Another Program
9-25-09
When given a choice, teachers usually do what is best for children. If we see value in a program or new initiative, we agree to sign on and learn new methods that may be more effective for our children. There is no issue at all. We are all about improving our practice to reach children.
This year things are a bit different. Our in-service days have been cut out of the calendar due to the state’s financial crisis. Our pay has been cut and the time that we have at school to attend staff development has been severely compromised. The day to day pressures of lesson plans, classroom management, grades and communication are still with us. Some of us teacher types (my high school colleagues) even face the added challenge of moving into a new building, getting acclimated, and dealing with lack of resources. (What – students don’t have chairs to sit in? No lockers assigned and it’s the second week of school?) The day to day pressures can be daunting!
We are keenly aware and committed to doing a good job day in and day out. At this point, the best we can do is to keep working hard to keep up with the multitude of programs that have already been established. In education, it seems that each time there is an issue or a problem, someone throws a program at it (and probably makes a nice chunk of change doing it).
These improvement programs are aimed at changing teacher behavior. The programs rarely begin with teacher input and teacher concern: we live in a top down bureaucracy where the people who are closest to the problem are the last ones consulted on what to do. Teachers’ voices are not heard in the planning stages of staff development. Teachers are simply given orders to learn the new THING and then we are held accountable. So we are commanded: teach this way and we will be in to watch and see that you do it!
What programs you ask? We have incentive programs for positive behavior and student career programs for helping them choose a career. We have fundraisers and assemblies to honor students who show improvement and achievement. We have fire drills, team meetings, staff meetings, new technology initiatives and after school tutoring to help raise our students’ DSTP scores. We have a new teacher evaluation system in which we are asked to set up individual goals for our school year. What will we do to improve our teaching and our test scores?
We set up parent conferences and special action plans for needy students. The array of initiatives that we sustain in one week is just staggering and as if that is not enough in this age of do more, with less time, less efficiently, and for less pay, the Cape District had added one more program to our list. This year we are to be instructed on and implement the Learning Focus program.
Hold the bus! One minute please! Didn’t we just implement the Understanding by Design program – I was just getting the hang of that – Big Questions and Enduring Understandings? What about the CRISS program – great graphic organizers and power notes? I know we did because I have those manuals on my shelf. Some of the those strategies seemed good and I am just getting the hang of it, but now I have to rewrite my lesson plans in yet another format, reconfigure my teaching units and rethink my practice again? Please stop!
Change is good: too much change too quickly actually impedes progress. This year should be used to refine what we have and revisit what teachers believe we really need to move forward.
