You are dead on. Two of my daughter’s teachers at El Segundo High School in California use IXL and do not teach. They don’t lecture, explain, take questions etc. They think IXL is doing all that.
It is not. Our daughter has always gotten A’s in math. She is struggling so much in geometry we got her an $80/hour tutor. The head of the tutoring shop explained that during Covid when students were remote learning, teachers realized that Apps can do some of the work. When the pandemic ended, this supervisor said, lazy teachers decided just to lean on IXL and not teach.
Her geometry teacher teaches for a few minutes on Thursdays only, putting on the board the items the Friday quiz will cover. He does not take questions etc The rest of the week he tells stories unrelated to math—or does nothing.
Also, the IXL lessons in his class do not match what he is testing on.
I've heard so many stories like that. I need to write another post on this. Get off the computer programs and teach is the heart of it. For many classrooms, if you took away all the Chromebooks tomorrow, kids would learn more.
I wish you would write about it more. My hunch is that tutoring companies would have a detached and valuable perspective. We parents have information on our kids only. The tutors see much more. My daughter has several terrific teachers...you know, the ones to teach in class, take questions, do all they can to ensure the students grasp the material. One of her bad teachers said on the first day of school: I never take any questions. And she hasn't all year. The few times a student has tried, she has given a snarky response. Computer programs help enable this.
Computer programs, and also this "you need to be able to learn independently" or "use your resources" or some version of that idea. It sounds noble in the abstract but it often plays out in kindof lazy ways.
The computer programs themselves are often fraught. IXL in English at El Segundo High School is loaded with Oxford commas and example after example of semi-colons. It's Dickens-like, worst of times an all. No one writes like that anymore, haven't for a half century at least. I will now shut up. Sorry for the rants.
You are dead on. Two of my daughter’s teachers at El Segundo High School in California use IXL and do not teach. They don’t lecture, explain, take questions etc. They think IXL is doing all that.
It is not. Our daughter has always gotten A’s in math. She is struggling so much in geometry we got her an $80/hour tutor. The head of the tutoring shop explained that during Covid when students were remote learning, teachers realized that Apps can do some of the work. When the pandemic ended, this supervisor said, lazy teachers decided just to lean on IXL and not teach.
Her geometry teacher teaches for a few minutes on Thursdays only, putting on the board the items the Friday quiz will cover. He does not take questions etc The rest of the week he tells stories unrelated to math—or does nothing.
Also, the IXL lessons in his class do not match what he is testing on.
Get off the computer programs and teach!
I've heard so many stories like that. I need to write another post on this. Get off the computer programs and teach is the heart of it. For many classrooms, if you took away all the Chromebooks tomorrow, kids would learn more.
I wish you would write about it more. My hunch is that tutoring companies would have a detached and valuable perspective. We parents have information on our kids only. The tutors see much more. My daughter has several terrific teachers...you know, the ones to teach in class, take questions, do all they can to ensure the students grasp the material. One of her bad teachers said on the first day of school: I never take any questions. And she hasn't all year. The few times a student has tried, she has given a snarky response. Computer programs help enable this.
Computer programs, and also this "you need to be able to learn independently" or "use your resources" or some version of that idea. It sounds noble in the abstract but it often plays out in kindof lazy ways.
The computer programs themselves are often fraught. IXL in English at El Segundo High School is loaded with Oxford commas and example after example of semi-colons. It's Dickens-like, worst of times an all. No one writes like that anymore, haven't for a half century at least. I will now shut up. Sorry for the rants.