Teacher World

This spring I read the book Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, and the effect it had on me and on my classroom was powerful. The book is about a high school student who was bullied every day of his school career starting in kindergarten. The chilling fictional story depicts one devastating possible outcome of this kind of constant abuse; the young man finally breaks, takes weapons into his high school, and kills or wounds several fellow classmates. What made this story so frightening is that our news is riddled with stories about the sometimes devastating result of unresolved bullying. We are bombarded with tragic tales of retaliation, suicide, and the affects of the newest form of bullying; cyber bullying.

After reading this book, I felt compelled to do something powerful to take a stand against bullying in my classroom and in our school. My students and I engaged in some heartfelt conversations about bullying; how it makes us feel, why we do it ourselves, and what we could do to take a stand. The students openly discussed the feeling of powerlessness a victim of bullying feels and several got emotional as they told of times they felt this way. Without a doubt, if you were to ask me to share my best memory of this past year it would be those moments of complete honesty we shared and the difference it began to make in my students. 

We made a declaration against bullying and teasing which everyone signed. Some of my students shared personal experiences about how they felt when they were bullied or why they had bullied in the past over the morning announcements and invited anyone who felt as we did to sign our petition, which hangs proudly in the front hall. It was a life-changing moment for all of us, and the proudest I have ever been of a group of students.

I share this with you to ask for your support in your classrooms and in your schools in the upcoming school year. We need to be more tuned in to our students and confront bullying when we hear of it. We need to involve our students in the task of rethinking how they interact with each other, and we need to openly address problems as they occur with the goal of resolution. We need to put our students to work to help stamp out this destructive behavior, too. Give them a sense of ownership in the solution, and they will join in.

In one of our discussions, one of my students said, “How can we make a difference? We are just one class.” I told them, “We are only one class, but each student in our class will have an impact on everyone they know, and those people will impact everyone they know, and over time maybe we will begin to see the difference we made.”

I am asking all of you to make a difference. Read Nineteen Minutes. It will touch you deeply. I am including a link here for you to sign the “Stop Bullying! Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act”.  Please log-on and sign this important document.

Get involved in this most important fight. It impacts all of us.

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On July 2, Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke to members of the NEA at their national convention in San Diego exhorting them to stop fighting the idea of student achievement as a consideration for teacher pay. While he did say that test scores should never be the driving force behind teacher compensation, he also stated, “But to remove student achievement entirely from evaluation is illogical and indefensible,”

Well, the dreaded words are being spoken! Every time I hear the concept of merit pay linked in any way to state testing results it frightens me! Let me add that most of my students’ test results over the last several years have been well above passing, but I fundamentally disagree with test scores being used as the litmus test to judge teacher quality. Teachers understand the wide variety of factors that affect test results: parent involvement or lack of; parent concern or apathy for their child’s test results; the student population which covers everything from discipline problems, the number of students who are gifted, SPED, ADHD, on 504 plans, etc.; class size; home situations; and when the tests are taken to name a few. (This year, we administered the tests in our district the week students came back from Easter break!) What about teachers who work in intercity schools with the multitude of issues they face daily? These are all factors we cannot control, but they certainly impact test results.

Is there any tangible evidence to support the assumption that student test scores determine the competency of a teacher? How do we figure in all of the extraneous factors over which teachers have no control?

There are a plethora of characteristics that make an exceptional teacher, some measurable and some not. Certainly with the myriad specimens of obtainable evidence which attest to a teacher’s merit, we need not resort to test results as evidence of anything but how we were able to rise above all of the countless issues and distractions we face in education every day and still facilitate student progress.

Take a stand and get vocal! Post some comments here and on other sites on this volatile topic. This is not the time to be complacent.

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I find it difficult to the point of ridiculous to pinpoint any one surefire way to evaluate a teacher’s excellence in order to decide who receives or does not receive merit pay, and I am a teacher. How then, do we leave this colossal decision in the hands of government officials who are distinctly removed from the classroom and have little or no firsthand knowledge of the many qualities involved in being an excellent teacher? It is frightening!

It seems to me that any reliable evaluation designed to fairly determine who receives merit pay would require following every teacher around throughout their day, both at school  and at home. If you are not a teacher or have never lived with a teacher, you have no concept of the number of hours that are dedicated outside of the school day to planning, preparing, and grading. Who will evaluate that?

Who will evaluate what kind of relationship you have with your children, the counseling you do with your students in your classroom and with parents at conference time, the hours you spend on committees, the modifications you make to your curriculum to accommodate children on IEPs, the phone calls you make to parents to praise their child or try to solve a problem their child is having in school, the children’s assignment books you check and initial daily, and the ones whose book bags you help pack at the end of the day? Who is going to see and evaluate these things? Who is going to evaluate the love you give each child in your classroom, even the ones who are hard to love, and how does that factor into an evaluation? Who will take note of the countless times you worked through your prep time at recess to intervene with students who were struggling with a concept you taught that day, or your reward system you utilize to encourage them to do their best? And who is going to observe your lessons frequently enough to evaluate the strategies you teach your children to be successful, the mnemonics you teach them to remember concepts, how you engage and motivate them, your knowledge of the subject matter and the variety of  techniques you use to pass that knowledge on to them?

It boggles my mind how this evaluation nightmare can be resolved! But the bottom line is this: I did not get into teaching because of the big salary (clearly), and I couldn’t work any harder than I already do for a bigger pay out. My reward is more intrinsic, and I’m okay with that. So I guess I just don’t place much value in merit pay, but I sure would take umbrage with someone who tried to tell me I don’t deserve it.

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One of the most offensive opinions I am confronting as I research other blogging sites regarding merit pay for teachers is the accusation, sometimes subtle and sometimes very direct, that veteran teachers do not deserve their higher salary as they just don’t work as energetically as younger teachers do following the same lesson plans year after year. I take huge exception to these statements as I am a veteran teacher. I feel compelled to “talk turkey” about veteran teachers and what we have to offer our school systems.

We have years of invaluable experience (in the business world this is a coveted thing). We have experimented with a variety of teaching techniques and fine-tuned our styles over the years. We have taken a variety of graduate classes in education usually earning master degrees. We have attended a wide range of professional development workshops and incorporated many of these concepts into our classroom. We have served on a multitude of committees in our schools, been a part of evaluating new curriculum for our classrooms, been mentor teachers, helped develop standards based report cards and short cycled assessments, and received countless letters of thanks from our parents and students. We have knowledge that we love to share with anyone who is interested, but we are just as willing to listen to the ideas of younger teachers and try them out in our classrooms. Good veteran teachers understand that teaching is not a stagnant thing, and are just as willing to learn as to teach.

Somehow people, and often this includes other teachers, have come to believe that when you reach a certain pinnacle in your educational career, you become complacent and unwilling to make changes. I categorically deny this, and furthermore state again that there is no age requirement for this mind set. I have seen teachers from all age groups and years of experience who are very willing to coast along doing the bare minimum. But the highly charged issue of merit pay breeds in some people this kind of divisive thinking. It is one of the dangers I see in the adoption of merit pay, and I would take issue with anyone trying to tell me that the job I do and the years I have put in do not qualify me for the salary I have earned as a result of dedication and hard work.

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One of the issues I struggle with concerning merit pay for teachers is who is going to evaluate teachers to determine their potential eligibility for bonus pay. I have read a variety of suggestions from the school’s principal to a panel of teachers from another district. Allow me to explore the first option with you and then I would love to hear your opinions on this topic or other viable plans for successful evaluation.

I abhor the idea of any one person determining my merit as a teacher, let alone someone who visits my classroom only occasionally and, aside from what they see on those visits or what I tell them about what I am doing, know little to nothing about what transpires in my classroom on a regular basis.

I teach in a city whose population has mushroomed over the last few years. We are literally bursting at the seams. Therefore, our principal’s duties have proportionally mushroomed as well. A larger student population drastically increases the scheduling, managing, and disciplinary nightmares. Coupled with all of the district meetings our principal must attend as well as continuing improvement meetings outside of the district, it is fairly common to go days without even seeing our principal. Where would an already overworked principal find the time to engage in the consistent evaluations required to determine bonus pay recipients?

And, let’s get real here! Have you ever had a principal who you fundamentally differed with or didn’t get along with? Have you ever witnessed favoritism by a principal you have worked for? Is it possible that a principal would be more inclined to enthusiastically reward those he/she had a friendship with over those he/she does not? Isn’t it just as likely that some teachers might intentionally build a relationship with their principal in order to improve their chances of monetary gain? Would teachers be more reticent to disagree with their principal for fear of monetary retaliation?

Human nature being what it is, can we not all see the inherent problems which would be created if our principals or any one person was the sole determiner of who would receive teacher bonuses? Call me crazy, but I don’t want any part of this! Do you? Tell me what you think.

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After spending quite some time reading a variety of articles both for and against the issue of merit pay for teachers, I feel, as all teachers should, the need to weigh-in on this important issue. Especially as President Barack Obama plugged teacher bonuses based on student achievement in the first education policy speech of his presidency.

We all know that in education, as in any profession, there are employees who produce average work with average to little success, and are unmotivated to do much more. A common fallacy in the teaching profession is that it is predominately the veteran teachers who fit this scenario as they have become burned out and are simply waiting to retire. While I do not deny that I have seen my fair share of this condition, I must also adamantly state that this attitude has no age requirement. I have seen the same attitude in teachers fresh out of college, and some who have a few years under their belt. In teaching, as in any profession, our labor force ranges from the dedicated, hard-working, and tireless to the “I’ll-do-the-bare-minimum”, and various stages in between. The difference between the business and education world is that our teachers’ unions, which protect us in a multitude of important ways making our work places fairer and safer places to work, also do our profession the disservice of fighting to protect teachers, both young and old, who legitimately deserve to be let go. In the business world, job retention is directly related to job performance. If our unions did not work so diligently to protect teachers whose performance necessitated their being weeded out, does it not stand to reason that we would be left with a higher caliber of teachers who, by that very definition, are all deserving of merit pay?

I propose that unions should establish strict and multi-layered guidelines for teacher dismissal and should ensure that these guidelines are followed to the letter. But when thorough documentation proves a teacher’s unwillingness or inability to take the necessary steps to improve their teaching skills after a methodical, multifaceted evaluation process established by the union, it becomes counterproductive and hurts a school system when its union fights for that teacher. Allowing the administration to release these teachers from their contract would ultimately create a higher caliber school system which encourages respect from the community and makes it far more likely for these community members to support levies that pay all teachers in these schools the salary they deserve.

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Preparing for and awaiting the results of State Achievement Tests are a lot like the processes of pregnancy and childbirth. It starts, just like pregnancy, with the anticipation and the preparations that must be made for the imminent arrival. Instead of getting our houses ready, teachers spend months getting our students’ minds ready for the plethora of information they are required to glean before the tests are administered. In your homes, this sometimes requires renovations and additions to make room for your little one. Those of us who work with children’s minds spend a lot of time doing the same thing. We often have to rip out and remove information or thought processes that will get in the way of the new information or processes they will need to be successful. As you parents tear down walls, we tear down bad habits and lazy attitudes. As you slap up wallpaper and paint, we slap up skills that will increase their arsenal of knowledge. This stage of pregnancy is a busy yet exciting time, and the same can be said of this stage of test preparation.

The final weeks of test prep are very similar to the final weeks of pregnancy. Like expectant mothers, we are tired and just want to see the fruits of our labors. Just as expectant mothers spend more time in their doctor’s office trying to predict how soon they will deliver their little bundle of joy, teachers fervently administer sample tests to predict if their students are ready to deliver as well. We, too, find it more difficult to sleep and find it harder to stay patient in the morning.

Finally, the long awaited labor pains begin. We watch in silent submission as it is finally and irrevocably out of our hands. Like mothers who simply have to trust in the capable hands of their obstetrician, we must trust in the hopefully capable heads of our students and the myriad bits of information we have painstakingly planted in their brains.

Here is where the analogy falls apart. Most parents are rewarded within a day (or for some poor souls a little longer) with a beautiful, healthy baby. They are able to find out the baby’s sex immediately (if they didn’t already know) and can count all the little fingers and toes. Teachers, on the other hand, are not done agonizing until weeks later when their delivery final arrives; the official test scores. The counting we do is a little different; it’s more about how many passed, who didn’t pass, and how close they were to passing, which standards need more focus, which skills need more practice. And if we are very fortunate, it’s time for a Congratulations sign on our front lawn and a good cigar.

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