My girls received their report cards this week. I always tell myself that this is just a number or, in Mea's case, a letter. Is this how I truly feel? I don't want my kids to feel as though they need to achieve a certain percentage. Why? Because I know they work hard to achieve the mark they get. I try to work with them from day to day, to help them understand what they are learning in school, along with helping them in real life. First of all, if I start putting pressure on them to attain a certain goal, I would personally approach it with too much aggression, because I'm very competitive. Also, at this point, I don't think a number on a report card tells us anything we haven't already established since the beginning of the year.
At my daughters school the professors take the time to evaluate each presentation, each report. It is just a check in a table that is stapled to the front of a test or paper or presentation. It provides basic information on the effort made for each skill. I assume this process is easy for a teacher and it is insightful for me. It helps me understand where improvements need to be made but is not negative.
Chloe's report card is presented as a percentage. She does understand percentages; I'm not sure she really needs to compare herself to her classmates. And she knows where she needs to improve, but she understands this from the work we do at home. The class average is there for the parents, so we can be proud of our kids for being above average. Does this create a false sense of accomplishment for a student?
What if your child is not above the class average? The student who doesn't work hard, who spirit may already be broken, who is just plain lazy. Is a percentage going to inspire them to work harder? Or just convince them they are beyond hope. How do you feel about this percentage comparison? How do you react; what do you say to your child? It's still just a number. They are still learning each day, they are still progressing, we are still helping them answer those questions!
I think reports cards are required and can be stimulating for students, but if you just receive a percentage with a cut and paste comment or two, where is the focus for the child? It's on the number and how they compare to the rest of the students. The focus is not on the improvements your child has made, the areas they enjoy learning or the fact that they have a bad attitude towards french and tend to give up a little too quickly when a test question poses a problem.....as in the case of Chloe.
We are also lucky that the teachers take 15 minutes during report card week to meet with parents. The only downside to this for me would be the language barrier. Both my husband and I go to the meeting, but he doesn't focus on the same details I would if I could understand the details the teacher was talking about. And I am the one that does homework each night.
This is just the beginning, the primary grades. My goal is to make school enjoyable, to ensure the enthusiasm is there each day before my girls get on the bus, and to help certify that the work laid out by the teacher is understood, on some level. What is the answer to the report card.....? I have no idea. What is the difference between a b+ and an a-, no idea. Percentages are more precise, but in the end will this years professor grade the same as next years? I know with certainty that Chloe loves math, loves reading, and needs to learn to spell. Beyond that, I hope my girls are happy with the work they do each day.
Do the report cards you receive include comments on life's most important skills; self-respect, self-love, independence, balance and generosity....?
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Homework Evaluation
An evaluation was sent home with Chloe last week. It was to evaluate homework. Does she argue when it is homework time? Is she able to focus? Does she have the tools to successfully complete her tasks? And is she able to complete her work in the time allotted?
It was presented as a self-evaluation in conjunction with a parental evaluation. I was a little surprised by the evaluation. Was it meant to spark conversation between parent/ child, was it meant to bring light to any issues a child is having with homework. I mean, shouldn't that be clear by this point? But, the most eye opening part of the evaluation was not anything my daughter wrote, nor her response to my responses. The surprise was a question regarding her respect of the allotted time to complete homework. Why would I give my daughter a time limit on practicing addition, on reading a book, on spelling new words. Really, we go until she is done, mentally done.
Some days she doesn't want to stop. She will spend her 35 minutes doing her review, which is laid out by the professor. After this, I always ask her if she wants more. Some days she chooses to read on her own, some days she takes the ipad and does a spelling test, some days she decides on math practice on the computer. Math is her favorite because we use khanacademy.org which allows her to progress at her own pace. Most days though, she joins her brother and sister playing, because she is a kid!
In my opinion, if Chloe is distracted because Rafael and Emelia have created the best game ever in dino land with rainbow rice, well she sure as heck is not going to focus on her phonetics while she reads the 10 sentences in front of her.
We do what we can, sure I push some nights, but I know where her difficulties lie and I know what she enjoys working on because it comes easy to her. Chloe struggles with spelling. Lucky for her, Auntie Aimee shared a fun app where you create your own spelling test with recorded prompts. The child listens to the word and goes through the test in practice mode, with smiley hints, or in test mode for a mark at the end. It's been very helpful, check out Super Speller - it's free and you can create the test in the language of your choice!
We work to ensure there is not a battle every night. There shouldn't be, she has spent the whole day in school, at a desk, under flourescent lights..... learning! She has her ways of clearly, although non verbally, telling me when she is drained and not learning anymore. I try to compromise the best I can because I know next year, when her little sister begins grade 1, my patients towards homework will be tested even more!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Life Skills
This week I am working on organizing life skills. The kids get to watch me try to make life in our little home run more smoothly. You see we live in a wonderful neighbourhood, lots of young families, a backyard, parks, trees... but our home is a meager 804 square feet. My lover likes to point out that this does not include the basement, which is liveable space. Our daughters sleep down there, the playroom and the family room are there, therefore it should be included. The kicker is when you sell a house the square footage of a basement is not included in the overall square footage of the house. Never the less, our home is quite petite, by today's standards, for a growing family of five with a large dog, four fish and two guinea pigs.
For this reason, I am continually at war with "stuff" that is constantly trying to take over my house, and that is never capable of finding it's home inside our home!
Back to life skills..... In general, we are fairly relaxed in our home. We don't make our bed each morning. So, how can we ask our kids to make their bed each morning. In order to maintain a tidy looking home, we are now making our bed, most days! We never go to bed with a dirty kitchen, we work to have the dining room table; the hub of our life, clear before dinner. We are working, as a family, to get our space to function on a daily basis. It is mentally trying!!
This week I am moving on to the lists. I love lists, every part of me craves a list for almost everyday of my existence!
I have started with little cards stuck to the closet doors in my girls rooms. You can find the free printable here Printable Cards. It's working, for my little girl. She loves the idea of taking care of herself each morning. She's 5, she's at a good age. It's my big girl that is already in a habit, a bad habit, of getting up and needing to be reminded repeatedly, to get dressed, brush her teeth before school. She's 7, so after 3 years of school and of being reminded, she is not interested is creating a new routine at the moment.
It needs to change simply because I have 3 kids to get ready in the morning before I go to school. The big picture is that in 25 years, when she has her own home, I want her to have the skills, whether she chooses to use them or not, to maintain her home, her health, respect her family, friends and society in general.
I am that mom that refuses to wash the dishes of my teenage kids, I expect them to know how to change a tire, check the oil and washer fluid when they begin to drive, plan a menu, grocery shop and cook before they head to college because McDo is disgusting and expensive.
Simply, this is the basis of my job, the basis of my goals and dreams for my children, so it's about time. Here is an age appropriate lists, in my opinion, that I am going to begin with my kids. Don't take this list to seriously, freaking out when you read that my 3 year old sweeps the floor. He actually vacuums!! But honestly it's because he wants to distract me from vacuuming for the third time that week.
Man, it looks easy on paper!!
Are our youth missing life skills? We rush around during our day, completing our tasks, but do we take a minute to explain to our children that when we pass a door, you hold the door for the next person and you always let your elders pass in front of you. Do we remind them not to interrupt a conversation. My children are important to me, my children should be heard, but they also need to respect others.
For this reason, I am continually at war with "stuff" that is constantly trying to take over my house, and that is never capable of finding it's home inside our home!
Back to life skills..... In general, we are fairly relaxed in our home. We don't make our bed each morning. So, how can we ask our kids to make their bed each morning. In order to maintain a tidy looking home, we are now making our bed, most days! We never go to bed with a dirty kitchen, we work to have the dining room table; the hub of our life, clear before dinner. We are working, as a family, to get our space to function on a daily basis. It is mentally trying!!
This week I am moving on to the lists. I love lists, every part of me craves a list for almost everyday of my existence!
I have started with little cards stuck to the closet doors in my girls rooms. You can find the free printable here Printable Cards. It's working, for my little girl. She loves the idea of taking care of herself each morning. She's 5, she's at a good age. It's my big girl that is already in a habit, a bad habit, of getting up and needing to be reminded repeatedly, to get dressed, brush her teeth before school. She's 7, so after 3 years of school and of being reminded, she is not interested is creating a new routine at the moment.
It needs to change simply because I have 3 kids to get ready in the morning before I go to school. The big picture is that in 25 years, when she has her own home, I want her to have the skills, whether she chooses to use them or not, to maintain her home, her health, respect her family, friends and society in general.
I am that mom that refuses to wash the dishes of my teenage kids, I expect them to know how to change a tire, check the oil and washer fluid when they begin to drive, plan a menu, grocery shop and cook before they head to college because McDo is disgusting and expensive.
Simply, this is the basis of my job, the basis of my goals and dreams for my children, so it's about time. Here is an age appropriate lists, in my opinion, that I am going to begin with my kids. Don't take this list to seriously, freaking out when you read that my 3 year old sweeps the floor. He actually vacuums!! But honestly it's because he wants to distract me from vacuuming for the third time that week.
(**UPDATE - I have graduated, I think, from the school of Posting a Doc to a Blog. So the list is attached for you to print and share!)
Man, it looks easy on paper!!
Are our youth missing life skills? We rush around during our day, completing our tasks, but do we take a minute to explain to our children that when we pass a door, you hold the door for the next person and you always let your elders pass in front of you. Do we remind them not to interrupt a conversation. My children are important to me, my children should be heard, but they also need to respect others.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election Results and a New Blog!
This is a Canadian based site.... so the hype of the election does not have me glued to the tv tonight. I will patiently wait until tomorrow morning for the news. So I will, instead, take this time to post the first page of my blog. A blog about education, the public school system and how this mom plans to rework the experience my three children will have in that institution.
Don't get me wrong, my children use the public school system, I am a product of the public school system and I have the utmost respect for teachers and professors. I think much more credit should be given to teachers who spend their weekends correcting papers, researching ways to engage a 7 year old, learning new technologies to apply in class. They definitely do not get the recognition they should.
Don't get me wrong, my children use the public school system, I am a product of the public school system and I have the utmost respect for teachers and professors. I think much more credit should be given to teachers who spend their weekends correcting papers, researching ways to engage a 7 year old, learning new technologies to apply in class. They definitely do not get the recognition they should.
That is not where I am going with this blog. I will look at the greater picture that is our public school system and I do hope to spark some discussion and controversy and new ways to engage your children.
I'm going to attempt to find the answer to a question that has been on my mind since grade 1 began for my big girl: Can you mix the public school system with the principles of homeschooling: today, in grade 2; and tomorrow, through high school?
I appreciate the regularity that the public school system offers. The fact that I don't need to think outside my bubble to discover how I need to introduce them to the basics of math, science and phonetics. I like that a list of homework is sent home each night so we can sit down, check things off and accomplish what has been laid out.
What saddens me is the effect that a less the great grade has on my 7 year old. What saddens me is that at 7 years old she puts enough pressure on herself to perform that she has driven herself to tears after a spelling test, before it was graded. What saddens me is that homework feels just like that..... work.
I am not an educator.... professionally that is. But I am a mother of three young children, each of whom I want to ensure have a world of knowledge available to them at the blink of an eye and have fun discovering all there is to learn. Therefore, yes, I consider myself an educator.
My sister is a homeschooler and my nieces, ages 9 and 12 have a much different view of learning. They are learning at home, on the road, at the beach, the museum and at classes put on through their community which includes dismantling and rebuilding a computer, building real rockets from paper and robots from lego.
Moving forward, I will create and share new and existing tools to help with the continuation of learning once the school bells ring and our children have returned to their comfort zone.
So I lied, the elections are on in the background, Romney is leading at the moment. I wonder if a result of this election will be a change to the school system in the United States. There are many different views on where the school system should go. Our current system is centuries old and definitely needs some attention. Follow this link to a Ted talk by Sir Ken Robinson, one very interesting view on changing education paradigms.
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