MORE Cheating Scandals in Schools ....

That's why I quit teaching and went into librarianship. I still get to interact with the students and teach them things they need like how to research, use databases, use Microsoft Office applications, and of course share great books with them. Until the government got involved I loved teaching and using my talents to get concepts into their heads. I was forced into using a district-wide math program that was scripted. My students didn't get fractions, so I used food and they got it. I used whole pizzas and pies (on different days) for round fractions. We cut them, took out pieces and they were able to tell the fraction left or the fraction that was missing. We took it deeper by tasting the different kinds of pizza or pie and deciding which was their favorite. We graphed the results. For bar fractions we used Hershey's bars or Kit Kat already sectioned or I would cut up other kinds of candy bars. When it came time to put it to paper, I would tell them to remember the pizzas & pies and the candy bars. We did sort of the same thing with M&Ms. Students had their own bag, and they charted how many of each color were in the bag. We did a class chart of all results then predicted what would be in an unopened bag...critical thinking and reasoning skills! My students kicked butt on tests requiring fractions, charts and graphs, and predicting. Now, thanks to government regulations, teachers may no longer use food for lessons if the students are going to eat in during the school day. WTH!
I loved teaching, but could no longer handle the BS that I felt tied my hands to get concepts across.