Children in Danger

Abuse is a very sad subject to bring up in education. Unfortunately, this issue is all too common. Teachers must look for warning signs and take whatever action is needed in order to protect children. From an educational standpoint, children will not be able to learn if their basic needs are not met. More importantly, their lives and the well being of their classmates might be at risk. This year, I have a student who is living with relatives and recovering from abuse. His parents have lost custody. He has noticeable emotional disturbance. I have referred him to the STAT team at our school and hope he will receive a referral and evaluation from our psychologist as quickly as possible so that he can receive the therapy he needs. I am also in close communication with his caretakers. We are meeting tomorrow to discuss his most recent and disturbing behavioral problem. Thankfully, we all want what is best for him. He requires a lot of my attention, but for his sake and the protection of the other children, I will do everything I can to help.

Common Core Standards

Prior to teaching in a public school, I had heard of Common Core Standards. Nothing I had heard was good. Nevertheless, I came in with an open mind. It seemed like they had been created in order to keep tabs on a few bad teachers while tying the hands of all the other good teachers. I was concerned that they would rob me of the ability to be creative with my students. When I saw the standards for first grade, I was concerned that they were not developmentally appropriate. After implementing them, I have found they are not so bad after all. One aha moment I had was about the so called "new math". Just yesterday in our staff meeting, we watched a video of a group of 5th graders do a math talk. The teacher asked them to compute 30 x 16 in their heads, and they did it. I suddenly felt that I had been robbed as a child. Why didn't I learn the number sense and strategies required to do this? I have become a big fan of "new math". I still think the standards are too hard for a lot of first graders, but I am finding new ways to help them get there. I am seeing the value of working with manipulatives. Today I worked with a group of kids who were having trouble subtracting. We used ten frames and counters. I was able to watch them make the connection, and it was a beautiful thing. I like having an over-arching goal for what to teach during the year. I wish we had a nice curriculum to get us there rather than having to piece together a lot of different things. But I'm getting the hang of it. Now if I could only get the parents to stop stressing out about grades...