The CSUS PACT instructor is a nice guy. Helpful and knowledgeable. He also has one serious sense of humor for pairing up my center (UTEC) with TR for peer review of the PACT Task 1.
Here's some background info: UTEC stands for the Urban Teacher Education Center. We are award-winning and apparently better prepare people to be teachers than most credential programs out there. We also exclusively work in the SCUSD (which will officially become a Program Improvement district for the 09-10 school year) and specifically in schools where the majority of students are from low social-economic backgrounds (note: NOT schools like C-R, which we at J.S. have a bone to pick with).
TR serves a relatively wealthier area, thus the students from those schools are considered low-middle/middle-upper SES. Not that TR doesn't have their own set of unique problems, but their problems are on a totally different level from the students UTEC serves.
I suppose I'm not making any sense to any one unfamiliar with the urban school setting. Obviously, the person who reviewed my PACT Task 1 definitely had no idea. Here are some of the comments this person left for me, as well as the stuff I wrote related to the comments. Comments are in bold. My comments to the comments are in italicized bold.
6. Describe any district, school, or cooperating teacher requirements or expectations that might impact your planning or delivery of instruction, such as required curricula, pacing, use of specific instructional strategies, or standardized tests.
My cooperating teacher does not use the district's math curriculum (Saxon). Instead, he insists that lessons be based on the California academic content standards and that instructional methods be as varied and interesting as possible. If math lessons have the possibility of being interdisciplinary (integrated with art or other subjects), then that should be done.
Really? Isn’t it required by the state and district to use given programs adapted (whether it be Scott Foresman or Saxon).
{where the hell have you been? neither the state, nor the feds "mandates" any particular set of curriculum made by companies like Saxon - only content standards are enforced by the government. the district may have requirements about it, but there are sometimes exceptions to those rules in upper primary}.
Task 1. Context for Learning Form
1. How much time is devoted each day to mathematics instruction in your classroom?
There are two forty-five minute sessions of math each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
This seems like a lot of time (twice a day for 1 ½ hrs per day for 5 days) especially with the other activities and subjects that need to be taught during the day.
{This is also why my class is actually mostly above standard in math. And frankly, the only other subject I teach in this class as "stand alone" (as opposed to interdisciplinary) is language arts. We don't get special stand alone visual and performing arts, music, technology, etc lessons. PE, science, and social studies are at best once a week each; at worst none at all. This is what happens when your school's public funds are taken away because it didn't perform to expectations on high-stakes testing. By the way, are you implying that you don't believe we spend this much time with math? You are supposed to critique the completeness and relevancy of my answers to the PACT, not second-guess the things I write, which are factual.}
9. How many computers are available to support your instruction? NOTE: If this data is difficult to obtain, then provide an estimate, e.g., “a few” or “about 30.”
Available in classroom:
# of computers 11
# of computers connected to the Internet 10
Available elsewhere in school
# of computers None
# of computers connected to the internet N/A
There are no other computers anywhere in the entire school???
{No, no there are not. At least not ones that students can use. Frankly, I'm surprised there are this many in the classroom at all. Once again, the clear cut difference between schools like mine and schools in TR. So go ahead and rub it in my face that you have a computer for every student in your class at all times, all of which are connected to the internet. That you have been using a smart board for the past six months, while EIB probably won't get one until they become obsolete. That you have webcams, and digital cams, and mics, and graphing calculators when my students probably won't see any of that until the middle of high school. That is, IF they get as far as high school.}
No, I'm not bitter. I've accepted the reality of urban schools. However, there is no excuse for a teacher, even a teacher-in-training, to be ignorant of the current, urgent, headlining education issues to the extent of this numb-nut of a commentator. Read an education article for once why don't you? Or even just the news. Although I'm pretty annoyed at the 24 hour news cycle as well. I'm also annoyed that this peer reviewer made no useful comments whatsoever pertaining to helping me edit my PACT so I can pass the stupid thing and get my preliminary credential which means I'm not really a teacher even though I've gone through 4 years of undergrad + 1.5 years of teacher training + dunno how many other hoops and horns + the future hoops and horns I'll need to go through to get an actual full credential. This isn't even counting national board certification and further degrees/training/subject matter proficiency. Also, the average salary of an elementary teacher is $35,000/annum.
Can someone remind me why I'm in this profession again?
Crap, this has put me in an even worse mood than I already was from this week alone. Gotta think positive, positive, positive.....at least it's a three day weekend?
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