Sunday, October 3, 2010
When I become a teacher...
On face value, these statements sound ridiculous, and yet how often do we allow these things to come true? While some teachers simply don't care, I believe that most teachers are good intentioned people. They care about kids and wish to do well by them.
So how do we end up lecturing more than we should? How do we become agents of the state that prevent change? How do we maintain the bell shaped curve?
How does all this happen if teachers are good intentioned?
I believe part of the answer can be found in our systems accountability madness. Every time someone outside of the classroom dictates to those who are in the classroom how learning should look like, we compromise ourselves and our students.
Until teachers begin to refuse their cooperation with those who wish to externally impose cancerous accountability policies, we will continue to have good intentions with utterly pathetic implementation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is Lisa again, from EDM310 at the University of South Alabama.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your comments on the video. I think that FEAR is what silences our teachers with good intentions. Locally, (in the Mobile County Public School System) teachers are faced with layoffs every year. Too many teachers are more afraid of losing their jobs than taking a stand and teaching outside of the box. Not that I know for sure, but my guess is that this is the case across the country.
Maybe if educators, throughout the country, take a stand, an educational reform can occur. To let someone outside of the classroom dictate what we learn (from a student's perspective) is ridiculous. I couldn't begin to tell you how frustrating it was to have to cram unheard of information just before a test. (And by unheard of, I mean topics we haven't been able to discuss, because teachers were spending necessary time on other topics made mandatory to be taught.)I am sure it is just as frustrating for teachers as it is for students. But until the day that job security has meaning for educators, I'm afraid the board members will continue to dictate classroom objectives, which is utterly a shame.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Sherrie, I am in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I am commenting as part of an assignment. I will post a summary on my blog I agree that having good intentions isn't enough. In the past, changes were made when people spoke up for what they believed was right and stood by it. I believe teachers need to come together and do the same. Great post. You can also visit our class blog