- @mcpssuper because we can't ask a police officer to hold on while we google our 4th amendment rights.
- (!?) RT @mcpssuper: Ask Siri what's 3 divided by 4; compare answers 2 the answer u get w/ a calculator. if you can google it, why teach it.
- @DataDiva I can't believe he said that. I'm kind of stunned.
- @mcpssuper understanding of fractions, decimals, percents need to be automatic. "Hold on, let me google it"...not a response employer wants.
- @amyjwatkins You're 100% right. we must teach math facts & operations. I was trying to make broader point about application vs memorization
- @mcpssuper broader point duly noted. 100% agree. Students need creative thinking skills in order to apply math skills in varying situations.
- @mcpssuper we have to make a distinction between memorization and understanding. We Agree on the former. 3/4 is the latter
- @mcpssuper I hope I misunderstood your point but google>teaching is what I got from this. If that's the point I'm sad for my MCPS kid.
- @mcpssuper @amyjwatkins 140 characters not the right forum to make this subtle point.MCPS parents read u.We don't all get edspeak/think.
- @kleykamp Understandable one could misinterpret intent. The point is that we need students to think and not just memorize.
- @mcpssuper Say it ain't so. If we are to prohibit teaching anything that can be googled, we'd be sans the teaching profession.
- @mcpssuper @amyjwatkins Strike two @mcpssuper! We MUST teach an understanding of math not just facts and operations.
- @amyjwatkins just say that then. Who needs google or a calc to understand 3/4 anyway? My 8yo understands it. Weird example.
- @DC_GT_Examiner I believe that was @mcpssuper intent with application being a priority over memorization. Must understand in order to apply.
- @amyjwatkins @mcpssuper No sugar coating the meaning of the tweet. Time for MCPS to teach understanding before application and operations.
- @mcpssuper @ESOLPopsy You can google just about anything. If @mcpssuper is right there would be no profession for you. His idea is wrong.
- @DC_GT_Examiner @mcpssuper Not sugar coating anything. That is what Common Core curriculum is all about. Teaching understanding.
- @mcpssuper Numeracy. Might want to know if you're in the ballpark.
- @amyjwatkins @mcpssuper Common Core may be good. How MCPS implements it is what matters. Will welcome respectful dialogue on math with you.
- RT “@mcpssuper: Ask Siri what's 3 divided by 4; compare the answers 2 the answer u get w/ a calculator. if you can google it, why teach it.”
Morgan Polikoff 
Amy Watkins 
Joshua Starr 
David Stein 
Meredith Kleykamp 
Kumar Singam 
Judy Ackerman 
Casey Siddons 
Dr. Star - time for you to resign. If you think we can learn by googling the answers, you don't deserve my tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteAnd- as an FYI - did you know the founder of Google was a member of the Montgomery County math team? Fortunately, he went to HS school in PG county. If he never learned the basics, we would never have google as our crutch.
Starr, what are you, a teenager or a celebrity? With all due respect, twitter is a stupid way to communicate anything except the most trivial ideas. There is no room for complexity, nuance, thoughtful debates. What are you doing to address safety in the schools, particularly sexual abuse of children; failure of teachers, principals and administrators to report; failure of Board of Education to step in and provide oversight? Why does it take so long to get abusers out of the schools and away from the children? What are you doing to get rid of extreme bullying? What are you doing to put a stop to pre-gang behavior in elementary schools? What are you doing to help the children who have been damaged in the schools? Please give us your philosphy and your plan (you are the leader, no?) in 160 characters. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThat is going up as a blog post.
DeleteHe should Google "proper noun" or "punctuation" or "How is Twitter making society dumber?".
ReplyDeleteIt is much more difficult to teach my children that they are judged by their ability to communicate, and that they need to write in complete sentences, when this is passed off as acceptable by the leader of the entire Montgomery County Public School system.
"Joshua Starr @mcpssuper 46m
Stopped at tom&ray's for lunch, hoping to grab a Jimmie cone before heading to fox chapel ES #dayindamascus
Expand"
And then he tweeted a picture of the Jimmie cone
DeleteNot like he's managing a $2.3B budget or anything.
ReplyDeleteDoes he really think we want our Superintendent offering for global posterity every thought rattling around in his noggin? I honestly don’t understand the motivation for his use of this channel of communication. The fact that he had to explain his tweet is proof enough of the perils associated with its use for anything but the clearest of statements.
ReplyDeleteHe should just stop using Twitter. It’s becoming an annoyance, especially against the backdrop of controversy in the school system. Indeed, it prompts us to wonder why he has the time to tweet inanities, but not to address the abuse of children, the waste of resources, the change of teacher health insurance benefits without even a vote of the membership, the lack of accurate planning for population and facilities, the on-going lawsuits, and the fact that so many of us view the system as an insulated, autocratic institution acting in opposition to our community interests.
As for his substantive clarification of his tweet, application and memorization don’t have to be approaches in opposition to one another.
These tweets are self serving!!! Teachers are sick of the tweeting and it is a common joke between all of us at school that Josh makes time to tweet his jimmie cone while we sit at school until 8:00 in the evening(or until building maintenance kicks us out) trying to figure out the horrible 2.0 curriculum that has been dumped in our laps. Please Josh, stop tweeting and do your job. We don't have the resources to teach 2.0. Please send our resources. We have very little idea what to do with our new 7000 dollar promethean board and the promethean pens don't work. We only had 3 hours of training at the last minute! Also, where are the promethean writing pads we were promised. Do you really think it is good teaching practice to stand and write at the promethean board with your back to 25 to 40 students? I'll be picking up spitballs all year! Sorry, Josh but you just started the social-emotional part of the curriculum and you can't expect students to change their behavior over night. There will be spit balls. The 2.0 is taking hours and hours to figure out because it is so poorly written. Isn't this the curriculum that Weast and Pearson came up with so that MCPS could make money off our new 2.0? I hate to tell you this, but no county, in their right mind, is going to buy this disjointed, poorly written curriculum. Howard, PG and all the other counties are able to adjust to the common core standards without this curriculum, and their teachers are fine and happy as usual. New MCPS teachers are leaving for neighboring counties, because they feel they deserve to have a life free of fear and exhaustion. MCPS teachers are depleted, angry and frustrated because of how YOU/MCPS rolled out the 2.0. No wonder we are behind all of these other counties in our state test scores. You have a work force that is crying or sleeping while they teach!!!!!! Please stop tweeting and bring us our resources so we can plan and teach.
ReplyDeleteI need training on the Promethean board. I found out my school system was offering a five-day training over the summer. I signed up to spend five unpaid days in training, only to realize that I was going to have to pay the county $45 for the privilege of learning how to use the equipment in my classroom. I dropped the class.
ReplyDeleteStill untrained.
MOCO Teacher
When Superintendent Jerry Weast bought the no-bid Promethean Boards part of the deal was free training. Are you saying teachers are no longer being given free training?
DeleteIf you wrote a check for the $45, who would it be to: MCPS? Promethean? Clinton Learning?
Thanks.
IS TIME SAID; (STOP,ABUSE OF CHILDRENS IN SHOOLS PUBLICS....CLOSE SHOOLS PUBLICS IS WASTE!!!!GO HELL CO-WORKERS.GO HOME ,LIAR, LAZY.
ReplyDeleteI dropped the class, too. I could not believe they were charging us $45 to take a week out of the summer to sit in a class to be trained in technology that we should have been trained on last year. This type of training should be offered during the school year, on site, and for free. The teachers at my school have no idea how to work the board. We are spending far too much time trying to figure out how to use this technology and we don't have the time. We have to spend hours and hours planning lessons from a new curriculum that makes NO sense. I don't think the authors of this curriculum have ever stepped foot inside a classroom.
ReplyDeleteWho offered the class? Do other teachers have the same need for training?
DeleteAnonymous posters that are teachers: both Curriculum 2.0, aka the Pearson curriculum; and the Promethean boards were encouraged and approved by your MCEA leadership -elected leadership. Elected by you, the teachers. Parents and taxpayers would appreciate it if you would step up and get some leadership that questioned the value of these tech toys. Regarding being told to pay $45 and spend an unpaid week in training, that is thanks to your elected MCEA leadership. Your choice.
ReplyDeletePaula - Do you have any concrete evidence that those teachers voted for the current MCEA leadership?
DeleteThey were elected, sure, but that doesn't mean these teachers voted for the ones who won.
Teachers read your site, obviously. Why not try to partner with them? Not sure it's doing anything to respond with these "step up" and "your choice" comments. Or maybe you should clarify that this site is not for teachers and just for parents. Maybe we should all work together to fix them problems. Can tell you that the vast majority of teachers have nothing to do with the union, and would love some help addressing challenges and concerns such as these, outside or inside of the union structure.
DeleteFirst step, teacher have to step out from behind the curtain. Obviously, no one can partner with anonymous posters. We'd be happy to hold a meeting with teachers and can be reached at:
Deletecontact@parentscoalitionmc.com
And just to be clear, teachers were part of the group that started the Parents' Coalition.
DeleteAnonymous, why training during the school year? Why not during the summer? Teacher salaries are not p/t salaries. They are for f/t professional employees. Pensions and retirement, and healthcare benefits are paid for f/t employees. That includes the summer.
ReplyDeletePoster at 9:51, you are incorrect. Teachers are 10 month employees. They are not paid and do not work during the nine week summer. Any teachers who take training during the summer do so voluntarily. If it is required training (which this was not), teachers receive payment of $20 per hour or their hourly rate, depending on the type of training.
ReplyDeleteCorrect 11:37am. We are 10 month employees and the only way we could learn promethean was to take a two credit course and pay 45 dollars for the cost. My understanding is that the 45 was taken out of our pay checks.
ReplyDeletePaula, give it a rest. Our union leadership is as hard to get rid of as the current board of education. Have you had any luck changing over the BOE? Our union is not much of a union. The are collaborative with MCPS and the BOE. WE have no rights with the current union. Teachers are afraid of the union because we know that they are really working for the corrupt central office in MCPS and the BOE.When will you parents get rid of the present BOE?
@7:59 - That's where you are wrong. Parents don't elect the BOE, the voters of the County elect the BOE. Parents are in the minority.
DeleteThe voters elect the people the TEACHERS tell them to elect! The voters do what you tell them to do! They love and respect teachers and vote for YOUR picks! When we have worked at the polls Montgomery County voters are always very clear to state that they are doing what the TEACHERS want them to do - no questions asked.
Anonymous @7:59, can't really give it a rest considering my and my fellow citizens' taxes and hefty property taxes are paying for the $2.1BILLION annual cost of MCPS and the BOE. Also, that is what citizens do. I understand your leadership may be hard to get rid of and yes, similar for the BOE. Let's not forget, the BOE relies heavily on MCPS for re-election--see 'apple ballot.' I and other members of the Parents' Coalition, GTA, and other organizations speak out consistently. Where are the teachers doing the same? Here is one piece of data you could provide here anonymously: how many teachers vote in the MCEA elections, and what are the results? Can you do that? It would be a first step. Regarding again your 'union leadership,' start your own union. Go for it. It's Labor Day. Organize.
ReplyDeleteStart our own union?!!!! You are out of touch with reality. We are working 12+ hour days teaching your children and trying to figure out a ridiculous curriculum. It's easy for you to tell teachers to start their own union, but making a suggestion such as that is a waste of my time and yours.
ReplyDeleteNote - why do you have the Pearson curriculum?
DeleteBecause the teachers' union selected BOE members (Jon Gerson's hand picked dream team) approved the super cool deal with Pearson and approved of Superintendent Jerry Weast and his wife getting a two week all expense trip paid for by the Pearson Foundation at the same time.
The Parents' Coalition mentioned that the Pearson surprise deal was a problem when we caught it on the Apple Ballot Board of Education's Agenda the day before the vote.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/06/weasts-tuesday-surprise-mcps-sold-to.html
Now, why do we have a BOE that makes decisions without public input? Because the MCEA teachers' union insists that those are the kind of BOE members that they want.
That's the reality. If teachers don't like the Pearson curriculum then stop teaching it. Strike. Picket. Show up at BOE meetings and protest. Start a Petition.
Start doing some of the things that parents have been doing for years.
Oh, and the New York Times exposed the Superintendent & Mrs. Jerry Weast 2 week Pearson Foundation paid for trip to Australia, no DC/MD based reporters exposed that. BOE members knew Weast was on that trip, but they didn't tell the teachers either, did they?
DeleteRidiculous curriculum? That curriculum was approved by your union leaders, the ones for whom your fellow teachers voted. If you have concerns about your workday hours, talk to your union. That is the main purpose of a union, to protect workers on the job. Are you in the room when your union reps have their secret negotiations with MCPS staff? If not, why not? We parents and taxpayers can't really find out much about the secret doings of your MCEA. it would help if some teachers on this blog lifted the curtain. Is the fear really that great?
DeleteJanis, you won't be fired for protesting as a parent. As a teacher, I will be fired if I don't teach the new Pearson curriculum.
ReplyDeleteWe won't be fired, but our children will be treated like crap. By teachers. Many of us have stories like that.
DeletePaula, yes, the fear is really that great. The union works with MCPS/BOE and against the teachers. Teachers do not call the union because they know the union will contact their principal. Look at the information in the recent Kemp Mill lawsuit. When one of the teachers reported the principal for inappropriate behavior toward students and others, the union uniserv rep from MCEA called the principal and shared the confidential information with the principal and bronda mills.
ReplyDeleteThe one time I asked MCEA to intervene on my behalf as a teacher, instead of helping the representative threw gasoline on the fire and made an already bad situation with a bullying administration even worse - which I didn't think was possible. (That representative, by the way, is also a Maryland politician who will never ever get my vote as a result of the way he handled the situation.)
DeleteNever accessed their "help" again, and have since left MCPS. The climate here has changed too much. It's no longer the school system I once bent over backward to get into. :-(
I agree with anonymous 7:10am. MCPS is no longer the school system it once was. Central Office and the BOE cover it all up instead of recognizing existing issues and working on them in an honest manner. This school system is sinking fast with teachers jumping off left and right to get out of MCPS. It's like the titanic without the music.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to see this post late and to see it devolve to parents vs teachers. I was one of the folks who tweeted back at Dr. Starr. I have done so a few times in the past. Besides the inane content of Starr's tweet, I was especially disappointed by the fact that a MCPS teacher was the only one responding. I actually would welcome the use of twitter to engage in DIALOGUE with the community. Unfortunately Starr misuses twitter, like all other communication platforms so far, treating them all as an opportunity for MONOLOGUE, but never really responding to us.
ReplyDeleteI really feel like a Jimmie Cone. Where did Josh buy his Jimmie Cone? Can you get Jimmie cones in China?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous Sept 6, 9:54pm, I am sorry to hear that. I still don't understand the basics of how the MCEA leadership is elected. Are the ballots secret? What percentage of the teachers vote? I am trying to understand how the elected leadership can be a group of people that the teachers don't trust and outright fear. Have any teachers out there tried to run and been 'dissuaded?'
ReplyDeleteI don't ever remember voting for the idiot, Doug Prouty, who holds the position of President of MCEA. I am sorry to be rude, but he has to be one of the strangest people I have met. The teachers stay away from him. I will find out how he has his position.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, the teachers in this county are so fed up and exhausted that I think most go home late at night and do not have time to be involved with the union politics. It's a no win situation. Our union officials are masterful at avoidance and do nothing to help teachers with legitimate complaints. Everything is swept under the rug in true MCPS style. It is wise to have nothing to do with the teacher's union in this county.
@Anonymous Sept 15, thanks for the additional information. If you didn't vote for Doug Prouty, who did? How many teachers vote in these union elections? How many teachers attend union meetings? If the majority of teachers are so fed up and exhausted from the Pearson curriculum that MCEA pushed through, how is it the leadership remains the same? You are exhausted. We parents and taxpayers are exhausted too. Unfortunately it is our children and our taxpayer dollars so we can't just go home at night. Do you have reform proposals?
ReplyDelete