I Suffer from FOEA- Fear of Education Acronyms!

I didn't always fear acronyms. Acronyms like PEMDAS, RARE, SWAP, are good acronyms. Their sole job? To help my students remember, like all good acronyms do.

But alas, acronyms have become something for teachers to fear. Whenever, there is a new acronym introduced into education, it strikes fear in our hearts. You know what I'm talking about. It seems that about every 6 months, a new one is introduced. One that I'm really afraid of in DE is,  DCAS (Delaware ...) Ok, I can't lie, I don't even know what it stands for! I just know it means test the hell out of our kids.

Within the past year, we have been introduced to the Common Core Standards(CCSS). Supposedly, it will help prepare our children to be College and Career Ready(CCR), using terms like RI(Reading Informational),  RL(Reading Literacy), NBT(Numbers and Operations in Base Ten, etc... My head is about to burst!

We have to create lesson plans using the LFS(Learning Focused Schools) templates to prepare our students for SBA (Smarter Balanced Assessment ), which will be completed using CBT(Computer Based Testing). Of course my evaluation, DPAS (Delaware Performance Appraisal System), will be tied to these scores.We are fully aware that all the testing nonsense started with NCLB (No Child Left Behind), another wonderful education acronym.

And the one I fear most of late? ANT (Another New Thing). Every time this acronym rears it's ugly head, I find myself buried beneath it.

You know what acronym I would like to introduce to the powers that be? It's a long one. PLMAALMT(Please Leave Me Alone and Let Me Teach). Now, that's an acronym I could love!:)