Teacher World

It’s that time of year again; that busy time spent packing up and wrapping up another school year. This time of year, I think teachers everywhere spend some time counting their successes and targeting areas that still need improvement. This is a necessary exercise as it shapes our next year and helps us to make critical decisions about the future. So, here goes! Here are some of my triumphs and some of my works in progress.

* I am grateful that I was able to receive training for co-teaching and have had the opportunity to practice all of the teaching strategies. My goal next year is to start the year out right. No “my class/your class”. And a good balance of tried and true approaches to presenting curriculum. My co-teacher and I had time to sit down and tentatively map out our hopes and dreams for next year, and I am so excited that I wish I could jump in right away! I am grateful, however, for the summer and the time to make our plans more concrete so we will be well-prepared for next year.

* I am encouraged that my voice was heard regarding the need to establish a classroom which has a better heterogeneous mixture for next year. I am confident that we will be more successful as a result. This year’s homogeneous grouping of students stifled many of our attempts to raise the bar academically, but we have higher hopes for next year’s students.

* We successfully addressed the issue of bullying this year. I worked hand-in-hand with our guidance counselor to introduce anti-bullying curriculum, and incidents involving bullying were dealt with quickly and effectively. This is an on-going goal which will require time and effort every year.

* It has been an awesome reprieve for me to only have to prepare students for the reading OAA test, since the social studies test has been removed for this year and next. But, I realize how difficult a task it will be for me (since I will be teaching a self-contained fifth grade class) to cover all that I am required to cover to prepare students for three tests next year and all four the following years. Yikes! It comes as no surprise to you, if you have been following my blogs, that this is the least favorite part of my job. But I take the OAA seriously; therefore, I realize I have my work cut out for me.

* I have learned how to share my space this year, and actually enjoy having another adult in my classroom. I have even learned to give up the reins more frequently and rely on my co-teacher to share my job. This is a work in progress for me, as it is not natural for me to give up control in my classroom. Luckily, we get along very well, and I trust her judgment. We also agree philosophically on what is best for our students. I look forward to making decisions mutually and truly sharing every aspect of the classroom.

All in all, this has been a great year. I have grown professionally and have been challenged, which keeps teaching from growing stale. Next year the challenges will be even greater. I can’t wait! And I hope you will follow my continued journey throughout the summer and into a new year. Good luck to all of you teachers out there as you close out your year. God bless you for the job you do.

Bullying, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies co-teaching, co-teaching training, OAA, teaching

Well, here we go again! Our union president emailed union members recently asking us to decide whether we wanted to be a part of Phase 2: Race to the Top. This time, the information was clearer and there was no doubt what we were deciding on, but here’s the catch: we had only five days to read the information, consider the pros and cons, and make a decision. Considering what is at stake and the time of year, could we not have had more time to weigh our options before a decision had to be made? I just don’t get it!

Our email contained several quite detailed pieces of information to be read prior to completing a survey stating our intent. So why just five days to make an informed decision? This time of year is extremely busy. As we all try to cover everything that must be covered before the end of the year and deal with the constant interruptions to our schedule which always seem to occur after achievement tests have been taken, it is difficult to fit anything more into an already jam-packed schedule. I confess that I found it impossible to make an educated choice on such an important topic in such a limited period of time with everything else I had to do. Apparently I was not alone, as there was minimal response to the email, which tells me that either people felt as overwhelmed as I did, or they still don’t understand the impact that Race to the Top might have on all of us. Frankly, this is a shame. As I read through the information we received, I was encouraged by several positive statements regarding the plans for this new phase. (I will be more specific about these items in a future blog.) So it angers me that we had so little time to read and reflect before having to commit one way or the other.

I don’t know if this was a common problem in other districts or unique to ours. Regardless, since our district clearly felt the crunch and did not respond in time, we are going to be bystanders once again in this process. I just hope we don’t regret our lack of decision in the future.

Educational Reform, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog LEAs, Race to the Top, teacher reform, unions

Ohio’s application for the phase 1 portion of Race to the Top was soundly rejected and may be again in phase 2 unless the writers are able to make some major changes to the application. Ohio teachers are probably wondering why it was rejected, and what kind of changes need to be made. Well, let me tell you what I have been able to learn.

First of all, each portion of the application received points, which when totaled, determined which states would be the recipients of RttT resources. According to my research, the area in which Ohio scored lowest (second to the lowest of the 16 finalist states) was in the area called “Great Teachers and Leaders”. Apparently, Ohio’s application was too wimpy due to “the state’s inability to ensure equitable distribution of teachers in hard-to-staff subjects, specialty areas, or in high-poverty or high-minority schools”, according to The Ohio Education Gadfly. Reviewers felt that the process it would take to remove ineffective educators was not clearly provided. There was also criticism due to the fact that only half of the local schools who participated in the phase 1 application process agreed to link teacher evaluations to their compensation and promotion. Some of the other areas of concern were its failure to adequately detail how it would close achievement gaps between poor students and wealthier students, and how it would turnaround the lowest-performing schools.

Now what does this mean for Phase 2? Well, first of all, if Ohio has any hope of being considered, it will need to develop stronger guidelines regarding merit pay, tenure, and dismissal of teachers. And you can rest assured that all of these will be linked to a large degree on achievement test scores. One source I read stated that RttT approved heartily of states like Florida, where the legislature approved teacher salaries being tied directly to test scores, and teachers would be offered one year salaries only. (Although, as I have previously blogged, this was later overturned by Florida’s governor.) Clearly, this is indicative of what the judges are looking for.

Secondly, Ohio will have to state more clearly how teachers would be evenly redistributed so as to level the playing field between low income and higher income school districts in order to turnaround lowest-performing schools. In other words, they are looking for stronger language regarding how highly effective teachers could be moved.

Additionally, Ohio’s application lacked teeth when it came to teachers unions. From what I have been able to glean, RttT reviewers are looking for a firm commitment by unions to be willing to make pretty radical changes to teacher salary, licensure, evaluation, tenure, and termination.

These are some of the salient reasons why Ohio’s application was rejected. I will continue to keep you informed and, of course, give my opinions about upcoming information as it becomes available. In the meantime, I hope you take the time to comment about what you have heard or read, and how you feel about Race to the Top, no matter which state you are from.

Changes in Teaching, Educational Reform, Merit Pay for Teachers, state achievement tests, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog low income schools, merit pay, Phase One, Race to the Top, teacher licensure, teacher tenure, Teacher's Unions, turnaround schools