week 4 reflection

This week was more frustrating than others. It didn't have anything to do with the kids, but with all the other stuff that goes on. I'm beginning to tire of half of our meetings being complaining and griping. We have meetings during planning time twice a week and a grade level meeting after school once a week. I don't feel like much is accomplished in these meetings. A couple of the teachers are trying to make an agenda to help keep the group on topic and on some kind of similar train of thought. I'm also tired of hearing the teachers talk about each other. The school is using a language arts program called Balanced Literacy. It is a good program, but doesn't leave much time for subjects other than math. We are also using a new math program that is interesting. There is not enough time in the day to cover an entire lesson, which makes it hard to reteach if needed and not get behind. In the last couple of weeks we've spent a few days on clocks, a few days on money, one day on addition and the very next day on subtraction. It doesn't seem to allow the kids time to master a concept before moving on to the next one. The teachers are extremely frustrated because they are being told that they have to fit in science on top of all this. The kids need to learn science, of course, but the teachers are being required to use these other programs that take up so much time. And the principal has told the teachers that she wants them to be pulling reading groups throughout the day. The low readers are supposed to be pulled for reading groups everyday. First grade is still mostly group instruction. The only thing they do independently is workstations. It is almost impossible to teach what you need to and pull for reading groups more than once a day. It just seems like there are some very unrealistic expectations. I don't know if it's just the school, if it's this district, or if this is pretty typical but this last week has been kind of discouraging.