Jennifer Wilson

@KatiePMcGrady It’s only 1/2 hr. Maybe it was a reward. Maybe the teacher needed to pull kids for remediation. Maybe it was a rainy day so they missed going outside.

@Rocket_Sauce13 @Utterly_Jean Yet the same kids will play a whole 90 min soccer game without going to the bathroom but goes every 30 min at school.

@Utterly_Jean If that happens, why not just take a quick break and escort them all to the restroom at once. Get it done, and get back to the lesson with no more distractions. Also, you’ll be ok if you have to repeat the lesson. They’re kids, for fuck’s sake, not zoo animals.

Somebody has never experienced the potty train. Where one kid asks to go and then 6 more all the sudden need to go as well. This typically happens when you are explaining what they need to do. The lesson will need to be explained 10 times as a result.

@Utterly_Jean And then there are fights in the bathroom

@SoLInTheWild Yep had one explode today. What a mess

Love this from my son’s third-grade teacher—but the fidget craze is back. It’s all about the NeeDohs now. And yes, they break easily. And yes, they make a mess regularly. Some students won’t have a pencil, but they’ll have five different versions of NeeDoh.

@adamboxer1 I went to a UDL training financed by the state. We all had to go around and say our learning style. I refused and said LS have been debunked. The presenter’s response: “says who?” The American Psychological Society.

I'm embarrassed that there are teachers who believe in learning styles. I'm embarrassed that there are schools that display nonsense posters. I'm embarrassed that there are teacher training providers that still communicate unevidenced and harmful ideas and pedagogies. But these problems are ours to own. It's our profession. It's our job and our responsibility to challenge. Mocking, pouring scorn, and patting each other on the back because we are enlightened isn't going to help anybody. We need to write, we need to speak, we need to get out there. It's our profession, it's our responsibility.

Chronic absenteeism is a major challenge in schools and often leads to academic struggles for students. Yet teachers are frequently held responsible for the outcomes. It’s time to recognize that schools and educators alone cannot solve all the challenges students face.

@SoLInTheWild Agree. Plus kids will choose the easier route. Podcast, online, etc

🧵I’m not sure where to start. I’ve done this type of teaching before, and it’s simply unsustainable and not effective. I understand the appeal. It’s similar to learning styles. It sounds like it makes sense: give students lots of choice and they will want to learn, and therefore learn more. This plays well in short video clips like this and on paper, but it’s not realistic especially from a planning or implementation perspective. Just look at this chart. No one can, or should, attempt to do this. The chart shows why. It’s a menu of preferences, not instruction. Planning and implementing parallel options like this for every lesson is wildly inefficient and unmanageable. Teachers end up spreading their attention thin, coherence suffers, and instruction weakens. Learning doesn’t improve because students choose preferred formats; it improves when methods match the task and are grounded in evidence. This isn’t realistic, sustainable, or effective. 1/4

@JamesAFurey Yes! My AP holds us accountable for test scores on these district end of unit tests but then says we shouldn’t weigh test scores too heavily and nobody should fail etc. Oh and the kicker- some kids just aren’t good test takers (test taking is not an innate ability).

Teacher burnout isn’t mainly about kids; it’s about being held responsible for outcomes without being allowed to enforce basic conditions for learning.

@teachthemx3 And then teachers like us who are smart and expect others to be smart and have high standards and values because IT’S SCHOOL are villains to admin who want everyone to to pass and leave them alone.

@teachthemx3 Yep. I passed all my certification tests on the first attempt. Not hard at all. This is ridiculous

As someone who scored above 95% on both the pedagogy and 7–12 math certification tests, this is really disturbing. The tests are not that hard.

@RobinKeillor @teachthemx3 Right but not notes.

@teachthemx3 This blanket assumption does not apply to all students. My daughter has math anxiety due to dyscalculia and adhd. She gets a quiet space and extra time to complete the work. Her foundational skills in math are not lacking and her accommodations mean she can pass.

I just had an interesting conversation with a counselor who told me a student in my Algebra 2 class should be allowed to use notes on his math test due to “math anxiety.” I argued that math anxiety doesn’t come from tests. It stems from years of missing foundational skills. Passing students along without mastery creates this anxiety, and allowing notes or other crutches won’t help. I suggested the student use an online program to close those gaps, which would reduce anxiety. The counselor replied, “I don’t think that will work.”

@xisforgrifters @teachthemx3 Sounds like poor counseling, not poor teaching.

@Myzidya @xisforgrifters @teachthemx3 Not the counselor’s call- it’s not the counselor’s class. The counselor should council the anxiety out.

@xisforgrifters @teachthemx3 I'd say should be conselor's call. But what type of notes? It's not a help for Algebra exams esp. Algebra II. The subject's all about applying practiced skill to quickly solve problems accurately. If you were to pause & read notes: you're diverting attention, and run out of time.

@xisforgrifters @teachthemx3 Not poor teaching- poor learning

@bozobidenscrub @LauraLoomer Abuse of power? What power?

@LauraLoomer We may pause to consider that God struck down with GREAT VENGEANCE (like how Samuel L Jackson said in the Pulp Fiction movie) Bob Steiner. Trump did NOTHING wrong. Steiner's hatred was misplaced and displayed an abuse of power, even if he was just a tinsel town aficionado.

Trump is right about Rob Reiner! President Trump Did Nothing Wrong!

@JamesAFurey I care! Unfortunately even the district didn’t think I should hold the kids academically accountable at all. But guess what? Their test scores went up for the first time ever!

I would love to work with a SPED department that cared about student learning and maintaining high standards. But I've never come in contact with one. I've never met a teacher in person who has either. And the whole philosophy seems to be bunk.

@JamesAFurey Same. All done in class.

I believe strongly in rigor in the classroom. But that doesn’t mean I give a lot of homework. In fact, I give almost no homework at all. The reason? Cheating. If you send your class out with homework, nearly all of them will plagiarize, copy, or, most likely, use ChatGPT to complete it.

@educator4ever36 Audiobooks!

My post yesterday about there being ZERO excuses for not reading to your child every day has garnered a ton of posts full of excuses as to why that cannot happen. Look, I know there are parents who cannot speak, parents who are blind, emergency situations etc. However, for 99.9% of the population there are no excuses. Stop with the soft bigotry of low expectations.

@MrDanielBuck Yep. Kids are now at school to be entertained, not taught. They don’t want to do anything not “fun.”

The “making learning fun”/engagement-obsessives have arguably been a worse drag on American education than the outright political radicals

@Beanie0597 I try to hold the line and give accurate grades. Students complain. I thoroughly prepare kids for tests. Sometimes they still fail. Then I get blamed while simultaneously being told tests shouldn’t weigh heavily into their grades, but what are tot doing to hold them accountable?