55F damp and sunny this AM, which promises to be another great spring day here in Houston. Love them while we can…
Spent yesterday in classes with kids of all ages at my daughters’ school. Interesting to say the least. Wide variety of abilities and development levels in each class. Generally good classroom management, although I’ll observe that the ‘guidance’ technique, ie. “Jane, do we do xxxx in our classroom?” might not really be working if they still do xxxxx with only a month or so left in the year.
Most of the classes (of older kids) were doing review for the mandatory testing. Very specific review. “The test will try to fool you, think carefully, true or false, All polygons are rectangles….” When I was in high school we signed up for and paid for additional testing coaching, outside of class time. I don’t remember specific test prep coaching during class.
VERY marked differences in behavior and work output between the boys and girls at all grade levels. VERY different.
And yeah, some of the kids were starved for a daddy figure, (providing same is one of the stated goals of this program and the one I object most to.) It wasn’t just the boys either, there were some very sad little girls looking for attention which is something I hadn’t considered.
All in all a very tiring and rewarding day, with a small glimpse behind the curtain.
n