Received today from a teacher whose career has been exemplary: As I enjoy my lighted decorated Christmas tree in this last day of the season, I’m noticing how many “teacher” ornaments are on it. Over the 26 Christmases that I’ve been a Brevard County school teacher I’ve gotten lovely teacher ornaments from students, colleagues, friends and family. I guess they all understood that being a teacher defines me. I’ve been dedicated to the teaching profession for a quarter century. I have improved and honed my practice, been always open to innovations that meet the single criterion of increasing students’ opportunity to learn, and always rejecting new ideas that though flashy and impressive, fail to engage students in meaningful learning. Today I look at my “A+ Teacher!” ornament and I wonder if my life’s energy has been misspent. I’m faced with a dilemma that I could not have anticipated two decades ago. I can use my time and energy to do what I know is best for my students, or I can use that time and energy to jump through all the hoops set by BPS in an attempt to achieve an excellent performance appraisal. Sadly, there is not enough time to do both. Working as hard as I can to provide the best learning opportunities for my students is no longer sufficient to receive a highly effective performance ranking. What that seems to require now is hours spent documenting that I know what BPS expects me to do, and proving that I’m making every effort to comply with that Herculean list of tasks. Documenting and proving is cutting away my time to plan and teach. It is breaking my spirit and my heart. To young teachers just starting out, think long and hard. How many hours are you willing to spend ignoring your family in order to grade papers and plan lessons? How will you convince your spouse that your marriage really is your top priority while the stress of an impossible workload impacts your mental and physical health? How bitter will you feel after 5 years or 10 when you realize that your sacrifices are not appreciated, not revered, and definitely not recompensed? To teachers like me, closer to retirement, my hope for all of us is that we continue to do our very best for students first. Then with what energy and time we have left, we can help each other to push, pull, and drag ourselves through the flaming hoops as best we can. We may retire with careers tarnished a bit by poor rankings in the last years, but we will be able face ourselves in our mirrors knowing that we did our very best for students to the very bitter end.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 22:21:58 +0000
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