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A new designation for May
Apr. 26th, 2005 01:34 pmIt seems every day, every week, every month of the year has a different designation. April is Autism month. April 22 is Earth Day. The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day. And so on, and so forth.
I wish to propose a new designation for the month of May. May is officially (to me, anyway) Teacher Burn-Out Month.
I know, it's not May yet. But April is full up, and almost over. I want lots of time to rant about this one.
May is the month of DRA assessments, those extremely useful, extremely time-consuming reading assessments that have to be done on every student in the school. It is also EQAO time - grade 3 and 6 "standardized" testing that takes three days and stresses out every child in both grades, as well as their parents and teachers. It's not standard in its format, administration, or marking. In fact, it's total bollux. But we have to do it anyway.
May is the beginning of the end for marking. Most report cards will be completed by the end of the first week of June, which means the big projects, nice assignments, presentations, etc, will all be due - and therefore marked - in May. It is also the month of Education Week. Theoretically, this week is to celebrate teachers and education. In actual fact, it requires coming up with work samples for every kid in one's class that show their work in the best light. That is nothing short of a nightmare, logistically and educationally speaking. First, there are the kids who never, ever produce anything worth showing to anyone else; then there are the ones who think their work doesn't compare and will be in tears over it for days beforehand; then there's the issue of storing completed work and ensuring that it doesn't look dog-eared and disgusting by the night of Open House. I don't have much storage space in my room, especially for something as big as social studies projects on bristol board. Storing them while they're being completed will be nightmare enough.
Top all of this with the usual issues of spring in a class full of pubescent girls and boys, and the stresses of spending six hours a day with the same people for nine months, and this designation is very much deserved.
All in favour of declaring May Teacher Burn-out Month?
I wish to propose a new designation for the month of May. May is officially (to me, anyway) Teacher Burn-Out Month.
I know, it's not May yet. But April is full up, and almost over. I want lots of time to rant about this one.
May is the month of DRA assessments, those extremely useful, extremely time-consuming reading assessments that have to be done on every student in the school. It is also EQAO time - grade 3 and 6 "standardized" testing that takes three days and stresses out every child in both grades, as well as their parents and teachers. It's not standard in its format, administration, or marking. In fact, it's total bollux. But we have to do it anyway.
May is the beginning of the end for marking. Most report cards will be completed by the end of the first week of June, which means the big projects, nice assignments, presentations, etc, will all be due - and therefore marked - in May. It is also the month of Education Week. Theoretically, this week is to celebrate teachers and education. In actual fact, it requires coming up with work samples for every kid in one's class that show their work in the best light. That is nothing short of a nightmare, logistically and educationally speaking. First, there are the kids who never, ever produce anything worth showing to anyone else; then there are the ones who think their work doesn't compare and will be in tears over it for days beforehand; then there's the issue of storing completed work and ensuring that it doesn't look dog-eared and disgusting by the night of Open House. I don't have much storage space in my room, especially for something as big as social studies projects on bristol board. Storing them while they're being completed will be nightmare enough.
Top all of this with the usual issues of spring in a class full of pubescent girls and boys, and the stresses of spending six hours a day with the same people for nine months, and this designation is very much deserved.
All in favour of declaring May Teacher Burn-out Month?
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