from Dangerously Irrelevant, Scott McLeod shares,
“…teachers are often asked to focus on the minutia. They are judged on their compliance regarding the physical space of their classrooms, the rigid format of their lesson and their ability to follow clerical procedures. In the process, teachers, indeed entire schools, become focused with things that have little to do with what it means to teach and to learn.”
I love the beginning of the school year! Students are fresh and hopefully ready to learn (or at least be in a new situation because they are bored with summer). Teachers are full of ideas and ready to try out new strategies that they have picked up over the summer.
There are good teachers out there and it seems like the district focuses on the struggling ones. The good ones get no attention, not at school and definitely not in the media.
I know our district has the Teacher of the Year where one teacher is picked for each school and then is given the opportunity to compete for District and then State Teacher of the Year. I think that is a good thing but what about all those hundreds of other teachers out there every day who are doing wonderful things? One TV station does a Golden Apple award each week which I find interesting and I like that. But they have to be nominated and I just can’t imagine some of my special ed students nominating me, not because they don’t like me but they are intimidated by the nomination process.
I am hoping this year to seek out the teachers out there who are doing great things in their classrooms. These are the teachers that you don’t always hear about because they like to stay low key. They don’t seek the spotlight and just want their students to succeed. I hope you will check here often and catch my interviews with these people. I think these people deserve a pat on the back and they will never ask for it!
Do you have teachers like this in your district? How do you give them a pat on the back and show them that they matter? Please share.
Image: '::An apple a day keeps the doctor away but if the doctor is cute screw the fruit::'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66548401@N00/3671279831
Found on flickrcc.net
1 comment:
Our district has "Teacher of the Year" awards, but you're right--too many go unrecognized. What is also bad are some of the best refuse to even accept the nomination. The most talented and dedicated and reflective teacher in our building has adamantly refused to get nominated; in her mind, she is just doing her job, her mission--she teaches because of the kids, not for any award.
What would make wonderful "awards" was if our parents wrote letters or cards--after their children have "graduated" from us, or even during the school year while we have their kids. A thoughtful note is better than any store-bought gift, and will help bolster and sustain us when times get tough.
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