This past summer I sat down with a teacher after her three years in two
different elementary schools (one, a high-performing charter in a suburb, the
other, a school “on turnaround” in an urban community). She had been one of my (favorite) students
back in our 7th and 8th grade English class – over 10
years ago. I think the world of her. I was not surprised by her passion and honesty
as she answered my questions about her teaching experience.
I am sure she does not speak for most teachers, and yet I believe her
perspective deserves a broader audience.
Is she going to teach again? As
you read the following, you hear some of the frustration voiced by a number of
young men and women in their 20’s—who hoped teaching could be the right career
for them—but are not sure, after three or four years. Again—if her views on teacher preparation
(too easy), teacher evaluation (little help), a charter school’s freedom to
hire and fire, the very nature of the teaching profession—surprise or upset
you, I hope you realize she is not alone.
Having left her last school, she is free to be perfectly frank. And she cares too much NOT to speak up.
She was quick to say: “There’s so much I don’t know. I’m uninformed about a lot of this.” You might agree, on reading her words. But all of us have good cause to worry about
the about the quality and quantity of people joining the teaching
profession. (See the recent report - https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/coming-crisis-teaching - including its lowest rating for Colorado
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/understanding-teacher-shortages-interactive.)
Here is one teacher addressing factors that contribute to our
challenges with recruitment, retention, and morale. I simply ask you to listen.
TEACHING IN A TURNAROUND SCHOOL
On teaching in a turnaround school (many years in a row on priority improvement
or turnaround status) with a fairly new principal.
PH - Some say one of the reasons low-performing schools are so hard to
turnaround is the old culture is “in the walls,” impossible to remove,
hindering any major change.
The old staff had been there 8-10
years, that’s when the school saw its steady decline. So it wasn’t the
principal’s fault (her new principal was the fifth since 2007), and you can’t
blame the kids – they were different through those 8-10 years. The only thing
that had not changed was the staff.
(By her second year the new principal had helped remove all but 4-5 of
the old staff.)
PH - Was it difficult to decide to work in a turnaround school?
I was given a tour of the school
and saw a classroom where there was mass chaos, and I felt I could really do
something here. I felt needed. Yes, my mindset
was – I wanted to help.
PH- Will the school make it? Will its turnaround efforts succeed?
Yes, I think they have a great
shot. (She thinks very highly of her
principal.) If (the principal’s) hands aren’t tied, she can. If she has control over who teaches. But
there is so much that holds them back.
(Whether the turnaround
succeeds, she indicated, depends on the adults. As for the students, she told
me:) “The kids can do it.”
PH - Would the school be better off if it had the freedom of charters? (Her
first school was a charter.)
I think so, if it had the right kind of charter freedom. You could
throw out the crummy curriculum and do what works for your kids. Just because the material from the district
says “Common Core” on it, that doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate for your class. My kids were capable but they needed steps to
get them there. They
had gaps that needed to be filled.
(The year before, when her students had been in 2nd
grade, they had not made a year’s progress.)
I had never worked with such gaps before. I felt
insufficient. It was frustrating; I knew
what they needed but I didn’t have the skills to meet their needs.
Stay or leave? Surviving,
support, and faith.
PH – You survived the year. How?
Several teachers left after the
first few months. One colleague hadn’t
taught in a few years; she meant well, but the 3rd graders ate her alive. After shifting her to a lower grade for a while,
she left.
There were many days I thought
about quitting. It would have been really hard if you didn’t have support. My
colleagues were a huge life support. I could talk with them. I could say: “I’m
exasperated with this kid,” and they were quick to say, “How can we support you?”
You can have the greatest
intentions to do good, but just loving the kids was not enough – you need the
tools. I needed so much more.
I would not have made it through
without my faith. It was key to handling situations. I think the Lord equipped
me, for example, to have the perseverance. It helped to remember every child –
in spite of what they were doing or going through – is loved by God.
There were definitely mornings
that started out with dread and fear when I wondered if I was I was going to
make it. I got there thanks to prayer.
When I knew I wasn’t meeting
their needs – one reason to make me feel I might quit – I knew there were
bigger reasons to be there. I reminded
myself to ask – did I fill them up today?
(With kindness, concern, love.)
PH – Maybe you’ve heard Denver Public Schools has decided to put on a
new focus on the whole child—as if it was ever about anything else!
(Laughing) That’s the thing, kids
are always coming at us as their full beings! This is me! I’m hungry! I’m
jealous!
THE CLASSROOM
Building trust, classroom management
The first month or so – there were 6
or 7 kids –
their behavior was a real challenge.
PH – Why?
They didn’t trust me. When they would
yell at me I would pull them aside. I
would talk with them and try to show them how much I cared about them, that I
cared too much about them to talk to them or treat them in that way.
Once we got through that (and we had established trust), we were
ok. It took time, but I think by November they cared for me …. One special education student
responded so well to praise – even if was for just sitting still for five
minutes—that was an accomplishment!—and he got better and better.
I want them to feel loved and
accepted. I want them to feel that they are safe.
(But then when her class went to
another part of the school for “specials”-art, music, gym- where they might be with this teacher once or twice a week who hadn’t
established that trust, she said her students would behave badly.) They didn’t feel safe, loved, protected in
that room. Or like me, that teacher needed
more tools to make them successful.
Following the district curriculum and lack of resources
We didn’t have the
resources. In math, we were only given one copy of a set; it was supposed to be
a workbook where the kids could do the work and write their answers on the
pages – they were not meant to be textbooks. I needed to make copies for
everyone –but the district only allows us a certain number of copies each year,
and the copier in the office would stop when I reached my limit. So I
ended up going to Kinkos to make the extra copies for all the students—remaking
the book so they all had copies. That was the only way I could use the lesson
as it was designed.
There’s no curriculum that made
sense for my kids. It wasn’t clear. I
had to figure it out. We were unable to follow the sequence. A number of students weren’t anywhere close
to being able to read the textbook. I had to differentiate. I created some
small groups….
Creating small groups and classroom management
The first half of the year, when I
worked with a small group, there were always 5 or 6 in another part of the room
who could not work on their own, who could only really focus when I offered
direct instruction to the whole class. So I had to make that choice of classroom
management versus meeting their needs in small groups.
(But she was able to look back
with some satisfaction.)
We figured out some good
routines. Maybe by January we were really
working smoothly and had successful small group time. When we
started I had silent reading for two minutes – that is all they could handle. By
the end of the year we had reached 30 minutes, and everyone was quiet, and if
not reading, at least looking at books with pictures.
And during this time I could do small group
work.
So for the last two or three months it
was heaven – at least we were able to finally work well – and the small group
work could go on while others were more or less on task, not interrupting.
(Expectations
and rigor. She saw what was taking place
in other classrooms, and it troubled her.)
I knew there were colleagues where the classrooms did not look
like mine. They did not have high
expectations. And where they were paid $10,000 more than me just because they’d
been doing it 10 years longer.
There wasn’t enough rigor in so many
classes. This was partly because of the struggles
with behavior management. You need to establish good rigor. My kids were
on the computers—responding to writing prompts on their reading—so when the
state tests came along they were used to it. But other teachers never prepared
their students that way, so of course they would be unprepared for state tests
done on computers.
It’s not enough to have teachers who
care and have decent classroom management; too many weren’t expecting enough. I’m
glad I had my two previous years to know how to challenge the kids so they were
ready for the state tests. How could some classes not even do sample tests with
their kids?
TEACHER EVALUATION
That does nothing. I did not grow
professionally by it. I thought that (teacher evaluation process) was the worst
joke. I don’t understand how this was
supposed to help me.
My evaluation went like this: I’m
sitting at a desk – my principal has her back to me as she types answers on the
evaluation check sheet—she’s asking what I do and she takes 30-40 minutes to fill
it out. That’s it! It’s just
paperwork. (The principal, she said, acknowledged how little value this had for
her as well.)
My
rating was fine. And yes, the principal observed my classes, but it’s not like
I grew at all from it. She didn’t
evaluate me; she rated me. She does not have the time to really evaluate
and help us improve. (The principal was
often out of the building at meetings called by the district, she told me.) I needed someone so badly to come in, to
be in my class ….
The evaluation system was so
complicated. I didn’t even complete some of what they asked (“Show what you are doing to ….”). I would
rather spend 10 minutes looking at the data on my kids….
PH
– I explained some of the story behind SB 191 (The Educator Effectiveness Bill)
to her.
It’s not constructive. It was so frustrating (that) this is what (my
year of teaching) boils down to – a 30-minute session with the principal (with
her back to me) filling out a form!
TEACHING – IN AMERICA, IS IT A PROFESSION?
Americans don’t see teaching as a
profession. Parents don’t speak to their doctor the way
they speak to us (as teachers). I sometimes wanted to say: I actually went to college to learn how to teach! Not all parents
have a lot of knowledge about what kids go through, how they learn, how to help
them learn….
Her
analysis had two components – 1) how teachers are prepared, the expectations of
the teacher preparation programs (she received her teaching degree in another
state); and 2) how teachers are hired and protected.
1) Preparation
Many teachers get into the profession because
it’s easy.
PH
– They see it as easy, or it IS easy?
It IS easy. A lot of
people get in because they love kids and want to do good—but it could be more
difficult. Teachers are smart and driven and passionate so we could handle more
rigor ourselves. (Obviously we don't do it for the money). I think it
should be harder to be a teacher. I think it is a very difficult
profession. You know you can’t always make it
in engineering or economics, but you can get a teaching degree. I
loved my classes and professors, I just wish they could have offered us more.
More content, more time, more training … just more. I did not feel the program was fulfilling.
I wish my college classes
were harder, I wish there were cut-offs along the way and that the people you
graduated with had successfully completed a rigorous program. I never thought anyone was afraid–we were all
going to make it. There should be teachers who don’t make it. Or at least (set
expectations) rigorous enough that they have to push to “make it.”
I wish a teaching degree
was as difficult as a degree in biology or economics. I think it would change
the profession. It’s not competitive enough of a career to make it feel
like a profession. I think most people
go into teaching because it’s easy and reliable.
2) Hiring
and firing
(How
she was hired, and how teachers are protected, are among the reasons for her
concerns about the teaching profession.)
When I
applied to that (turnaround) district they did not ask me any hard questions.
They just needed bodies. Every place I
interviewed asked me to work there. It was as if–well, “She’s not crazy. Let’s
hire her.”
Teaching is the only place you can
keep teaching even if you're bad. That’s not a profession to me. You're just
getting people to monitor kids.
PH
– “Even if you’re bad?”
Yes. Teachers are protected. I don't believe in what the union was
doing. I couldn’t even sit in when the union people were there. It was
all about protecting the teacher. That’s not helping the kids. I want to be
where they'll push us to be better. Sometimes the union is there to pacify
complaints about planning periods, just things to make teachers more
comfortable. That is less important to me than making my students better.
This
why I think (her previous school, a charter)
has so many advantages; (with those
schools) you have that movement of the faculty – you have that capability
to not rehire people. I
think the business-like feel allows you create a culture that can be
successful. The hiring process is difficult and (they) can afford to be “picky.”
Yes, I’m frustrated… but I’m going to show
up, I’m going to love this group of kids. But it hurts to know that if kids
have second-rate teachers or teachers who don’t care, the kids can’t do
anything about it.
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