In the preceding months I have been inflicted with the painful process of listening to our politicians, parents and even students complaining in relation to how dreadful the education system is. I have taken note to each and every one of them fixating guilt on teachers. Is it executed directly? No, nevertheless the connotation was recognized. Personally I was simply wondering if it would be feasible for you all to discontinue becoming furious with teachers because we receive an excess of money.
Nevada Governor, Brian Sandoval appears to consider removing teacher tenure and having student achievement as the catalyst for evaluating teachers as the means to renovate education. At least those are the two most highlighted factors in his impending bill before Nevada’s Legislature in enriching education. And this is not solely a Nevada confrontation; it appears to be the development in Washington D. C. as well with numerous bills focused on the similar issues
I am growing tired of all of these B.S. statistics that inform us about the correlation linking money and teacher competence. I am tired of all this gossip about bad teachers, like the majority of us suck. I am exceedingly tired of all this crap in relation to the correlation of how if we made it effortless to eliminate bad teachers’ education would be refurbished while the reality is the vast majority people are not capable of defining a bad teacher. I am fed up with people judging and associating all or even most teachers with the NEA. I am extremely fed up with people looking to blame and not in favor of discovering solutions. And what thoroughly causes me to be furious are individuals that fabricate the conditions for what transpires in a classroom whom have not been IN a classroom in years, if ever.
You crave an authentic correlation? Gaze at the correlation linking parents, administration, community leaders, and media discontinuing their support of teachers and education deteriorating. When the public stopped respecting teachers naturally the students were not too far behind. Teachers are expected to “just take it” according to Dr. Ludwig one of America’s leading guru’s on discipline in the classroom. He went on to tell a group of 1100 teachers at a Las Vegas teacher conference, “If a child hits you, spits on you or slaps you it is YOUR fault.”
Teachers are not merely expected to decipher what category of learner each child is (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.) and subsequently teach to each one of those categories independently; in addition we are required to have special instructions for every Special Ed student in class; additionally we must figure out how to instruct students in class that do not speak English; furthermore, according to Dr. Ludwig, nowadays it is the teachers responsibility if a student goes ballistic on us and even worse, if we remove that ballistic student to the administration’s office we are dinged for being incompetent to manage our classroom.
You truly wish to renovate education; the first phase is getting off the backs of the teachers that have depleted their existence caring for YOUR children. And NO, I am not referring to the worthless NEA, I am referring to authentic, genuine, bona fide teachers that endeavor to adapt to all of this expending an excessive amount of additional time AND money (theirs) simply to be capable of getting by. Trust me; this is a vast majority of classroom teachers.
The second step would be to permit teachers to simply teach for their fifty minute class, not squander 25% of the class, managing. The third step would be to do away with those disruptive, disrespectful even violent students from the classroom. What must we do with those students? Teachers are not babysitters; our salaries are not that elevated, so entrust them to their parents. Ultimately they will be compelled to discover the consequences of life and trust me no employer will hold themselves responsible if someone hits them, spits on them or slaps them.
Jim Blockey
Teacher/Author “Teachers… It Ain’t Your Fault.”
Also posted at Technorati
Amen to all you’ve said, Jim! You certainly echo my thoughts.
Posted by Chloe JonPaul | April 30, 2011, 1:09 pmJim, you hit the nail on the head…in many ways. Most people do not realize the impact that disruptive and unruly students have on teacher performance, not to mention all the other negative impacts. The irony is that teachers are expected to be responsible for “classroom management’ when so many of the students lack that skills and social/emotional development that allows them to be “managed.”
The cost implications of this is huge, too. If we were able to decrease classroom disruption, we would have much more productive use of precious academic dollars. And, we’d also have better academic achievement — you can’t teach kids who won’t be quiet, pay attention, and be respectful to their teachers and their peers.
You might be interested in reading more about this at http://socialsmarts.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/teachers-dont-have-time/
Another resource that may be interesting to your readers is a recent article in EducationWeek – we have it available here for easy access: http://www.socialsmarts.com/EdWeekSocialSkillsBoostTestScores02042011.pdf
Playing the blame-game isn’t going to help our students; we need to be driven by the same goal, and fix the problems that prevent us from getting there. Anything else is a waste of time and money.
- Corinne Gregory
http://www.corinnegregory.com
http://www.socialsmarts.com
Posted by Corinne Gregory | April 30, 2011, 4:28 pmI went to the web site and could not help but think how sad it is that we have to waste classroom time on something used to be a no-brainer. I applaud you for what you are doing and wish you great success, it seems you are making a difference. Keep it up.
Posted by Jim Blockey | May 1, 2011, 9:22 amI completely agree with your blog. All of the ills of education and the lack of student success is blamed on teachers. I had a student this year who was completely disruptive to the rest of my class, but I was required to keep him in class teach him and keep him out of trouble while trying to manage the other 28 students in my class. His temperment, out of control, violent activities were my responsibility and I was to work with him to make him succeed at the cost of the other students in my class. I did the best I could and he was starting to do well in my class and the other students were starting to get along with him, and then 6 weeks prior to the end of school the student was finally expelled after 15 days of suspension and putting a plastic knife to another students throat threatening to “cut” him if he didn’t leave this other boy alone. So I wasted more than half of the year trying to teach this one student, and trying to get the rest of my students to tolerate him and even to play with him and get along with him, (which was working) and then they decide to expel him. What a waste. Teachers are the butt of all jokes and we are not given any credit for the good work that we do. I am being targeted for dismissal after nine years of teaching because I continued my education and am now worth 2 new teachers right out of college who have no real teaching experience yet. When out authority was taken away from us, the respect from parents and students alike, declined significantly, and with no administrative back-up we have no say in how our classrooms will run. And yet we are held accountable for this in our evaluations. I have a Masters in Education Adminstration, a Master’s in Business Administration, a Board of Director for the Computer Using Educators of Los Angeles (CUELA), and am working on my Doctorate in Education adminstration with an IT emphasis. Even so, I did not meet district standards in any area on my evaluation, although all of my students have shown at least a 23% increase in their scoring even though they did not meet the proficient level. These students have worked hard all year long and have improved, because they don’t show proficient they are not acknowledged by the district. They will; however, be acknowledged by me. I care deeply for my students and have continually encouraged them to do the best they can, and have spent my own money to get the technology in my classroom to help them get there. We are no longer in the “No child left behind”, we are now in the “No teacher left behind” Teachers need legislative, administrative, and parental back up to do the job that needs to be done in order for our students to succeed in school and in life. Until that is done we just may be stuck in just getting by and social promotion.
Posted by Sharon Bock | May 1, 2011, 12:43 amThank you so much for your comments. My goal is to change all of that. When you have the opportunity please subscribe to my blog and see how many of your fellow teachers and those that care about education would like to do the same. Education controls the minds of our future leaders and those who elect our future leaders.
Posted by Jim Blockey | May 1, 2011, 9:16 amVisual teachers provide an environment visual attractions for children. Auditory teachers may like classical music playing in the background or like a quiet classroom where children work in relative silence.
Posted by bank account offshore | May 14, 2011, 12:58 amThere are so many different “types” of learners… we cannot teach to them all or nothing will be learned… Hey wait… that is what we are trying to do and it’s working… noone is learning.
Posted by Jim Blockey | May 14, 2011, 10:53 pm