This actually has absolutely nothing to do with this class other than it is on the internet and it's about education. I found the article rather poignant not because it bashed on parents or because it allowed teachers to blame everyone but themselves for the problems of education, but because it does what few administrations (local, district, campus, state, federal) and communities fail to do: recognizing/rewarding good teachers. And I don't mean the Ron Clarks or the Freedom Writers of the world, but those teachers in the trenches everyday.
So often, our societies (maybe this is part of our Puritan culture), especially in education, recognize only the BAD teachers . . . or the obnoxiously perfect ones that we average teachers could never come close to replicating. I'm willing to bet, we could each open our home town newspapers today and find at least one story about an evil teacher, principal, coach, school board member, superintendent, etc., but we'd be lucky to find a single mention of a good educator.
I've also been thinking a lot about our state professional evaluation process (PDAS). In Texas we offer the labels "below expectations", "proficient", and "exceeds". As Rhonda, Salinger, and Blakester can tell you, there's been much heated discussion about these labels lately, but it wasn't until this morning that I realized something. "Proficient" isn't an insult; it means we do our jobs. No matter where a person works, upon hiring, there is a set of expectations that employee is to live up to whether he's flipping burgers at McDonald's or teaching kids. "Proficient" merely means we are completing all our assigned tasks. Unfortunately, teachers have an ever growing, infinitely complex list. It's no longer special to be wiki-ing, moodle-ing, Flickr-ing, blogging, etc. Web 2.0 IS the expectation. Granted, I'm sure there are a lot of crappy teachers who also receive "proficient" because it's easier to give than a "below expectations", but this also allows for those teachers who may not be paperwork mavens but are still good in the classroom to remain "proficient". Personally, I know I do my job and I don't care what I'm labeled. Admittedly, in the past, I was concerned with how my superiors and colleagues saw me, but, as the list of "things to do" has grown to unending lengths, I've found that I don't HAVE to be perfect on anyone's scale but my own.
So often, our societies (maybe this is part of our Puritan culture), especially in education, recognize only the BAD teachers . . . or the obnoxiously perfect ones that we average teachers could never come close to replicating. I'm willing to bet, we could each open our home town newspapers today and find at least one story about an evil teacher, principal, coach, school board member, superintendent, etc., but we'd be lucky to find a single mention of a good educator.
I've also been thinking a lot about our state professional evaluation process (PDAS). In Texas we offer the labels "below expectations", "proficient", and "exceeds". As Rhonda, Salinger, and Blakester can tell you, there's been much heated discussion about these labels lately, but it wasn't until this morning that I realized something. "Proficient" isn't an insult; it means we do our jobs. No matter where a person works, upon hiring, there is a set of expectations that employee is to live up to whether he's flipping burgers at McDonald's or teaching kids. "Proficient" merely means we are completing all our assigned tasks. Unfortunately, teachers have an ever growing, infinitely complex list. It's no longer special to be wiki-ing, moodle-ing, Flickr-ing, blogging, etc. Web 2.0 IS the expectation. Granted, I'm sure there are a lot of crappy teachers who also receive "proficient" because it's easier to give than a "below expectations", but this also allows for those teachers who may not be paperwork mavens but are still good in the classroom to remain "proficient". Personally, I know I do my job and I don't care what I'm labeled. Admittedly, in the past, I was concerned with how my superiors and colleagues saw me, but, as the list of "things to do" has grown to unending lengths, I've found that I don't HAVE to be perfect on anyone's scale but my own.
This post is so well stated. And it doesn't help that our own governor would like to funnel more money into his charter school ideas. I have joked about TEA being part of the TCI (Texas Correctional Institution), but when I stop and think about it seriously, it just makes me sad. Our students are motivated more by our praise than their grades (except the grade grubbers), and maybe that is something that is hard to out grow.
ReplyDeleteThe labels that many of us must face, overcome, or disprove seem to do more harm than good. Once again, the great state's standards for its teachers seem to be an unachievable goal, like a 3 on an open-ended response question. If the state actually expects a teacher and her students to perform at the highest level of bloom's while participating in student-centered learning activities (and all of the other measures on PDAS) at 90% of the time or higher -- that is 81 minutes at least in a 90 minute classroom, then they are expecting the impossible. Between classroom interruptions, phone calls, students leaving and coming, announcements, the unpredictable mood of teenagers, the boring stuff that teachers have to muddle through on some days, and the classroom activities, 81 minutes of perfection is quite a task. Fortunately, most administrators get this, so they don't carry a stopwatch to the evaluation to time the amount of perfection. They score holistically.
ReplyDeleteSo, why is it necessary to criticize one of the hardest working, most dedicated, self-sacrificial group of people (educators) when we already receive very little validation for all that we endure to make our students better thinkers and productive citizens?
When the SBEC, comprised of educators who have not been in a classroom in decades or non-educators who let their own religious beliefs or idealistic expectations control the curriculum, have the power to create the curriculum, influence the textbook companies, and evaluate teachers, those in the "trenches" suffer. Unfortunately, this suffering is not only endured by the educators but by the students as well.
This is one of those moments when I need an alter ego for my alter ego. We must learn to do what is right (for our kids and the world) regardless of the rules (or to spite the rules); not an easy task for most teachers. As depressing as the situation is, we are all that is standing between our kids and the bullet, which I'd rather take for them, without question.
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