A teacher's op ed: "everyone these days seems to think they know my job better than I do."

madfloridian

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Thu Mar-31-11 07:30 PM
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A teacher's op ed: "everyone these days seems to think they know my job better than I do."

That is the truth. People who have never been in a classroom, mayors, politicians, billionaires looking for investments...they all seem to think they know better than teachers.

I like the way this teacher expresses himself in his opinion piece for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Experience makes teachers better — we’re worth the cost

When I have a leaky pipe in my home, I call my plumber. I wouldn’t dream of telling him how to do his job, nor would I be able to do what he does. I could say the same thing about all my friends and relatives who have occupations and careers that differ from mine.

That is why I am both amazed and angered over the fact that everyone these days seems to think they know my job better than I do.

I have been a public school teacher in Illinois for the last 36 years, but now everyone from Bill Gates to Rahm Emanuel, from state and federal politicians to the pundits on cable news stations, seems to think they know how to teach.

He points out that having billions of dollars doesn't make one an authority on "how to engage, entertain, inspire, motivate and educate a classroom of 25 10- and 11-year-olds for 6½ hours each day."

Very true. It takes skill and experience in knowing what works and what just makes matters worse. You can not script a successful classroom, it is something that comes together by putting someone in there who knows how to motivate and inspire.

The writer makes some very good points about tenure, points many of us have tried to make. Yet we get drowned out by the calls to "get rid" of bad teachers. Explaining that it takes years of being a good teacher to get tenure...makes no difference at all.

You see, tenure doesn’t just protect those bad teachers we always hear about; it also protects a multitude of good teachers. It protects them against the ire of the local bank president whose son got a D on his report card and whose brother-in-law is on the school board. It protects them against budget cuts when it would be very easy to get rid of the more expensive and experienced staff members. It gives them time to acquire the knowledge and wisdom they need to become master teachers.

Excellent op ed by a teacher who knows how much experience means.

The Gates Foundation just came up with the most telling thing that has happened lately. It shows us that putting brand new teachers with no experience and just a few weeks training as teacher into the classrooms isn't working.

Bill Gates is planning to equip new Teach for America teachers with earbuds so they can be successful. I wonder if he knew that would come across as an admission that teachers either need experience....or they must have someone on the other end of the transmission telling them how to conduct a lesson.

Bill Gates and his earbuds...an admission that experience does count.

TFA Teachers will get live in-ear feedback just like NFL coaches thanks to technology funded by the Gates Foundation. Picture from FastCompany article

Teachers-in-training will have their very own personal angel to discreetly coach them through new lesson plans, with the same ear-bud wiring that feeds live information to NFL coaches. Teach for America is hoping that private coaching will speed up the painstakingly slow process of teacher development, allowing teachers to get both tailored instruction and the experience of being at the head of the classroom, without risking a disaster for students.

Just think of all the experienced teachers who were fired or laid off so this new teacher could have the earbuds.

"Once a teacher understands what it feels like to be successful, it takes root immediately," Monica Jordan, coordinator of teacher professional development in Memphis City Schools, told Education Week.

The experimental group of teachers is willing, if hesitant. "I thought, what if they say something in my ear and I lose my train of thought?" said algebra teacher Cynthia Law. "And then I thought, so what if I lose my train of thought, I'll figure it out," Law continued, confidently, "I'm not a play-it-safe person. I'm willing for my kids' sake to look foolish."

Three cities are getting this service right now from Bill Gates.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding the work in Memphis, Tampa and New York, hoping to prove that tailoring professional development raises the needle on test scores.

I'm with the teacher who wrote the op ed:

When I think of all the students I have taught; the countless classes and workshops I have attended; the out-of-pocket dollars I have spent on supplies that were not provided; the 30 summers I worked to help make ends meet, and the fact that I have become a better teacher with each passing year, I feel like I am worth it.

Just like my plumber, Ray, who was one of my students.

I keep hoping someone in this administration will realize the harm being done to good teachers, but they have not so far.

Recently President Obama said these words:

“...We have piled on a lot of standardized tests on our kids. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a standardized test being given occasionally just to give a baseline of where kids are at. Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, they just recently took a standardized test. But it wasn’t a high-stakes test. It wasn’t a test where they had to panic. I mean, they didn’t even really know that they were going to take it ahead of time. They didn’t study for it, they just went ahead and took it. And it was a tool to diagnose where they were strong, where they were weak, and what the teachers needed to emphasize.

“Too often what we’ve been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools. And so what we’ve said is let’s find a test that everybody agrees makes sense; let’s apply it in a less pressured-packed atmosphere; let’s figure out whether we have to do it every year or whether we can do it maybe every several years; and let’s make sure that that’s not the only way we’re judging whether a school is doing well.

I agree 100% with President Obama, let's not keep using the standardized tests that way.

He also said:

“So what I want to do is -- one thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you’re not learning about the world; you’re not learning about different cultures, you’re not learning about science, you’re not learning about math. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test. And that’s not going to make education interesting to you. And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in. They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring.”

Obama bashes his own education policies

I agree with him 100%. Then why is his administration pushing for this testing which is narrowing our curriculum to the standards set by the testmakers? Is he not aware of his own policy.

I would like to quote Anthony Cody, a science teacher in Oakland in the inner city. In the article he points out that "either President Obama is trying to mislead people, or he is unfamiliar with the policies being advanced by his very own secretary of education, who was seated just a few feet away from him at this event."

These last two years I have seen public school teachers being subjected to the most degrading attacks ever. I talk to career teacher friends of mine who have devoted themselves to their kids and their school.

I am with Anthony Cody...does the president know his education policy or not?

And I am with the teacher who is tired of everyone thinking they know how to do his job better than he does.