disapproving kitty

Thursday, February 16, 2017

To Governor Kasich, About His Latest Brainstorm for Teachers

Dear Governor Kasich ,

Recently you put forth a budget containing a requirement that all teachers spend part of their professional development time at an "on-site work experience" with a local business or chamber of commerce. (If you'd like to read up on it, check here.) I'm sure you realize it is being poorly received by teachers across the state. I thought perhaps some clarifying questions might be in order, to help you understand our concerns.

First, what are the objective and goals of this professional development? You see, when teachers create plans for students, we always have to have the goal of the lesson in mind. Otherwise, how could we possibly know what we're trying to accomplish? It isn't very clear at all what you're trying to achieve.
Second, I'd like to know exactly when you'd like these experiences to happen? During the school day, so I have to have to charge the district for a sub? How about during one of my professional development days, which means I'd have to forego PD that is actually relevant to my teaching? Maybe you'd prefer I do it on my own time? Between work, lesson planning, grading and everything else I need to do, my own time is pretty precious, so you'd better have a very compelling reason that these "on-site work experiences" are necessary.
Third, I'm interested to know how, exactly, our already overworked professional development staff is going to secure these experiences with local businesses? Our district alone has over 1000 teachers. Do you really believe that the local banking call center, quick oil change station or dental office really wants to have a teacher who has no background, interest or skills in that area sitting around their office, garage or factory floor for a day?
I'm sorry, Governor Kasich, but this entire plan is poorly laid out, without the necessary goals established, needed materials provided or any provisions whatsoever for measuring the effectiveness of plan.

Still, don't ever let it be said that I'm not game to try something new, even if it's not well thought out. So, I have a proposal for you. A fair swap. I'll go spend my professional development time at a local business if you and every other elected official in the state of Ohio must go spend an entire day at an "on site work experience" at a local school. Mind you, this isn't a dignitary's visit, or a walk-though where you're guided through classrooms by the Superintendent. This is a WORK EXPERIENCE. Each of you will create, teach and evaluate the effectiveness of lessons you conduct throughout a school day. You'll come on time for duty and not leave till everything is graded and you're caught up on any correspondence from parents, colleagues and administrators. An on-site work experience as a teacher.

We'll be happy to provide you copious weblinks to curriculum, resources and activities to help you plan. But you'll have to put it all together yourself.  In case you were wondering, the goal of the experience would be to help you understand what it is you seem so hell-bent on destroying, and to show you the difficulty (and the joy) of the work we do every single day.

Because right now, I think you haven't got a clue.

Sincerely Yours,
Disapproving Kitty





25 comments:

  1. Worked in industry 30 years prior to teaching 28 . Having industry experience made me a much better teacher. I quess teachers do not want to work 58 years like I did. Can not understand why. Just saying !

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    1. What industry? In which curricular area did you teach and at what grade level?

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    2. What area did you teach in? Career/Tech? Then I can see what you're saying.
      1st grade? You're crazy! No practical application whatsoever

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    3. I worked in the private sector before becoming a teacher, too, and I've worked for private companies during summers and one weekends as well. Many teachers I know have and do, either to make ends meet or for whatever reasons they may have.
      If teachers WANT to use experience in the private sector as professional development because it will help them be better teachers, I'm all for it.
      But there is NO reason to mandate it unless Kasich can elaborate on a specific and valid goal for it.

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    4. Having a little trouble with the math here. Say you graduate at age 21 as most people do from college and then you work 30 years in one profession -industry), then you go into teaching for 28 years. Wouldn't that mean you were close to 80 years old before retiring? Ouch! Not sure that makes sense to me. I guess it's possible, but highly unlikely. You have to have some sort of college education to teach, unless they deem you highly unqualified; which is a requirement in all of the four states I've worked in??

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  2. I think the goal here is to get those who have only a background in academia (most teachers) to get "real world" experience and understanding as to what their students will actually face when they graduate. Teaching, to me, should be something our retirees do once they fulfill a working career and contribution to society. The economy has changed and teachers with no experience outside the comfortable bubble of academia, especially the coming "free college", have little concept of producing, creating, servicing or running a business.

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    1. There is rhyme or reason to this. What industry or business experience is necessary for a first grader!?!?!

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    2. Upon what do you base your claims, Peter? Many if not most of the teachers I know have had experience in the private sector acquired before becoming teachers, or work they continued to do during summers, breaks and weekends. Some even work a second job to make ends meet during the school year. A great many teachers write and publish curriculum for sites like "Teachers Pay Teachers." Others create and sell their own arts and crafts, tutor or engage in other private business enterprises.
      These may or may not make them better teachers. I would want data to prove that working in a factory will make a 2nd grade teacher better at his/her job before mandating that it happen, wouldn't you?
      To which "free college" do you speak? Again, the teachers I know have had to pay off copious students loans. Which teachers do you know who went to university for free in Ohio?
      If you're going to make a claim, please support it with facts, not supposition.

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    3. Peter: Perhaps you refer the "real world" career skills that the current governor, whose idea this is, virtually wiped out of our curricula by making standards and the testing of center of education and basis for teacher evaluations. Or maybe you are referring to the standards of professionalism such as being prompt with self and work that educators would love to teach but aren't allow to enforce because we are supposed to accept such shortcomings since those things shouldn't matter - only progress towards standards should be measured and reported. Or, it's possible that you haven't perused the extensive websites and materials teachers create, produce, and revise constantly such that many of us have literally 100s, some 1000s, of pages of written and multi-media resources, as well as physical materials tailored to the many levels and needs of their students. It's also not inconceivable that you are unaware of the 100s of emails from parents a teacher must answer within 24 hours of receipt each school year in order to make sure each family is given the service they deserve. And I certainly wouldn't blame you if you didn't fully appreciate that teachers are also live performers who must be energetically on-point, enthusiastic, and engaging in front of audiences of appropriately fidgety, distracted, tired, sick, etc. children every day. And it's ok that you probably don't know teachers have no support structure in place for any of this. They make their own copies, learn all the software, including both Apple and PC formats, master developmental psychology and learning theory, and implement carefully designed lesson plans and evaluations all while wiping noses, drying tears, and occasionally buying lunch for a child with no money. But, to be honest, everything you stated makes perfect sense to me because of one statement in your post: "Teaching, to me, should be something our retirees do once they fulfill a working career and contribution to society." I hear your premise loud and clear: you believe teaching doesn't contribute to society and you believe that a retiree, let's say age 60-65, could survive the 60-70 hour work weeks and engage young people at a high level on a daily basis in a profession that takes years to truly master. I'm sorry, sir, but both you and the governor are so badly misinformed about the teaching profession that it would seem these "externships" are sadly backwards in their audiences. And while I am a polite fellow, please don't suggest that only a working career contributes to society. It's insulting, and I would never suggest the same of your profession. Good day.

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    4. As a 29 year teaching veteran, your comments are on point. I worked in the mortgage industry, as a bookkeeper, at a flower shop, waitressed, and worked in several family run businesses (electric supply and magazine distributor) in my career before teaching. I don't see what any of it did to help me become a better teacher. As a retired teacher, I find it quite offensive that anyone would suggest we work as a public service after years of hard work teaching and working every summer to further our career and enhance our teaching skills with college classes and professional development. Many teachers I know also work second jobs. Everyone has a right to a retirement after working a career. You don't expect doctors, firefighters, police, bankers, welders, CPA's, cooks, or small business owners to continue working in their fields for free as a public service. That is preposterous.

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    5. Most teachers I know, myself included have worked in private industry at some point in their lives. I worked in the insurance industry and doctor/dentist offices. My husband worked in the health food business, newspaper industry, construction and drove a taxi cab in NYC. I have known others who have been secretaries, business executives, elected officials and even car mechanics. Who ever said most teachers have only been in academia are sadly mistaken.

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    6. Are you a teacher, Peter? You speak as if teachers never go anywhere or do anything except at school. Personally, I worked for businesses throughout my student years, beginning at age 15. I worked summers. I worked for a year before getting my first teaching job.I worked retail, I worked for a manufacturing company on the communications team, I drafted corporate plans and handbooks, I worked for a catering company, in a bakery and as a restaurant manager. i think I am very much aware of what students will face, what businesses want. You know what? Teaching was the hardest job, I never worked so hard as I did as a teacher. I think that rather than asking us to work other jobs to gain understanding, you should go and work in a school for a day, or a week...it wouldn't be a difficult thing to arrange, you could work as a substitute teacher for a day or more. After you do that, let's talk!

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  3. Most Americans outside of the profession of teaching have little insight regarding teaching. A really good teacher spends her/his career refining understandings and skills. What makes a teacher effective is what is inside her/his head and how that influences the professional decisions she/he makes 100's of times each day. That knowledge and competence is built slowly, over time. I am not a teacher. I am an educational publisher fortunate enough to have spent a great deal of time in the company of teachers (often in the classroom) during almost 50 years in business. Teachers deserve far more respect than they get on a regular basis. The public schools deserve far greater financial support than they get. I would argue that those outside of schools who make decisions that have impact on schools (e.g.governors of states and secretaries of education) should have far more knowledge than they usually do about the critical importance of professional teachers and public schools in the lives of our children and the future of our country.

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  4. I am a Science teacher. I have studied extensively in my subject area. The politicians who have NO experience iny subject AT ALL are going to tell me what I need to know. Bwahahaha!
    I attend workshops annually to stay on top of my subject. I know my subject inside and out. THEY DO NOT!!

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  5. I worked in vet's offices, retail, and a variety of office jobs before becoming a teacher. I also received some training as a veterinarian (I am a vet school dropout).
    Not a single one of those jobs was as stressful as teaching except veterinary school. I wouldn't say that any of my experience has made a difference in my skills as a teacher. I have friends who went to college for teaching who are demonstrably better than I am and friends who did the same and aren't as good as I am. I don't see this proposal making an ounce of difference.

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  6. The public officials would need to take this on for one to two weeks to get a glimmering of a teacher's day and challenges and goals. Add in 20 to 35 students, possibly changing classes with new numbers of students coming and going, students who are out sick, interacting with students, various attention and disciplinary issues, special needs, school assemblies, special meetings, after school events, parent interaction, and a variety of other possible time commitments, as well as trying to TEACH a lesson and have lively interactions with your class. Adding these additional ambiguous business apprenticeships for teaching requirements seems pointless. However, if they want business teachers to teach a new class in daily business knowledge to students between junior high to high school level, it may have some merit as a class requirement for life preparedness. I don!t believe there could possibly be much support for the Governor's business Apprenticeship requirement for our already over worked teachers.

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  7. Well...before teaching, I worked for 10 years in the corporate world and even earned letters after my name! (Some call this the "real world" as opposed to the "not real world" of public school.) I am grateful for both experiences. However, I really do miss being done for the day after 8 or 9 hours work.

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  8. Let's see, I have 20 plus years of military duties that have taken me around the globe, During college and before teaching I worked landscaping, amusement park, distribution center, and in a factory. How much real world can I get?

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  9. Before I graduated from High School I worked as a dishwasher, folded newspapers, and whatever else I could come up with. When I graduated from High School my parents couldn't afford to put me and my brother through college. I worked as a secretary for 2 years (earning enough to be put me through 1 year of college). As I attended college, once again to help pay for schooling, I worked at KFC, babysitting / housecleaning, worked at a home for severely disabled children, nursing home, in a hospital lab, and carrying 15 plus hours in school. Once I got my teaching degree, a teaching job. I continued to work during the summers (for my mom who owned a small down grocery store), became a volunteer firefighter, and my husband and I raise black angus, chickens, and quail. I tried to retire after 30 years of teaching special needs children (I did, but went back - missed the kids dearly). How much more life experience do I need?

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  10. Another stupid idea with no thought to it by politicians who love to stick their noses in education & have no idea of what they are doing!!!

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  11. I know what the "real world" of business wants....Employees that #1 show up....on time. #2 Follow directions #3 Willing to learn #4 Get along with others. Pretty sure that is the recurring theme in all classrooms, of any teacher, regardless of subject/grade level.

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  12. On the right hand the State has created tests and detailed curriculum maps with 'standards' that lessons are expected to meet. The State drives what is being taught in our schools. All the while they are cutting our funding, making our jobs more difficult. On the left hand the State is telling us we are not teaching the skills that are needed and should intern in private industry to 'see' what students need to learn. This is hypocrisy!

    We don't live under our desks; Sometimes students see me in the grocery store and are surprised that I shop. This proclamation from John Kasich is much like the student who is surprised that we shop. We don't live in some separate universe.

    The goal of our public schools is to graduate students who are fluent in reading, writing, math, science and social studies such that they can be function, informed members of the community. We teach them to show up on time. We teach them that hard work pays off. We teach them to evaluate data and draw intelligent conclusions. We teach them the lessons of the past lest they be forgotten and repeated. We teach them computer skills such as spread sheets, word processing and how a PC works. We teach them how to learn.

    A student not continuing their education is then ready to enter the work force. Most students, at graduation,have a solid foundation to go on to technical school or college level learning.

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  13. I can see where you are coming from, Peter, and you make a good point about needing to teach students about the real world. However, teachers don't write the curriculum and we are often not in charge of what we teach, especially with more and more mandates for testing and a more standardized curriculum. I strive to relate what my students learn in the classroom to the real world, but it's often times not possible depending on what I'm teaching. I'm all for teaching transfer to the real world outside of academia, but most teachers already have students' next steps in mind. In addition, you may not remember your own elementary school years but it's not realistic to teach K-5th graders about their adult life yet, because adulting is so far into the future for them. The idea is to teach students the building blocks of knowledge and skills so that they can build on what they know and apply what they know to their adult life and to their future outside of academia. I'd love to see more real-world teaching at the high school level, such as a semester class in how to do your taxes or how to budget or cooking, etc. Many of these classes already exist but the public doesn't know about them and they aren't tested, so the governing bodies in education don't focus on them as much as math and reading. There has been a big push in Ohio for career tech programs, often at the expense of other subjects like music and other arts.

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