MOS ( or More of the Same)

One certain legislator will not let it go when it comes to harassing liberals on social networking sites. He can be rather irritating. There comes a time when we need to shut our mouths and I plan to do that soon, I promise. It would be nice if he did the same. He just hasn't gotten his fill of giving it to teachers and the NCAE. He is so proud of himself and his other legislative "overhaulers" for getting rid of teacher tenure. It seems as though they think that is why educators are upset about the budget doings. So while they are wallowing in all of their glee most of the educators I have talked do could care less about tenure except that it seemed an effort to disrespect the profession.

There is an effort to push merit pay. While it may seem like the answer to making certain that good teachers are rewarded,it is a system resplendent with holes and gaps. Some years ago Wake County instituted such a plan. Teachers could opt in or not. Certain evaluators were trained from a core of educators and visited unannounced (supposedly) to the classroom of participating teachers and did evaluations. Based on what they saw and recorded after a certain number of visits teachers received an amount of extra pay. Watching this fiasco occur was an experience. Most teachers who participated prepared by learning the format being used for evaluation and designing their lessons to match. By and large teachers do plan and do follow the curriculum! They understand their subject(s) and how to teach it/them to meet the needs of their students. If lessons do not work or accomplish their purpose good teachers back up and come in at a different angle to try to nail the instruction. In the ways mentioned all instruction in Wake Schools was improved as all teachers received training in better methods of organizing and presenting materials. As will happen soon some folks being assessed tucked a lesson plan away in a convenient place with all of the bells and whistles an evaluator would love to see. When the evaluator arrived unannounced and the lesson in the natural rotation for that day didn't have the exciting factors evaluators loved to see, the teacher could pull out the special plan and put it to use, thus receiving a higher score. (This did happen!) Then there are some folks who have
personality conflicts. It happens and folks are not able to see beyond those factors when evaluating. Sometimes there are favorites and they are evaluated in that context receiving consistently high scores. These things actually happen in such a merit type situation. For those reasons those who work in the field do not receive news of the use of a merit system with open arms. However, I do believe that the lack of enthusiasm is falsely interpreted as being due to other factors.

Just my view....not yours!! Again, my blog....my opinion!