[Diva]

Originally Posted by Martina

i get dropped in on all the time. I know that formal observations require you to be notified, and in some places, the informal ones can't go in your record. i don't know. We definitely have some bad teachers in our school.

The firings this year have nothing to do with changes in enrollment. They are to do with decreasing state budgets. Some places are anticipating class sizes of fifty students. No teacher can educate fifty students the way we are taught. General education teachers are expected to differentiate instruction, to have profiles of each student, to keep assessment data, to do creative lessons -- which take materials and space. Who can teach fifty students unless all you do is packet them. You can't even do direct instruction and reach fifty students unless you have the classroom management skills of a drill instructor. That makes for a wonderful teacher-student relationship.

So they give us standards for the teaching profession and then they make it impossible for us to meet them for many reasons.

i am appalled that teacher evaluation is so large a part of the national debate.

ADMINISTRATOR evaluation is what is needed. Or a real paradigm shift in what they do. You ask for the teacher's edition of the text book for your class, and the response is "Good luck getting THAT!" What boss in the private sector is not responsible for making sure his employees have the resources they need to function?

People criticize teachers for not doing the four or five things it takes to be an effective teacher, but no one trains them to do it. Gifted teachers can still be ineffective teachers. CARING teachers can be ineffective teachers. It's hard work, but it's not rocket science. Why aren't administrators helping teachers who need it? That's what happens in the real world? Why does education just take the sickest elements in the market -- fire half of the teachers in failing schools (a new California law) and none of the efficiency or accountability at the top?

Anyway, i gotta do work so i can continue to teach. Rant just begun, but i have to stop.

And I hope You DO continue for this was stated FAR more eloquently than I EVER could.....thank You, Martina.....

I'm just a Choir Director....