Sunday, December 29, 2013

I hope for the best in the new year and for a renewed sense of respect for our profession.

It is upsetting to see that we as teachers have so few supporters in the political and media spheres. So many people are misinformed or ignorant. We all agree that things need to change at New Bedford high school, but I can't for the life of me understand why the change has to be in staff rather than policy. We work in a school that has so few supports and yet we still show up every day for our students. 

Why aren't we addressing the following issues head on:

1. Students enter NBHS with track records of failure from NB middle and elementary schools as well as schools outside of our district. Students fail for years, get passed along, and then high school teachers are expected to make miracles happen in a semester.

2. Students at NBHS only have - if they are lucky - a semester of math and English before they take MCAS. That means that they end their math or English courses in January before taking the exam in March. The other half of ten students begin taking math and English the last week of January and are expected to be up to speed by March for the MCAS exam. These same students are held yo the same standard as students who take math and English for a full year at other schools.

3. There is a total lack of support for resources at the high school. Other than paper, teachers are left to their own devices to bring in most manipulatives. 

4. There is inconsistency among the remaining three houses. Students are given conflicting messages about their consequences from the three remaining housemasters who by the way are expected to do way too much for any one position.

5. There is a total disregard for student ownership of behavior and learning. No consistent consequences exist, for example, for tardiness to class, telling the teacher to FU-K off, or using their phones in class. Teachers are held responsible for Students who keep their heads down in class because the lessons aren't engaging enough - but even when the lessons are clearly engaging for most students and when teachers attempt to wake students up and enforce the no-head-down-rule, they are given no support and the students are sent back to class where they once again out their heads down and teachers are once again told to be more engaging. It's a never ending cycle of lunacy.

I just wish the public would see how hard we are working and under the kinds if conditions we are working in. I wish the school committee supported us and our efforts. I also wish that the local media did more to support us I'm our efforts. That includes financial support for our classrooms and hands in support in working with our student population on a regular basis. For people who seem to care so much they sure do take a hands off approach; it's all talk and no action. Why don't these organizations put their time and money where their mouths are?

I hope for the best in the new year and for a renewed sense of respect for our profession. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many of these issues were brought to the school committee in a plea for change but they did NOTHING!!

Anonymous said...

We need parents,the public, and the community to open their hearts and minds to the struggles the front line teachers face in our school system. The current climate of mistrust and disapproval is like blaming soldiers for a battle they lost when they weren't given proper supplies, proper training, or a game plan. Or, when the soldiers must continually respond to a different commander with a different agenda that keeps sending new messages down about how to win each battle. Just telling soldiers,or teachers, that care about winning, to just fight with more "rigor" when the no one seems to support their mission anywhere is degrading and demoralizing! When our first commanders are evaluated for how many of their soldiers improve their fighting without equipment or support, or when the front line is dropping like flies from exhaustion or depression,how fair is that as well to evaluate the first line leaders either? How just is it when no substitutes replace the soldiers that are too weak to fight, or the teachers with the stamina to hang in there among all the chaos that are just expected to continually do more with less? Let's get motivated to work together New Bedford! Please, please, I beg you, for the sake of the children we need parents, nonprofits, and community leaders to step up to the plate and say this is enough! No more dividing lines! We may win a battle or two in this divided effort, but we will NEVER win the war to improve our education system! Please offer your appreciation and support for your soldier teachers that are being buried nameless and forgotten in droves in the cemetery called New Bedford Public Schools. We can do this together! We want to do this together! We are waiting...and praying...someone with stop the persecution and begin the healing that will lead to success for our schools.
I sign this anonymously because I am so fearful of reprisal in this unhealthy climate where trust is so uncertain and support is so dismal.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately you will NEVER have the support of the media or the public, for that matter. I wish I had an answer as to how you get people to believe in the message you are sending. But this has always been the way teachers have been treated - people don't think that you work very hard at all, that you get raises that are not deserved, and let's not forget that you get the summer off with pay. They think teachers are just a lazy bunch of do-nothings. They don't even consider teaching to be a profession. I do have a comment to make about the students who are "promoted" even thought they are failing. When Nanopolous became superintendent the policy regarding repeating students was...DON'T ! So - elementary teachers - I was one of them - sent on those kids who were reading way below grade level and were not passing math. Let's not forget that the levels at the high school were also abolished and block scheduling was instituted....both of which were lousy ideas. I hope that things improve in the New Year, but honestly, I can't see how that is going to happen!

Anonymous said...

When did teachers become the bad guys? We are portrayed so negatively in the news, the local media, and even more broadly on a national scale in music and film. What did we do to deserve this kind of treatment?

As a city, we should be celebrating teachers not vilifying them. We should support educators. We should not criticize and demean them.

Perhaps it seems reactionary and unfair for teachers to pull support from the united way during the holidays because of their support for the direction Dr. Durkin has decided to go in(which includes replacing us) but why didn't we garner the same sympathy when we were told we were being forced to reapply and possibly removed from our positions two days before holiday break and a week before Christmas?

And for the posters who are upset that HS teachers may bump middle and or elementary teachers, please understand that this goes to show the magnitude of this problem. This is not just about the high school. They, too, may be affected by this redesign plan. This involves all of us. We all must stand together to support one another and our profession.

I sincerely hope we can move forward peacefully. All of this stress is distracting me from my lessons and from the hard work that needs to be done each day.

Anonymous said...

What does the MTA have to say about what's going on in New Bedford? Can we count on them for additional supports?

Anonymous said...

I also wonder what the MTA is doing to help NBHS teachers.
I'd like to suggest that the letter at the top be sent to the St Times. People need to understand what some of the problems are at the high school, otherwise they blame teachers. NBHS teachers need community support. Is the school committee aware of the specific problems? Is Durkin aware? When will they come to their senses. Firing 50% of the teachers is not going to solve anything.

Anonymous said...

I am curious as well as to the position of the MTA.

Anonymous said...

Excellent excellent post-- the problems are clearly articulated... and when one reads them in print, how absurd it is that anyone thinks we can educate in this environment. I am a teacher who does not work in this system, (presently unemployed... another problem..) and I can see that the problem lies squarely on the shoulders of the administration. One could not possibly educate in this environment. Scapegoating the teachers may work for you for the moment... or not... but in the long run the discipline and respect problems must be dealt with in order to bring order to this insanity. And scapegoating the high school teachers for failures throughout the system... same thing, it will not change until it CHANGES.