I’m going to keep this brief and jargon-free. I’m a brand new teacher and I’ve stepped into the Standardized Test time of the year. I teach English Language Learners, or ELL. Today was the writing assessment that all 5th, 8th and 11th graders must take regardless of their english proficiency.
My kids get some accomodations and the guidance counselor must fill in some bubbles on their information sheets that designate them as ELL. We have three classifications of ELL:
ACTIVE students are in my class every day and have low proficiency.
CONSULTATION students are in the regular english curriculum. Both Active and Consultation students receive extra time. We keep an eye on their grades to make sure they are assimilating well.
TRACKING or TRANSITION students have been out of the ELL classroom for two years. They were once Consultation students. At this point, we don’t bother 'em. They’re damn near fluent.
Here’s the pitting:
Our guidance counselor cannot grasp that CONSULTATION and TRACKING are two separate things. Tracking students do not get an accomodation on their time. In any case, we don’t have any damn Tracking students at our school. We have five Active kids that I teach and one Consultation student. They all receive the same accomodation. They all get the same bubbles filled in on their information sheets.
This is not fucking difficult. But this woman cannot grasp that this student is Consultation. Not Tracking. Consultation.
Me: She’s Consultation, year two.
Her: She’s Tracking.
Me: No. Consultation. Fill in those bubbles.
Her: Got it. Tracking. Fill in the T1/T2 bubble.
Me: No, I’m pretty sure she’s consultation.
Her: Pretty sure?
I cannot emulate the tone of her voice here. But she was extremely condescending. I gave up my entire fucking lunch/planning session trying to explain this distinction (and listen to her yammer about the personal lives of students whose problems are not remotely my business) to her.
To top it off:
At the end of the day I went back to her office and said Yes, she’s definitely Consultation Year 2 and we need to fill in such-and-such bubbles on her test. I swear I heard her say, “Got it. Tracking Year 2.”
My head nearly exploded. I drew her a fucking diagram: three separate circles with little arrows pointing outward. Three separate things. I then told her EXPLICITLY which circle this girl was in.
I shit you not, this woman gave me the first migraine headache I’ve experienced in over a year.
Hey, I’m an English teacher to, so I know what you’re going through. No offense to the guidance counselors out there, but I find the vast majority of them are completely fucking useless. You have my sympathy.
I teach English to young Korean students. Amazingly, they’re not the ones who have problems grasping the English language. Rather, it’s the so-called Academic Managers who, supposedly, are quite fluent in English and yet cannot grasp simple concepts such as following a conversation’s point.
Rubystreak
You hate guidance counselors too huh?
I once heard this expression:
Those who can, do.
Those who can’t, teach.
Those who can’t teach, become guidance counselors.
I am not a teacher but I do respect those in the profession.
With education in America being in pretty rough shape, I think an easy solution would be to get rid of all the guidance counselors, thereby freeing up a LOT of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Thinking back to my high school days, I remember that the guidance counselors were a total waste of time, energy, money, etc.
I honestly don’t know about financial incentives. As far as I’m told it’s solely for the purpose of keeping track of migrant students and their progress.
For the purposes of this writing test, there is no “Consultation” label. Just “ELL.” Active and Consultation students are marked as “ELL” and receive the extended time accomodation. Students whose tests are marked “T1/T2” (or Tracking 1/2) get no accomodation. They shouldn’t need it.
There may be some financial stuff related to their testing status but I don’t know what a guidance counselor at a piddly junior-high school cares about that.
bolding mine
You mean that there are some who aren’t useless? I have to say that I honestly never met one who was useful. If a guidance couselor wants to wade in here and tell me off it might just disprove my theory that they lack the intelligence to use a computer.
I am not a guidance counselor, but I will step up for the woman who was my GC in the early '70s. She pointed me in the right direction and got me involved in some things that looked really good on my college apps. Had my choice of great places to go.
Perhaps you’ve merely guessed wrong about the bubble that properly classifies your guidance counselor. Or…
Perhaps (no, I don’t know) she perceived a brand-new teacher reacting to a fairly minor clerical error with a long lecture that she knew intimately the details of when said teacher was spending more time blowing bubbles than explaining them, and reacted with some straight-faced but good-natured teasing. Or…
Maybe she disagreed with the classification and both of you communicated poorly. Or…
Maybe there is a discrepency in a child’s records and she is wondering what is wrong with you. Or…
If you don’t like feckless guessing about what the problem might be, your time might be best spent in a new effort to exchange ideas, civilly, with your (for better or worse) colleague.
Agreed. Money wasted on guidance counselors is money that should be better spent. Here’s a radical concept: let’s spend it on increasing teacher salaries, so that teachers don’t have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, but can concentrate their time on teaching.
Why in the world did this country ever go down that path that says teaching is a low-grade profession?
A lot of stupid people try to cover their ignorance with this “either/or” fallacy. If they can prove that you’re wrong, then they think it proves that they’re right.
The rejoiner? “I’m not saying I know everything. I’m just saying I know a lot more than you do about what we’re talking about here and now.”
I clearly recall when one civilian worker at the ID card section where I was assigned as a supervisor overseas (back in my Navy days) decided she wasn’t going to do the job the way I directed her to do the job. Her comment to me was, “Petty Officer Monty, I’ve been doing this job a very long time.” My response was, “Well, I’m not all that interested in how long you’ve been doing the job wrong.”
Yeah, I think it’s bad for me to post when I’m half-awake. As I tell my students, even English teachers make typos.
We have two guidance counselors at my school. One of them is a total fucking moron who comes in late every day and leaves right at the bell. She is the queen of foisting her work of on other people, being clueless, and seeming daffy. She has screwed me over several times just by passing the buck to me and my team rather than deal with a kid or a parent herself. Many, many people want to kick her in the shin, hard, but she doesn’t seem aware enough to notice. Personally, I can’t stand her and she is pretty universally deemed useless. I feel sorry for the kids whose last names begin with M-Z.
The other counselor, to her credit, does her job AND this other dingbat’s. She knows the kids, she gives a damn, she comes to meetings, she seems awake and alert most of the time. Overall, I like her. She’s effective. But it seems she’s in the minority. I have known a few others who were decent, and I realize that they do ALL the scheduling for the entire school, which is a mammoth task that makes my head hurt to even contemplate. However, come on! Everyone works hard. I’m in with kids all day, and you have your own office and secretary, plus no papers to grade, so quit yer bitchin’.
The sad thing is, I think a good guidance counselor can really make the difference for a kid who needs help. The problem is, most of the people who choose this career don’t seem up to the task and are just like the moron poor **Hung Mung ** is trying to deal with. I’m not sure why this is so, but it is.