Slice of Life

Slice of Life
Join the slicing for the month of March

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Procrastination Again


Report cards are upon me and I am procrastinating as I have the last two quarters and the three years before. I dread filling out these reports. Four years ago a committee of volunteer teachers made this first grade report. Our system was about to develop a standards based curriculum and the administrators wanted a standards based reporting system. The problem was, nobody was trained in standards based reporting. “Not to worry, said the administrators, we will only use this report card one year.”
Well the report card has never changed. It is not standards based. It is redundant in some areas and does not say enough in others. There are skills listed on this report card that no first grader can achieve so we have to put N/A in place of real information. Our math section is so long it is on a separate piece of paper. Parents don’t understand what the 1-4 coding means. Teachers are not uniform in the way they use the coding. Some kids are given 4’s for doing well in every day skills and others have 4’s withheld because teachers are looking for skills to be applied “outside the box.”
I dread filling out those report cards. I know I have to. Thank goodness, we have conferences to go along with these reports. During conferences the kids and I can show the parents what is real. Students will read to their parents. They will share a favorite piece of their writing. A math skill will be demonstrated using manipulatives. The science notebook will be opened and a concept will come alive as the child tells all he/she has learned.
I dread filling out those report cards. So here I  sit writing about them…putting off the inevitable.

12 comments:

  1. I don't blame you for procrastinating. It's so frustrating when "the system" goes against best practices. These procedures should support our work not make more for us!!! Good luck!

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  2. Your title intrigued me as I thought "Procrastinating only four times a year...how's that possible." Then I started reading and could so easily relate. Oh....I hear ya!

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  3. I can totally relate to this post. TO make it even more challenging, in my school a 4 is supposedly something you should rarely give - yet parents and children see all the time!

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  4. Putting a grade or number on abilities is so hard. How can we measure and explain the growth that has occurred during the few months you have had these precious minds? I'm glad to hear your students get to demonstrate their learning. That's powerful for parents.

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  5. Luckily, we have trimesters so I do it three times a year. Hate them. They are not helpful for us or for their parents. Our card does not seem quite as bad as yours. I wonder if there is a report card out there that teachers like?

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  6. Ahh...hopefully they will change and improve your report cards for the better soon! I am not looking forward to doing my report cards when I get back from spring break. :(
    --jee young

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  7. Oh report cards.... I don't know that I have ever met a teacher that didn't loathe them! Procrastination justified. :)

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  8. I'm totally with you, so glad that I finished report cards last week and don't have to face them after spring break (in one week). We're also on trimesters, which reduces the pain to three times a year, but it's never easy! Hang in there!

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  9. Well I'm impressed that you only procrastinate four times a year. I do it a lot more than that! However, I do feel your report card pain!

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  10. Wanda, you go above and beyond the call of duty in your conferences to make sense of the report cards. You are impressive. I don't know of any teachers who like report cards. Do you? It will be over soon.

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  11. It is nice that you have the conferences to complement the report cards. I was interested in learning more about standards based report cards. A principal that I talked to mentioned how it was challenging to communicate to parents what the numbers meant since parents were so accustomed to letter grades. I can see how it would be frustrating if both parents and teachers don't have common understanding of the transition.

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  12. You do a great job defining your frustration. It really resonated with me. I hear our staff equally frustrated with "our new system". I bet your parents look forward to your conferences.

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