I couldn't resist the baseball title considering pitchers and catchers report within the next 7 days. With baseball season coming, the urgency of teaching starts to kick in. It certainly has been there, but I feel like it is ratcheted up a notch (or five). Why? Well, state testing starts in early May. While testing is maligned for a myriad of reasons, the reality is that schools are evaluated in one way or another on their test scores.
Right or wrong, the scores are a reflection on the schools, teachers, and students. If you have 92% pass, then many will say that the teachers and students are brilliant. If 35% pass, then your school is seen as a failure. Those numbers are arbitrary, but the thinking isn't. For me, I don't want to be the weak link on my team that could potentially bring down the scores for the cohort as a whole. Is my instruction the major push in either direction? I don't think so. We're all in this together, and the instruction throughout the course of a student's life will be the driving force. But that doesn't stop me from feeling self-conscious, nor does it diminish the urgency in my teaching.
As far as content is concerned, we'll start diving into the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. We'll also explore the branches of government. The content is exciting to me, and should be to the kids. If the loyalist/patriot debate is an omen, then this should be received very well.
I always love a good baseball analogy!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed meeting you the other night at UWB.
One idea for your upcoming social studies unit...my MT introduced the Schoolhouse Rock videos (from the 1970s, but on youtube, of course) to teach the kid about the branches of gov't and the preamble. The kids love to practice singing them. (They're sixth graders). We printed out copies of lyrics to help them learn the words.