i think pacing guides are stupid but the teachers obviously need them to teach which i dont understand why they need them because they went to college why dont they just teach without them

I know!Just give them a list of what the min. of what they need to teach and go at their own pace! :roll:

pacing guides do hold back the more advanced students, but what you all must understand is that they are created in order to keep schools or classes with major discipline problems (those that can't always concentrate solely on the academic advancement of the students. a lot of schools/classes are forced to place their efforts at keeping the peace rather than teaching) up to par with more fortunate schools/classes (like Broadneck, Severna Park, and South River). While the guides crush the possibility of an even more diverse education for honor students and such, they aid the other students in not getting left behind.

this was what I always thought, anyway. so maybe we could propose to Pallas that only certain levels of classes should have pacing guides, or at least allow the more advanced levels to stray from the guides.

do you guys agree? what do you think of my reasoning?

You are absolutely right! It does give structure! I am an advanced level student,so thats my only stand point!I guess I should of looked at the other side of the story!

Sorry!
Sara

i have had teachers express a dislike for the pacing guide. my french teacher hated it, because she liked to do very hands on activites to get us to leanr, and the pacing guide didn't accomadate that. but, we ignored it sometimes, and got through all the material by the end of class, because our eacher knew ways to speed up certain things the pacing guide had alloted more time for. so, pacing guides can in some cases hinder the teacher just as much as the students.

another thing. i'm not sure if this is just my school (arundel) or just one department, but my government teacher told our class that they had deleted level 2. so, all the kids who shold've been in there, got moved up to level 3. so, the upper bunch of level 3 kids got moved up to honors. they made the pacing guide slower to accomdate them. so, all the kids who deserved to be in honors had to move slower. i think that's just really wrong. i get bored and easily distracted when the class doesn't move at a decent pace. and, there's not too many options other than honors at arundel, since we have a pretty small AP program.

but, i do see the need for pacing guides in classes with discipline issues. i quite like the idea of upper levels not having a pacing guide. it would give the kids and the teachers more freedom, making our whole learning expeirence better.

i agree. pacing guides are not needed as much for higher level classes. for lower classes, they should be used, but they should be general so teachers can adjust them to how fast the classes are moving. For higher level classes, they should have outlines of what should be taught because teachers arent always responsible enough to prepare students for final tests. That way they know what needs to be taught without guidelines for how quickly.

[quote="saget1"]i agree. pacing guides are not needed as much for higher level classes. for lower classes, they should be used, but they should be general so teachers can adjust them to how fast the classes are moving. For higher level classes, they should have outlines of what should be taught because teachers arent always responsible enough to prepare students for final tests.[/quote]

I don?¢Ç«®Ç—¢t believe it?¢Ç«®Ç—¢s the country responsibility to provide the outlines in which teachers are suppose to teach, it is the teachers responsibility to create a rubric and their method of teaching. The pacing guide establishes how long they should be required to teach those aspects of that course. For the higher students, I believe they need this because of the amount of material that needs to be covered. Since they are high leveled students they should be aware of the responsibility carried out in their established course selection.

If they cannot cut it in this kind of pace and environment what?¢Ç«®Ç—¢s going to prepare them for the future? Pacing guides are a good thing I believe, it finally reaches out so that everyone is on the same subjects. The transitions become easier that way to, to say if you are going from one school to another. I feel more organized and better to know how long I am covering a subject and what is being covered in that subject.

i agree with the opinion that there should be guidelines as to what content is required, but i think there should be room for a teacher's creativity. for example, 2006 will be a major election year here in maryland, and how cool would it be for government classes to have some hands-on experience in the political process? (it doesn't have to be partisan) i think that pacing guides discourage that kind of thing, which is a real shame. the classes could be a lot more interesting and students would retain more knowledge if the teachers were allowed and even encouraged to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves and be creative!!

[b]Pacing Guides Hurt Students?[/b]

Although I have noticed that pacing guides stress teachers (sometimes unnecessarily) to teach certain concepts on certain days, I have [i]not[/i] noticed students being held back by them. It is my understanding that different level classes have different guides, allowing them to have a better suited curriculum.

[b]Pacing Guides Help Students.[/b]

Before pacing guides, parents and students were not guaranteed the same education from one school to the next. While I recognize that teacher individuality is not stressed in the Guides as much as it should be, Pacing Guides have standardized curriculum across the many schools in our county. Now, every student in Anne Arundel County has access to the same, good-quality education. It is for these reasons that I support Pacing Guides in Anne Arundel County.

pacing guides should only standardize as much as, for example, requiring that government classes must study the three branches of government, history of government, etc. however the very standardized, very structured guides like "one week for the composition of water" in biology, or whatever it is, are bad for students. teachers must be able to assess their students, see what needs more time and what can be sped up, and be specific to the classes' needs. there should be a guarantee that everyone gets a fair shot by being exposed to the same material, but it shouldn't go to the extent of specific pacing guides that focus on the average student, and ignore the above-average and below-average. we don't deserve that, we deserve an education that is best for everyone, not the statistics!

That is a great analysis!

Your ideas make so much sense.

thank you, i try :wink:

i agree, victoria is completely right!

danke! but shouldn't this forum get back to actually talking about pacing guides instead of getting off onto some tangent about how great and wonderful i am? not that i mind.... just kidding

So If you agree with victoria_vidal raise your hand... well in this case type yay!

Yay!Who's with me!!? :?: :D

Typing yay for every yes vote will just clog this forum. I'm creating a poll [url=http://www.aacstudents.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=41]here[/url] where you can vote -- it'll be much easier to see the results too.

can we just get back to discussing pacing guides? i'm sure there are people out there who have a point to make and their comments will make this topic infinately more interesting. so please, speak up.

I think (like most people) that Pacing guides have strong and weak aspects. I have found that some teachers stick exactly with the pacing guide, leaving some students bored and others confused. I do not think that we should settel for an education like that. We should be being challanged, and we should be able to get apropriate help. For example, We all know that some concepts (mostly in math courses) are alot easier then others. If pacing guides say to spend an equal amount of time on both topics students will probably get bored on the easier and be confused on the harder concept. I believe that Teachers should be able to gauge where their students are and alter the time accordingly.

I don't like the pacing guides. Now every time we go to class the teacher says "Well it's in the pacing guide." I know my teachers at my old school taught better without the pacing guides (private school) and I'm sure the teachers here could do the same.

Regards
Brian :)

THe one benifit of the pacing guides is that they try to keep the classes together. But this doesn't always work. The teachers should just talk to each other. Instead of being limited to the pacing guide.