On Jul 18, 2007, at 10:53 PM, Debbie Goodis wrote: > I admit, I am in somewhat of a bubble because I have, so far, had very > good, reasonable and rational principals. I do realize that the union > is there for the dedicated teachers, too. I, in the future, could be > someone who might need the union because I am one of those teachers > who doesn't play by ALL the rules, if the rules don't help my > students. So, I retract my statement about the union MOSTLY protecting > the slackers. However, what I DO see, is that they DO protect > slackers. I know that from what I see at my school. I have often > thought that what (some) teachers do borders on criminal, taking close > to 90 thousand dollars a year from the system, coming to work and > doing NOTHING all day that resembles teaching, and then leaving with > the students at the end of the day. Why and how does this happen? In > any other business, this person would be gone. Why is this person > protected???
One thing I've learned over the years is that everything I see may not be what I think I see. (I'm so intrigued by the "90 thousand dollars a year from the system" that I can't even picture what that could be, so I'll skip that part.) When you say that a teacher does nothing that resembles teaching, that's a very big generalization. It could be that said teacher thinks you are doing nothing that resembles teaching. But what I really want to speak to is the "leaving with students at the end of the day" statement. I used to go to school an hour and a half early and then leave with the students. I also am one of the most organized people I know (to an extreme) and could easily come to school half an hour early most days and leave pretty much with the students at the end of the day, just because of how I structure my classroom. Plus, as Beverlee has explained, it is administrators not doing their jobs that result in bad teachers staying in the classroom. Anyone who has never worked under a poor administrator, or worse, a vindictive one, is very lucky. I have been there and it is walking on glass every day. I have judged other teachers for their styles, their behaviors, etc., and then found things out like their husband has cancer is and going to die any minute, they were just diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease, they are involved in a family lawsuit, etc. Contrary to what many people think, teachers do have lives outside of the classroom which sometimes encroach on the teaching day. And you know, it took me years to make my mother figure out that no, I could not just make a doctor appointment in the middle of the day because I had a ten minute recess and a thirty minute lunch and there were two phone with outside lines on my campus, with forty teachers. (Before cell phones and phones in the classroom.) So I learned that all is not what it seems, and my job is to do the best job I can. As Nancy said, On Jul 19, 2007, at 4:34 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > This may be a dumb question, but how do you know what other teachers > do in > their classrooms? I've been teaching for 20 years and the only > teachers that I > have ever heard teach are the ones next door to me. This is so on target. Renee Deep down we must have real affection for each other, a clear realization or recognition of our shared human status. At the same time, we must openly accept all ideologies and systems as a means of solving humanity's problems. One country, one nation, one ideology, one system is not sufficient. ~ The Dalai Lama _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
