This Child Left Behind makes the point that maybe the teachers let go are bad teachers.
In my corner of the world, they are setting a simple criterion (taught in the county fewer than 2 years) and letting everyone who qualifies go.
So, you have some teachers who have taught longer in other places, but only 2 years in a particular county, being let go. And some of those were recruited by the new county because they were so good.
Then you have others, who really need, I don't know, something. Like the one I mentioned earlier who couldn't make it to school by the time she was supposed to be here. She felt she was here by the time school started, so it wasn't that big a deal that she wasn't here 30 minutes earlier. Or that she didn't go to her duty station, or whatever.
I look at the kids I teach this year, who miss 1/3, a half, 2/3 of the time and think they deserve As - and that it's MY responsibility to make that happen. I really wonder if the students (and young teachers) aren't getting the idea that they are young and energetic and older teachers are, well, old and old fashioned and that the young don't have to follow the rules.
If there were a more precise (but necessarily more vague) criterion that you had to be an effective teacher, you would end up with a better workforce. I have no use for Funsucker for so many reasons. I think if you were dumping teachers, she is where I would start.
Maybe she feels the same about me.
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5 comments:
The teacher in my department who's being let go ISN'T a bad teacher, she's just a bad HIGH SCHOOL teacher. She'd be awesome in a lower-middle school setting - 4-6th grades, I think, would respond well to her style and her boundaries. Sometimes, it's not a matter of being a bad teacher; sometimes, it's a matter of being in the wrong place.
I guess my concern is that I am hearing people say "they were let go so they must be bad" and I know that some just entered to door too late.
One is young and needs to learn not to get in a pissing contest with the kids - but he won't because he is gone.
The article mentioned a teacher who sounds AWESOME but came in too late - I know if several like that.
So far we still have seniority in NYC, which is good. But, it will change in a few years.
The message is old is bad.
I don't think the criteria for being an effective teacher can be based solely on longevity - THAT'S the problem. I'm a new teacher, and I am a better teacher than several people at my school with a LOT of seniority on me. But I'm also nowhere near as good as a TON of others who are far more experienced than I am. And who stays and who goes shouldn't be based only on how long you've had your job. It has to be more than that, for everyone's sake.
21 years in a difficult inner city school is enough for anyone. Lots of teachers just need to move on. Although I have been a very good, effective teacher, I just don't have the energy level that is needed to control the kids like I used to.
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