Education reform should always be a topic of discussion. The main reason is that nobody is perfect. No country has a perfect educational system. It is important to strive to make tings better all of the time. There are many different ways to change the current system, but I think there is one that can have a positive impact on teachers and students.
Mentoring is something that is in place in some school systems, but not all. I've heard of mentoring programs in certain school districts that match up teachers with new hires for the first 3-4 years of teaching. After those 3-4 years, the mentoring programs ends for the new teacher. Why? Are we to believe that a teacher knows everything they need to know after 3 or 4 years? Mentoring programs should last until retirement. Professional development should revolve around the mentoring relationships created. I propose a more rigorous mentoring system that provides help for all teachers regardless of age or experience.
Teachers should be paired up with another teacher in their department for the first 3 years of teaching. Teaching within the content area is tough for a new teacher and they can use all of the help the can get. After the first 3 years, teachers would be then be paired up with another teacher from a different discipline. Math teachers and English teachers or Art teachers and Science teachers. These teachers would participate in Professional Development offered by the district together. They would work as a team as the explore new and interesting way to instruct students. They will be there to support one another as they try new things. Pairs of teachers could be matched with other sets of teachers to form larger groups to explore larger ideas. The main purpose is to connect teachers in a school with other departments and see teaching from other points of view. Every couple of years, pairs should be switched to all teachers to experience different points of view.
To spice things up, administrators should be thrown into the mix so they can see first hand what learning and teaching is from the perspective of teachers from all age and experience levels. This new mentoring program will not be easy to install overnight and some veteran teachers might need to double up to make sure everyone has someone to work with, but this mentoring program can change the culture of learning in a school. No longer will teachers feel like they are alone in tackling problems. Departments will get to share ideas with one another on how to improve student performance in different areas. Younger teachers will be able to share new strategies with veteran teachers and veteran teachers will be able to share tried and true practices with the new teachers. Mentoring is a way that allows teachers from all over the building to work together to help all of the children in the school, not just the ones sitting in front of them.
I keep reading about districts that are trying to create new evaluation systems to "encourage" teachers to "work harder". Teachers already work hard. For those teachers that need help and encouragement, a new evaluation system is not going to help them. It will only drive them to do the minimum and fear asking for help. Districts should focus on the wonderful resources available to them. The biggest and best resource available are teachers. We want to help everyone, that's why we are teachers.
For those of you out there do not have a mentoring program, start one yourselves. Find a teacher, any teacher, and spend some time with them. Ask them how tings are going and offer support in any way that you can. You might be surprised at the positive impact a few kind words have on a colleague.
Mentoring can improve education if it is set up the right way. We have good mentoring programs, but should we be ok with good?
Showing posts with label edreform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label edreform. Show all posts
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
My Response to "Superman must beat Super Union to succeed" article
My Response to ‘Superman’ must beat Super Union to succeed by Nolan Finley of the Detroit News
I wanted to wait and write a post about “Waiting for Superman” until after I saw the film. There has been plenty said in the educational community, but I wanted to try and keep an open mind until I saw it. This post is not about the movie I have not seen, but about the article in today’s Detroit News by Nolan Finely. The article, “ ‘Superman’ must beat Super Union to succeed” just rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to respond to some of his comments from a teacher’s point a view. I know listening to an actual public school teacher on education reform is an unheard of practice, but please bear with me.
Mr. Nolan says that educations reform’s “primary villains are the teacher unions that use archaic contracts to block change”. He does a nice job of painting an entire group of professionals as the guys with the black hats and curly mustaches. He also says, “Nobody wins when schools can’t fire teachers who can’t teach.” On this fact, I couldn’t agree with him more. If a school wants to fire a teacher who is not during their job, they actually can. There is a process in place that allows teachers to be removed for being terrible teachers. It is the job of the administrators to identify these teachers through observations and remove them after they have shown no improvement over time. If administration chooses not to go through the motions of removing bad teachers, they should lose their jobs. They get paid the extra money to deal with these issues. Tenure does not protect bad teachers; it actually protects good teachers from bad administrators. Sadly, I’ve heard of stories were good teachers have fallen on the bad side of administrators because they did not agree with school improvement ideas or other admin led plans. Tenure also protects the teachers from school boards that would prefer to save money from cutting good, but expensive teachers, and replacing them with new and cheaper ones. It is really bothersome that people think there are tons of bad teachers and nobody wants to get rid of them. That should not be a knock on the unions, it should be a knock on admins for hiring bad teachers and letting them hang around.
“At the same time, outstanding teachers should be richly compensated. Merit pay would reward the very best teachers and motivate average teachers to excel. It would also bring teacher compensation in line with other professions.” This just really ticks me off. I hate the notion that I would work harder if you waved a twenty dollar bill in my face. I bust my butt because I’m a professional and I love my job. Merit pay suggests that there are teachers everywhere that could be great and only need incentives to work harder. If someone went into to teaching in the hopes of higher pay, they were crazy. Nobody became a teacher because of the pay. Would I like more money? Yes, I would love to get paid more for my job. Who wouldn’t? The sad thing with merit pay is that it would hurt kids and the overall profession. What teacher would volunteer to teach the remedial students? Who lucks out and gets the honors and AP kids? Why would teaches share lessons if their lesson would ensure they get paid more than their peers? Merit pay insults teachers that work hard every day and deal with the hand they have been dealt.
“Finally, we have to stop blaming parents for the failure of their children. Yes, bad parenting is a root cause of the learning crisis in America. But waiting for parenting to improve is wasting time.” Wow, Nolan has given up on parents doing their job. Well done. I have a student in my class for a total of 250 minutes a week. Now, those 250 minutes need to be divided amongst the other 30 students in my class. That division is not equal because of the special needs students and those that just need an extra minute or two to understand the lesson. That leaves me a few minutes of one on one time with a student in my class. I’m not a parent. I hope to be damn good parent when I have kids. Nolan admits that “bad parenting is a root of the learning crisis” but says trying to fix that is a waste of time? I don’t care how much support a school offers, if education is not important in the home, it will not be very important to the students. I’m not suggesting that programs that help students dealing with broken homes are not valuable. They are very valuable, by why do parents get a pass but teachers get thrown under the bus. I have 150 kids a day that I need to look after and teach and it is too much to ask parents on 1 or 2 kids to support them at home? Maybe the problem is that people have given up on trying offer support to entire families. Parents are needed and they need to be part of the discussion. Saying that waiting for parenting to improve is a waste time is a very defeatist attitude and will not solve the real problem.
“We also must free the creativity of teachers. The obsession with standardized testing as a measure of learning has forced teachers to teach the test and provided little room for creative techniques. Memorization is not education. Student achievement must be tracked, but a better formula must be found than layers of tests that encourage rote learning.” This is the smartest thing he said. I couldn’t agree with him more. Standardized testing is a terrible thing that doesn’t test knowledge, it tests memorization. Creative teachers are the best teachers. Teachers need that freedom to show kids how to think critically and solve large problems. Memorization is nice, but not applicable in most situations. Application is what students need to understand. What Nolan doesn’t understand is that you can’t ask for Merit Pay and also suggest getting rid of the standardized testing. How does he think that teachers are going to be evaluated? If he thinks that tests are not going to be part of the process of assessing teachers, it shows that he has no idea of how the government thinks when it comes to assessment.
I love that education is a hot topic right now. It is important and should be discussed. However, why is it that everyone thinks they are an expert when it comes to education just because they went to school? I drive a car, but I do not consider myself an expert mechanic. The Secretary of Education has never taught a day in his life. Does that mean he cannot be a good Secretary? No, but when someone is suggesting to me how I can be better at my job, I would like to know that person has done my job. The Surgeon General is a doctor right?
I’m also not a fan of how all public schools are lumped into the same category. There are many great public school systems that work just fine and send kids to college each and every year. Yes there are bad teachers. I’m not afraid to say that. There are also bad lawyers, doctors and even downright criminal politicians. There are means to remove these people from their jobs if they are found to be terrible. It’s not always an easy process, but it can be done. Bad teachers are removed. It happens. What about criminal school boards or administrators? They seem to stick around for as long as they want. What has happened in Detroit is criminal and it has nothing to do with the Teachers. Corrupt public officials have brought the city and school system to its knees. Blaming teachers is easy when removing the people you voted for turn out to be crooked.
I wish there were more average Joe/Joan teachers that were asked about the state of education. Grab these teachers and sit them down and ask them questions. I think the reason you can’t find any is because we are too busy teaching the kids of the people that are claiming to be “experts” in education.
I wanted to wait and write a post about “Waiting for Superman” until after I saw the film. There has been plenty said in the educational community, but I wanted to try and keep an open mind until I saw it. This post is not about the movie I have not seen, but about the article in today’s Detroit News by Nolan Finely. The article, “ ‘Superman’ must beat Super Union to succeed” just rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted to respond to some of his comments from a teacher’s point a view. I know listening to an actual public school teacher on education reform is an unheard of practice, but please bear with me.
Mr. Nolan says that educations reform’s “primary villains are the teacher unions that use archaic contracts to block change”. He does a nice job of painting an entire group of professionals as the guys with the black hats and curly mustaches. He also says, “Nobody wins when schools can’t fire teachers who can’t teach.” On this fact, I couldn’t agree with him more. If a school wants to fire a teacher who is not during their job, they actually can. There is a process in place that allows teachers to be removed for being terrible teachers. It is the job of the administrators to identify these teachers through observations and remove them after they have shown no improvement over time. If administration chooses not to go through the motions of removing bad teachers, they should lose their jobs. They get paid the extra money to deal with these issues. Tenure does not protect bad teachers; it actually protects good teachers from bad administrators. Sadly, I’ve heard of stories were good teachers have fallen on the bad side of administrators because they did not agree with school improvement ideas or other admin led plans. Tenure also protects the teachers from school boards that would prefer to save money from cutting good, but expensive teachers, and replacing them with new and cheaper ones. It is really bothersome that people think there are tons of bad teachers and nobody wants to get rid of them. That should not be a knock on the unions, it should be a knock on admins for hiring bad teachers and letting them hang around.
“At the same time, outstanding teachers should be richly compensated. Merit pay would reward the very best teachers and motivate average teachers to excel. It would also bring teacher compensation in line with other professions.” This just really ticks me off. I hate the notion that I would work harder if you waved a twenty dollar bill in my face. I bust my butt because I’m a professional and I love my job. Merit pay suggests that there are teachers everywhere that could be great and only need incentives to work harder. If someone went into to teaching in the hopes of higher pay, they were crazy. Nobody became a teacher because of the pay. Would I like more money? Yes, I would love to get paid more for my job. Who wouldn’t? The sad thing with merit pay is that it would hurt kids and the overall profession. What teacher would volunteer to teach the remedial students? Who lucks out and gets the honors and AP kids? Why would teaches share lessons if their lesson would ensure they get paid more than their peers? Merit pay insults teachers that work hard every day and deal with the hand they have been dealt.
“Finally, we have to stop blaming parents for the failure of their children. Yes, bad parenting is a root cause of the learning crisis in America. But waiting for parenting to improve is wasting time.” Wow, Nolan has given up on parents doing their job. Well done. I have a student in my class for a total of 250 minutes a week. Now, those 250 minutes need to be divided amongst the other 30 students in my class. That division is not equal because of the special needs students and those that just need an extra minute or two to understand the lesson. That leaves me a few minutes of one on one time with a student in my class. I’m not a parent. I hope to be damn good parent when I have kids. Nolan admits that “bad parenting is a root of the learning crisis” but says trying to fix that is a waste of time? I don’t care how much support a school offers, if education is not important in the home, it will not be very important to the students. I’m not suggesting that programs that help students dealing with broken homes are not valuable. They are very valuable, by why do parents get a pass but teachers get thrown under the bus. I have 150 kids a day that I need to look after and teach and it is too much to ask parents on 1 or 2 kids to support them at home? Maybe the problem is that people have given up on trying offer support to entire families. Parents are needed and they need to be part of the discussion. Saying that waiting for parenting to improve is a waste time is a very defeatist attitude and will not solve the real problem.
“We also must free the creativity of teachers. The obsession with standardized testing as a measure of learning has forced teachers to teach the test and provided little room for creative techniques. Memorization is not education. Student achievement must be tracked, but a better formula must be found than layers of tests that encourage rote learning.” This is the smartest thing he said. I couldn’t agree with him more. Standardized testing is a terrible thing that doesn’t test knowledge, it tests memorization. Creative teachers are the best teachers. Teachers need that freedom to show kids how to think critically and solve large problems. Memorization is nice, but not applicable in most situations. Application is what students need to understand. What Nolan doesn’t understand is that you can’t ask for Merit Pay and also suggest getting rid of the standardized testing. How does he think that teachers are going to be evaluated? If he thinks that tests are not going to be part of the process of assessing teachers, it shows that he has no idea of how the government thinks when it comes to assessment.
I love that education is a hot topic right now. It is important and should be discussed. However, why is it that everyone thinks they are an expert when it comes to education just because they went to school? I drive a car, but I do not consider myself an expert mechanic. The Secretary of Education has never taught a day in his life. Does that mean he cannot be a good Secretary? No, but when someone is suggesting to me how I can be better at my job, I would like to know that person has done my job. The Surgeon General is a doctor right?
I’m also not a fan of how all public schools are lumped into the same category. There are many great public school systems that work just fine and send kids to college each and every year. Yes there are bad teachers. I’m not afraid to say that. There are also bad lawyers, doctors and even downright criminal politicians. There are means to remove these people from their jobs if they are found to be terrible. It’s not always an easy process, but it can be done. Bad teachers are removed. It happens. What about criminal school boards or administrators? They seem to stick around for as long as they want. What has happened in Detroit is criminal and it has nothing to do with the Teachers. Corrupt public officials have brought the city and school system to its knees. Blaming teachers is easy when removing the people you voted for turn out to be crooked.
I wish there were more average Joe/Joan teachers that were asked about the state of education. Grab these teachers and sit them down and ask them questions. I think the reason you can’t find any is because we are too busy teaching the kids of the people that are claiming to be “experts” in education.
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