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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Good Teachers vs. Bad Teachers

One of the things I like about using Twitter now is that I feel very much well-informed about what is going on in education around the nation right now (even though that can be kind of depressing). I don't usually watch the Colbert Report (more a Jon Stewart fan myself)-however I did catch Campbell Brown's appearance. If you didn't see it:


Now I am not particularly an advocate of tenure I'm not against it either. I don't have it here. We sign a probationary contract every year. However, I don't understand this focus on it. So many Southern states do not have active unions or teacher tenure and they are way down on the list of states ranked for educational efficacy. Doesn't that prove all this money spent battling tenure is being wasted? That it won't really fix anything. It makes me wonder what the real motivation behind this fight is.

But I digress. What I really wanted to write about was the prevalence in the media of discussing the huge number of bad teachers out there. We initiate more stringent evaluations (and let me tell you ours is very, very stringent!) and they are still not happy that only a small percentage of teachers are deemed ineffective. I wish these people could see what I see. I don't know if there's a statistic on how many teachers are on Twitter sharing ideas, but I can tell you I follow over 1,000 of them and I just started :). I participated in a summer learning series online where almost 2,000 educators signed up to get homework every week learning about new uses for technology. I attended 9 days of professional development this summer (unpaid) and every single class was full, some had people show up on waiting lists hoping to get in. Look at all the blogs, Pinterest pages, Facebook posts--all about sharing ideas on how to make us better teachers. And that's what they do in their free time, don't even get me started on all the innovation and joy they bring to their classrooms! I have read several posts just this week of teachers so excited to get into their rooms and get started preparing for their new classes.

Sure, maybe there are ineffective teachers out there. But I can tell you unequivocally, that a majority of teachers put their whole hearts and souls into what they do and making things better for their students. I wish we could afford spokespeople who would report more of the positives of what we do--because it's out there if people would just open their eyes!



10 comments :

  1. Thank you for this! I get so frustrated constantly hearing about all the "Bad Teachers" out there. Yes, I'm sure everyone can tell a story about a legitimately bad teacher. Doesn't EVERYONE work with that one person who is incompetent/underqualified/lazy/etc regardless of profession? That doesn't mean they represent everyone else in that profession!

    Most teachers I know put their hearts and souls into their jobs; I have witnessed in several different districts the same things you mentioned above - teachers giving of their own time and money (and sacrificing their own personal lives and families) to be more, do more, help more for their students.

    Thank you again for posting on this! Such an important topic to discuss!

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    1. Thank you Denise! Yes, I completely agree-there are "bad' employees in every profession. For some reason we are being held to a different standard.

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  2. Amen. It's so true. If even a little bit of the effort spent in badmouthing a very small percentage (because I can't think of one that was truly bad ... even the less effective ones were still quite good and in it for the kids!) was spent in HELPING kids and families and schools? Well then maybe something would change.

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    1. Absolutely! It wouldn't take much effort for them to report good things, they choose not to. :( I also have not seen many that were at the level of "bad" and even then it was something others would say-we were not inside that classroom all the time to make that judgment. Thanks Ms. O!

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  3. Are we following each other on Twitter?! I'm singalullaby there… keep wanting to change my name to match blog/Instagram/etc, but I don't want to lose my first name tie to the world wide web, lol!

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    1. I'm @jtrayers. I know when I created the account I didn't even think of using my blog name! :)

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  4. A pre school teacher friend of mine (Fun a Day) was just blogging on the where does your child go to school wars (public vs private vs homeschool) - asking people to be more respectful of others' choices. She included a relevant quote: Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition. Jacques Barzun It seems to apply, doesn't it?

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    1. Yes, Sandi-I love that! So true! Thank you for sharing it.

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  5. The legislature in my state - Kansas - just got rid of tenure this session. I love what you've said about the majority of us being effective teachers who continue to learn and become better at our craft! Yes! Even when I say I've had a lazy summer, I'm reading blogs and professional books and thinking about my coming school year. Thanks for this positive post 3 days before I head back! Sara

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    1. Yes, I think many of us are doing that during summers-the politicians don't see that unfortunately. Thanks for stopping by Sara! :)

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