DePrez: Core K-12 standards are here; time is running out to get on board
Suzan DePrez
M. Suzan DePrez is assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Mesa Unified School District.
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chatmandu002 posted at 11:37 am on Wed, Oct 10, 2012.
I've said it over and over, teach to the core. Forget all the touchy feely stuff and get back to the basics. Demand respect for teachers, order in the classrooms and leave the electronics at home.
mesateacher posted at 1:08 pm on Wed, Oct 10, 2012.
I hope Dr. DePrez remembers her own words in a couple of years: "teachers need to be supported and encouraged, not blamed..." because I guarantee you that when a large percentage of Mesa kids fail the upcoming PARCC test she will be in the front of the line pointing fingers at teachers. Mesa will continue to pass kids along without having mastered the basics which will cause them to do poorly in the next class and so on until a test she has no control over reveals the truth. Pity those teachers who live in poorer neighborhoods where parents don't care as much, don't have aspirations for their kids, and are politically helpless. They will have miserable job.
Then there's the other issue: teacher shortages. Did you see the article in the other paper about a current shortage of math teachers? What do you think is going to happen when the older generation retires, and the younger one quits in droves because they've been given an impossible situation to work with? Has anyone in Arizona been working to produce more math teachers? Does Mesa have a plan to fill those classrooms? Is DePrez doing anything to reduce class sizes so this "new" method of teaching can actually be implemented? Chatmandu002 has it right: get back to basics and to traditional education!
Irons1 posted at 5:39 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
I have to admit, she can talk the talk, but can she walk the walk. But demographics don't count do they? Administration in Mesa Public Schools constantly talk about how they support teachers, but when push comes to shove, they very rarely do. This fits about every administrator out there.
JMJ posted at 11:01 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
Sorry, Suzie, you are part of the problem. Can you honestly say that the dorkwad administrators who are promoted by the stupidintendency of MPS are worth it? Not by a longshot. People who are good leaders, who would know what to do and how to do it, but who are not blonde and stupid get passed over in favor of the afore-mentioned nimrods. It's all a "who-you-know, or....." situation in Mesa, and it extends into Chandler and back as you all play ping pong with people who blow down to Chandler to "get experience", then blow on back to MPS to be promoted. MPS does a LOUSY job of training its administrators, who are, by and large, former PE teachers who have never taught in an academic setting [unless you count hula hoops as circles, which makes them partially 'academic', I suppose, since circumference is a four syllable word that some PE teachers can actually pronounce.
And, what of the teachers who are retained on MPS's payroll even when they cheat on AIMS? Pullllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzee.
PLC about that, would'ya?
Irons1 posted at 9:23 am on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
MPS has a history of making people administrators who have only taught for 2 to 3 years and have the means to go back to school and get their PhD. They don't know how to teach because they haven't done it very long. They get their methods out of a book and because the book says so, they believe they can evaluate teachers. How does someone who has never really performed the job believe they can tell someone else how to do it better. It is interesting that these people will defend their "book learnin" until the cows come home. Experience doesn't really matter. This seems to be the way administrators are taught. And, by the way, they do hire based on physical appearance. It would not be so easy to tell, but the profiling is obvious. Tell me it's not true, prove it.
VofReason posted at 1:18 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
This is fantastic. Right there in 2010 the AZ board of Education approved standards for education. Kind of strange since people have been educated for hundreds of years and I don't think to many people outside of the Education bubble have much confusion of wha it means to understand what was taught or not. Think it sounds like they are trying to keep moving the target and buy time for the next excuse to develope. However, whatever the new standards are, I can bet dollars to doughnuts they aren't going to have enough money to do what ever it is. They will have to come crying for more tax dollars to accomplish it. Predictable.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:31 am on Thu, Oct 18, 2012.
Get the 20" wide Afros, the blue-red-spiked hair, the piercings, the tattooes, the casual-wear and the sandals out of the classrooms..........and I am not talking about the students.....I am talking about the ...........TEACHERS.
How can a teacher in the Mesa Schools be and authority/education leader in the classroom when they are dressed/look like students they are teaching......OR WORSE.
WE NEVER HAD THIS EDUCATIONAL NIGHTMARE BACK IN THE 1950'S BECAUSE TEACHERS ...COMMANDED...RESPECT FROM THEIR STUDENTS. TEACHERS DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO ..........MENTOR.....BECAUSE THEY WERE TOO BUSY......TEACHING.
WHO CAN YOU EXPECT THE PARENTS OF STUDENTS IN THE...."LITTLE MEXICO"....GHETTO'S OF SOUTH AND WEST MESA TO ENCOURAGE THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS TO BE GOOD STUDENTS........WHEN THEY CAN'T READ OR SPEAK ..........ENGLISH.
WOULD MESA'S OR ARIZONA'S ...OR EVEN AMERICA'S EDUCATION STATISTICS BE SO ROTTEN IF ALL THE ............."E.S.L.'s" ....(English as a Second Language)...STUDENTS WERE SENT BACK TO THE COUNTRIES THAT THEY WERE BORN IN ????
ONE OF THE MESA TEACHERS COMMENTED ABOUT LACK OF FUNDING......WELL, MESA TEACHER........THERE WOULDN'T BE A ....LACK OF FUNDING....FOR SMALLER CLASSROOMS OR MORE AND BETTER TEACHERS IF IT WASN'T FOR THE ............$7,670.00.....THAT IS SPENT TO EDUCATE....EVERY SINGLE ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILD EVERY SINGLE YEAR = HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ARIZONA'S HARD-WORKING TAX-PAYER DOLLARS SPENT TO EDUCATE CHILDREN WHO HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING IN MESA....ARIZONA...OR ANYWHERE IN AMERICA........IN THE FIRST PLACE.