Well school is back in full swing now, and I can officially say I am definitely not bored anymore. Its been a crazy first two weeks as I adjust back to the routine. My class this year seems pretty good...but they always act nice the first few weeks. We'll see how long it lasts.
So I gave the kids a geography pre-test last week, just to see what they already knew and apparently, they knew close to nothing. Over half of my class could not label the United States on a map. I'm giving the final test on Friday and if anyone gets that wrong then I think I will cry! And the funny part about all this is that all of the fourth grade teachers at our school had to decide to teach basic geography as an add-on to our curriculum because its not even required! Now I know South Carolina is not tops in the nation in education (or even anywhere close for that matter...we're 42nd), but in my opinion, a 4th grader should be required to find the country they live in on a map! However, they are required to learn all the history of their country from cavemen all the way to the civil war in one year. And knowing the history of your country is great, as long as you know where your country is to begin with! So all of the 4th grade teachers at my school have taken 2 weeks out of our completely filled S.S. curriculum to go back to the basics. So I figured while I was teaching the basics in S.S. I would go back to the basic addition and subtraction facts in math. It wasn't much better. Almost all of the kids still use their fingers to add and subtract! I'm sorry, but when I was in fourth grade, you just had to know these things. You would have been laughed at terribly if you started counting 5 + 6 on your fingers! But that's what I have to work with, so I guess I'll just start from the beginning. Thankfully though, I have a class full of good readers. At least they learned something in the previous grades!
