Mike, you and I really need to have more of these discussions.
Our schools big focus right now is Thinking Maps and structured planning of the five steps of instruction.
It takes someone of very low character to bail out on kids that need you simply for a paycheck. If you love your job and know you are making a difference you'll travel for hours to be there. Its when you hate your job or dislike your circumstances that you start to look for something "closer" or "better". Let the teachers who are so full of themselves they ignore the call to teach leave those districts, I promise you the kids are better for it.
Maybe my post didn't come out right, because we both teach at almost
identical schools (except I am primary and you secondary), but I agree with everything you are saying about the calling and underperforming students "needing" committed teachers. I also have taught there for going on nine years, so I could have
very easily transferred to Sierra Lakes (Northern Fontana) or one of the 'better' schools in Loma Linda, Yucaipa, or Redlands. I have stayed at Primrose because we have a very supportive principal, I have seen the difference a united staff can make, and I feel like intermediate needs experienced teachers.
However, the fact remains that the punishment side of unreasonable accountability is increasingly pushing great teachers out of underperforming schools. This has NOTHING to do with money and everything to do with dignity. I feel like you saying that these teachers who leave because they don't want to deal with the unstable job security aspect and the political bull____ have low character is not very fair. I have a wife and three kids that rely on me,
if my school was in program improvement 3 (which it is not) and we were being threatened with a takeover and job loss, you better believe I would be looking to transfer. Sorry if my family and children are more important than staying at a school that is being punished for (often) things that a teacher can't control.
Your district is handicapping your teachers. Good classroom management is more important than even knowledge of your discipline...Its all about presense and how you conduct yourself in the class...Your school is one of the ones that seriously needs someone in there with balls to show the parents that teachers need to be able to do their job despite their brats thinking otherwise.
I completely agree that it begins and ends with parents.
Amen! Also, don't forget the parents whose believe that it is always another kid's fault even when their children are complete bullies and class clowns.
The principal we had before our current one let all types of crap go and would actually give kids an "Oops" sticker and a Red Vine for being sent to the office. Discipline used to be completely wild and there was no administrative nor parental support. The principal for the last eight years doesn't put up with any crap at all and even started a "working suspension" program instead of the traditional suspension. Some teachers feel like she antagonizes difficult parents and isn't positive enough, but really she just doesn't give these parents a foot in to start the complaining and doesn't give an ear to student excuses.
Here is a perfect example. Most of the 4th/5th students who are doing the "working suspension" get sent to my room for the two days. Last week, I had a young lady who would not stop turning around and laughing at my class and telling them that she was going to fight them and yadda-yadda. So I made it crystal clear to her that a) my students didn't want to see her and b) she needs to act like a lady in my class. Mom came in afterschool ranting in the office and demanding a meeting, which the principal obliged. My principal asked me if the story was true and I told her it was. The mom got very smug and then my principal asked, "Was your daughter acting like a lady?" We have a very supportive principal.
