It wasn’t always like that. At one point teachers joyfully
collaborated and mentored the new ones. You see they were a team only as good
as their weakest member and they all had a stake in bringing them up. Now if
you bring somebody up it might cause you to be on the way out.
If veteran teachers, you know the ones often demonized for wanting
to have work protections and the ones practically everybody acknowledges do a
better job help their cheaper, younger counterparts it can have both detrimental
employment and pay ramifications if they prove successful and since that is the
case where is the incentive to help the newbies, to nurture them and see that
they improve.
The powers-that-be have created a gladiatorial setting where
only the best is assured a job and those elusive merit pay bonuses. Their
shortsighted run it like a business method encourages teachers to cut their own
throats and many teachers are more than wiling to do so. They are nurturers who
can’t help themselves and that’s also what the powers that be are counting on.
I hate to say it but if I was at a school with a Teach for
America teacher, I would say good luck to you but that would be the height of
level of assistance. I also hate to say it but its time teachers played the
game and instead of being selfless they were selfish, their jobs may just
depend on it.
Peter Green of the Curmudgeon blog, has an excellent piece
on the subject:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2014/08/teachers-in-thunderdome.html
There is a load of TFA at my school. My colleagues and I get frustrated by them because of their lack of humility, pedagogical knowledge, and longevity. They are not competing with me because they never stay. The longest one ever stayed was 3 1/2 years, but most stay for 2. Where is the competition in that?
ReplyDeleteWe do pour a lot of time and energy into them, but I know I do it for the students who have to live under the constant turnover of new teachers. If it did not impact students, it wouldn't bother me; however, unlike those who hire or promote TFA, I have a conscience.
I teach HS history, have over 200 students, 30 IEPs. I have no books and no computers. I have 29 desks and a class with 38 students coming Monday. There are no more desks at my school and I couldn't fit 38 desks in the room anyway. We were told not to have students sit on the floor. Should I ask them to stand for 90 minutes?
ReplyDeleteI didn't have desks either. I went into the faculty lounge and relocated the tables and chairs into my room.
ReplyDeleteHey, I asked for desks; nothing came. I had to be proactive. Last year, our school had 50-60 students in core classes for the first 2 weeks; some classes had the big numbers for months.Students cannot stand perpetually.
DCPS needs to get it together.
No desks, no books, no computers and strict limits on copies. Is DCPS hiding $100,000,000 again? Putting 38 in a class instead of hiring more teachers...where is the money going? I haven't taught this many kids since 1998.
ReplyDeleteThanks for alerting me to Peter Green's blog.
ReplyDelete