Instead of going to school and teaching students on Monday, I have to go to a textbook adoption meeting. There are 5 stats books that we stats teachers will get to choose from, and we're going to hear from each publisher about all the bells and whistles--then we'll decide which one's we're going to pilot.
Except we're not really going to pilot them. We'll each use a book for about two months, then we'll choose another book and use it for about two months, and then somehow we'll all vote and choose which stats book to adopt.
It's such a half-assed way of doing things. This isn't how you test out a book to see if it's going to be the foundation of your instruction for the next several years.
That's how disorganized my district is.
No our district is the same. We are piloting 2 Geometry books this year or should I say, semester. We will use one for a few months, 2 more weeks, then switch to another one til the end of 1st semester. Then start of 2nd semester we go back to our regular book.
ReplyDeleteWe did the meetings you are at last year. We had to sit through 5 presentations and choose 2 books we wanted to use for Algebra1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. We are leaning towards Big Ideas Math. Apparently, they have new books for upper division math as well. Just a heads up for you.
We were sent a frantic last minute email to decide within 72 hours which new series of art books we wanted. We were given links, which was fine since we opted for online books, but we are talking about an entire range of secondary art books and ancillary material for grades 6 through 12 in Ceramics, Sculpture, Drawing and Painting as well as general Art. So all of us spent the next two days going through all the material and made decisions. We packed up our books, now seven years out of adoption, and waited. The new school year rolls around and the administration is still thinking about our books. We're nearly a quarter through our school year-with accelerated block that means half way through the class-with no books in sight. Our immediate AP went to the book vault and retrieved boxes of our old books. While books for art may not seem to be a big deal, keep in mind that along with talented artists, we tend to get students who end up in alternative school frequently. We have to have some way to provide them with written information so they can replace the assignments they are missing, And while Art is always the red headed step child of any secondary school, the same story can be said of World Languages, Food Science, Tech Systems and many other electives. My thoughts are that if we are going to teach a class, then regardless of the subject suitable material must be provided.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely--and bemoan the loss of electives in our schools.
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