Yes, but for a kid who is new to the country and who is taking a 3-4 hour test in English, a paper dictionary is an impediment. I’m not saying it should be illegal, but I know we can do better by these kids. (Honestly, my preference is for a newcomer with limited English to not even take this test at all their first year, but that’s not my choice.)

I didn’t say 20 years, I said 20 devices.

Yes but the process of obtaining the information is significantly more difficult. We can, you know, reuse the same 20 translation devices for years, and all kids have a laptop… I feel like you’re focused on the wrong thing.

My point is that it’s a somewhat outdated skill, and these kids have enough to figure out without the encumbrance of a paper dictionary. Most of my kids have never used one before, and yes, I can show them how to use it, but it’s not a functional testing accommodation. Testing accommodations should not include learning skills that are only tangentially related, especially not when there is a reasonable alternative.

There are good teachers, and there are good methods for writing essays. Did anyone ever give you a graphic organizer to plan an essay? You should know how to put an essay together after coming up with an organized outline, and you should never write an essay from beginning to end without planning it out first in some way or another.

Maybe, but are there other things we can focus on? For example, as an ESL teacher, why do my newcomers only get a word to word paper dictionary on end of grade exams? I’m pretty sure the state of North Carolina just hates children? There’s literally no reason for this. Give them a digital dictionary.

Wait wait, can this be where we get “a load of Bologna (baloney)” from? Or is that because no one knows what’s actually in bologna…

Unpopular opinion:

I am a public school teacher and I support public schools, but there have been a lot of issues with our education system for a long time. Talk to any kid with ADHD who had to sit through 12 years, and they are indicative of a larger problem. Our idea of school now is as a place that teaches kids to behave and mostly follow rote instruction. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we were teaching kids to be creative thinkers, work well in groups, problem solve, and think critically about the information they’re getting? We know that’s what school should be, but maybe now we will be forced to go there. Yes, there will be issues like learned helplessness and certain skills being difficult to teach, but it’s kind of exciting too.

Though it’s also possible that public schools will close and only the wealthy kids will be well-educated… can we not, please?

Fuck YES (says a middle school teacher)

Many middle schoolers I work with have an ear bud in at all times, and as an ESL teacher my population of kids really needs to practice processing spoken English without that as a distraction. Hell, that applies to every kid… This isn’t an issue of somebody listening to music in the hallway or while studying, this is during class, during lecture, during group work, while writing essays, while reading…

There’s lots i hate about having a Pixel, but the spam protection isn’t one of them