Would you be a better teacher if you got paid more money? Would you be a better teacher if you knew you would be replaced if your students did not make the academic gains that were required?
What would (or will) you do differently when faced with these choices?
One of my colleagues sent me this article from the NY Times Magazine, it is not a quick read, but worth it if you have some extra time on your hand. Elizabeth Green leaves few stones unturned discussing what makes better teachers. It certainly made me think (and sweat) about where we are heading with teacher accountability.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?em
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I was just about to write about this article!! A coworker brought it in today and I was amazed with some of the points. I would love to sit in a training with Lemov. I found it scary to think that we could be judged by how well our students do on standarized tests. That should never be a sole decision maker for ANYTHING!
ReplyDeleteHi Deborah. Fallyn pointed me to your blog because I had posted a similar blog post about teacher pay and performance ratings being tied to student test scores. What a travesty! In Maine there is a very strong chance that the law preventing the tying of teacher performance to student test scores will be taken off the books because of the Race to the Top fund Maine is trying to get funds from. As part of this fund, you have to have some evaluation system in place for teachers that is related to assessment scores. I told my fiance this and he quipped back with, "Maine is just so desperate financially they are willing to make stupid decisions and allow our national government to tell us what to do." Things are starting to get a little sticky.
ReplyDeleteYes, we'll need to watch teacher pay being tied to student performance. It is coming.
ReplyDeleteThis article (a long magazine article) is a very interesting one...essentially about classroom management and routines being quantifiable. The person being referred to, Doug Lemov, has put together a list of 49 (or so) teaching strategies that supposedly every teacher should know.
Not everyone agrees that his list is the be-all and end-all of dealing with students...but it definitely merits a read. Classroom management certainly needs a lot of thought by any teacher...but it is also bigger than these separate strategies.