Our local high school is undergoing a series of staff cuts and changes as a result of a waning student population. Generally, the lowest man on the totem pole is the first to go, but some of the internal shifts of position are actually holding some teachers accountable for what they are teaching (or failing to teach).
In my almost eight years of teaching in a variety of schools, not once has someone actually verified that I could speak French. I have been evaluated a few times, but always with warning. Fortunately, I care about what I do and work hard to make sure my students are learning something, but that is certainly not the case with a lot of instructors. And when called on the carpet for not doing one's job (something that doesn't often happen), those teachers aren't too pleased.
Well, I heard on Monday that the Spanish teacher at our local high school was no longer going to be teaching Spanish, but is being moved to another position. It was well known when I was a student that her teaching style was one that focused on culture rather than language, and she was incredibly popular--far more than the French and Latin teachers--as her class was, well, easy. Her recent change in position was after this same woman had a conversation with one of her best Spanish 4 students who was placed into Spanish 1 once he got to college. Not a good recommendation for her teaching methods. How she couldn't take that information to heart baffles me. But it took a shift in the academic administration and someone who doesn't care what people think of him in order to make a change. Wouldn't it have been better to have someone talk to her 15 years ago to make her program more rigorous? This a woman who was the head of the language department a few years ago. What a shocker it must have been to be demoted so dramatically because no one has ever held her accountable for what she taught.
As a teacher, I definitely like the freedom to teach how and what I feel is the most appropriate, but that freedom is often abused. A lot of the regulations identifying someone as a 'highly qualified teacher' are not fixing the problem, either--it's too often the teacher who slacks off in the classroom who is willing to jump through all of the hoops to be considered qualified on paper. More personal involvement by the administration is key and being willing to give a negative evaluation is absolutely necessary. How else can we improve?
In other news, I made English muffins. Very easy and very yummy!
2 comments:
Holy smokes, Loralee!
Wow.
First of all, let me get this out of the way: I can't believe you made English Muffins. Were they a first for you? I've really got to try it. I love English Muffins, but the whole cook them in a skillet thing scares me off. Have you ever made Naan?
OK. Now, woah. First of all I am surprised that there is a waning student population in Lyndon. Do you know why? Is it merely that jobs and people are moving away or is it more about other schools in the area being better and more competitive?
When I was hired to teach bilingual K, part of the interview was done in Spanish. They were not terribly picky about how well I could speak Spanish, but it was looked into a bit. I was always relieved that I was teaching Kindergarten Spanish and not, like fourth grade. I could teach my kids to read and write simple stuff, but crazy grammar? I didn't feel up to it.
Is there a union at that high school? I can't seem to make up my mind about teacher's unions. I have been in two schools without them and one with. The best senario was one of the schools without a union because there was a really good tension of power between the teachers and the admin. The admin were not going to just let anybody go because of unjust whatever, but they could let you go at anytime. I often felt very valued there and never hesitated to speak up when I needed to. The worst situation was the other school without a union. Teachers were treated terribly. It was so ridiculous. But I guess I am wondering if there is a union at play deciding who stays and who goes. And I guess I am also wondering if that is good or not.
What is the new role of the Spanish teacher? I bet you are right. I bet she is shocked. And it is too bad. I felt consistently challenged to improve my teaching. And it wasn't a frustrating feeling. It was something I liked. It prevented me from getting bored because I was always tweaking something. But, also, I wonder if being challenged to improve had to do with what I was teaching. There is a lot of research being done about early literacy development and a lot out there for professional development for teachers that teach early literacy. I can't imagine there would be the same opportunities for high school language teachers. But maybe there is... We had a professor from Columbia in our classrooms for an hour a week for an entire year. She was wicked hard on us, but it was all good. And my teaching and my kids learning improved dramatically. But I can see myself, if having no professional development, thinking I was a rock star teacher, just because I didn't know how it could be better. I wonder if she is in that position...
OK. Sorry for the longest comment of your life. This is just so very interesting...
English muffins were a breeze. You should totally try them. Easier than naan, if you've made that... I would advise keeping the heat lower than I did as it seemed to cook too fast on the exterior before I felt like the inside was done. Also, if you like the holes inside, keep the dough quite moist... I got the recipe from here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/
So LI... they've been planning on a lower population for a while. Just smaller families, I think. Even with the boarding program expanding a lot, the freshmen class is really small and the senior class was really big. I think they're working hard to make LI as competitive as SJA, and I think they've been successful. It is just easy for some teachers to take the path of least resistance. No one is checking up and many people are frankly lazy. I taught with a teacher in Danville whose Adv. Jr. English class did not write one paper all year. Rather, they cut out snowflakes after reading a book that took place in the winter. I'm not kidding. I taught at Concord and watched a Spanish 2 class one afternoon. I asked a number of students "como estas?" and they looked at me like I was high. I taught with another teacher who had gotten so sick of teaching that she showed videos to her US History class almost daily because they were such a difficult group and she couldn't handle them.
I'm not saying all teachers are like that. But a very large number of the teachers at the public schools where I've taught are. The teachers at private schools (read non-union) are much more vested in the school and their students' education. The public schools/unions have provided too many teachers with a position that is nearly impossible to lose and the pension lures teachers who should have long since changed professions to stay their 30 years. They take sick days when they just don't feel like going to school because they have them and feel like they deserve to take all three weeks that are provided them every year. And if you don't belong (as I didn't), you get treated like dirt. Teaching is one of the only white-collar professions that still relies on unions and you have incredible conflict between the staff and administration. Unproductive conflict. The union doesn't want to see anyone go and they make it nearly impossible to weed out the teachers who are doing absolutely nothing and who are more of a negative influence than anything else.
That said, the administration has to be involved. At BMA, the academic director who was there when I was hired was outstanding. I've never had a better boss. He was involved, gave a lot of constructive criticism, regular evalations and he made me do things over if they weren't done to his standard. I really cared about doing a good job and worked my butt off to improve. The last year I was there, another man was hired to replace Craig and he is a disaster. No one cares because he doesn't. It was futile to do a good job because he would undermine what the teachers were doing when parents would talk to him.
It's just like our students--if we don't have high expectations, few among them are going to jump any higher than they have to. We all need to be held accountable for what kind of job we're doing--that goes for anything. Especially with the kind of situation like A.D.--she's been there for a long time now, relying on the hard work she might have put in when she first got there. Anyway, she is now only teaching ESL at the school--something that has become a much larger program with all the boarding students.
Crazy stuff, huh?
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