Appreciation

Well Teacher Appreciation week came and went at my school...like elsewhere around the nation and world.  So with all the hubbub the real question to address is do I feel appreciated.  Yes and No. 

I will start with the bad. There is plenty of that.  In the recent past I am coming off another demoralizing budget season.  Sure money is tight, it always is.  But I have slowly come to grips with the fact I live in a community and a state that could do a better job supporting education, but chooses not to.  That's putting it gently.  Some outwardly decry taxes are too high and blame wasteful schools and dare I say...overpaid teachers.  Maybe so.  But more likely the levels of bureaucratic decision makers all take and redirect their share before it comes anywhere near me or my classroom.  I have what I need I suppose.  I know I have it way better than many around the nation.  So I learn not to complain or open my hand and whine too often.  But over the last few years most of the heavy lifting when it comes to balancing budgets, teaching more classes and more kids falls on guess who?  Mr. and Mrs. Appreciated.  But I don't like talking about money and few teachers start teaching in order to get rich.  If they did, they are dum(I like that one).

So there is one strike against appreciation.  But I get it elsewhere too.  Let's stick to the last week when a colleague who is a fellow coach couldn't get a sub for when he left early with the team he coached.  Maybe some of that was on him but this Spring has been crazy with cancellations so instead he had to struggle to find a colleague who could give up their unencumbered planning to cover his class.  A day before another teacher who wasn't feeling well heard the same thing.  That doesn't make me feel appreciated.   I was also informed of the Required Summer Professional Development where I was given no real choice.  Just choose among what and when I want to take it.  Next I dealt with the run up to next Fall when our overcrowded school will get another 100 or so 9th graders. 

During all that I kept focused in the hectic weeks before you guessed it, testing season.  ARGH! Already stressed and overworked with unrealistic and unsustainable expectations I had a young man in my class illustrate a point for me. I exist in a landscape  where  a 14 yr student chooses to put his head down, 3 minutes after I made a special effort to reach him about doing his best and what he is capable in the hopes I could get him through the 9th grade.  I felt more powerless than usual and that says something.   

I am in the not so sweet spot part of my career where I am devalued since I am not "new" and choose not to leave the classroom as a senior teacher in favor of some other role.  Most efforts on a national level seem to depreciate teachers.  From how they are evaluated to the ever tightening knot that limits how they practice their craft.  I did get the normal mass mailing letters of appreciation from the school board and division superintendent which I thought was nice.  But truth be told I am tired of being "told" I am appreciated.  But it wasn't all bad.

So how do I feel appreciated you ask?  There were some small gestures from students.  The applegrams, brief notes from students, yep... I received a handful.  I did get a small gift of appreciation from a family with a nice note.  I teach 135 kids so the odds were in my favor.  I did also get a few E-mail thanks which were nice gestures as well.  The most noticeable efforts were school wide in the form of some well timed and very tasty meals, snacks and treats from our parent teacher organization.  A thousand thanks to them!  So I do I suppose feel more appreciated than last week. 

Still what I appreciate has nothing to do with what week it is or what gets organized.  It is the psychological pay from countless seemingly meaningless interactions with the vibrant and infectious energy of youth.  It is seeing the world through their eyes and thinking of it as if they were my own children.  It is seeing the newness of learning brighten a day and the occasional light bulb go off.  Usually it goes off now on a cell phone first...  It is the unexpected thank you for something you did to help a student out.  It is the feeling of appreciation when students look to you for help, guidance and support.  The moments that are ever so briefly and arre, but also but also profound that make me feel appreciated as a teacher.  Thanks. 

Beware Governors Bearing Gifts

McDonnell proposes 2% teacher pay raise

That's how the headlines and lead ins on the news went on Thursday evening two weeks ago.  Sounds good right?  But like most things in education looks can be deceiving.  How and why Virginia governor Bob McDonnell found the $59 million in tough budget times to fund such raises demands a closer look.

The 2% pay raise horse on the shore of the VA General Assembly and local divisions is an incentive to accept some significant changes to the way teacher effectiveness is measured.  Time will tell whether they take the bait.  State funding for such raises would be provided to localities on a sliding scale based on the ability to fund or the "composite index".  This will motivate smaller, more rural and economically disadvantaged districts to be more willing to accept the changes as they will receive a greater share.  That will likely translate to more support in the General Assembly where the VA Senate has previously blocked McDonnel'ls efforts at reform.  

The Education Fairness Act will bring stricter teacher evaluations, extending the probationary employment of new teachers to reach tenure from3 to 5 years, increases support for STEM(Science, Technology and Math) and also make it easier to fire teachers after one Unsatisfactory rating.  Virginia Education Association President Meg Gruber wisely stated that legislation must be evaluated to see if it is open and honest.  Wise words indeed.

VA teachers are 31st in the nation in compensation and haven't gotten a raise from the state in 5 years.  That puts more pressure on localities to fund their own systems and with declining property values that has been difficult.  Some have tried to keep up, few have.  Everyone knows teaching is a far from lucrative profession and most agree teachers should get more.  Still, experienced and informed educators like the Underground are wary as we know that if we take the bait and roll the horse within the walls of the city it might be full of unpleasant and in our minds unhelpful things.

The heart of the matter is Teacher Evaluaton and Job Security.  McDonnell and others want to chip away at tenure, continuing contracts and link performance to pay.  On paper these seem reasonable.  But the devil is in the details and one does not have to look far to appreciate the complexities of evaluating teachers effectively.  You can easily find some insights by typing "teacher effectiveness" in the search box top right.  If you are too lazy, here you go.

• http://teachingunderground.blogspot.com/2011/04/taking-stand-in-virginia-and-texas.html
• http://teachingunderground.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-do-you-make-teacher-great.html
• http://teachingunderground.blogspot.com/2012/01/economists-prove-teachers-matter.html
• http://teachingunderground.blogspot.com/2012/08/new-virginia-teacher-evaluations.html

The TU and any other right minded educator welcomes any and all reform that improves education, helps kids learn and helps teachers teach.   While I hear a whisper in my ear saying "take the deal" we'd be wise to remember Virginia is a conservative state.  That is not a partisan statement and instead references the Old Dominion's cautious and measured approach to most issues.  The mechanisms of government are wisely inefficient at times and the first jump at Race to the Top cash or any other dangled incentive might be wise to be sure what they are doing is true reform.

McDonnell is a generally well received governor.  But this administration also proposed mandatory ultrasounds for women, sued its largest higher learning institution, omitted any mention of slavery in declaring Confederate History Month and  flip-flopped on state employee pension contributions to the tune of 5% after borrowing from that same VRS system.  So one must excuse any up-front anxiety on the part of those teachers affected.

By now we have covered ad nauseum the issues of how to evaluate teachers  http://teachingunderground.blogspot.com/2011/01/teacher-quality-no-easy-solution.html
The state school system has its share of bad teachers but efforts to purge them(referred to as "deselection") should not frustrate the good teachers already leaving the job at an alarming rate.  Every profession has those that under-perform and attempts to improve or remove  these individuals must be precise, delicate and some might say not coming from Richmond.  If the state continues to lean on localities to fund education why then do they increasingly demand more control of it?

So what the future holds for the Education Fairness Act, Virginia education reform and all those within the state's public schools is uncertain.  Our representatives and leaders might be wise to emulate many of the state's teachers in taking a more skeptical approach to such carefully crafted and named piece of legislation.  Our citizens would be wise to take the advice of one unheeded Trojan who after considering the source of the gift said..."Hey...maybe we should look inside this thing first?"