Teachers need support support and respect - By Joyce E. Poirier

Isn't it ironic? The city has once again over-stressed it's
already hard working teaching staff. The newest
evaluation system put into use requires teachers to
complete hours of paperwork. It requires they gather
multiple forms of 'evidence' of their professional practices.
They must document every form of assessment they have
already spent hours developing, and then justify their
value and how they have used them to drive the
instruction within their classrooms.

They must provide pieces of 'evidence' to show they
collaborate with their peers, and that they have some
responsibility for what happens within the system. They
must provide 'evidence' that they engage parents and
student's families. This has resulted in Administrators now
demanding that teachers attend PTO meetings and after
school functions.(More of our private time taken away and
no pay being received for it). The demands on teachers
have grown tremendously and they have gained no more
respect from the community they are tirelessly working to
educate.

Do NOT be fooled, the great number of teachers out
there do in fact do these things anyhow. These are the
steps that make us the professionals that we are. So, you
ask what am I trying to say? I am in awe that the
administration somehow believes the teachers can be
involved in active learning, with class sizes of 30 students
to one adult, and still find time to do all the new paperwork
they have placed upon us. They have provided NO time
for teachers to complete this task.

Perhaps for those in administration with a desk to sit at,
that is not covered in student work or triplicate forms for
individualized education of 30 students, the task seems
feasible. In reality it is NOT! Most teachers already stay
after school or arrive before school, these are unpaid
hours (many,many hours) that they give of themselves ,
and now they are forced to give up even more.

Perhaps the powers that be should provide 'evidence' of
their collegiality by providing teachers with the time and
necessary materials needed to complete the demands
they have placed upon them. Teachers are being told this
new evaluation system will help to reward the hard
working educators and improve the less effective ones. Yet
they are also being told (prior to the process even
beginning) that they should expect to receive 'needs
improvement' on their evaluations. I can't help but find this
as a obvious flaw in the 'new and improved' evaluation
system. Teachers have been told administration is
"building the plane as they fly it" somehow that does
anything but fill me with confidence.

Our teachers need support from the very people they
work for. They need time to complete the task they are
given in the fashion they are told they must be completed.
If in fact we do lengthen the school day we need to assure
that primary teachers receive as much preparation s their
secondary partners in education receive.

Joyce E. Poirier in an NBEA member.