Thursday, October 11, 2007
Teacher Leadership & Change
Tom's news article showed an example of teacher-centered change, but is teaching utopia possible. I always find it interesting that we hear of these few miracle workers who manage to get a group of teachers together to proactively work on something they feel passionate about: their teaching, but then quickly reflect on our own district situations and say it could never happen. The union mentality seems pervasive. Why do we allow people who work at this job as if it were an hourly labor position to have so much control? I remember feeling little interest in staying more than a few minutes beyond my scheduled shift when I worked at Dunkin' Donuts, Shop-Rite, and Roy Rogers in high school. I knew I would only be paid for the actual time I worked per 1/4 hour, so there was little incentive to work longer. But now as a teacher, I work until the work is done. I'm surprised and disappointed when I hear of people who aren't team players. Anyway, it would also be nice if administrators supported teacher-leader groups and arranged schedules so that this could be a possibility during the school day to accomodate those who won't work any time after school.
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6 comments:
I find it shocking to look around to see some teachers who only stay in the building according to their contractual obligations. I see what you are saying, sometimes, you have people who are very preoccupied with their own lives in such a way that they lose sight of the purpose of teaching. They wait for the bell to ring and they run. I notice many teachers who have a first instinct to question their contractual obligation before doing any perceived extra work. Then you have the teachers who blatently go far above and beyond. Then you have teachers who are afraid to do too much because fellow union members will look at them strangely. I remember organizing a school dance about 8 years ago. I was a first year teacher and I was the student council advisor. The district was going through a contractual dispute. People looked at me like "who's this guy making us look bad?". They disagreed with my idea to do something nice for the kids. They saw it like a slap in the face and that I was siding with the district/town. Its a weird thing, right?
Laura,
I also found Tom's headline article interesting and did my own blog on it. I have been able to participate in a team approach as you spoke about. My principal made it possible for content meetings once every six days. It was highly productive and I think alot more positive learning went on for our students. As in any building, I also have people who do not or can not stay afterschool, thus the content meetings were essential. The teacher collegiately was great and strengthen our staff for upcoming changes and problems. Thanks for the blog, AnneMarie
Hey Laura,
Yes Tom's article did showcase a perfect example of a school letting its teachers be leaders. If administrators were able to create a workable teacher leader task calendar (instead of prep period) more teachers would be able to work collaboratively. Throughout the school day, think about how many unnecessary issues arise and teachers have to deal with, when other groups, i.e. PTA, administrators, etc could handle some of issues??? Thanks for sharing.
Glynnis
I completely agree with you Laura. There are so many teachers that are 8:15-3:15 people. (Those are our contracted hours.) I believe that in order to be a successful teacher, one has to be willing to put the extra time in. It was very disheartening for me to hear teachers talking the faculty room saying since we had to report back for Back To School Night at 6:45 as opposed to 7:00 when it commences, that they wanted those fifteen minutes back. Teaching is not the type of job that when it is quitting time, you just get up and leave. There is preperation for the next day's lessons, tests to be graded, and extra help for students who are struggling. If people want to only work a specific number of hours a week, than teaching is not for them.
I am pretty sure that in every profession, and every station in life, there are people who will do what they can get aways with, some will work only as much as they have to to get by, and the rest of us make ourselves crazy trying to be the best teacher for each of our students. I feel very lucky in the sense that my school is filled with dedicated educators who are the most hard-working and passionate teachers I have ever encountered. Don't think of yourself as alone, think of yourself as a leader by example. We need more administrators like that in the world.
Same goes for my school. Most teachers leave asap. If they got more positive feedback and assistance from adminstration then things would change. I know sometimes I feel that staying beyond when I am supposed is not really worth it. I think it is easy to let adminstrative frustrations cloud our judgement. We should do what is best for the children and stay as long as needed to ensure their success!
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