I can’t help but dread going back to my job. Why? I love the challenge of being in the classroom. I love the daily interaction with young people. I love the crafting of a good lesson plan. I love that feeling after a good day of teaching, when the kids “got it.” I love when I connect with a student and can help with an emotional or social issue. There are several kids that I would adopt tomorrow if I needed to.
But, there is another aspect to my job. There is constant pressure. It is like everyone is nervous and on edge all the time. And, there is way too much to do in one day. I believe the task of educating children takes time and is hard work, but my school tries to fit too many reforms in. With so many reforms, a teacher cannot innovate, cannot really teach.
Let me list all the reforms I am expected to implement in my classroom:
1. 25 books: Students are responsible for marking and annotating all the reading they do in class.
2. Sourcebook
3. Cornell Notes
4. Socratic Seminar
5. Reciprocal Teaching
6. Accountable Talk
7. Vocabulary
8. Write to learn
9. Constructed Responses
10. Interim Assessments
11. Short Cycle Assessments
12. Projects
13. Textbook reading
14. Understanding by Design
When I list them out like that, I can’t help but think that maybe I am just a big whiner. I mean, my administration is just trying to improve the teaching at their school. Ultimately, they (and especially my principal) are held accountable for student achievement, so shouldn’t they have a say in how we teach? Maybe I am one of those lazy teachers that complain when they are stretched to work hard, as one of my administrations would say.
When I look again at the list of initiatives, I realize that it is not the initiatives themselves that are wrong or outrageous, but it is the way that they were introduced and how they are handled throughout the year that makes them difficult for me to swallow.
No teacher buy-in: A core group of teachers did not get together and have a say on the list of initiatives. This means that there are no teachers in the faculty that can act as sellers advocates for different initiatives. However, is it possible to have one hundred teachers work together as a community and have a say in what happens? I am sure as an administrator that feels like an impossible task, especially when one does not believe that all teachers are competent and should have a say. (And some shouldn’t!) So how does an administrator surround herself with teachers that she trusts and that she wants to give responsibility to? That is a question for another entry.
Too many too fast: When I look at when these initiatives were introduced, they are staggered over a period of time. However, at least nine of these initiatives were introduced during the summer before the 2008-2009 school year. By December, we are supposed to have implemented them all. This is a difficult and stressful thing to do, and this is what causes this element to stress and anxiety among teachers. A better way to implement would be to introduce one each month or advisory, and have teachers focus on that one. That way, teachers would get to observe each other on that one initiative and share best practices. Once that one initiative is refined and more ingrained in a teacher’s repertoire, then the next initiative can be introduced.
Well, that is enough for today. More reflections to come!
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