Reading scores going down

Why are reading scores going down? The answer is simple. Kids aren't given time to read materials of their Of their choosing. Studies have shown that when you give kids choice of materials and time to read, they will read.

Frustrated!

This will quite possibly go down in history as my worst year ever! My own daughter has quit trying in school and is pleased to just get by. My husband tells me that "I'm perfect" and no one will ever be as good as me. (He was not being complimentary.) My daughters' teachers wouldn't know how to teach with out a teacher's manual in their hands.
There are too many worksheets and not enough thinking. There are too many people that believe money CAN buy happiness. There are too many people that have forgotten that we should all be respectful, responsible, caring, fair, trustworthy and a good citizen.
I'm tired of this society that values sports over academics. Everyone believes they or their son or daughter will be the next star player in the ____________professional league. Everyone believes they will get the corner office the day after graduating from college. Everyone believes that someone else will do the hard work so they can sit on the beach or hit a golf ball every afternoon.
I can see the Founders of this country rolling over in their graves seeing how this country has progressed. Capitalism is one thing, but greed is quite another.
I thought that when I had kids I could shield them from the immoral views of many in today's society. I realize now that no one is immune. The immorality of society, the greed and lack of respect has permeated every aspect of our communities.
I'm afraid that our country.....America....will crash. The people that will pick up the pieces will be those that chose to think and those that chose to work hard and those that do not live here.
It is a dismal world that we live in.

Summer Reading

The names of those kids that completed the Summer Reading Program in Fargo were published in today's newspaper. Only 6 kids from Kennedy completed! It is very disappointing to see that so few completed the summer reading program. I hope this is not indicative of the amount of reading done by everyone.
I went through the list of names and found which school each participant is from. I found that Bennett and Longfellow had the most participants with 16 and 10 respectively. Horace Mann and Madison had zero participants. What is the difference in these schools? Bennett and Longfellow are the richest schools with the most educated parents. Horace Mann and Madison are among the poorest schools in the district.
The 3 schools that go to the new Davies High School had more students complete the program (26) than the 7 schools (23) that go to North High! The South High schools had 22 complete the program.
Although, none of the schools had tremendously high participation, those kids in the poorer schools had extremely dismal participation.
The public librarians did an awesome job of publicizing the reading program and they had some very interesting activities all summer. The school librarians also publicized the program. I talked about the program with every class in grades kindergarten through 4th grade!

Not a good day for libraries or schools

As I sit in the library, a bunch of 4th grade students have a book in front of them and are pretending to read when I'm watching. When I'm not watching, they return their conversations.
I posted 2 articles on Facebook this morning that show the decline of public education. First, a group of people calling themselves part of the "tea-part" have declared war on public education from kindergarten through universities.
Second, the federal government has decided that school libraries are not important and have completely removed funding set aside for school libraries in the "Improving Literacy through School Libraries" "grant".
Maybe we need to go back to the idea of "optional" education. Kids who want an education attend school and those that don't can stay home and work with their parents. One problem with this idea is that parents don't work either and this idea would create chaos and crime; even more than has already occurred.

Tired of the Jones'

Why am I looked down upon because we don't own a Wii or don't wear the most fashionable clothes or don't sign our daughters up for all of the traveling sports teams?
I do not let my daughters watch an abundance of TV. I insist that they play outside when possible. I prefer neighborhood games to organized sports. My values are obviously not the same as 99% of the population of this town. I believe in the simple things in life: good friends, food to eat, and energy to do what needs to be done.
I'm tired of seeing all of our daughters' friends keeping of with Jones' and looking down on us because we don't.
I want our daughters to succeed in academics first and sports second. Too bad the majority of their friends have the opposite goal.
I don't have any real friends in this town. This is due to the fact that I'm about 10 years older than all other parents of the 3rd grade and kindergarten students. I grew up in a different era than all other parents. Thus, my values are from the 70's and 80's. I grew up having to work for everything I earned. I grew up having to work in the garden and can the veggies and fruits that were grown.
Would I have been a happier person had I lived in the early 1900's? My daughter's teachers would be!

This has been an incredibly frustrating morning! First grade students that have been coming to the library since August still have no concept of finding a just right book. Plus, they have no desire to find a just right book because they have no intention of reading any book they choose from the library. I would guess that 3/4 of the books checked out to the 1st grade students sit in backpacks, in cars, in lockers and on home book shelves week after week after week.
The classroom teachers say they stress finding just right books, but when it comes right down to it THEY DON'T CARE WHAT IS CHECKED OUT FOR THEIR FUN READING!
Could it be that since Title I students are taken for their reading instruction during library time that the remainder of the students don't see the importance of reading for fun?

The one bright spot was a boy that has been turned on to reading after I introduced the author, Cynthia Rylant. He said that his dog likes listening to these adventures of a boy and his dog. !

I'm not very happy with Katie's 3rd grade experience. Greg and I met with Mr. Bastian (principal), Mrs. Radloff (teacher) and Mrs. Wiestock (G/T teacher) at the beginning of the year. They tried to show that they had the data and information about Katie and knew how to move her forward in her learning.
Now, fast forward to the end of the school year. We attended the 2nd parent/teacher conference in March and were handed her NDSA scores (the state assessment she took in October). She scored a 100% in Math and missed 4 on the Reading test. In October, she knew all of the math concepts on the North Dakota State Assessment. She did not receive any math enrichment during the school year! In April, she takes the MAP standardized assessment on the computer and she showed no gain over her scores from 2nd grade. In 2nd grade she scored in the 98%tile. This year, she only scored in the 95%tile. She was not introduced to any math concepts above the regular 3rd grade math concepts.
On the Language Arts MAP, she scored 1 point higher than last year, which is virtually the same score. Again, she had no growth. Spelling is 1 concept found on the LA MAP. She has not missed 1 spelling word since 1st grade.
Katie did make a large gain in the Reading portion of the MAP. However, this reflects the reading that Katie does on her own. Nothing she does or doesn't do at school affect this score.

All I can do is wait until next year and hope 4th grade offers her more challenge and she shows growth in these critical areas.