HomeUncategorizedWelcome Back Teachers Kathleen Jasper August 8, 2014 2 Comments School campuses, quiet all summer, are now buzzing with energy as teachers rush around setting up their bulletin boards, rearranging desks, and looking over their academic plans for the year. They are writing their syllabus, emergency lesson plans, and examining students’ IEPs. Periodically they are pulled from their classroom set-up to attend a faculty meeting – the first of many. New teachers look completely confused and overwhelmed, as they should be – year one is the craziest. Don’t worry newbies; you’ll get your stride by Christmas Break. This is an exciting time of year. Teachers are rested and happy – feeling confident and motivated. Some are pleased to be back to work simply because they are sick of their own children. Today I miss teachers. I miss you stopping by my office to chat about your summer vacations. I miss discussing new instructional approaches you plan to implement this year. I miss answering questions and trouble shooting beginning-of-the-year issues with you. My SMART Board doesn’t work. I need a printer in my room. My login is disabled. Where can I access my academic plans? Can you go over this arduous, district-mandated lesson plan template I’m required to use? During this time of year I would be running all over campus helping where I could and putting out fires. Nothing pleased me more than returning to my office and seeing a line of teachers waiting for me outside my door. Being of service to teachers was the best part of my job. Today I miss standing in front of a room full of teachers and welcoming you all back to school. If I were still an assistant principal, the district would expect me to talk to you all about last year’s test data, benchmarks and overall assessment goals. But that’s a waste of time. If I were with you today, I would say to you: “Thank you for being an educator. You are the most important resource a student has: more important than the technology in your classroom, more important than the scores on the assessments students will or will not achieve, and much more important than your VAM score. “Welcome back. You have the power to change the conversation and take back the autonomy and creativity corporations and bureaucrats attempt to strip from you. Screw VAM scores, Common Core and high-stakes testing. Forget about all that and do what you do best – engage, inspire and empower students.” 2 Responses Suzan harden August 11, 2014 This brought tears to my eyes. Right now, you’re effecting change in the only way you can–from outside a system completely resistant to anyone’s ideas or concerns. It won’t always have to be that way. You’re broadening your own horizons in the most amazing way. Thanks to modern technology, we can share your journey. You’re inspiring us through ConversationEd. You’re still helping teachers, but for the time being you’re putting out the emotional and spiritual fires in a different way. Welcome back to school! Reply Lynn Pieadras August 11, 2014 Nicely put. It is such a damn shame that all of the Assistant Principals (and principals and Directors, etc…) in my school district are doing nothing BUT talking about test scores and the upcoming benchmark testing and the latest corporate approved edu-speak buzzwords… Our school district (somewhere in the western half of Texas) has a whole new leadership team and their whole focus is the test and every bit of gadgetry they can get their hands on to “help” the students “improve” in this “Crisis”! You’ve heard of “drinking the Koolaid”, right? Well these folks are main lining it! And, their rule is something right out of Machiavelli! Disagree with them once… Dare to utter a peep that murmurs anything other than their latest mantra or buzzwords and it’s ‘don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!’ They have made it abundantly clear that everyone below the rank of Director is a meaningless thrall to them and demotions and firings are the words of the day for those who would DARE to speak out. Thus the alias name and e-mail account shown above… I know that several of the admin from my district look to see who comments on your blog and Facebook site. If I am caught doing so, I WILL be fired. I apologize for my cowardice of hiding behind the continued feeding of my children. They are very serious and not afraid to ruin people’s lives at the drop of a hat! But, I do agree with everything you have said and have written. I got the first chapter of your book that you sent out. Nicely done. Although to speak openly is a guaranteed path to the unemployment line, I am starting to work silently to get as many teachers and administrators as I can to read your work and to really understand the damage we are doing with this madness! Thank you for all you are doing and for your courage… I hope one day to gird myself to match your bravery. But, right now, all of my friends in my district (who already see what is going on and agree) are hunkering down in real fear of these people. I wish I could afford to stand up into the light and lead a brave charge up the hill and rid our city and state of these horrid and damaging policies! Until that day, there are several of us who are putting together a “Resistance Movement” similar in some ways, I suppose, to the French Resistance of WWII. It disgusts me that it has to be so… It is my hope that we all may eventually have the force and bravery (and safety) of overwhelming numbers to change this whole thing (from repealing “No Child Left Behind” to the abolishment of all “high Stakes” testing)… Perhaps we can even cause districts such as mine to hire administrations that really do actually CARE about our children’s education and the teachers and other employees that do the actual work of making that happen rather than those who are here to enforce the improvement of testing scores at any cost up to and including destroying the lives of anyone who might cause even a small bump in their path… Thank you for your kind words for our teachers today… I saw your message on Facebook about how 23 people had seen this so far… For me, I was just too busy until now to see it! Fight on! Admiralkarg Middle School Science Teacher Reply Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Suzan harden August 11, 2014 This brought tears to my eyes. Right now, you’re effecting change in the only way you can–from outside a system completely resistant to anyone’s ideas or concerns. It won’t always have to be that way. You’re broadening your own horizons in the most amazing way. Thanks to modern technology, we can share your journey. You’re inspiring us through ConversationEd. You’re still helping teachers, but for the time being you’re putting out the emotional and spiritual fires in a different way. Welcome back to school! Reply
Lynn Pieadras August 11, 2014 Nicely put. It is such a damn shame that all of the Assistant Principals (and principals and Directors, etc…) in my school district are doing nothing BUT talking about test scores and the upcoming benchmark testing and the latest corporate approved edu-speak buzzwords… Our school district (somewhere in the western half of Texas) has a whole new leadership team and their whole focus is the test and every bit of gadgetry they can get their hands on to “help” the students “improve” in this “Crisis”! You’ve heard of “drinking the Koolaid”, right? Well these folks are main lining it! And, their rule is something right out of Machiavelli! Disagree with them once… Dare to utter a peep that murmurs anything other than their latest mantra or buzzwords and it’s ‘don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!’ They have made it abundantly clear that everyone below the rank of Director is a meaningless thrall to them and demotions and firings are the words of the day for those who would DARE to speak out. Thus the alias name and e-mail account shown above… I know that several of the admin from my district look to see who comments on your blog and Facebook site. If I am caught doing so, I WILL be fired. I apologize for my cowardice of hiding behind the continued feeding of my children. They are very serious and not afraid to ruin people’s lives at the drop of a hat! But, I do agree with everything you have said and have written. I got the first chapter of your book that you sent out. Nicely done. Although to speak openly is a guaranteed path to the unemployment line, I am starting to work silently to get as many teachers and administrators as I can to read your work and to really understand the damage we are doing with this madness! Thank you for all you are doing and for your courage… I hope one day to gird myself to match your bravery. But, right now, all of my friends in my district (who already see what is going on and agree) are hunkering down in real fear of these people. I wish I could afford to stand up into the light and lead a brave charge up the hill and rid our city and state of these horrid and damaging policies! Until that day, there are several of us who are putting together a “Resistance Movement” similar in some ways, I suppose, to the French Resistance of WWII. It disgusts me that it has to be so… It is my hope that we all may eventually have the force and bravery (and safety) of overwhelming numbers to change this whole thing (from repealing “No Child Left Behind” to the abolishment of all “high Stakes” testing)… Perhaps we can even cause districts such as mine to hire administrations that really do actually CARE about our children’s education and the teachers and other employees that do the actual work of making that happen rather than those who are here to enforce the improvement of testing scores at any cost up to and including destroying the lives of anyone who might cause even a small bump in their path… Thank you for your kind words for our teachers today… I saw your message on Facebook about how 23 people had seen this so far… For me, I was just too busy until now to see it! Fight on! Admiralkarg Middle School Science Teacher Reply
