Education, Math, and More with Mr. Allison

Some may think the (and students) means I consider student needs secondary behind teachers' needs. Not true. I wrote it like that because most students don't really understand what they NEED most, and what they need most isn't necessarily what they want out of school.  The classroom is different today than it was five years ago. When we sent kids home in 2020 and told them to hide under the covers and we'd give them an A...for doing absolutely nothing...for learning absolutely nothing...for nothing...nothing, when that happened, a shift in expectations occurred. And it hasn't shifted back yet, at least not everywhere. Teachers (and students) need that to shift back, and they need it now! Kids got used to having great grades for doing almost no work. Kids got used to having a high GPA without learning. To make things worse, when they came back in the fall of 2020, we sent them home for two weeks at a time when they heard the word Covid in the hallways. Over and over ...

It's that time of year again in education. The end draws near. At my school, we started the final quarter of this school year last week. A lot of stuff comes with that. Seniors are almost finished, really finished. Everyone--teachers and students--has summer on the mind. Prom, scholarships, letters of recommendation, graduation, testing, and a ton of other stuff that all comes at the end of the school year. Most of it exciting and fun. But not all of it. Some kids are moving after the year ends and may be kind of nervous and anxious about the unknown. Seniors are leaving the world they've known for 13 years and struggle with uncertainty too, even while they're excited about the prospects. Teachers, as relieved as they are to see the light at the end of the tunnel, this can be a stressful time too. Teachers' contracts are year-to-year, so everyone is wondering if they're contract will be renewed. Testing is stressful for teachers too, since results are often tied to ...