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I'm sitting in yet another meeting for staff development on the common core curriculum. This meeting is for Special Ed Teachers, the Special Ed supervisor for the district is talking about "hotspots" – "And one of the "hotspots" as you know, is that our students must tell us where they are academically and how they intend to move to the next level." I raised my eyebrows and made a face in her direction. "What?" she questioned, "We're all professionals here, and do you have something to add?" "Not really" I replied, "No, I insist, you obviously have something on your mind and we'd like to hear it." "Look" I stated firmly, "I don't know many adults who can tell you where they are academically and how they expect to get to the next level, no less children, no less special needs children! Now, the kids can tell you what they like to do and what they don't like to do, but to ask them to present their academic portfolio on the spot is simply not appropriate. The professionals in the classroom must discern and administer efficient methodologies to teach the kids and get them to the next levels; this should not be a concern of the students." We're seated in a big square table; the other teachers are all within my sight. As I look around seeking support, most remain mute not daring to question the status quo, only one strong dynamic teacher nods her head feverishly in agreement and asserts "Exactly!" "Well," maintains the supervisor, "This is what is coming down the pipe all our kids have to be 'proactive learners'." "Yes, well," I quipped, "it's simply not appropriate." "'Proactive learners'" I rolled my eyes thinking, "These people love to use phrases that have snappy ideals with little meaning in the classroom."It's amazing how fast the jargon turns over in public education. I've been paying close attention for years, and every time I turn around a whole new...hotspot...pops up. Now the new hotspot is HOTSPOTS, for god's sake.
by Christine
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that special-ed parents are not going to take kindly to the notion that their kids will now be required to proactively take charge of their own education.
5 comments:
Hotspots?
Is the Sped Supervisor a FlyBaby?
The whole thing is unreal.
I went to an NEA workshop on bullying at the immense "Celebration of Teaching and Learning" last Feb or March or whenever it was.
The presenter talked about bullying 'hot spots.'
Now **that** made perfect sense. You're supposed to map the bullying hot spots in your school & buses -- i.e. places where bullying happens much more than other places -- and then assign staff to monitor those hot spots and prevent bullying there.
That was a crystal-clear and useful adaptation of a term to sound purpose.
The supervisor in this story seems to intend 'hotpots' as 'stuff we're going to get in trouble for next.'
Or, possibly, 'stuff we're going to do instead of doing what we're supposed to be doing.'
This sounds like every conversation I've had with educators for the past 10 years. It has all the same features: a strident desire to offload pedagogical responsibility, an Orwellian relabeling of this offloading to make it sound important and effective, a pointless and likely insincere solicitation of other views, one or two people who don't have the educational Kool-Aid stain on their upper lips, and--forgive me, but other than that--no balls to be found.
"... a strident desire to offload pedagogical responsibility, an Orwellian relabeling of this offloading to make it sound important and effective, a pointless and likely insincere solicitation of other views, ..."
"Kids will learn when they are ready."
"Spiraling is scaffolding."
"They have to take responsibility of their own learning to become life-long learners."
"Tutoring weaker students is a valuable experience."
"Yes, I would like to borrow your Singapore Math books."
I would also add the complete inability to recognize any connection between content or skills and understanding.
"Yes, he has a lot of superficial knowledge".
"That is just a rote algorithm."
I've been there.
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