Trailblazers....yuck

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Home : 2002 : February : 20

Trailblazers....yuck
By Louise

Our school uses Trailblazers and let me tell you I hated it. Some of it I used but I used mostly my experience and other materials to teach math. Trailblazers wastes a lot of time on little things that are not important.
There are a lot of things that are procedures that you waste time on. It is a spiral program so each year builds on the last so it is difficult to start the program brand new at say third grade because you have to teach all those "procedures" that would have been taught in k, 1, and 2. It also is difficult to introduce to new students.
After we began this program the district decided it

didn't match up with the state standards (meaning the state tests) so we are getting rid of it after 2 years. What a waste of money!

I don't know how your programs were chosen, but in our district a committee chooses a few programs that meet the district standards and then gives them to the schools and try out. We were given a choice between 2 programs. We really didn't like either one. They the whole district votes and the winner is what we get.

Constuctivism in general, I believe, is a good approach because it is building on what children already know to take them to the next step. So I am not sure what the point is with that.

As for the "Captain Underpants" thing... well that is just crazy to make a big deal out of that. They want to BAN it from the schools? Maybe it is not the best read aloud books because that is a time when you want to try to introduce different kinds of books to students. On the other hand maybe the teacher was trying to motivate her students to read SOMETHING.This seems like a problem that the parents can work out with the teacher instead of taking to the school board.

If the parents want to get rid of Trailblazers I say great. However they need to know how expensive it will be. Text programs usually get renewed about every 7 years. How long has the district been using it? It may be time for a change anyway.