MusicNut,
I am a music student in a Pennsylvania High School. I am
writing my English term paper on the
Underfunding/Underappreciation of Music and Arts programs in
modern American schools. You sound like a great candidate
for some information. What school do you teach for? Are you
given enough funding to properly teach your students? Any
information would be most helpful!
Thanks!
Ana
On 5/09/08, MusicNut wrote:
> Okay, so the cry against pullouts is mainly in regards to
> ILA. ILA is a two hour block, and a pullout is only a half
> hour, so you wouldn't think missing 30 minutes of a 120
> minute class would be a big deal. Think of it this way -
> 5 times a week for ILA, at 120 minutes each time, is 600
> minutes a week of ILA. I see my students twice a week for
> 30 minutes, but 99&37; of the time it does not hit the
same
> subject in the same week. When students miss 30 minutes of
> those 600 minutes of ILA to come to band, it is evidentely
> a big problem (for a couple of the teachers).
>
> And, evidentely, one of the most irritating things for
> teachers is when the kids are pulled from "guided
> reading". This is when the students help each other and
> are assigned parts, etc. I recently asked some students
> what happened if someone is at the nurse or absent from
> school and missed the guided reading that day - they say
> the group just skips that part and does it when that
> student returns. Okay, so why can't that be done when the
> band kids have to come to lessons????? If the 5th grade
> teachers make this work, why can't the 4th grade teachers
> make it work???
>
> Anyone else running into these issues? The more testing =
> more stress on grade level teachers = more issues with
> pullouts. I have one bad apple that is in her 2nd year of
> teaching that is just pulling everyone else down, and is
> feeding the kids lines like, "ILA is more important than
> band." "If you go to band, I am not going to help you
> catch up." This attitude is rubbing off on other
> teachers, too.
>
> AUUUUHHHH!!! Any help? I have tried to meet with her,
> but there is always some excuse as to why she cannot meet
> with me. I have already spoken to admin, and they told me
> to meet with her. I am going to go back to the admin after
> my concert is done. Right now, my students are BEHIND
> becuase of these issues and I have a concert to get
> through.
>
> MusicNut