Three years later, I started taking education courses and began a career as a teacher. I don’t understand all the ins and outs of education policy, but I have a lot more insight into the things the community expects teachers to do and why a union is needed to protect a group that takes a lot of crap from a lot of people.
– In my first year as a full-time teacher, I was called on the carpet along with five colleagues and told to “write up” an explanation of why I had failed to notice or supervise an alleged epidemic of inappropriate touching and sexual harrassment perpetrated by three or four different 7th grade students. Don’t save the document, we were told; just bring it down to the principal and she will edit it and then save it for her records. Because I did not have professional status, the union could not represent me in this matter.
– In addition to generating lesson plans, grading papers and keeping up with required professional development activities, we are asked to supervise students in the halls, walk them to the cafeteria at lunchtime; incorporate this year’s “sure fire” study skills techniques in our lessons, follow the new pacing guide that dictates content and timing for curriculum, set annual goals for ourselves (copies are sent to central administration); serve on committees such as the school council, spend a period every day meeting with colleagues (whether or not there is a reason to meet), organize special activities (a Medieval Fair for 8th graders at my school), participate in a book group; prepare our rooms for emergency lock-down or evacuation of the building, customize strategies for failing students, brainstorm and implement formative assessment techniques, analyze (MCAS) data and teach in ways that addresses weak spots in the data, provide small-group instruction within each class, master new software, maintain a website; coordinate with special ed, court-appointed guardians, interventionist teachers, coaches and disciplinary specialists (in Pittsfield, we have a Juvenile Resource Center where we send individualized lesson plans for students who are sent out for temporary disciplinary action). Some of us even make time to mentor new teachers.
– I have had direct or indirect advice on school practices that have said major projects should be assigned, only to be told that we should not assign projects that require homework because many students have no support at home to ensure that homework gets done. I am supposed to set rigorous standards, but to reteach and adapt lessons for students who don’t get the concept. I am supposed to deduct 10% from each grade for every day an assignment is late, but no student should get a grade below 50 (or 61, depending who you talk to).
– I still don’t have professional status (tenure) so I better not get launched on what it can be like to interact with an irate parent. I can tell you that colleagues have been in meetings where the parent says, “I’m at my wits’ end. Tell me what I should be doing.” Does it seem right that the parent should be asking the teachers for advice on raising a child? I was in a meeting with one parent who I believe wanted me humiliated but not fired. In front of her son, she admitted that he cheated on an assignment and laughingly said that she advised him in the future to get the answers from someone who had done the assignment correctly. When I asked students one day to write a paragraph on the topic of which of their chores they would most like to have someone else take over, only two students in the class said they were expected to do chores at home.
– Students sit on desks, try to sleep, comb their hair in class, use underarm deodorant in class, get up to sharpen pencils 5-10-15 times during the period, pass notes, talk without let-up, and engage in other disruptions. Some have told me that they have Wii in their bedroom so they don’t get much sleep; others are out wandering around late at night “throwing snowballs at drunk guys’ houses” (a direct quote). A couple of ADHD kids have told me that they don’t take their medication because they don’t like it. I had one student (not this year) who came in with a hand-shaped bruise on his neck.
Sorry. I meant to get to the point earlier.
The op-ed in the Globe today was the last straw for me. Joe Williams wrote:
During his campaign, Governor Deval Patrick courted and received strong support from teachers’ unions, which have vigorously opposed reforms and are especially hostile to charters.
The Denver-based news group that publishes a daily in this region laid out an editorial scolding earlier this week:
Private sector employees are already dealing with the burden of higher health care costs. Public sector employees, including teachers, must do the same.
I’ve come a long way in my understanding of the daily life of a teacher. This may come as a surprise to people, but most teachers don’t seem to put much thought into union activity. I assume it’s because they’re too busy. When we do think about it, we wish that the union would address our own little concern (as a new teacher, I would like better tuition reimbursement for required courses; a senior colleague said she would like more help getting professional development credits – something that doesn’t even register on my own priority list). I believe our union is prioritizing protections for retirees this year.
When we need them, the union seems to be available. In the election for a new union President this year, most people seemed to vote for the guy they knew well. Whether he would be a pitbull in negotiations didn’t seem to be a factor. I am an exception in my level of political activity, but most teachers I know don’t seem very engaged in political organizing. The union begged us to sign up for a coffee that one union rep offered to host at her home, and the event was cancelled due to lack of interest. Most days, we don’t think about the union or politics at all. The union is not particularly integral to our self image as educators.
Yet the union is what the media and the teacher-bashers focus on. Before I gave teaching a try, I was guilty of it, too, to some extent. What I have found is that there happen to be a lot of teachers. Therefore the teachers’ union helps to organize a big block. I also strongly believe that this was traditionally a woman’s profession and salaries were low. When women started having more options in the workplace, teacher salaries went up in order to attract smart professionals. The community has a hard time acknowledging that they got a bargain in teacher salaries for many, many decades.
Like the faceless Imperial Storm Troopers who get blown away in the movies, it is easier to demonize teachers if we refer to them as an evil horde instead of as human beings who are highly qualified professionals, care about kids and volunteer for duty on the front lines every day. Why is it o.k. to demonize teachers’ unions?
While we’re defending teachers I’d like to single out a particular subgroup, the parents who come in demanding Individualized Education Plans and specialist hours with their kids at big budget costs because they know their rights.. and then go out and complain about the greedy teachers’ union.
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p>On the other side of the coin though, that insurance advisory committee language is garbage and should never have been adopted in any law. It apportions voting weight by membership, and basically gives the teachers’ union a veto over the entire municipal healthcare policy. I love teachers, have several friends teaching but that is just plain bad organizational structure, it creates bad incentives for everyone. The other unions in town are completely disenfranchised and the teachers’ union is given no reason to compromise since they control > 51% (probably more like 70%) of weighted votes. The law opening up the GIC to municipalities was handcuffed with this language and there was only a couple weeks’ window to adopt it so only one or two of 351 towns even enrolled. They need to change that law to let elected officials in cities and towns negotiate with their unions however they see fit and create cost savings that make it into salaries and benefit everyone.
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p>The Rennie Center is a think tank run by Paul Reville, who is now the chair of the MA Board of Ed, so someone like you with strong policy interests might be a natural.
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p>2. You have 2 interesting posts here, folded into one. The first is the day-to-day challenges you face. The second is your evolving view of the union.
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p>I realize you wrote the first part in getting a “head of steam” for the second, but you make a number of interesting observations, and might want to create a separate post about that.
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p>Ie, what are the policies that might be able to put you as a teacher in a better position to succeed? Of particular interest would be cost-neutral ones.
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p>3.
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p>I think many parents feel a version of what you describe above as a teacher: isolation (particularly single moms in high poverty communities), frustration that their repeated efforts have not “worked.”
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p>I do think these conversations represent opportunities for teachers to “connect” with SOME parents, and win them as allies for the teacher’s goals (i.e., supporting teachers when they discipline that kid, instead of playing defense attorney; holding the kid accountable to do homework, etc).
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p>If you think of your classroom as having X disengaged kids, proactive parent communication might help with perhaps 1/2X of them, even and especially parents who seem defensive and unreasonable.
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p>Our school’s teachers try to phone roughly 10 parents per week (navigating issues of translation, of parents without phones, etc). While they don’t always reach those goals, they report the calls really help them improve their classroom climate with many (though not all) kids who feel a bit “triangulated” by the teacher+parent.
A parent who says something like “tell me what I should be doing” is honestly and openly asking for your partnership in educating that child. You can work with that.
I’m not actually looking for more things for teachers to do at the moment. When fellow teachers and I meet with parents, we do suggest things like withholding rewards until school work is done, reducing sports participation so there is more time and energy for school work, mom and dad checking Bobby and Susie’s school-issued planner each day to see if homework assignments are being recorded and completed, making sure Bobby takes his medication, etc.
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p>I get the point that teachers could do even more than we already do.
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p>My point was that teachers are already doing a ton, and parents seem to expect more – to the point of sometimes expecting the teacher to do the parenting job for them.
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p>One of my colleagues observed one day that every single kid in our school – good students as well as not-so-good students – would benefit from one-on-one instruction. “That’s why they invented parents,” I responded.
I’ve heard that plea many times from parents. Thing is, they’re not looking for a “partnership in education”. They’re not asking for ideas on practicing skills, pathways to develop methods of learning, how to broaden and deepen a child’s intellectual development. These parents are realizing that they’re struggling to raise a child. Funny thing in my case is that they’re asking a team of five teachers, and only one has had children.
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p>I don’t know how to raise or discipline a child. I have no idea how to get a child to do homework, or his/her chores. Just because I can help educate a child doesn’t mean that I know how to bring one up. And I’m aware of that fact, so I’ve yet to have children. We can’t offer much advice, and until recently it would have been ludicrous to expect it of us. Remember, the first teachers would lose their job once they married.
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p>Our current education system is a 1880s local model scaled up to a population of over 47 million students in the 21st century. One of the assumptions of the system was that all pupils were well cared for by loving, invested families. That assumption no longer applies.
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p>I firmly believe that in thirty years DYS, DSS, DOE, and parts of DOH and other departments will be merged into a “Department of Children.” Conservatives will freak out, but this is merely the state integrating and streamlining the process of de facto raising its wards.
Only one teacher on my current team has had a child, and that was long ago.
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p>I have more experience with taking my terrier to dog obedience classes than I do with classroom management, and I find myself drawing on some of the techniques I was taught there:
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p>- A very light touch on the back of a dog’s head can entirely change their mood. With an unruly student, I try to make it a tiny, light gesture that brushes his arm with just a finger or two. This is playing with fire – kids know they can file charges if a teacher “grabs” them. But it’s amazing how often it works, for a little while, at least.
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p>- One day when some boys in my honors group (my colleagues and I somewhat affectionately refer to them as “The Lord of the Flies” group) was particularly naughty, I told them what I do when my dog is acting up. I put her in a sit-stay and walk in a circle around her, reminding her that I am dominant. Of course, I was walking in a circle around the naughty boys as I described this. The whole class thought this was hilarious. I told them I was sorry I did not have any freeze-dried liver to reward the good kids for behaving.
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p>P.S. You don’t have to be a conservative to freak out about the nightmare scenario with the expanded bureaucracy for “state wards”. Yikes!
By “ward” I didn’t mean a hospital ward, but rather a child (as are thousands at this point) who are “wards of the state”. It’s coming, mark my words.
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p>You are playing with fire touching students, especially from behind (to apply your animal behavior here, one of the most dangerous things to do is approach an animal from behind). I usually tap them lightly with a paper or something held in my hand. However, I agree in the sense of the importance of non-verbal language in communicating with students. When I talk to colleagues who struggle with classroom management, that’s the top thing I always emphasize.
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p>As for the boys in your class, it seems clear to me how hard adolescent boys struggle against ignorant attempts to instill a culture of “still & quiet” in modern schools. Though I’m unconvinced of the benefits of single-sex education, it is a tough balance to give boys room to be a little unruly without making the classroom seem an unwelcome environment for many girls. To take the obvious example, having students raise their hands does not work well with most boys this age, but a system where students can just shout out opinions/answers leaves many girls in the class reluctant to get involved.
during class (Sometimes, I should add. Other times I insist that students listen). I got some strong criticism during my first observation with the principal this year, however, for failing to control some chatter during her visit to my classroom.
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p>There were 27 13-year-olds in the room, arranged for literature circles, when she was observing me – there has to be an outlet for all of that energy (and I prefer that it be talking instead of throwing erasers and spitballs).
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p>I am working to develop my glare, and I use a lot more grim silences than I used to. I’ve also learned with the boys that I can’t just say, “Sit down,” or even “Go back to your seat.” I have to spell it out, “I want you to sit in your assigned chair with both feet on the floor, facing forward.” Simon says. . . .
The biggest of which is have the kid do their homework on the kitchen table. I’ll tell you, if my mother made me do that back in the day, I would have finished in the top 10 of my class. LOL.
As my post grew, I realized it wasn’t as focused as I would have liked. I decided the theme of “teachers need unions” was enough and decided to post the whole thing.
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p>I don’t live in the eligible area for the fellowship program you mention, but I hope it is helpful to those who can participate and/or to the larger profession. I just saw an old Harper’s Index with a statistic that teacher turnover costs U.S. school districts $7 billion each year in recruiting and training costs (the version I saw did not cite the source of this statistic).
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p>My school is conscious of the parent/teacher divide, and is beginning to think of new ways to address it. We are encouraged to call mom and dad when we have good things to say, not just when we have disciplinary issues to discuss. (One more thing for a teacher to try to do at the end of a long day!)
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p>The shrinkage of the professional class in our community has meant that we have an increasing proportion of parents who felt they were “bad” students when they were younger, and who may not feel comfortable telling their kids to apply themselves in the academic environment. I spoke to a parent after a team meeting last year, and he confided that he did not learn to read until his cousin worked with him outside of school at age 14. He told me he had shared with me more than he had told anyone connected with his son’s education, but he has now stopped coming to meetings to discuss his son’s behavior and lack of academic success. As you point out, trying to connect with parents will work in only 1/2X number of cases, and may work for a limited time.
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p>In a recent discussion at my school of what could happen outside of school to improve student success in school, I suggested that ongoing outreach to parents should be at the top of the list. I also suggested using peers as role models or neighborhood leaders (“Hey kids, let’s all hang out at that cool place where they help with homework!”) and networking with churches (especially in minority communities). It will be a long road, whichever things we try.
That’s what most of the rest of the working world doesn’t understand. I’ve been teaching for 15 years, working on my doctorate for 5, and I’m now department head. I’ve been around.
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p>The state has implemented some half-assed policies to help out first year teachers like yourself. You’re supposed to have a mentor, for example. Your school is supposed to have a mentoring program. There is no state money for these programs, and as result, some can be pretty weak.
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p>The biggest problem with education, I submit, is that it involves learning (something we can’t see) and is largely affected by culture. We know that poverty and parenting have huge effects on student learning. It’s obvious from Shack’s post that parenting has a huge effect on student attitudes toward learning. We can improve education, but countering cultural effects is extremely difficult.
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p>Altering the culture of a school or school system is similarly difficult. That’s what policy makers generally don’t understand.
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p>It sounds like you’re learning from experience the reason why 50% of teachers leave the profession in the first five years.
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p>It also sounds like you’re teaching middle school kids. That’s even more difficult, in my opinion. I student taught at both the middle and high school levels. I teach in high school.
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p>Mark
…comes from people working with erroneous and idealized memories of their own school experience. Then once in a while some flunky ventures into a school that nervous administrators have assembled into a Potemkin village, and they think their images are confirmed.
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p>I’ve seen a doctor; doesn’t mean that I should be making health-care policy.
Policy makers can create problems. I don’t want my original point about unions to be lost in this good discussion of the daily challenges of being a teacher, however.
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p>What I see over and over and over in the Denver-based daily paper in our area and in other media is an open season on bashing the ill-defined but always-evil, selfish teachers’ unions. Why does the media perpetuate this, instead of acknowledging that responsible adults might join together to advance professional and community interests?
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p>Why don’t the editorials ever say, “Thank goodness the teachers’ unions remain strong enough to maintain a beachhead for American workers. We hope that the income and protections once enjoyed by working and middle-class people will one day become the norm again instead of the exception.”
And send it to the Denver paper. Or at least write a LTTE.
She was very supportive – in practical ways such as spoon-feeding me the materials and a rough timeline for 7th graders. She let me ask questions and vent, but never treated me like someone who had no clue. I nominated her for the state’s Teacher of the Year award, and she was one of 15 semi-finalists.
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p>The state-required new teacher orientation was another matter altogether. The program set up by our school system was well-intended, but middle school teachers just don’t face the same challenges as elementary school teachers. I attended the sessions because I thought it would help me to be rehired for the next year, but it definitely felt like an obligation and not much of an assist. Sitting in second graders’ desks for many of the sessions was the frosting on the cake.
It being disorganized, in this case, made it more compelling. Your job is crazy and hectic, the format that you wrote your diary in was a great metaphor in and of itself.
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p>It helped nudge me a little bit away from becoming a teacher, though – which is something I’ve seriously been considering.
… considered it. Then seriously considered grad school and teaching at university (Liberal Arts). Then came to grips with my rent and bills addiction.
Just maybe don’t choose middle school – particularly 8th grade – as the starting point for your teaching career.
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p>There are great rewards in teaching. So many kids need good adults to provide examples of what a sharpened mind looks like. They need to hang out with someone who gets excited about ideas. They need thoughtful adults who care about them.
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p>The school politics are unbelievable – that’s true.
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p>I do believe, however, that I will get the hang of this and find my niche. Things will get easier when I get some lesson plans that I know will work and that I can adapt or update easily. I’m working on classroom management.
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p>I know that a lot of veteran teachers let stuff roll of their backs that still gets under my skin.
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p>Last week, I attended a session with the performance poet Taylor Mali. He is trying to recruit 1000 new teachers, and I bet he would respond directly to questions if you are mulling over a teaching career. Here’s a link to his websiteand his famous poem [What Teachers Makehttp://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=13
Taylor Mali
poem
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p>and
website
being in Denver.
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p>The dislike of teachers’ unions is an extension of general dislike of unions, the general tendency of the American public to identify with owners and managers, and the unfortunate working-class dislike of teachers and education (which you note in your post). As far as I can tell, teachers unions are no worse or better than other unions.
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p>Although there are a lot of factors involved in educational quality (particularly socio-economics), you’ll notice that the states with the lowest paid teachers and the lowest NEAP scores either lack unions or lack strong ones. I’m not saying there’s a direct correlation, but teacher and student concerns often overlap when it comes to issues like class size, professional development, and working conditions. And salary. Most teachers don’t leave the profession over the money, but salary, benefits, and retirement do play a role in remaining.
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p>It’s good that you had a good mentor. As with MCAS, Massachusetts has been copying other states. Connecticut is considered to have the best induction (new teacher) program. I haven’t talked to anyone who has participated in what’s called the BEST program, but the state offers high quality professional development, two years of mentoring, and new teachers must complete portfolio work in their content area AND general pedagogy. It costs the state and arm and a leg, but it’s probably worth it. Connecticut typically pays their educators significantly more (10-20 grand) than Massachusetts.
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p>As sabutai points out, most education policy makers don’t know much about history, biology, and education in general. Their experience in education is usually limited. So is the experience of education professors. I don’t know one who taught in secondary education as long as I have. Experience isn’t a substitute for book knowledge, but it has its advantages.
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p>Mark
I refer to our daily newspaper as “Denver-based” because its ownership is in that Colorado city and because the paper is increasingly out of touch with the community here. The same media group owns the Lowell newspaper.
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p>I’m grateful for your insights into the Connecticut system for orienting new teachers. The education courses I took (at the master’s level) were almost useless as preparation for teaching. Once they have a grasp of the subject matter, I believe in-school preparation is the way to prepare teachers to teach.
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p>By the way, here’s a letter to the editor that appeared in today’s edition of the Denver-based daily. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.
where did you go for your Master’s?
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p>Mark