Quote:
Originally Posted by photobuff42
You know what? Message heard but not accepted!  I am a central office administrator and I work really hard to make working and learning easier for the teachers and students I serve.
Initiate no new programs? I don't think so! When I came to the district, the teachers had little technology, no intervention curriculum, few resources. I wrote a grant for assistive technology, produced a web-site of resources, started a professional library, partnered with other districts and the community to open a classroom in a business so our kids could get real experience, got net book computers for the kids, took the recommendations of our newly formed curriculum committee to purchase a K-12 intervention curriculum for reading. Last year our high stakes test scores for our sub group of kids (IEP) came up 14 percentage points in Language Arts. In one year! I know the teachers I work with like and respect me. Do they work harder than they did before? No, but they work differently (because of our initiatitives), the kids are learning and I think everyone is happier.
I am sorry your experience in education was not pleasant, but please don't lump us all together as ineffective--it just doesn't hold up.  |
No problem... I am bitter, not afraid or ashamed to admit it. Bitter is actually putting it mildly. I'm here for 2 reasons, to vent my frustration, and to be a voice for reform. I almost said "change" but then I started hearing voices, "yes we can...!" I've already received enough feedback from teachers and former teachers to know that I've hit a major chord. My second time to quote this one, it was so well said, no point in trying to replace it,
"We should also not make excuses (ie: special education labels; emotionally disturbed, learning handicapped, impulse control disability, social/ emotional,...) for poor behavior. Call it what it is and stop being so clinical and politically correct. Too much legalism and psychology have been introduced in the school system by people protecting their job (ie: school psychologists, administrators, facilitators, special education consortiums, speech and language specialists, nurses,...)" Do you see what we are saying? To give you an idea of how far we've strayed in education, and in the U.S. for that matter, is the use of the term "sub group" or as it's better known in my district "sub pop." When I hear the lingo, the rhetoric, it just gets me fired up. Get ready boys!!! Here comes the Kool-Aid guy... (Remember the old commercial, guy just comes smashing through the wall) Or, have you ever heard this one, "We need to be scientific in our approach, we need to be surgical, we need to really get in there and identifying these students' weaknesses." For teachers, this is just code for, "Get ready!!! Someone is about to drop a mighty big BS bomb!" Maybe a few more things that kinda raised my eyebrows,
"I wrote a grant for assistive technology, produced a web-site of resources, started a professional library, partnered with other districts and the community to open a classroom in a business so our kids could get real experience, got net book computers for the kids, took the recommendations of our newly formed curriculum committee to purchase a K-12 intervention curriculum for reading. Now, keep in mind, I've been in many a meeting where some DA started preaching, "Now, you need to make sure you spend all of your budget money this year, because if you don't, they'll reduce it next year. But also, if you spend it all this year, they'll actually raise it a little bit next year." What!!! No!!! That never happens in my district!!! And, we wonder how this country ended up 14 trillion in debt. So, when I hear you talk about spending other peoples money on net books for kids, naturally I get a little concerned. However, on the up-side, I did see where you actually took the recommendations, "
of our newly formed curriculum committee to purchase a K-12 intervention curriculum for reading." I'm delighted to see that you are open to having decisions made by those (I presume) who it will impact. Or, was this a committee of other administrators? Now, keep in mind, in my world, we'd be better off cutting half of the admin. staff down at central office. We could then hire a few extra teacher on each campus, just to act as rovers, like pinch hitters, allowing teachers to take breaks when wanted or needed.
But seriously, one change I'd like to see is for teachers to receive the respect they deserve. For admin. to realize that the decisions that impact teachers need to come from, and more-or-less be made by teachers. This translates to, not only does admin., like yourself, "take the recommendations" for curriculum based decisions but also for just about all matters regarding teachers, including student discipline issues, many campus related issues, the manner and frequency with which teachers are evaluated, whether principals should themselves be evaluated by teachers. The full gamut. Pie in the sky, I know, I really don't care whether what I'm saying is feasible, I'm just throwing it out there. This is what I know,
teachers are suffering, plain and simple. They are caught between a rock and a hard place. Being a teacher for many is/was a calling, that is, what is, the damn shame of the matter. I've said it b4, there is not one administrator that I know of or have ever heard of that was called to their position. Most (yourself excluded) are just super egos, head full of ideas, and the gumption to force those "great new" ideas on everyone else. I imagine ivory tower will be chiming in shortly, I can hear him already...
Last little story, my district (with bond money of course) bought every teacher a new laptop (Apple of course because the superintendent was a "Mac" guy.) Less than 10% of teachers actually used these laptops in their classrooms because they still had pretty decent desk-top computers (@ 2 yrs. old.) And, you were told to lock them up at the end of the day, because they were sprouting legs and walking off campuses. Anyway, we all ended up having to "volunteer" for Mac courses all year long which of course were after school. So, we got to learn all sorts of nifty Mac. programs (again, less than 5% of us ever used the programs, and that's a generous figure.) But because we were paying "Dan the Mac-man" $50,000 a year to be our trainer, the district was determined to get its money worth. And here is the kicker, the laptops were dual formatted with Mac and Windows XP (apparently the district had an excess of licenses) so for most of us who
didn't want to be converted, we just simply hit the alt key when booting up. AHHH, Good old Windows XP... That's what I want to do with education, simply hit the alt. key and have all this "new" non-sense just go away. As far as technology goes, teacher need a computer, yes. And, I am quite fond of my elmo, pretty much used that one everyday. Kids computers, yeah OK, whatever... But, let's let each campus decide the who, the what, and the how many. The more local the control, the better. I'm sorry, there is no
need for student netbooks, laptops, or ipods. For Christ's sake, take that money and hire some more teachers to help take the load off the rest. That's what I say. Feel free to disagree.
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