Skip to main content

Home/ T531 Summer 2012/ Group items tagged bipartisan

Rss Feed Group items tagged

chuxhold

Miss Grundy Was Fired Today - 4 views

  •  
    The traditional, patronizing view of teachers, that they are to be treated like saints and paid as if they'd taken a vow of poverty, has lately gone through a schizophrenic inversion. Open the newspaper most any day and you'll read about "bad teachers" who are holding children back and, through their unions, conspiring to remain well compensated.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    It does seem that teachers are constantly in a negative light in the media these days. I like this quote from the article, "Until fairly recently, everyone took it for granted that parents, educators, and communities shared the responsibility for schooling children, and presumed that outcomes were the product of a complex web of circumstances. Now the calculus has been narrowed to a single variable, the instructors, who are offered all the credit and shoulder all the blame." It seems most of the discussion surrounding school reform centers on teachers vs. reformers and nothing else. Even Kennedy only focused on the happenings inside the classroom to explain reform failure. While I do think teachers are a HUGE part of the reform movement, there are a lot of other people who could be involved as well.
  •  
    I have to agree that school reform involves a lot of key players inside and outside of the classroom. Kennedy mentioned throughout her text this notion. I liked how she mentioned that teachers feel a lot pressure from within their own schools and by their teammates. During our professional development meetings, I can see the gears going amongst my colleagues as we are listening about RISE, SLO, and even the many other acronyms of RISE. They are feeling the pressure to develop realistic but achieveable objectives. Third-fifth grade teachers are beginning to look combative towards the primary grades as the younger grades don't have the pressure of ISTEP. However, K-2nd grade teachers have the pressure of preparing these students early so they CAN pass ISTEP. It seems like this could be a vicious cycle and it's only in the beginning stages. I think it would be more of a relief for teachers if they had that reassurance and support from districts, government, and other reformers - instead of feeling the pressures and responsibilities within the school walls.
  •  
    When I read this article it reminds me of Mr. Kimberly from the Kennedy book. Here is a man who I think the public is percieving to be a "bad teacher" because he takes no accountability and still wants to be compensated for his work. I think when public perception is that most people are like him, then it is understandable why there would be anti union movement. If people feel like the union is the only reason why the Mr. Kimberlys are around then I see why they want to disband them. From the other side though, there are a lot of hard working teachers who hold themselves accountable and there is nothing wrong with trying to get as much compensation as they can. Like any profession there is a business aspect to everything. Another issue that builds animosity is that there is a large number of non-teachers who think they know what teaching is like and think it should be easy, but have never dealt with the daily issues that arise from a teacher standpoint. We all think that since we were once students we know what teaching is like, but being a student and being a teacher are two different worlds.
1 - 1 of 1
Showing 20 items per page