Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
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“A Daily Act of Love”

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2012 //
4

I came across a moving story about a music educator in Wisconsin whose death stirred his town and wrote about him last night. His influence was widely acknowledged.

I asked, in light of the community’s reaction, how such an inspiring teacher should be evaluated. It was obvious that test scores was not the right answer, in part because what he taught–music and band–do not lend themselves to measurement by test scores. But the qualities that the community honored in him–his ability to inspire, his love for music, his concern for students–are inherently not quantifiable. The same might be said for teachers in other subjects as well, not just teachers of music and the other arts.

A music educator commented:

As a former high school band teacher, and current music teacher educator, this story shines a light on one of the glaring inadequacies of the current, one-size-fits-all approach to teacher evaluation. music teaching is different than teaching math, or science, or reading–and one rubric or test can’t measure every kind of teacher. or school. or community. music teachers across the country are struggling with how to use these tools to describe the totality of what we do, and with the reality that our jobs–as it is with our colleagues in every other other discipline–are just too complex, complicated and messy to fit in this tiny little box.

It has always seemed to me that the things we care the most about, that are most important to us, are the most resistant to this sort of simplistic measurement. do we measure our marriages with a 4 point scale? do we “grade” the love we have for our children on a rubric? teaching is a daily act of love; love for our students, for their learning, for our colleagues, and for our communities. to think that we can measure our effectiveness as teachers with a 4 point scale is not only absurd, its insulting.

Mr. Garvey made a difference in his community that could never be measured by a test. it was measured by the length of the line at his wake, and by the depth of the grief felt by his former students and his family at his funeral. Mr. Garvey, like many, many teachers across the country who are getting ready to return to their classrooms, taught because he wanted to bring his love of his subject matter to his students, to make them think about the world differently, and to help them become the persons they wanted to become. there aren’t enough “points” on any teacher evaluation rubric to measure the difference these teachers will make this year.

Categories Arts Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

How Would You Evaluate This Teacher?

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2012 //
12

One man, one band teacher, united a town.

He taught instrumental music and band for 31 years at McFarland High School in Wisconsin.

He was admired, respected, loved.

How would you evaluate this teacher?

By the test scores of his students?

Not likely.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Who Will Pay for the Economic Meltdown?

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2012 //
18

I read two items within the same hour that presented a stark contrast.

First was this blog post about the Michigan Legislature’s change in teachers’ pensions. Apparently there are many people who think that teachers’ benefits are way too generous and must be scaled back. Can’t afford them anymore. Tough times.

Then I read in the New York Times that investigators checking into the collapse of the MF Global fund decided there was no criminal liability. The fund somehow misplaced $1 billion of customer money. Just “sloppiness.” No one knows how. It just disappeared. Like that. nobody’s fault. Stuff happens.

The story says: “Just a few individuals–none of them top Wall Street players–have been prosecuted for the risky acts that led to recent failures and billions of dollars in losses.”

Teachers did not engage in risky acts. They didn’t cause millions of people to lose their homes and savings. But they will pay to right the economy.

Guess who won’t pay and won’t be held accountable?

Categories Economy, Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

A Word to Fellow Teachers

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2012 //
17

From a teacher, who read this advice and added more:

Dear teacher sister/brother, as I read and absorb your advice, and wish you well for all of it, may I respectfully add one more idea for your consideration? It’s a big part of my school year:

“I will be mindful that next door, down the street, and across the country thousands and thousands of teachers like me are trying to do the same thing, for the same reason. Because children are our focus. Because we love and care about them and their families and our communities. Because we have to protect them from the suits, who are trying to spread darkness over the areas where we are devoted to bringing light. And since there are far more of us than of them, despite their billions and their government support, when we join together, we can turn around the darkness and take back our profession and build our schools. So I pledge to build bridges to my colleagues and to the parents and communities that care, so that we can become a mighty force on behalf of our children. For example, I will embrace the courage and determination of the Chicago  teachers as they prepare to do battle for all of us. I know this year will present challenges, but I am not alone. And I know in my heart that right is on my side, on our side, and because we do this for children, we must and will prevail.”

Thank you, dear colleague. I will think of you as I welcome my middle-school children into my classroom, knowing you are bringing the same spirit to your younger, lucky students.

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

Good Advice for Teachers

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2012 //
10

This teacher explains how she will deal with the new school year:

I have been practicing mindfulness as a way of combating much of the stress I anticipate for the coming year.
I’m not going to overthink the coming year.  It will unfold itself.  No point in stressing what hasn’t happened yet.
One doesn’t know what’s coming.  I’m starting my 13th year in pre-k in the same school.  No one is going to push me out before I’m ready to go.
What I noticed at the end of the school year last year and over the summer is that the suits have no clue what they are supposed to do.  They are working in the dark almost as much as we are.  I will insist that they provide guidance for every initiative they want me to do and ask them to model for me.  I will document every discussion we have.  I intend to have a long paper trail.
And I will teach my students as though we are at Sidwell Friends.

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Before the Craziness

By dianeravitch
August 19, 2012 //
4

This teacher, now retired, reflects on the madness of giving standardized tests to students in special education. She sees hope in the determination and unity of the teachers of Chicago. She also reminds us why retired teachers must stay involved and speak up for their colleagues in the classroom, especially those whose lives are being heedlessly destroyed by pointless reforms:

I was a special ed. teacher who was there before–and when– this craziness started. (Although there were always problems {& NOTHING even compares to the present-day intimidation, harassment}, I was lucky enough to be teaching when one could really teach. To get to the point–as a special ed. teacher, I had a front row seat to the suffering caused by the high-stakes tests. We had no business whatever making some of these students–who were often as many as three years behind (in reading &/or math)–take grade-level tests. We had students hide under their desks, cry, tell us they were stupid, throw pencils into the ceiling, have tantrums (In middle school!), scribble on the Scantron forms, connect all the bubbles, after filling in anything, etc. When I went to a state conference of LDA (Learning Disabilities Assn), I entered into a discussion about organizing a walk
out–that is, EVERY special ed. teacher in the STATE would walk out,
refusing to give the tests. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a buy-in from others.
I took a class in Special Ed. Law after my first year of teaching, as I
worked in a school district where parents either: 1. wanted to do right by their children, but didn’t know how to get services or help;
2. were not readily available or were not involved in their children’s
education. So, when administrators tried to tell me, “Oh, Mrs. X, you’re just a new teacher. Johnny doesn’t really need all that help.
His parents aren’t here asking for anything, are they?” I’d whip out the rules and regs.and say,”Oh, well, we really can’t do that, according to Section 5, Part A…” I guess I could have gotten fired but, as aforementioned, it was a different world (although the superintendent–who was a real jerk–called me at home and badgered me!), and with knowledge, there was some power.However, there IS hope. Look at Chicago–FIVE THOUSAND red-shirted teachers turned the tide and brought about (and, hopefully, will continue to bring) a good first result. And they continue to show up. And parents/community organizers show up–there is going to be a rally RE: an ELECTED school board this week (City Council almost kaboshed the request for a referendum on this issue, but the people prevailed!). I can assure you that the attendance will be great.There is strength in numbers; attention will be paid.
Categories Accountability, Chicago, Special Education, Teachers and Teaching

The Unmitigated Gall of the Bullies

By dianeravitch
August 17, 2012 //
7

This teacher is sick of the people who bully and harass him; sick of those who interfere in his work but could never do it themselves; sick of the know-it-alls who are ruining his profession:

I am in my 44th year as a teacher. I have taught from Prep to Grade 12, but mostly in Primary school and Special Education. I can fully sympathise with the teacher who retired early after 20 years and I have been doing what Vance is doing, for most of my 44 years.Teaching is about children. Each child is unique and each standardised test is an attack upon that uniqueness. There is no such thing as a “normal ” child. The children I taught in the class for those with “intellectual disability” were certainly not “normal children”. Each child had his/her own unique set of abilities and interests. Each had a unique set of educational needs and a unique set of pre school life and experience making him/her the person that he/she was.I am sick of education in general and teachers in particular being deprofessionalised, bullied and harassed by people who have no idea what they would do if they were put before a class; people who have no idea how to teach a child to read from scratch and no idea how to assess a child’s wealth of knowledge, skills and attitudes, and cognitive readiness to move on to the next level.It wasn’t always like this. This is not to say that at some time in the past we experienced a golden age of education. It is just to say that in the hands of bean counters and politicians, education has descended to the sorry state it is in today. And the perpetrators have the unmitigated gall to blame it on the teachers.
Categories Education Reform, Special Education, Teachers and Teaching

A Former Coal Miner Said This About Teachers Today

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

I just learned about Kipp Dawson early this morning. I got an email about a radio program where she is interviewed.

What got my attention was that Kipp spent 13 years working underground as a coal miner before she became a middle-school English teacher in Pittsburgh. I dropped a line to her, noting her unusual transition from coal miner to teacher, and she replied as follows:

You know, there is a strong parallel between these two “lives” these days. Underground we all were one another’s life savers; literally, of course. We watched out for danger and warned one another, and when one of us got hurt, all of us rescued. It was a fact of life, and it bound us all together despite whatever differences there were among us (race, gender, politics, etc.). It was the only way we could survive. And we knew things about “the life” that no one else could understand.

I’ll bet you know where I’m going with this. Today, under such scurrilous, vicious attack, teachers (and other school workers) have to be much like my coal mining buddies and I were. Unless we look out for and support one another — and perhaps even more importantly build alliances among all who care about kids and public education and our public sector workers — we’re doomed. And I don’t think we’re doomed! I feel a new period approaching where teachers are going to take back our profession, for the sake of our children. 

You, Diane Ravitch, give us important tools with which to do this. We are grateful!

(PS: I wanted to delete the last line but Kipp said no.)

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

What’s Needed Now: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

By dianeravitch
August 16, 2012 //
8

A reader comments on the discussion about parents, teachers, and students:

It is amazing to me how fast the conversation gets hijacked by those with an agenda to trash public education. I have stated before and will repeat it. Parents and educators must work together in partnership. It is the most productive way for our students to benefit from an education. It bothers me to hear disrespect directed toward either teachers, parents, or students.
As an educator I feel it should always be our position to be positive role models. Others may disagree, but I hope that those students and adults who I have worked with over the years have felt respected by me. No matter what behavior I am faced with, I always try to react in a positive way. Believe me, I am faced with these situations daily. I have had to learn this, over the years, because it isn’t always easy when you are faced with negative or disrespectful behavior. But I can say that a positive, respectful reaction almost always turns the situation around. A negative reaction almost always results in an escalation of the problem.
Thanks Diane, for being such a positive role model for us. I hope that we, as educators, are able to keep the fight for public education going in a positive direction, with positive results. It’s not easy when we are faced with such negative and false media reports, and especially negative parent reactions. We need to turn the tide back to a respect for educators.
Categories Parents, Students, Teachers and Teaching

In Praise of Valerie Strauss

By dianeravitch
August 15, 2012 //
7

All of us who are frustrated and occasionally outraged by current federal and state education policy owe a debt of thanks to Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

Her daily blog “The Answer Sheet” is a source of sustenance, information, and wisdom.

She has provided a regular outlet for teachers, researchers, and everyone else who has important things to say about high-stakes testing, privatization, the war on teachers, the politics of education, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and almost everything else that is on the minds of education-minded people these days.

When my last book was published, I was very fortunate to be interviewed by Valerie on C-SPAN. I had never met her. The hour passed very quickly, as we enjoyed the conversation. Over the past two years, many of my articles have appeared on her blog. She helped me find my audience, as she helps educators everywhere know that they are not alone.

Thank you, Valerie, for all you do to encourage the people who dedicate their lives every day to educating the nation’s children. Thank you for your support for teachers, principals, and administrators. Thank you for understanding parents and children. Thank you for your wisdom, your courage, and your steadfastness.

Categories Education Reform, Honor Roll, Parents, Privatization, Students, Teachers and Teaching
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