classes at the local universities in the summer. The teachers in
my school taught curriculum up until the last week. I had a book fair
scheduled for the first week of May and still had classes doing research and
visiting
the library for other activities. I am not sure why the state choose to test
in April, except maybe to get test scores back before the end of school. I
guess you were right your situation was site based management gone wild.
Anna Russell
Librarian
Thompson Elem.
Aldine ISD
Houston Texas
alibrarian@aol.com
In a message dated 6/16/2007 11:27:46 AM Central Standard Time,
sbrisco@gmail.com writes:
The previous early-start situation in Texas was built around the
"need" to have extra time to teach for the statewide test. What is
ridiculous about all of this "up-front time" with schools starting as
early as the first week in August (like some did Iast year) is the
fact that the statewide TAKS test was given the third week in April.
But our schools weren't released for the summer until the last week of
May or the first week in June this year.
Since the TAKS testing was finished so early (and what really
"counted" was completed), most of the actual "instruction" in the
classroom ended immediately afterwards and it became "movie-city" or
"party-paradise" during the last several weeks before we released the
students. In my school, we had at least four "school-wide" parties
that we held in the library during the weeks following the TAKS
test---- I had to cease any instruction during those days so that
others could set-up the library for a banquet-style party DURING the
instructional days, two days were "movie-time" for every class during
those weeks (they showed videos all day---yes, in violation of
copyright), and during the last week of school I had to move my
(already scheduled) bookfair to an unused-room in the school rather
than holding it in the library, so large groups of students could
watch movies all day and allow parent volunteers to watch them in one
area so that there would be a rotation for the teachers to have a
45-minute lunch break off-campus! (No, I did not go on the extended
lunch since I had not planned to "play" during the last few weeks of
school and had actually scheduled myself to work during lunch to allow
the bookfair assistant to leave for lunch instead.) Who approved all
of this "party-hardy" insanity (and even insisted that I stop teaching
and even move my bookfair so this could happen)....the administrators!
(Site-based management gone wild.)
That is an example of insanity....if we aren't there teaching until
the very end then why start early and why test six weeks before school
is over? Can someone determine how to schedule instructional days and
stay on task?
(Sorry for the rant....this stuff irks me!)
~Shonda
--
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
Library Media / Technology Specialist
Digital Bookends wiki / blog:
http://digitalbookends.pbwiki.com
http://shonda.edublogs.org/
sbrisco@gmail.com
Resources for Texas School Librarians:
http://txschoollibrarians.ning.com/
http://txschoollibrarians.wikispaces.com/
"Digital Resources" columnist
School Library Journal
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