Katie Bar the Door – Major Spew!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written.  I don’t know why writing has lost its appeal for me….but it has.  However, sometimes I am compelled to write. This is one of those times.

For those of you who may be teachers or have family members who are teachers, this will be nothing new.  For the rest of you……..listen up.  This is important…..and most folks have very little idea what is going on.  I’m tired………and I’m angry.  So very tired and angry.

At my school alone this year, 2 teachers have died of stress related illness – both of them roughly my age.  Two more are out on medical leave because of stress related illness…. and one has been out for a month and just received clearance from his doctor to return to work.  On the personal home front – my blood pressure was so high at my last visit to the doc that she said she’d never seen anyone with a blood pressure that high who wasn’t currently having a stroke.  She took it 3 times.  Couldn’t believe I was still standing.  And they say that being a police officer is a stress related job.  hmpf!

To keep my job, I must be evaluated yearly by both a peer and my principal.  These are formal visits and I know when they’re coming.  There are also informal visits which can happen at any time.  My career depends on these visits.  If you have good evaluations you have fewer visits.  If you have bad evaluations you have more.  The grades I receive relate back to a rubric by Charlotte Danielson – one of the current gurus of rating teacher performance.  Oh – by the way – I had a conversation with Ms. Danielson where she informed me that she specifically told my county they were NOT using her system as designed.  Go figure.

I must have written essential questions on the board and must be armed with a bevy of “higher level” questions to ask my students.  The students must be engaged at all times.  They must work in groups and ideally, they should actually be leading the instruction.  Use of technology is HIGHLY recommended.  I must demonstrate good rapport with the students and THEY must demonstrate that they like and respect each other.  I must show that I honor everyone’s culture.  My students must be able to tell the evaluator – at all times – what they are learning, why they are learning it, and what they will learn next.

None of these requirements take into consideration what condition these children come into the classroom in.  Are they hungry, sick, homeless, non-English speakers, or just in a crappy mood because Dad’s in jail, Mom is a crack-head and they live with a different family member every week.  Are they special ed kids?  Are they on the spectrum somewhere for Autism…or ADHD….or dyslexic…or, or, or……….

As for the evaluators themselves, well now.  What if you don’t get along with your principal? Or what if you don’t get along with your peer?  What if your peer, isn’t a peer at all?  I have been evaluated by High School teachers.  One taught Language Arts and the other taught Business Technology.  I teach Culinary Careers, Food Preparation and Nutrition and Wellness to middle school students.  Are these people actually my peers?  I don’t think so.  And to take the ‘peerless’ idea a little further – these people taught at “regular” schools – not schools where 90% of the students qualify for free lunch and 70% of them don’t speak English as their first language.  Some of them have been in this country mere weeks.  These students have a different set of needs than your typical upper middle class school.  Are the problems worse?  I don’t know, but they sure as hell are different.

And so we get to test scores.  That’s the other half of my evaluation.  How my students perform on standardized tests.<span

style=”mso-spacerun: yes”>  The tests written and targeted at those upper middle class folks who speak English and have plenty of food in their tummies when they are taking these tests.  Not to worry!  There is a Value Added formula which assures me that all these factors will be taken into consideration.  You know I asked – but they couldn’t show me – where’s the factor that accounts for my student who’s father was murdered, who’s mother is stuck in Cuba and can’t get out, who’s older brother is in jail for dealing drugs and who lives with a grandmother who is infirm and speaks no English.  Where’s THAT factor, hmmmmmmmmm?

There is no doubt that our education system is suffering and in need of repair.  I will be the first to stand up and say that there are people teaching in the public school system that SHOULD NOT be teachers .  But there are plenty of damn good teachers out there as well, and they’re not doing this for the paycheck – believe me.  I have no problem being evaluated and held accountable for what I do.  But the system must be reasonable and it must BENEFIT OUR CHILDREN.

Does anyone REALLY wonder what drove those teachers in Atlanta to change student answers on standardized tests?  Was it right?  No.  But desperate people do desperate things.

I have busted my ass earning a reading certification so that I can keep students in my class who would otherwise have to miss out on any non-academic course like mine and take reading.  I have given up my conference period to tutor students for 9 weeks straight before the standardized tests.  I teach reading strategies – things most of you are familiar with – underlining, circling, making margin notes, to name a few.  These are “best practices”.  BUT they are now giving the reading tests on computer where they can utilize NONE of these strategies.  We are teaching one way and testing another.  Anyone wonder why the scores might be low?

I see students figuring out that they have power over teachers’ lives.  They can act out during an evaluation and the teacher loses points, or they can bomb a test and really screw the teacher.  The students who would engage in this kind of activity really don’t care if it screws them as well…they’re just along for the ride.  And I see – saddest of all – teachers turning on each other as this current climate makes what was once a fellowship and collaborative job into a competition to keep your job.

I see teachers pushed to the brink, saying and doing things they would NEVER have even dreamed of 2 years ago – and aimed at the students.  I find myself angry angry angry many times during the day, with no real reason other than the stress.  I don’t want to be angry at my students, but boy it seems as if I can’t avoid it.

My county accepted a huge grant from the Gates Foundation.  I have to applaud Mr. Gates for his commitment to trying to help public education.  But, having worked previously in an industry which dealt heavily with computers, I have to state what, to me, is obvious.  Mr. Gates, when building a computer you need a mother board.  When those boards come in from your suppliers, you have Quality Control go over them with a fine-toothed comb.  Any defects, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential, are rejected out of hand,  And those who survive the cut, make beautiful computers.

I teach children.  They come in damaged, brutalized, hungry, homeless, without enough memory, with shorts, speaking some other machine language, and – a few – are just right.  I have to build a beautiful person with these children, just the way they walk in the door.  There’s no inspection, no quality control.  There’s just children.  Many times I don’t have the funding or tools I need to teach these children – but that’s no matter either.  I am still responsible.  There’s no “going out of business” sale in school.  We do more and more with less and less…..and get blamed for everything from global warming to the fact that some of the children don’t have shoes.

<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: 0in 0in 0pt”> 

This is a long rant….and I need to wrap it up for now.  But a final thought – if you think public education is in dire straits right now, you are SO right.  If you think that it’s because the teachers are lazy, don’t care, and are uneducated, you are DEAD WRONG.  I am so sure of what I’m saying that I’ll make an offer.  If you think you can do what I do, contact me. (You’ll notice I didn’t say “better”  Better is not an issue – the only thing at issue here is if you can do it at all!)  I’ll arrange for you to come into my room and try.  I think you’ll be very surprised about what it feels like.  I wish that some of our high-brow nose-in-the-air legislators whose children all go to expensive private schools would try it.  Maybe they’d think twice before cutting education funding – again.