[etni] Re: Fw:re: 4-5 p catch
- From: "Michele Ben" <mggben@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 06:42:52 +0300
I would like to point out that there are English teachers at ALL levels of
the system, not just HS. We ALL work very hard, and often much harder than
those in other subjects as was pointed out here.
Michele
On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 3:32 PM, Ask Etni <ask@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ruthi - rsheffer@xxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: 4-5 p catch
>
> Sandra you are dead right. That's why maybe we need a separate union for
> English teachers to protect our interests.
> The other subjects (with the possible exception of Math which is more
> objective- no essays to mark, no LD concessions except time)
> All these considerations put a burden on our time and energy.
> This was suggested on Etni and I think we should seriously think about
> it...
> Ruth
>
>
> Sandra:
> >Hi everyone. Re the 4-5 point dilemma.
> >We have all been dealing with this issue somehow. At my school there is a
> >clear policy of pushing students up to 5p. I teach at a very prestigious
> >school and the students won't settle for less unless they're really weak
> >and even those usually get their parents to exercize pressure on our
> >management so they will be given the opportunity to "prove" themselves
> >(even if their other grades all show failing grades) mamash up to the very
> >day of the matkonet. The students are all too aware of the new
> >opportunities the modular bagrut offers. They have safety nets all around
> >them and they can try and retry without risking or paying anything. The
> sad
> >result is that doing the bagrut in English has really become some kind of
> a
> >roulette. The problem is that the flexiblity of the system has made
> >everything very confusing to the student. And it has undermined the
> >teacher's authority and his/her professional judgement. In fact, we
> >teachers, are nowadays expected to teach under the humiliating conditions
> >of the public school system (I trust I won't have to give any
> >examples...)while offering the students the testing opportunities of an
> >external/private school system. In my opinion, this is the worst aspect of
> >the new bagrut. And it is wearing me out. What does this have to do with
> >the 4-5 dilemma, you might ask. Well, I think that we English teachers
> have
> >enough work on our plates. We should just be teaching and we shouldn't
> have
> >to be bothered by questions such as university requirements or planning
> >strategies how to make it possible for a student to try for F and G while
> >at the same time preparing a magen for C and D, just in case... Because
> >what we are actually doing here is providing an individual learning
> program
> >for about 30% of our 40 pupils counting classes. Preparing extra magens
> >means writing and marking extra tests , which we are not paid for-of
> >course. But even worse is the fact that students know how the system works
> >and they know they can try for the 5p in any case, so instead of working
> >hard at a 4p level, proving themselves and then moving up to the 5p level
> >(isn't that every teacher's dream?), they waste their energy on fighting
> >placement decisions, stop working when they are forced to sit in a 4p
> group
> >and keep trying to get into the 5p because anyway, they feel they won't
> >lose anything by doing so;once they do E in yudalef, they can do C and D
> in
> >winter and F and G in summer. We teachers know that most of these students
> >won't live up to a 5p level-especially when for 2 years they have been
> >planning strategies instead of actually working on their English-but sadly
> >the students do not see it that way. Because they are misled by this half
> >private system. That's why they keep telling their teachers "ma echpatlach
> >she ashev be 5 ani tamid jahol lehashlim le 4". They have lost the sense
> of
> >"first having to prove yourself"-they want it INSTANT-now, like a 5p
> kochav
> >nolad! With minimum investment and maximum opportunities! And that's what
> >the new bagrut has been teaching them. Real great education. Well I am not
> >for it at all. I want to do what I am paid (?) for: teaching them at their
> >current level and trying to get them to improve through hard work, so I
> can
> >move them up to the next level. And I want ALL my 35 students to be at a
> >similar level, taking the same tests, at the same moed until THEY have
> >proven they can move up. And then I want them to move up to ANOTHER group,
> >because I am fed up with splitting myself up into 4 levels of teaching. Is
> >that too much to ask for?
>
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