Things Could Be Better

In “Could be better” from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin

“Instead, when we care enough to say, “could be better,” we’re putting ourselves on the hook to create.”

Every day I try to do at least one thing to improve my quality of life. This could be doing some cleaning, some decluttering, some home improvement, or even yard work. I want to do at least one thing that could make my life better.

This is something that I want to have my students learn. They are always capable of doing something that could make things better for themselves. It doesn’t matter what their academic ability is, there is always something that can be done to improve things.

Just doing at least one thing every day, can help my mood and my outlook on life. It makes me feel productive and valuable. Students can feel the same way. As a role model, I can show them how I do this and how it can affect my life.

What do you do to make things better for yourself? Please share.

Photo by Hoang Le on Unsplash

Is Working Hard Good Enough?

In Don’t Chase the Cat: Determining When Interruptions Are Worthwhile from Cool Cat Teacher Blog by coolcatteacher@gmail.com, Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher  shares,

“Just like working hard at pointless work does not bring success — working hard at pointless conversations doesn’t make successful relationships.”

This really made sense to me and if you have time, please go read her whole article! It is motivating and inspiring!

My husband and I call pointless work as “spinning our wheels.”

Too many times I’m caught doing things and I guess I’m a slow learning because sometimes it takes me a while to stop and think, “Why am I doing this? What is the purpose?”

Many times, I do something because that is always the way I’ve done it and I hate it. So, why not think of a different way to do it?

For example, I used to clean house on Saturdays and spend hours doing this, whining the whole time. Then I decided that there had to be a better way. I wrote a list of all the regular cleaning that I do and spread it out over 2 weeks. Some things I needed to do every week, some only every other week, and some every day. By doing this, I’m only spending about an hour each day doing something I hate but I’m getting more accomplished than when I save it all for one day! At first I felt guilty that I wasn’t spending hours cleaning because I didn’t feel like I was working hard enough. Then I realized that working hard enough doesn’t mean the length of time but the quality of work involved. I was doing much better work this way than the old way. So, what I first thought was “hard work” was not only not efficient but it also wasn’t effective!

So now, after reading this article, I am going to be more aware of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. What is the purpose of what I’m doing? Am I doing it out of habit or does it have real meaning?

I think this is important for students to learn this also. I feel that students especially have trouble deciding why they act the way they do. Sometimes their body acts before their mind does or vice versa. It would be good for them to practice this mindfulness and it might help them be more successful in the things they do.

How do you feel about working hard? Please share?

What is She Thinking?

In the article Haley budget proposal includes teacher recruitment program By SEANNA ADCOX (Associated Press), it is mentioned that

“S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley's plan for recruiting and retaining teachers in districts with the state's highest teacher-turnover rates includes the following:

—Students would get up to four years of tuition at a public college paid by committing to teach in a district where annual turnover exceeds 12 percent. Currently, 21 districts meet that definition. The person must teach two years for every year of tuition paid.

—Teachers already out of college could get their student loans paid off by moving to one of those districts. They would get one year's worth of tuition paid off for every year they teach.”

When I first heard this, I felt disturbed and unsettled by this. On the surface it sounds good but then I began to think about the assumptions that this plan makes.

By luring teachers to places where the turnover rate is high does not mean that those districts will get quality teachers. It just means that they get warm bodies. Is she implying that only quality teachers have student loans?

If these teachers happen to be enthusiastic and quality teachers, why do those districts with high turnover rates deserve them? I pay taxes and the students in my district deserve these teachers too.  Why shouldn’t all teachers in our state deserve the same opportunity?

Are we punishing the schools that are doing well and having positive results but luring their teachers away by dangling a financial carrot? Why should they be punished by losing quality teachers? What will happen to this school? Do they have to hire less qualified teachers? 

I don’t like the idea that there may be great teachers who are happy where they are but because they refuse to be relocated, may have to leave the great profession of teaching because the state insists that they go to a poorer run school or lose financial help that is given to others.

By attracting teachers to these districts, we aren’t getting to the root of the problem. We are only putting a band-aid over the wound but the problem is still there. Why isn’t someone using the money to figure out why the turnover rate is so high?  Are we not getting rid of the problem at one school and creating a new one at another?

All of this money incentives may have a negative connotation and make the public think quality education is all about the money and that is all that teachers think about.

If decision makers would look at surveys taken by teachers, they would see major concerns include red tape, excessive paperwork, redundancy in reports, ineffective administrators, inconsistent discipline, lack of flexibility, and over reliance on test scores. These are a few of the problems that could lead to high turnovers in schools.

I don’t think this is the answer to improving the quality of education in our state.  But maybe I’m missing something and you can help me understand this better.

How do you feel about this program? Please share.

Image: 'SAY WHAAAT' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46915177@N06/5739815633
Found on flickrcc.net

Teachers You Don’t Want To Meet

After reading Ten Knitters You Meet In Hell by Franklin Habit, I thought about the teachers that I have crossed across in the classroom that have caused my skin to crawl. I used the same titles he did because they were awesome titles but I give you a description of that teacher in the classroom.

The Divine Presence: She knows everything but wants to keep it a secret so she is the only one who has this information. She doesn’t want to share her knowledge but expects you to know that she is great guru. She expects you to worship the ground she walks on because she is the most experienced and most knowledgeable above everyone else. She doesn’t work well with others and doesn’t believe in collaboration! And she knows more than the administration but just doesn’t understand why they don’t acknowledge this to the whole faculty!

Vaguerella: She is always late to her classroom and never can find the worksheets that she planned on handing out. Her lesson plans (if she has any) are buried underneath the papers on her desk. She has an objective for the lesson but can’t seem to remember what it was. And the papers that she graded last night but promised to return them last week are at home on the table. Oh well, you can get them at another time. Oh, but you will be tested on this stuff probably tomorrow. So, if she can’t find what she needs, it is a good day for her to tell stories about her personal life, even if it doesn’t pertain to the lesson. Oh, and if a colleague needs some forms, information, or materials, that person will get it…some time…someday…but probably not today.

The Four-Minute Egg: The teacher gives the lesson in the first four minutes of class. The rest of the time, you are expected to practice. Even if you mastered the skill, you still have to work out the 100 problems that you are given. When the teacher sees you understand it and have gotten the first 10 problems correct, you are told to go on and do the rest of them. If you are finished, copy by hand all of the notes on the board because practicing penmanship is good for you.

Burnt Toast: The same lesson has been taught for the past 10 years. The pictures show outdated styles and you can’t get past the pictures to pay attention to the lesson. No new technology is used to teach this lesson because teaching it the same way means the teacher doesn’t have to plan anything new (or learn anything new). The teacher even seems bored with this lesson and recites the lesson in a monotone voice! Look around the classroom and you will probably see a few kids taking a nap!

The Prison Matron: The lesson is choreographed right down to every minute. No breaks or pencil sharpening. Don’t ask questions because that throws the timetable off. If you don’t understand, you will have to come on your own time and not throw off the class schedule. Don’t ask for any special treatment and if you are sick, you better make sure you have all the notes, and homework done even if you are in the hospital having surgery! Who cares if you are under anesthesia! Everyone will be assessed the same way. No alternate assessment or meeting anyone’s needs. This isn’t Burger King! You don’t get it your way!

Have you ever met these teachers? Do you know of any others that I missed? Please share!

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Image: 'Boring'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11273024@N07/1467681879

Quality vs. Seniority

Scott MCleod talks about Teacher layoffs: Should seniority rule? in his blog Dangerously Irrelevant. He states,

“As budget cuts loom again in many states, employee termination, seniority, and ‘bumping rights’ are in the news. The essential issue is whether organizational leaders should be able to retain the employees they think are the most highly-skilled or whether seniority (or some other factor) should be employed instead. ‘Highly skilled’ in this instance means ‘employee quality’ or ‘best fit for employer needs,’ both of which are typically defined by the organization, not the employee or union.”

I truly believe that in our efforts to protect teachers from illegal personnel practices, we have gone overboard. I think we have done this to the point where we are doing a disservice to our students. Good teachers should keep their job and if they have seniority and experience, it shouldn’t be hard to show they are good teachers. The problem is that there is no uniform measure on what makes a “good teacher.” What one principal may consider high quality teaching may not be the same for another principal. I still think that is okay because maybe that school was not the right fit for them to be on the same team.

I have worked at one school where my efforts to communicate with parents and develop a rapport with them in order to help my students be successful were applauded. My students were successful and discipline problems with my class were practically nonexistent. At another school, I was told that I was too close to the parents and the community. In fact, the principal felt that because I lived in the same community as my students, I should go outside the community to do my grocery shopping. He obviously did not feel I was a “good teacher” so it was time to move on to another school where the principal had the same values as me.

At another school, I worked with a teacher who had been teaching for about 17 years but she was terrible. She did not teach her self contained students effectively, showed lots of R rated videos, and basically did very little teaching and even though the parents complained, it took three years to go through the process of firing her. Three years is a lot of wasted time in a child’s school life. They have wasted ¼ of their education years and they don’t have that time to waste! The reason it took so many years to fire her was the fear of litigation, so the school had to document and offer time to improve, and then more documentation that improvement was not happening. I’m sure there were many highly skilled newer teachers out there that could have been more effective in this classroom but because she had seniority, she was given benefits that brand new teachers are not given.

Our state does not have unions and we are a right-to-work state but I think teachers are protected pretty well due to fear of lawsuits. Lawsuits will cost the school district lots of money at the expense of the taxpayer. We need to get out of this fear mentality and make sure we are having good effective teachers who are offering a high quality education to our students. If teachers are not doing so, they are making the rest of us who are trying to do this look bad.

I do not have an answer to how to evaluate teachers in order to find out how well they are teaching because I know that an administrator is already stretched too thin. There is also the problem of personality conflicts and the impossibility of uniform evaluating. I do think administrators need to be in the classroom observing more. My school had 2300 students and even though there were four assistant principals, it was impossible to deal with discipline problems, day to day operations, and get in all of the classrooms more than once a year if that much. I think observing in the classrooms is the only way administrators will know what is going on in the classroom.

Maybe they need to put cameras in the classroom. I think it has helped with making sure state troopers follow the rules as well as protecting their rights too. If there is any doubt about a teacher’s teaching practices, a video would show evidence. This would protect students and teachers from false accusations as well as evidence to prove otherwise. If the video shows the accusations are true, then the student or teacher should be dealt with immediately.

I do not believe that seniority should be more important than high quality teaching if we want our students to be successful in life. What do you think?

Original image: 'Teaching is not Rocket Science' http://www.flickr.com/photos/91312924@N00/2942564830 by: Dean Shareski

Longer is Not Always Better

In Longer School Days Coming? from No Margins by ejr, she states,

“I'm not against longer school days or longer school years; I work year-round anyway. But I am against hoping against hope that somehow a longer school day or year will make a difference. Curricula need to be re-evaluated, standards may even need to be reconsidered, and classroom teachers as well as school staffs and administrators have to be better prepared to think differently and with the long view about improving the educational experience for students.”

I totally agree with Elaine. I don’t believe that the length of the day makes as much of a difference as the quality of education given in a day. I have seen too many teachers give their students busy work while they take on the role of babysitter. How will these students improve or grow in knowledge if they just do the same things, only for a longer period of time. Just like the saying goes, “It isn’t quantity but quality.”

I feel that we need to do a better job with evaluating and training teachers to give a quality education. We also need to train teachers how to cope with the burden of all the paperwork while teaching quality lessons. I know that we teach quality in colleges, but when overwhelmed with the paperwork and red tape of every day responsibilities, it seems as if quality is the first thing to go.

I have a problem when choosing curriculum becomes a political choice rather than what is in the best interest of the students. Many decision makers will say that it isn’t so but many of us in education has seen this happen. How many textbooks were chosen for the state because of politics? How many people on state school boards actually know what is going on in the schools and look at what is in the best interest of the students and not the state. How many politicians are making decisions about what is going on in schools when they have no idea what is going on in the schools? How many politicians have spent a few days in the classroom to understand what is actually going on?

As head of the department, I watched while it took three years to get rid of a terrible teacher. Three years is a long time in a student’s life. Three years that a group of students wasted their time and missed out on a quality education. The system needs to be overhauled if it takes that long to get rid of a bad teacher. No wonder that parents and politicians blame the schools. But they also need to take in account politics and lawsuits. We had to document all the bad teaching so this teacher didn’t turn around and sue the school. Maybe it is just me, but that is ridiculous. After the first year of evaluation, the teacher was put on an improvement plan for the second year. Then the second year, she didn’t improve so she was put on probation for the third year and finally suspended from teaching. Even after the suspension she got paid until the school board decided to terminate her employment. I don’t know many other jobs that you would be given three years if you did a terrible job.

Even if we increase the length of the day, and we still give garbage teaching, what are we accomplishing? I’m not saying all teachers are bad or that all schools have terrible curriculum but if we don’t look at the big picture, the effective teachers and the effective curriculum will be buried under all the other junk. As taxpayers, we should expect the most bang for our buck and that doesn’t mean just more time. In order for our students to be successful, we need to improve the quality of the schools and not just the quantity of seat time.

Original image: 'Teaching is not Rocket Science' http://www.flickr.com/photos/91312924@N00/2942564830 by: Dean Shareski