Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Is it any wonder that teachers are becoming more and more fed up with their profession?

This description from the YouTube page:  

This presenter was one of several consultants flown in from California and the United Kingdom for the Chicago Public Schools' Office of Strategic School Support Services' special network. This is a professional development for teachers of Saturday ISAT preparation classes.

To be clear this are accredited teachers, many with years of experience, being treated as if they themselves are children. 

Here is how one educator described what they were seeing on this video: Yes, you can make a lot of things look bad taken out of context, but I don’t think a case can be made that this is appropriate for any professional development, or classroom, context…

I may be somewhat hyper sensitive to this personally because I myself am in the last month of a three month mandatory training process that has provided me with NO new information, and during which I have been called upon repeatedly by the newly hired instructors to provide context or clarification for what they are trying to teach.

I have been more than slightly irritated during this training, but at least they have never treated us as poorly as the Chicago teachers in the video.

I can assure all of you that if anybody addressed me in such a manner I would gather my things and walk out never to return again. And I would not give two shits if it were mandatory or not.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:20 AM

    I'm fed up with teachers at the moment. My second grader brought home math homework and the NEW way of doing arithmetic is FREAKING STUPID.

    Seriously? Who thought this up?????

    Sigh. If something's broke, DONT FIX IT, and dont fix it to be WAY harder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hedgewytch8:26 AM

      Who? Brought to you by Bush era conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and the Texas School Board, that's who.

      Delete
    2. Don't blame the teacher. They are only doing what they are mandated to do.

      Blame the politicians and corporations pushing this stuff for votes and profits. Teachers no longer have any say in curriculum or implementation.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:00 PM

      Learn something about curriculum. Schools (and often entire school districts) make decisions about Math curriculum. These days, teachers aren't left up to their own devices to teach Math the way they see fit (although they are allowed to supplement). My daughter is in 2nd grade as well. Last year our entire district switched to a new math program that extends throughout the elementary grades. In our case, the new curriculum suits out daughter very well. I've heard complaints from other parents. But not one of them blamed the teacher because we all know the curriculum is mandated.

      And let me also say that when these curriculum decisions are made, it is by committees that include administrators and parents. We were told of public meetings to discuss the change and were given chances to review the new curriculum before hand.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:53 AM

    Demeaning. I'm surprised the teachers sat there and complied.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:58 AM

    So there's no money to pay teachers a decent salary but for this Bullshit there's money? What Politician's relative owns the consultant company putting on these workshops?
    As for 4:20 comment above; you don't really think teachers get to decide the curriculum? Some old White guys decide that and the teachers get to try to make sense of it.

    TexasMel

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:35 AM

    We'll all appreciate this, the worst dressing 'pundent' continues to scrabble for the most intriguing insults against her mortal enemy.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/sarah-palin-president-obama-vladimir-putin-104218.html

    Speaking of mom jeans. . .http://imgur.com/xu1kt

    How about whore jeans? http://www.celebitchy.com/256408/sarah_palin_explains_her_makeover_shes_writing_a_fitness_self-discipline_book/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good LORD! I haven't seen such condescension, not even addressed to preschoolers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:16 AM

    That is the worst professional training I have ever heard - and I only listened for the first two auto-response questions! I, too, would have walked out. How anyone with a brain would think this would provide any learning experience for these poor teachers is as stupid as this exercise in futility!

    ReplyDelete
  7. My first impression of this is that the instructor is giving these teachers a way to deliver a lesson to a group of students.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:39 AM

    I am glad I am not a teacher anymore... I would have picked up my stuff and vociforously and ostensibly left that room, never to return.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dan Heynen8:55 AM

    I was once summoned to the Anchorage School District Administration building and given an official letter of reprimand by an assistant superintendent for signing in to a worthless In-Service and then leaving and going back to my own school to prepare my room and materials for the first day of school - with my Principal's permission. That was how I started my 28th and final year with the Anchorage School District, and it only got worse from that point. BTW, I have a very nice "Alaska Music Educator of the Year" plaque hanging on my wall... (My Principal got her wrist slapped as well, but she retired when I did.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Since she retired, I have forlornly missed Anna Quindlen's bi-weekly Newsweek columns. Here's one (of many) she did, wholeheartedly saluting teachers:

    "I handled three classes, and by the time I staggered out the door, I wanted to lie down for the rest of the day.

    Teaching’s the toughest job there is. In his new memoir, Teacher Man , Frank McCourt recalls telling his students, “Teaching is harder than working on docks and warehouses.” Not to mention writing a column. I can stare off into the middle distance with my chin in my hand any time. But you go mentally south for five minutes in front of a class of fifth-graders, and you are sunk."

    "The Wages of Teaching"
    https://www.nea.org/home/12344.htm

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous2:57 PM

    as they say at wonkette, dumb twunt.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anita Winecooler5:04 PM

    There's a huge chunk of wasted time and money they'll never recoup. Who teaches the one at the blackboard? Is she graded on her performance? My sister's an educator in New Jersey, and she's inundated with these folks. She's at the point of considering leaving the profession, the only thing that's stopping her is she loves her kids. Teachers deserve respect, a better pay scale, and fewer "Stepford Idiots" robotically demeaning them.

    ReplyDelete

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