Blogboard

D.C. teacher Mr. Potter reports that several teachers at his school recently received termination notices (as part of an apparent year-end district purge). While he says he questions some of the decisions, he suggests that teachers in general are too quick to proclaim rank injustice and civic tragedy at the news of teacher firings:

Sometimes people get fired. Sometimes, your boss doesn't think you're doing a good job, and so you lose it. Sometimes this happens. Usually, the person deserves it. Sometimes, he/she maybe doesn't deserve to be fired, but still wasn't performing very well. Rarely is the person doing a really great job. Now, if someone is fired who really is doing their job well, and was fired for political or arbitrary reasons, then I'm glad we have a union to fight it. But honestly, if the person in question just wasn't performing well -- was showing up late and giving the kids busy work and not properly managing the class -- then I guess I don't feel that bad. They should have been using all that free time to update their resumees. Heartless? Maybe. But we don't have an absolute right to a job.

Is he right? What's your experience?

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Feeling beat? Happychyk discourses on the phenomenon of early-summer teacher collapse.

Last night I had a conversation with my principal, and come to find out she's been napping every afternoon, too. She's a little surprised by her need for sleep, and that surprised me. I think she's been in education longer than I've been alive, and she's about the hardest working administrator I know. As far as I can tell, her working hours know no boundaries. Surely after all these years she's felt that "Something's gotta give!" that comes in June.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Mister Teacher provides a list of 12 Things Teachers Should Do Over Summer Break. Number 7 sounds like good advice:

Find a trivia night at a local restaraunt or bar. Try to win.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will Richardson observes that the coverage of the election protests in Iran—coming to us via twitter, raw video, and personal blogs—illustrates that we are in a whole new ball game when it comes to media literacy. In his formulation, we are all editors now. Are kids equipped for this role? Richardson's not so sure:

I know that we should have been teaching these skills and processes all along with every piece of information we read or shared. But the reality is that we as an educational system haven’t been doing a very good job of it. Right now, however, we and our kids simply can’t get away with not having these skills any longer. I know the school year is over for many, but for those that are still in session, welcome to a teachable moment about the world, democracy, technology, media, and most of all, participation.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

“My dog ate it” just doesn’t seem to cut it these days. Mr. Potter of Harry Potter and the Urban School Nightmare had a student offer the following excuse to get out of a recent test:

Mr. Potter: *Student*, you missed a test yesterday. You need to make it up.
Student: But Mr. Potter, I have an excuse!
MP: Well, you still need to make it up -- what's the excuse?
S: I was in court!
MP: For what?!
S: Stealing form Target.

Posted by Josh Cohen at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pondiscio at Core Knowledge provides a cautionary reminder that it's entirely possible for a kid to ace standardized tests and still not know all that much:

What the data doesn’t show ... is that out in the real world there are very different metrics [than test results] at work. There’s too often far less to our current definition of success than meets the eye.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hobo Teacher can't find it in himself to end on a positive note this year. He's got some harsh words:

Does anyone care an abundant amount of criminals, bigots, and just general all around jack-a-ninnies graduated high schools around this country this past year?

And that's just the start ...

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A fascinating and troubling post: Middle school teacher Bill Ferriter is noticing some signs that kids are increasingly confusing video games with reality:

I'm just starting to wonder whether one of the unintended consequences of easy access to electronic experience is that we're raising a generation of children who have a flawed sense of their personal strengths and weaknesses? Are middle schoolers--who love fantasy and imagination to begin with--confused, failing to find the line between fiction and reality when determining what they "know" and "can do?"

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ariel Sacks, guest blogging at Public School Insights, says she would invest in efforts to keep effective teachers from leaving the classroom. For her, that means creating and compensating teacher-leadership roles—something that is shamefully lacking at present:

I serve as a grade team facilitator, mentor teacher and curriculum developer, as well as a full-time teacher. These positions help teachers support one another and gain a voice in their schools, which can improve working conditions and outcomes for students. However, the titles and responsibilities don’t represent career advancement for me (or most other teachers) because, unlike in other professions, I’m not paid for my leadership skills. I could switch back to lunch duty and see no change in salary. Teacher compensation must be reshaped to reward and retain teachers who make valuable contributions to their school communities.

Other members of the Teacher Leaders Network will also be chiming in on this question on the PSI blog.

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)