Monday, February 11, 2019

Food for Thought

I don't have a specific topic for you this week, but there's a lot of food for thought swirling around right now.

For one, there is the discussion that has taken place in the comments on New Reader Has Lots to Contribute.

I thought that one of the most telling comments was from a PBLA Lead who signed herself "Norma." She addressed herself to a former school teacher who likes the structure PBLA provides:

Linda, if you’re still reading, I’m honestly interested in what you have to say. I was a strong advocate for PBLA—until I was introduced to the CCLB’s grossly inadequate and unprofessional training materials (I’m a PBLA Lead) and to add insult to injury, we were told that THERE ARE NO RESOURCES to implement this thing. This is contrary to what is explicitly stated in their own practice guidelines that “sufficient resources” will be provided. Due to the number of “artefacts” required, classes have become testing centres and stress has increased exponentially for both learners (especially refugees—unforgivable!) and instructors. PBLA implementation has been a negative experience for every teacher I’ve met. You are the first that I know of who has spoken so positively of it. That makes me curious. It is demanded of us that we be “Champions of PBLA”. If this methodology is so wonderful, why does it need championing? It should speak for itself! Why are those who raise valid concerns in an objective and professional manner labeled “laggards”? Why are there NEVER anonymous surveys of instructors and learners? What is the CCLB afraid of? That the emperor has no clothes is my bet. PBLA takes a heavy toll. I sincerely wish you good luck in keeping your head above water. How can it possibly help learners to have exhausted unhappy teachers? How can it help them to push through 32 assessments or they languish at the same benchmarks. Incredibly badly thought out flop of an experiment with disastrous consequences. Please tell me how you’re able to do three assessments a week? Is this a full-time class? —Norma
Other food for thought this week came in the form of two things Yuliya retweeted. One was this article in The Atlantic by Rahm Emanuel about education reform.

The other  was this meme, which I also saw retweeted by @YuliyaESL.


I hope everyone is surviving winter.

3 comments:

  1. “Norma” is “Linda”

    ReplyDelete
  2. Huh? Definitely not.
    - Norma

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With all due respect and no offense intended to Linda, of course. We have very different viewpoints (which is totally fine, of course) so I’m confused how we could be confused!
      -Norma

      Delete

Thank you for participating in this forum. Anonymous commenting is available, but is not intended to shield those taking pot shots at those of us challenging PBLA. If you are here to do that, please use your name.