SOS
When I think of teaching, I think of planning lessons that are designed around kids and maximizing their learning. I think of activities that get kids excited about a particular subject and I think about if they just don't understand then we'll do it again a different way. When the government thinks of teaching, they think of test scores, money, and competition with other countries. The government also thinks about how to hold teachers accountable for student learning. Now, this is a tricky issue. You see, I believe that teachers need to be held accountable for the learning of their students- gone are the days when a Spanish teacher can pop in an Antonio Bandaras video and call it learning spanish. Accountability should mean prove to me that this is a valid lesson aligned with our standards and that it is beneficial for student learning. Instead, accountability is here is an approved curriculum, here are the state standards, fill in the gaps (which are large and frequent), and your students must have mastery of this concept at this point in time when we have scheduled the test. This is not accountability. It does not take into consideration the biggest factor of student learning: the student. Each student is unique and learns in a different way at a different pace. Each student has a very diverse background of experiences that are beyond teacher control and beyond the school day. So to fix this major problem, there is a trend in education of teacher collaboration and school improvement plans and meetings to address these issues. Now again, we have a sticky situation; studies (and my limited experience) show that teacher collaboration, common assessments, and school improvement plans are beneficial to student learning. HOWEVER, my limited experience has also taught me that no matter what you do as a teacher, no matter how much time you put into your day planning, prepping, reflecting, reteaching if necessary, assessing, etc, no matter how good of a teacher you are- you're not doing enough. Don't get me wrong, there is always room for improvement in any individual in any type of work. But it seems that with teaching no matter how good you are, you just aren't good enough.
I consider myself a very good teacher. I won't be modest when I discuss my plans, my successes, my failures and what I have learned from them. But none of that matters because although I put in well over 40 hours a week (as does EVERY teacher in the world), its just not enough for the government. Put in more time, take additional clock hours and credits, and oh yeah, make sure your kids know this within the next two weeks on top of EVERYTHING else you need to teach them. And are these clock hours and credits offered during the summer months or school breaks when you have time to digest and apply what you have learned? Of course not! They are after school, in the middle of the week, when you nod along, take the information and toss it into a file to read when you have time.
ARRGHHHHHH! It is so frustrating sometimes to think of how incredibly complicated a simple system is. Why do things have to be harder than they really are? There are several simple solutions to the "problem" in education: small class sizes, smart spending, changing of school hours (where is the law that says school must be from 9-3:30- oh yeah its traditional), fine-tuning of teaching and organization of the whole system (not to mention pre-bachelor changes and NATIONAL standards, rather than state). And what's even more frustrating is knowing that I have no power to try to change these things.
One thing that I want to point out is that my administration is very good. They are incredibly supportive of my staff and understand how overwhelmed we are as teachers. I appreciate this. I know that I'm one of the lucky ones. I know that some districts are not so understanding that I can't even imagine how frustrated those teachers are when I'm feeling the way that I am. I came home and cried last night out of sheer frustration of our educational system.
I consider myself a very good teacher. I won't be modest when I discuss my plans, my successes, my failures and what I have learned from them. But none of that matters because although I put in well over 40 hours a week (as does EVERY teacher in the world), its just not enough for the government. Put in more time, take additional clock hours and credits, and oh yeah, make sure your kids know this within the next two weeks on top of EVERYTHING else you need to teach them. And are these clock hours and credits offered during the summer months or school breaks when you have time to digest and apply what you have learned? Of course not! They are after school, in the middle of the week, when you nod along, take the information and toss it into a file to read when you have time.
ARRGHHHHHH! It is so frustrating sometimes to think of how incredibly complicated a simple system is. Why do things have to be harder than they really are? There are several simple solutions to the "problem" in education: small class sizes, smart spending, changing of school hours (where is the law that says school must be from 9-3:30- oh yeah its traditional), fine-tuning of teaching and organization of the whole system (not to mention pre-bachelor changes and NATIONAL standards, rather than state). And what's even more frustrating is knowing that I have no power to try to change these things.
One thing that I want to point out is that my administration is very good. They are incredibly supportive of my staff and understand how overwhelmed we are as teachers. I appreciate this. I know that I'm one of the lucky ones. I know that some districts are not so understanding that I can't even imagine how frustrated those teachers are when I'm feeling the way that I am. I came home and cried last night out of sheer frustration of our educational system.