Question – I have been teaching for starting my 7th year in granite district. I spent two years in preschool and the last going on my fifth in the OEK kinder program. While I was teaching preK they would focus our trainings on purposeful teaching that we are suppose to look at what we need to teach and find the best most fun way to teach it. I think of this often, I sometimes see projects or things done in school and think what is the purpose behind it. I have one child in preK and 3 adopted teenagers who all attend granite schools and sometimes I see projects that take two days and I cannot find one purpose in it, other then it is fun. I get frustrated, I am a kindergarten teacher who makes sure I do purposeful things. I think if my child struggles in art I would put him in a art class, I would not look to the school to provide this. I do realize we introduce a lot of things to students and believe this is good, but I get frustrated when I see projects that do not have a purpose and take soooo much time away from academics. Being in kindergarten it is very easy to find cutesy things but they usually do not have a purpose. I think this is a fluff we can cut out. Thank you for listening to my complaint and I hope it is of some use.

Response – Thank you for your thoughts.  You’re right on point.  Kindergarten lays the foundation for high school graduation which is the reason our public school system exists.  Thus, beginning with kindergarten (and in pre-K as well), any and all activities should have a pedagogical objective straight from the core.  It should just about go without saying that activities that are meaningful, relevant and engaging (aka “fun”) will be learned and retained.  To that end we’ll assume your use of the word “purposeful” means focused on student proficiency in the Utah Core Standards which have been prescribed for all grade levels, including kindergarten, and in all content areas, including arts.  With the 13-14 school year, the state will start holding schools accountable with the UCAS system which, we discovered from the dry run last year, is really a measure of fidelity to the state core (NOT fidelity to a particular tool).  We highly encourage teachers to use curriculum maps, pacing guides and, where available, screener and benchmark tools for purposes of planning, teaching and assessing learning.  As a practical matter, being able to demonstrate student growth along the lines of the core curriculum (all subjects) is becoming a matter of job security – thanks to SB 64.  The district is working as quickly as possible to develop helps and tools teachers can use to these ends.