Archive for the ‘Teacher Welfare’ Category
December 8, 2011
The teacher who swapped the word “gay”with “bright” so that her class wouldn’t giggle during their rendition of “Deck the Halls” was always going to draw the ire of at least one parents. As much as she may have made the change with the best of intentions, I am sure if she had her time over, she wouldn’t have fiddled with the lyrics:
A Michigan teacher chose to censor the word ‘gay’ from the festive holiday tune ‘Deck the Halls’ and was met by a frosty response from parents.
Parents thought the Cherry Knoll teacher had been naughty and not so nice when the elementary instructor replaced ‘gay’ with ‘bright’ after her students wouldn’t stop laughing when they sang the word.
They took to the school’s Facebook page ranting about the teacher’s decision to change that word in the traditional holiday carol.
Cherry Knoll principal Chris Parker told 7&4 News in Traverse City that he was disappointed the music teacher decided to change the lyrics, saying she could have used the moment for a learning opportunity on tolerance.
‘This would have been a great opportunity to teach that “gay” has more than one meaning and is not a bad word,’ he said.
Enraged parents took to the school’s Facebook page, which has since been disabled, to voice their complaints over the word-swap.
A teacher’s poor choice is not the real story here. The real story is the way the parents handled the situation. Instead of confronting the school or teacher with their displeasure, they did what many parents are now choosing to do, and turned their disapproval into a large-scale Facebook campaign.
I have no doubt that a few quiet phone calls from concerned parents would have been sufficient to provoke this teacher to revert back to the original lyrics and make a profuse apology to all offended. Instead, this teacher had to contend with a barrage of negative comments on Facebook, and now, worldwide media coverage.
This sends a shocking message. It says that whenever parents are upset over the actions of a classroom teacher they can turn to Facebook for a fully fledged smear campaign. This amounts to bullying of the worse kind.
Teachers make mistakes. Some small, some huge. But no well-meaning teacher deserves to be pillaged on Facebook – ever!
Tags:Bullying, Carols, Cherry Knoll, Chris Parker, Christmas, Deck the Halls, Dr Jane Mohr, Education, facebook, Gay, Lyrics, Michigan, Music, News, social media, Teacher Welfare
Posted in Social Media, Teacher Welfare | 2 Comments »
November 20, 2011
I have never cried in front of my students. However, in my first years of teaching, there were times when I felt completely out of my element and had to keep my resolve and try by best to pull through.
I’ve just read a brilliant piece by Caitlin Hannon, a first year teacher, whose introduction to teaching reduced her to tears. And who can blame her?
I broke a cardinal rule of teaching several times last year: I cried in front of my students.
Sometimes it happened out of frustration. Just as often, I was overcome during very honest conversations about the struggles my students face within and beyond the school building. At least twice the tears were brought on by uncontrollable laughter at a student’s joke.
As a first-year teacher, I figured tears (of some kind) were inevitable.
I knew I wanted to make a difference, and I thought that difference needed to start in the classroom — not in an office as a policymaker, with little or no connection to, and understanding of, what happens inside schools.
This desire, and my nontraditional education background, led me to Teach For America, a program that trains recent college graduates from various backgrounds to teach in public schools. I spent my first year teaching English at Tech High School, which served a predominantly low-income, minority population. This year, I am teaching seventh-grade language arts at Emma Donnan Middle School.
By the end of that first year, I realized that the life I’d changed the most was my own.
Who is prepared to read a child’s disclosure of abuse in a journal entry?
Who is an expert at helping a student handle the loss of several close family members in a bout of gang violence over the weekend?
I experienced both of these scenarios and more during my first year, and it’s hard to imagine a traditional route to the classroom making it any easier to deal with such heartbreak.
Above is just an excerpt of the article. I encourage you to read the entire piece. It strengthens my long-held position, that teachers are not fully prepared for the rigours of a classroom due to the failings of the teacher training programs. I also feel that new teachers are left to their own devices when they really need a non-judgemental mentor to help show them the ropes and counsel them through the tough times.
Ms. Hannon may not have had her last cry at school, but her passion and teaching philosophy suggests that she is going to have a great future. Her students are going to be the great beneficiaries of her blood, sweat and, yes, tears …
Tags:Caitlin Hannon, Education, Emma Donnan Middle School, life, Students, Teach for America, Teacher, Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare, Tech High School, TFA
Posted in Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare | 6 Comments »
November 11, 2011
We are currently living in the age of “the hamstrung teacher’. Never has it been so hard for teachers to gain control, receive respect and maintain some semblance of authority.
Blogs and staff rooms are replete with dispirited and powerless teachers struggling with unruly and defiant students. It wasn’t long ago that teachers were able to meter out tough and effective consequences for bad behaviour. Unfortunately, it is so much harder now than it ever was to find the right penalty for inappropriate and insubordinate behaviour.
Why not send them to the Principal?
The Principal used to be an imposing figure. – someone you didn’t want to meet, even to get a certificate or compliment. Students used to avoid the Principal like a plague. Principal’s used to concern themselves with discipline issues and take charge when students overstepped the mark. But nowadays a visit to the Principal’s office is not all that dissimilar to a trip to the fun park. A Principal’s job now is to keep parents and students happy and leave the real disciplining to the teachers.
“Next time try not calling the teacher those names.”
What about suspending them?
Nine hundred students are suspended every day in England. In Australia it is 100 per day. Being suspended used to be a humiliation. It would involve notifying the students’ parents, who would be none too happy to receive the phone call. Now suspensions presents just another opportunity to get back to the Playstation or X-Box. Parents often reassure their kids and allow them to go home and vegetate. Hardly a real punishment!
What about taking away their recess?
Don’t tell the civil libertarians about this mode of punishment! According to law, students can only be kept in for some of recess, not the entire playtime. And anyway, why should the teacher be punished? Teachers rely on their lunch breaks to recharge and re-energize. Monitoring detention just isn’t fair.
What about ringing the parents?
Parents used to be on the side of the teacher. When a teacher called a parent, that parent would take stock of what the teacher was saying and become partners in helping manage the problem. Nowadays, parents are likely to become defensive, make excuses and become unwitting enablers for their children’s poor behaviour.
Please note, that I am not tainting all parents. On the contrary, the parents I work with have been incredibly open and supportive. I am merely pointing out that trends are changing and punishments that used to make students squirm and think twice before acting, are now no longer a deterrent.
It is also important to note that most teachers are not trigger happy when it comes to punishments. We don’t like punishing students. We try to command respect rather than demand it. But there are times when all semblance of control is lost and students are purposely trying to sabotage the class and undermine their teacher.
In those cases, the teacher is often left to raise their arms skyward and ponder what it is they can do to remedy the situation.
Tags:Classroom Management, Consequences, Control, Detentions, Education, Education Policy, life, Parenting, Principals, Psychology, Punishments, Suspensions, Teacher Welfare, Teachers
Posted in Classroom Management, Teacher Welfare | 4 Comments »
November 4, 2011
Teacher burnout is a significant problem that strike even the very best of teachers. Even the most passionate and dedicated of teachers struggle to see out a term out without getting sick or feeling extremely fatigued.
The question is, how do we address this problem?
Research shows the teaching profession has the highest burnout rate of any public service job. What can we do to keep the best and the brightest teachers in the classroom?
In April, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) released the report, “Workplaces That Support High-Performing Teaching and Learning: Insights From Generation Y Teachers.”Gen Y teachers—that is, those under 30 years of age—account for at least one in five teachers in US classrooms today. They start out intending to make teaching a lifelong profession. However, according to the report, young teachers leave the profession at a rate 51 percent higher than older teachers and transfer to a different school at a rate 91 percent higher than their older colleagues. Studies also show that the national teacher-turnover rate costs school districts approximately $7 billion annually.
In the AFT/AIR report, young teachers say they want:
- Feedback on their performance and to be evaluated in a fair way
- Time to collaborate with their colleagues
- Differentiated pay for high performance
- Technology to provide engaging and effective lessons, as well as to support collaboration with other teachers through, for instance, videos and conferencing technology.
I agree with every point, but have a problem with the third one. Whilst I believe Governments should look into a differentiated model of pay for high performers, I don’t believe such an initiative would have any bearing on cases of teacher burnout.
The list of proposed changes by young teachers above is most fair and reasonable. If responded to, the outcomes could be quite positive all around. It’s certainly time to better address teacher burnout. It’s an issue that cannot be dismissed and will not go away.
Tags:AFT, AIR, American Federation of Teachers, American Institutes for Research, and Effectiveness, Burnout, Education, Generation Y, life, National Education Association, Retention, Susan Moore Johnson, Teacher, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Welfare, teacher-turnover, Teachers, Teaching, technology, The Workplace Matters—Teacher Quality, Workplaces That Support High-Performing Teaching and Learning
Posted in Teacher Welfare | 1 Comment »
October 28, 2011
It seems to be more fashionable than ever to knock teachers. Teachers are being dubbed as lazy and inept.
In truth it is easy to criticise teachers but very hard to be one.
We need more articles like this one by Patricia McGuire to defend teachers and set the record straight.
Yes, teachers should certainly be held accountable for excellence in teaching and for measurable results in the progress their students make each day. Teachers are on the front line of student learning assessment, since they really do know better than anyone else what makes a child successful or lackadaisical, engaged or detached in class. Standardized tests rarely measure the real progress that teachers make with some of the most challenging pupils whose learning styles are far off the normed curves.
The current fashion in education reform treats teachers as lazy slugs who care little about whether their students are learning anything. The assumption behind using standardized testing for teacher evaluation is that the only way to make teachers care about learning is to embarrass them publicly when their students do not perform according to someone else’s idea of norms. This assumption is what is truly preposterous!
For teachers who choose to devote their life’s work to some of the most difficult classrooms in America, such as here in the District of Columbia, the testing imperative becomes a monumental disincentive to stay in the classroom for any length of time, since the opportunities for sustained superior results on standardized tests are rare, while the risks of frequent subpar results are very high. It’s no secret that the widely-hailed Teach for America program has ingrained two-year turnover in its teaching corps. TFA teachers rarely stay to wrestle through the down years, which are frequent among students in marginalized communities.
Governments are so busy trying to find a negatively geared incentive for teachers and a scale that compares their effectiveness that they have lost sight of the most important pieces of the Education reform puzzle:
1. Revolutionise teacher training programs to focus on the practical instead of the theoretical.
2. Have measures in place that allow all teachers (especially new teachers) the support they need.
3. Spend more time critiquing schools with questionable cultures of bullying and harrasment. Give these school’s the support they need to better handle their affairs.
Tags:Arne Duncan, Education, Education Reform, Lazy, life, Parenting, Patricia McGuire, Standardized Tests, Teach for America, Teacher Assessment, Teacher Evaluation System, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare, Teachers, Teaching, Value Added Teacher Evaluation
Posted in Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare | 2 Comments »
October 25, 2011
Unfortunately, teachers and Facebook aren’t always a match made in heaven. Whilst the vast majority of teachers on Facebook are responsible and mature enough to stay out of trouble, there’s always a news story popping up about tasteless comments a teacher made against students or minority groups. This month it is Viki Knox, a Special Education teacher who was rightly condemned for her anti-gay comments on Facebook.
The media storm resulting from the Knox case and others like it serve as a timely reminder to teachers on Facebook that they must be extremely careful not to offend (something which shouldn’t be hard to do).
But what about the myriad of incidents of parents and students ganging up on and bullying teachers?
More than one in seven teachers has been the victim of cyberbullying by pupils or parents, and almost half know a colleague who has been targeted, according to a survey published today.
Students have set up “hate” groups on social networking sites calling for specific teachers to be sacked and have even created fake profiles in their names containing defamatory information.
Schools must make clear to pupils that such behaviour will lead to punishment, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said.
Schools seem to be increasingly soft on parents that bully teachers. Turning a blind-eye to Facebook campaigns and insulting comments against teachers is not acceptable. Teachers so often feel isolated and powerless against taunts from parents.
Who do they turn to for support?
When schools claim to have a “zero tolerance for bullying”, they ought to include bullying of teachers by parents. Any parent caught bullying a teacher online should be subjected to the same penalty as a teacher. They should be told to take their child and find another school.
If you think that’s harsh, try being a bullied teacher. I’m glad I’ve never been bullied, because I guarantee you, it’s not easy!
Tags:Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Bebo, Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Education, facebook, Gay, Julian Stanley, Nick Clayton, Ofsted, Parenting, social media, Teacher Support Network, Teachers, Viki Knox
Posted in Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Dealing with Parents, Parenting, Teacher Welfare | 2 Comments »
October 5, 2011
People who don’t know me well assume that I fell into teaching because it pays my bills. They look at a male primary teacher and think that I must have been low on choices to pick a profession that the average man wouldn’t opt for in a million years.
Their impressions are all wrong. In fact, I did have choices, but all I wanted to do was to teach. It’s hard to explain to those who associate teaching with low pay, long hours, high stress, immense pressure and classroom management headaches.
I read a brilliant piece by student teacher Stephanie Vincent, entitled ‘Why I Really Shouldn’t Be a Teacher‘. She lists 3 reasons why she shouldn’t go down the path she is going – the workload, lack of recognition and the challenges stemming from difficult parents.
Yet, with all those detracting factors, she is very happy with her choice:
By becoming a teacher I will be lucky enough to spend every day doing something that I’m passionate about. From the first day of my teaching practicum I felt as though I had entered a sacred world, and I can confidently say that I want to spend my future there. Quite simply, I love teaching and children.
Luckily, I don’t seek recognition or a prestigious job. I want a job that excites me. Every day students remind teachers why they teach. This was made clear to me throughout my practicum experience. When I was able to connect with students or when I saw students’ eyes light up when they finally understood a difficult concept, I felt deeply rewarded. Students are why teachers teach.
But what about those difficult parents I mentioned? Although I have not yet had to deal with upset parents, I did deal with an upsetting experience. I worked with one student in particular in a one-on-one setting, and we developed a close bond. During my practicum her entire life was essentially flipped upside down, and she reached out to me. It was devastating to know what she was going through. I was helpless and questioned my ability to deal with it. I discussed my fears with my teaching associate, and as always, she was amazing. She reminded me that, as a teacher, I could help this student. Teachers are in a unique position in that they can provide every child in their class with a positive environment, for at least part of their day, and show them that someone cares.
Suddenly those three reasons I talked about above for not becoming a teacher seem far away. I cannot think of anything that I would rather do. I want to learn how to teach so that I can spend every day with students and so that we can learn from each other. Each and every student brims with energy and unrealized possibility. I want to help them release that energy and realize their potential. In the end, teaching is the most rewarding and enjoyable job anyone can do.
This was just a pleasure to read. There is so much negativity surrounding this great profession, it is a joy to read from a passionate and driven teacher. I wish Stephanie all the best during her training and beyond. She presents as the type of teacher you’d want looking after your child. She reminds disillusioned teachers that if they don’t feel the same way as she does, they should perhaps consider a change of career.
Tags:Education, Inspirational Teachers, life, Parenting, Stephanie Vincent, Teacher, Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare, Teachers, Teachers Salary, Teaching, University of Lethbridge
Posted in Inspirational Teachers, Teacher Training, Teacher Welfare, Teachers Salary, Teachers Stress | 2 Comments »
September 19, 2011
I commend all students brave enough to speak out against teachers who have abused them physically or emotionally.
To those students who make up false allegations, I hope you realise what damage such a claim makes to the teacher and his/her family. Shame on you!
I hope William Stuart’s story serves as a reminder for such misguided and selfish students to think carefully about the implications of a false allegation:
After a 23-year unblemished career as a teacher, William Stuart was arrested six months ago and accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl in a corridor at Graham School, Scarborough.
During the court case, magistrates heard that the girl and friends had smeared an iced bun over the wall of the school canteen. Mr Stuart, an assistant head teacher, had shouted at the group to remain in the dining hall to clean up but the girl refused and began to walk away.
It was then, according to the girl’s testimony, that a “really, really angry” Mr Stuart followed her and backed her up on to coat pegs before pushing her to the floor.
Mr Stuart’s account was very different. The girl barged into him several times and threw a punch as he tried to block her path.
On Thursday it became clear whose version the magistrates believed. Mr Stuart was acquitted with the full endorsement of the bench and to cheers from the packed court. His wife, Sarah, cried tears of relief that the family’s nightmare was finally over.
Whilst we must severely punish any teacher found dealing inappropriately with students we must also do everything we can to deter students from making erroneous claims against their teachers.
Mr Stuart was just doing his job. He did absolutely nothing wrong. Yet for 6 months he had lost everything.
Tags:assistant head teacher, Education, Graham School, Law, life, Michael Gove, News, Parenting, Robert Goodwill, Scarborough, William Stuart
Posted in Teacher Welfare | 15 Comments »
September 18, 2011
I’ve been writing about this for a while. Education is supposed to be a team effort. All parts of the system are supposed to work with each other and for each other. Yet, it always seems to be that the teachers get singled out for blame. Poor testing results – blame the teachers, a bullying problem – blame the teachers, lack of classroom control – yep, let’s blame the teachers for that too.
The question has to be asked: At what point do we focus our attention on the administrators when handing out the blame? It seems to me that whilst there is always going to be poor teachers in the system, nowhere near enough focus is directed to policy makers as well as those in management positions and on school counsels.
That’s why it is refreshing to have documentaries like “Waiting for Superman” and articles like the one written by Saul Rubinstein, Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler in the L.A. Times:
Most of the current efforts to improve public education begin with the flawed assumption that the basic problem is teacher performance. This “blame the teacher” attitude has led to an emphasis on standardized tests, narrow teacher evaluation criteria, merit pay, erosion of tenure, privatization, vouchers and charter schools. The primary goal of these measures has been greater teacher accountability — as if the weaknesses of public education were due to an invasion of our classrooms by uncaring and incompetent teachers. That is the premise of the documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” and of the attacks on teachers and their unions by politicians across the country.
Much of the current wave of school reform is informed by the same management myths that almost destroyed U.S. manufacturing. Instead of seeing teachers as key contributors to system improvement efforts, reformers are focused on making teachers more replaceable. Instead of involving teachers and their unions in collaborative reform, they are being pushed aside as impediments to top-down decision-making. Instead of bringing teachers together to help each other become more effective professionals, district administrators are resorting to simplistic quantified individual performance measures. In reality, schools are collaborative, not individual, enterprises, so teaching quality and school performance depend above all on whether the institutional systems support teachers’ efforts.
Whilst I am not a fan of unions, it upsets me that teachers are often singled out when there are other integral stakeholders who should be sharing the blame for poor results.
Tags:Administrators, Blame, Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler, Documentary, Education, LA Times, life, Saul Rubinstein, Standardized Tests, Teacher Union, Teachers, Waiting for Superman
Posted in Teacher Welfare | 1 Comment »
August 16, 2011
I don’t understand why parents can’t be subject to the kinds of consequences their children are for bullying and harassment. Parents who set up internet groups and Facebook pages to spread untruths about their childs’ teacher should be punished for their actions. Anything from a warning to in the most serious offences expulsion of their child from school is appropriate.
Some may think this is a bit harsh and that children should not be penalised for the deeds of their parents, but bullying is a very serious offence and schools that take it seriously reap the rewards by maintaining a safe environment. Schools are too dismissive of parents who bully teachers. Teachers often feel marginalised and lacking of support. The statement that bullying of any kind will result in strong penalties is essential to delivering the best outcomes from an academic and social standpoint.
Bullying like this should not be tolerated:
Teachers are the latest group found to be at risk of cyber-bullying, according to a recent report.
The study by Professor Andy Phippen found several instances where teachers had been targeted for abuse by social media users on websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
One head teacher interviewed for the study said she had a breakdown and was left feeling suicidal.
The headteacher suffered a year of abuse by a parent at her school who used a Google group to post libellous untruths about her and her school. “I eventually had a mini breakdown in the summer holiday, needing an emergency doctor to be called out as I had become suicidal,” she told researchers.
The message should ring loud and clear – Either play by our rules or find somewhere else to send your kids!
Tags:Bullying, Cyberbullying, Education, facebook, Google group, Law, life, Parenting, Professor Andy Phippen, School, Schools, social media, Teachers, Teaching, Twitter
Posted in Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Teacher Welfare | 1 Comment »
Topical Teaching 