The change did not happen as of 4 p.m. the day before the 1st day of school due to a lack of planning. However the administration is pushing to add these extra 30 minutes starting 2nd semester for all students.
So, you ask why JCCHS and only JCCHS will be extended 30 minutes every day. Last year our high school did not meet AYP standards due to a low graduation rate. In an attempt to raise the graduation rate a mandatory 30 minutes will be added to the day for all students and teachers regardless of their individual need for this “remediation” time.
My daughter graduated as an Honor Graduate last year and my son is a freshman this year in all Honor and AP classes. Our daughter did not need the extended day. Will our son benefit from this mandatory 30 minutes? I do not think so.
My husband and I have been dropping our students off at JCCHS between 7:20 to 7:45 going on five years. We are not the only ones at school that early.
Let’s get back to the students who may actually benefit from some extra time with a teacher. Wouldn’t that extra time be better spent in smaller groups, with an instructor of the subject in question? Isn’t a more individual plan for the “at risk” students a better use of everyone’s time and money? Where is the money coming from to pay the teachers for an extended day? How will the buses get the high school students to school 30 minutes earlier when it is already a time crunch to get all students to all schools everyday? Why not pull out the at risk students for “one on one” tutoring during the day?
As a parent I attend a counseling appointment two times a year with my student to determine where my student is academically and where he is going during the next semester and until graduation with a graduation plan. If it is so important to make these individuals plans for our students, why is the school throwing a “master plan for increasing the graduation rate” at the entire school population based on the small percentage of students that are in need of special attention? Please give those students what they need. But, do not punish the students that do not need the extra time by making it mandatory for everyone.
Yes, it will be punishment. How? By making it impossible for the students to participate in the extracurricular activities noted above; by making more transportation issues for the parents of those students and for all students in the county due to busing issues; by squelching the very things that make most students successful in high school. . . participating in the extra activities that they enjoy and are for the betterment of their future education and careers.
My daughter did her part to boost the graduation rate last year with our help, the help of all of our great teachers and her hard work. We are still here, the teachers are still here and now my son will have a hard time participating in all the fun extra things his sister did because our school did not meet AYP standards. Is this fair to him? Is this fair to your student? I do not think so. Please contact our administrators and tell them your opinion.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Carroll
Hoschton
precious self-esteem.
I believe (?) our school has always had a longer day than the norm for the state and it's been a good thing.
Think of Chinese schools. They arrive early, leave for lunch, go back, leave for dinner then go back yet again.
All you can do is make the best of it and hope your child benefits too.
Schools should make the students attend year-round, but they won't because the selfish rich ones want their summer vacations. Yet, the poor people are forced to leave their children unattended during the summer months and these kids often get into trouble.
Since most the schools in GA a Title I (Meaning underachieving), and the teachers are pressured to teach only for these tests, year round school would allow for more time for study and less time for children to get into trouble.
In Barbados, all children attended school until grade 5. Then they were given a HUGE test. If they passed the test, they were sent on to "high school", graduating at 16. These children went on to college in other countries. The ones left behind could opt out of school or attend a public school that was subsidised by the US (yet they hated us).
We spend so much on schools these days. Let's do a complete overhaul and spend the money we save on educating those who either can't or won't be educated on OTHER social plans like free daycare and medicine. Notice I said school was a SOCIAL program. Yes, it is, taken for granted by every american in the US and complained about every step of the way. Telect officials who make impossible promises on education reform, but in truth, the Feds only supply under 5% of the cost. Save yourself a hike on property taxes and forget those dummies that give schools a fun-house environment and a deathtrap, and educat the ones who will make a difference.
You have been moaning and complaining about ANY changes that have involved your children for years. In fact, there is never a positive word coming from your mouth. You hate the teachers, the schools, the curriculum, and constantly complain to the administrators.
Yes, your kids are gifted, but very few in Jefferson County, or Barrow County are. In fact, he majority of the schools are Title I.
These Title I students need extra help and should be grouped by ability. They also need alternative teaching techniques that I am have been trained for and am famous for. I also am known, and take pride, in raising student performance by a tremendous amount. YOU WERE INTREMENTAL FOR DRIVING ME CRAZY WHEN I HELPED YOUR SON'S CLASSMATES RAISE THEIR SCORES IN SOCIAL STUDIES. I FRUSTRATED YOU BECAUSE I WAS NOT AFRAID AND DIDN'T BOW DOWN TO YOU.
Since we can't ability group, your precious son gets to share his class with students who need remedial work, and you resent it.
You are on a one-woman campaign to admonish any type of advancement for the low students. You want the school to work for you, and you alone. Well, your son needs to be home schooled, but you are too stingy with YOUR time to put in the effort, or maybe you can't keep up with him. Your belief that he should read the chapter and then take a test is the perfect solution for online training. Until you can come to terms that there are other people in the school other than your children, then shut up!
Do you realize that school is dictated by the Federal gov't that all children attend until age 16. If not, their parents are arrested. So much for democracy.
The federal gov't only pays about 2% of the cost of education while making the american people believe they actually mandate rules and change. It's actually the state and county that foot the bill. If you live in a poor county, you get poor schools. Why don't you just lead a campaign to have that rule revoked, then the dummies can stay home and become blacksmiths, ditch diggers, and mechanics, while your child can read quantum physics and help blow up the world! Better yet, move to New Hampshire and leave these poor people alone.
Chill out! You obviously have a negative bias towards Ms. Carroll and her wanting the best possible education for her son. From your own admission, "YOU WERE INTREMENTAL FOR DRIVING ME CRAZY", you need to step back and get a grip!
I have a child at JCCHS and the change in schedule affects my child's extracirricular activities as well as his ability to participate in civic activities, both of which are taken into consideration on college applications. For students who are already performing at the top of their academic classes, the addition of an extra 30 minutes a day will do little to benefit them. It seems to me that those who are struggling could be better served by individualized attention focussing on the needs of the individual.
And perhaps as an educator you might want to consider writing scathing emails on your own time instead of during the school day while on county time?!?!?
I really didn't think kids were on these blogs or I would have been gentler to Ms Carroll. However, these are things I've been wanting to say to her for years! Sorry you had to hear that, and please don't take it out on her son, it was not his fault. Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm so glad you did well on your CRCTs! I'm proud of you! Keep me happy!
You see, my mother had five girls. One day she lined us all up in a row and taught us how to change a car tire. She too, built her house when she was five months pregnant with me.
We have never had a day where we have whined for a man to help us. So don't worry, I'll buy the parts, read my mechanics book, and save a lot of money doing it myself.
And to the JC parent:
You have no idea what sneaky and underhanded things this woman did behind my back. Never did she ask for a teacher conference. She thought it better to go straight to the top.
The good parents came to me and we smoothed things over like it should be.
Sorry I spelled instrumental wrong (heavenly forbid!) but it was in the heat of the moment. And she was instrumental in driving me crazy. She took it upon herself to ruin me reputation (and I don't know why) and drive my career into the sewer. You should have seen the emails I became privy to after I resigned and recieved my records! I never knew about all those scathing complaints! She drove the principal crazy too.
Those of you that have children that excell in school should not be required to be subjected to longer school days. Heaven forbid education gets in the way of extra curricular activities. Join the band. They practise at school and reading music is good for the mind. I understand that activities are important on college applications. The school can simply set aside time for students who have committed to such programs, and keep the ones who need remedial work.
Before coming to WJMS I have NEVER seen such educationally low kids in my career! I did everything I could to bring them up to par. Some couldn't be saved (they were mildly retarded on inbred), but many could. They had just never been in a positive or productive environment that allowed for other learning types like kinestetic or verbal. By allowing the kids to move around and work freely with each other, dramatize wars, play dress up or compare music, they "got" what I was teaching. They also knew that my class was a safe harbour for them, allowing for a relaxed, fun, high learning environment. My elementary education experience (I taught 1st and 3rd grade) was the perfect precursor to what was needed in that classroom. Too bad Ms Carrol ruined it.
AND IT WAS NOT MY FAULT!
I hope she's happy that I can no longer get a job in the immediate vicinnity, that I had to fle for bankruptcy, and will have to move to work again.
And for 2 SCARED, read the above and stop being so cynical. I would give a kidney to get back to what I love to do, but they called be a liberal, so that was it. Perhaps a bit of liberalism is what these title I schoold need.
Bet you never met a woman with as much curiosity and desire to learn as I am.
I'll grant you a pass on the fragment based on poetic license with the implied "I'll" I will call you on the usage error. Here's the correction:
Bet you never met a woman with as much curiosity and desire to learn as I have.
I do not have the time to detail all of the nine other spelling, grammar or typographial errors in your comment, but PLEASE, get an education before you try to give one. I am sorry you were "driven crazy", but it seems that it was not too far a trip. Maybe you should move in order to get back to what you love.
I will give you credit for one thing, though. You have reassured me that we did the right thing when we chose to homeschool. (Yes, some of my children are gifted and some struggle like others, but we still stand by our decision)
As for the thirty minutes extra: what good does it do? I can try to drive a nail with a feather duster all day long with no success, do you think thiry more minutes will make a difference? Why don't we try something else other than more time or more money? How about better quality education? If something doesn't work, more of the same thing won't work either!
Whoops, you let the cat out of the bag. I made that mistake on purpose. Now everyone knows who he is. Thomas must have a lot of friends who like to blog!
Now, Ms. Davisson, there are reasons why you aren't teaching here any more. And people need to know all of them before they complain about it. The reason people all had good grades in your class was because you gave us one big grade, and the day before, you read the questions, told us the answers, gave us a piece of paper to write the answers down on, and let us use them on the test. Not too hard of a test. Then, while you taught, you told us some weird, inappropriate stories, like about when your youngest daughter was conceived. You told us about the government doing crazy things, like closing off the borders and how they're going to enlist women in the draft, and they're trapping us. And the biggest problem was you taught your liberal view as fact. Then there was the problem with you saying bad words to us in class, which of course causes all kinds of uproar among 6th graders. These aren't all of the things that happened either.
Now, my mom is concerned for me, but not just me. Nor is she against students on any level of learning. She just simply wants things to be done right. Now, I have been in marching band and on the football team this fall, and it's been hard. I have barely had enough time to get all of my homework done, and practice both sports and music. But I do it because I want to keep doing those things. Now, if I had had another 30 minutes of school every day, I would have had 30 less minutes to finish all of my work, sleep, and prepare for the next day, and what more could I have done in school for that time? Therefore, there should not be mandatory extra time added to the day.
Now, you say about students at our school, "they were mildly retarded on inbred". Well, they aren't. Really, why do you think that badly of us? Living in a country, rural place doesn't make anybody inbred, or retarded. Maybe because some of us think for ourselves, you think that. And I don't think that i learned much in your class, honestly. When we got our new teacher after Christmas, we sure paid for you not teaching us when we had to catch up and do the whole year's curriculum in half the time. And even if you are a good teacher, which is up to opinion, you are not the only one. I have had many amazing teachers in this county, that have taught me much more than you did.
Again, my parents are very amazing parents, and they work really hard to allow me to do all the things I do. I am not "wasted" because of my parents, as I believe you have told them. I am very grateful for them, and everything they do. If anyone has any problems with my mom, come see me. Mathew, no matter what she says, you should talk to me if you have problems with my mom. I would like all of you to stop talking about her like that, and actually listen to what she says, because she's saying it for a reason. There are other people thinking these same things, just she is the one willing to go out and say it.
Keep up the good work and keep on standing p for your family!
Many of your friends are writing on this stream that they disliked me and that I was a bad teacher. You have no idea the types of children I taught at WJMS because you were contained within a pod of the same highly intelligent students on the same team who had the same activities. Thomas, 2 out of my 5 classes were remedial and needed an aid. Trust me when I said I taught mildly retarded at WJMS and yes, inbred!. Too bad they didn't receive the services they should have gotten years before. Oh, Jackson is a poor county. No funds.
I was extremely well liked at WJMS. Remember the composition the entire 6th grade had to write, and the subject was “Tell about your favorite teacher”? Two out of three (2/3) of the students on your team wrote about me. I was the teacher the kids came to who needed help or just needed to talk. In my career I’ve had some horror stories. One kid would cut his hair because his father was beating his mother. One child would roll on the ground shouting for me to get the witches out of his head. One child’s parent was slowly dying of cancer. One parent died from riding on an ATV while drunk and the child never received counseling. One would see ghosts. Many were molested. One was left outside on a freezing January day when school was not in session. Many times this child would come to school without pants or shorts because she dressed herself (age 6). But throughout their trauma I was there for them and they knew it.
You forget all the good things I did. I would bring food for my homeroom students so they could start their day off with something in their stomachs, and I would also give them a snack before specials. No one helped me with the cost either. I’ve gone shopping for 3 students in my recent career because they had no clothes. I also readily supplied paper, pencils, notebooks etc. Thank goodness some parents were generous enough to help supply them.
And what the heck is this "I graded you on one assignment and I was behind" stuff? Don't you remember your other assignments, the journaling, the classroom participation, the maps, and so many other things I can't even remember. And yes, I did test you TWICE, just to make sure the test scores were correct. And, like many other teachers, we reviewed the material before testing. If the other teachers at Jackson don't do that, then they aren't doing their jobs. I was behind by 1 chapter. The other team's social studies teacher and I conferred constantly. However, I took the time to make sure that my students knew the material.
You also stated that I was saying nasty words. I said the word “sex”. I’m sorry, Thomas, but sex is not a nasty word. Unfortunately, here in the Bible belt, this word is not used enough (as you can read in this week’s Jackson Herald). Because of lack of care or fear of blunt discussion on this topic, many girls are getting pregnant. Sex should be openly discussed. However, when I used the word it was in context of the culture of the people of which I was teaching.
Thomas, The world is a lot different from the little bubble you live in. I’m from Florida, which is like another planet. I’ve worked and interned in 5 Florida schools and two Georgia schools. Even Gwinnett is light years ahead of Jackson.
By the time I was your age, I had lived in a rain forest in South America, where the bread contained a nice assortment of baked-in bugs. I had a pet monkey and my friend had a sloth. We swam with piranhas and had vampire bats in our oven. The natives that lived in the jungles were naked, as was the common garb for their culture. Of course, men wore “diapers” and women wore skirts. It was just like what you see in National Geographic. You just become accustomed to it after awhile. We could see Devil’s Island from the docks and there was a leper colony just a few miles away.
I also lived in Barbados which has a literacy rate of 98%. I was taught to read and write in the proper British way. I’ve seen Queen Elisabeth II (my cousin), and Halas Sylase, king of Ethiopia at the time. The children in the outskirts of town played naked and we thought nothing of it. I spent much time in Trinidad, attending the finest girl’s school were I studied alongside children of actors, politician, and ambassadors. We took ballet until elementary school and tennis (taught by the Venezuela champion) in middle school. I was raised Baptist, although my mother was Mormon, I’ve attended Anglican, Quaker and Catholic schools abroad. I have friends of many faiths, colors and nationalities. I was very active in high school, as I was the Senior Class Secretary and the Editor of our newspaper. I was also in many clubs and organizations.
All of my siblings, as well as I, were highly gifted. So are my four children. My oldest daughter graduated college with three honor degrees in History. She taught 6th grade Civics, but the principal didn’t like her so her contract was not renewed. Devastated, she worked for a dot.com company and then Universal Studios. She landed a job in a middle school where she was honored with teacher of the year, teaching physics! Now she teaches high school Chemistry. Another daughter will graduate college in May with a double major in Chemistry and Biology. She will continue until she gets her PhD. She is already working in her field. My son is a creative tile contractor that owns his own business, and my youngest is in the fashion industry and works for one of the most affluent retail stores in the world.
I never thought there was anything I could not do. I worked hard all my life. I built my first house, directed a chamber of commerce (while delivering newspapers at night), worked for a bank, an insurance company, managed a restaurant and ran a daycare while I attended college at night and on weekends. The last two years of college, my mother came to live with me so I could care for her too. She would love to go to EPCOT.
I have a sister that is a missionary in Mexico, two that go on missions all around the world, and another that is a nurse. My brother is a multi-millionaire in Florida. We are strongly bonded and are passionate about our hobbies, our beliefs and our careers. We are always hungry for knowledge and are always seeking the truth. My mother passed away 18 months ago. Each of us handles it differently. Three went to Jerusalem, one went on a mission to Africa, and one returned to mission in Mexico. I became very sad and sick. I stayed in bed for over a year and did not have the energy to get up. I seldom showered or brushed my teeth. I could not do housework. After seeing 8 specialists, I finally found a doctor who diagnosed the problem and has since cured it. Now I spend my time redecorating my house, and am writing a book called "Crackers".
Because of my very cosmopolitan background, I see the world in a totally different light. We are not afraid of discussing sex, in fact it is very important that I discuss this subject openly with my children.
Now they know they can come to ME for anything. I have many friends as friends have always come easy for me. Coming to Georgia, in the middle of the Bible belt, was a shock as I have never experienced a culture where people claimed to be so good, yet are so fast to ridicule, blame and accuse. I seldom come across someone like me who searches for knowledge and truth. Most people believe they already know it all. Unfortunately, life is a learning process and wisdom comes with age.
I am telling you this because I am not the whiner or wierdo, or horrid, nasty person Jackson is trying to make me out to be. The opinions here are tilted to the conservative because the ones I helped the most don't know how to blog, nor do they read the paper.
Like a snake in the grass, I have waited for your mother to write the editor with yet another grievance. Your parents don’t seem to be happy with anyone or anything. Do you and your parents experience or feel EMPATHY towards your fellow man at all? What have you and your family done for the good on even one poor soul? I was finally able to do the one thing I needed to do to let go of the anger that has been kept inside of me for years – I blasted her. (Listen to the Dixie Chick's "Shut up and Sing" to help explain how I felt at Jackson.) Do you realize how many teachers would LOVE to do that, but can’t for fear of their jobs? In fact, one of the MAIN reasons teachers leave the field is because parents think they know everything and press their will on the poor teachers. In interviews, I have been asked if I am a team player. Of course I am, but in turn, I also ask the interviewer if they are fair with their teacher as well. Are they team players? Do they support their teachers? I have so many WONDERFUL reviews and letters of reference to prove that I am an outstanding teacher. Did you know that I taught EIP (Education Improvement Plan) for a year? Yes! I am an excellent reading and writing teacher! My school in Florida was one of only 2 in Orange County that got an A on their writing CRCT. We were rewarded with $1,000 each too! I will never work for another school system that allows parents to go behind the back and over the teacher’s heads with grievances. There were many things your parents were upset about that I didn’t even know of. The proper channel would have been to come to me first and iron out the problem. So on behalf of ALL THE TEACHERS in America who are abused by parents, I gave it my best shot. Now listen to Lifehouse's "Dare you to move" to see how I feel now. I KNOW that most of the teachers who red this stream are give out a huge “Wahoo!”
My child was one of the "lower" in her class and learned a lot. For once, she learned SOMETHING! Mrs. D taught to everyone, not just the avergae joes.
As for inbred, well, I've met a few in my child's remedial classes. As for 30 minutes extra, well I don't think that's a good idea. But someone made a comment about year-round school. THAT would solve a lot of problems, intellectually and socially. It would keep kids learning and keep them out of trouble.
I admire you for standing up for your parents, but wasn't your mother supposed to go to Mrs. D. instead of the administrators first? Didn't Mrs. D. say your mother went over her head? Isn't that behind her back? This isn't the only teacher that has had problems with your parents.
As for closing the borders, isn't that happening now? Was't what she said was true? Are you sure you are making up your own mind and not just restating what you hear at home?
"( mildly retarded or inbred)".
I don't even know what to say about that....... :O