Reply to when schools focus on the wrong things (from a teacher)

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "when schools focus on the wrong things (from a teacher) "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So, I was in a meeting about a week before school let out for winter break.  We have a particular set of meetings once a month for 2 hours which I think are a waste of time.  I bluntly came out right then and there in the meeting and stated that while I agreed with the end goal of the meeting, that the way we were going about it left most of us feeling like we were wasting time and [b]I actually said, "This is really boring and a waste of time" in the meeting[/b].  The admin in charge, who I truly love and respect, kindly said, "Yeah, some of you already know exactly what to do, but to be honest, we as admins simply don't have the capacity to differentiate these PD's".

I've thought long and hard about going to that same admin and seeing if we could brainstorm a way to make use of our time in a way that makes more sense.  But that would mean signing myself up for MORE work.  I'm already at MY capacity for hours at work.  I have no more time to give without stealing my time with my family and I'm done doing that.  So, I feel like I just have to accept another 2 years worth of once a month meetings that are a complete and total loss for me and many of my colleagues.  Better than losing MORE time and seeing my own children even less than I do know.

I'm not tenured in this district and I already have a reputation for saying the things no one else will say.  [b]I know each time I do, I take the risk of being fired at the end of the year.[/b]  That's slightly terrifying to me, as I love my work outside of stupid meetings and we need my salary.  But I'm terrible at hiding how I feel and what I think.  At the same time, I've been doing this long enough now to know that pretty much nothing I say is going to make a difference.  It is very frustrating.[/quote]

Yes, you WOULD be fired at the end of the year for this at my school.  I'm not saying that what you said was incorrect, but I'm shocked that you seem to think speaking like this to a "higher up" in a meeting, in front of other people, is appropriate.  [/quote]

THIS is why we have all these problems in the first place - a culture which insists that teachers should never express any opinion that is not 100% positive, bright, cheery, and completely supportive of whatever idiotic things comes down the pipeline.  We are supposed to be robotic and never think critically  - what a joke, when teachers are supposed to teach critical thinking but aren't permitted to practice it.  When everyone just goes along with everything regardless of what their professional knowledge tells them, that's when we have a system where teacher time is routinely wasted and teachers have no voice.  It's not disrespectful to be a professional and voice an opinion - it's disrespectful to believe that professionals shouldn't have any opinions.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics