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Do you recall that in my first blog, I talked about the diminished value of education among our students? But I also emphasized the importance of placing value on the students themselves. Remember, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Not only is this true for students but it is also true for teachers.
What if? Naaah. What if a teacher voiced her concerns to her administration and even to the superintendent of her district? Do you think her professional opinion would be valued to at least warrant a response?
How many good teachers out there whose ideas would make things better, see those ideas fall on deaf ears? Don’t get me wrong, the education system, from the building level to district level to state level to federal level, need good leaders who can see from 30 thousand feet to give crucial and targeted support for those at the ground level. But wouldn’t you prefer the doctor to perform your surgery rather than the hospital administrator? In other words, the classroom teacher at ground level has an intrinsic value that no other stakeholder has. I can hear an Amen in the distance! I think more parents realize that now, but for some reason, those 30-thousand-feet leaders don’t get it (some of them, of course). Or is the bureaucratic cloud so thick that they can’t see to see?
Take a look at the following letter addressed to the superintendent of a school district from Teacher X. Do you think her professional opinion would warrant a response or changes for improvement? Would she be valued?
Leave your comments below.
"As you know, many of our scholars have been under a tremendous amount of stress due to the infrastructure of the virtual learning platform stemming from the ills of this pandemic."
Dear Mr. Superintendent,
I hope this letter finds you well. My name is Teacher X, a dedicated educator in your school district. I am writing because I have district-wide concerns that I believe should be addressed.
Many teachers, including myself, find themselves overextended to meet deadlines and other expectations, and we are in need of solutions.
But, putting our needs aside for the moment, I want to focus on our scholars – our top priority, our most precious stakeholders, the reason we have careers, the reason we have jobs, the reason we have salaries. As you know, many of our scholars have been under a tremendous amount of stress due to the infrastructure of the virtual learning platform stemming from the ills of this pandemic. Therefore, I implore you and the Board to give our scholars the time they need to have a school-and-home-life balance.
Our scholars had been online for seven hours a day until the recent one-day change. But this change is not enough. Now, those looking on from the outside may think, “Wow, they are really surpassing the standard and the norm!” But on the inside, it means our scholars are stressed into an unhealthy place. And this is because what we have done is to try to replicate the traditional school model into the virtual platform. And if you have not heard this before or realized it yourself, it does not work. It is not working. And when something does not work, like a car, a computer, or a system, yet you want it to produce, it is incumbent upon someone to fix it.
This is a message that is unfortunately, already untimely because we have already failed our scholars, and we continue to fail them in many ways. How many times do they skip one assignment to do another, only completing half of them? This is a recipe for failure. Our students are failing academically at an alarming rate, many of them for the first time in their academic careers.
Our district and districts all across the country look at benchmark data and determine plans of action to address academic growth gaps. This is what we do. This is a part of the education system. We use the tier protocols to intervene with our students to get them back on track – to give them the support they need to produce the academic outcomes we desire for their benefit. And they also desire academic success for themselves, but many of them are yet failing. As I have said, the traditional model in the virtual space does not work. It is like putting new wine into old bottles. We know what happens. The bottles are breaking. Many students are not showing up for synchronous learning – skipping certain classes and selectively being present in others. Likewise, many asynchronous students are not engaged. Granted, some of this behavior may be borne out of unfavorable reasons, but much of it is because they are forced to take the time.
I am not only voicing a grave concern, but I am also proposing feasible solutions for this problem with the four attached potential schedule changes that the District could adopt. However, before going into more details, please allow me to reiterate the other end of the spectrum – our educators.
A teacher’s work is never done – a well-known saying but certainly true. “It comes with the territory,” one might say. “The territory” is arriving to school early, staying after school, working through lunch, spending occasional weekends and evenings to tie up loose ends, and even pulling all-nighters, adding up to be much longer than a 40-hour week.
Our current situation is overbearing and unsustainable. We need more time, also. What we are doing is 3-4 times the workload of the traditional classroom. Therefore, we need 3-4 times the allotment for planning. We need to create lesson plans, create assignments, grade assignments, record grades, give students timely, meaningful feedback, contact parents, offer 1:1 remediation, and the like.
We are in an emergency, compounded by other emergencies. Again, I urge you and the Board to act quickly in addressing these issues, while regarding my proposed schedule changes.
Mr. Superintendent, thank you for your time and consideration.
Teacher X.
Let me hear from you!
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