Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Nov. 23rd, 2003 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaSo I'm seriously thinking about ditching Ramton and, indeed, this school district in a year and a half.
Why a year and a half? Because I feel an obligation to this crop of kids to see them through. I've been their math mother for two years, and most of them who will still be here next year will be taking one of the two AP Calculus classes next year. A few of them will take AP Stats, which won't get taught, I think, if I'm not there - or worse, taught by Coach D. I owe it to them to be there for them - if I missed something important and they need tutoring, if they just need a little math help, if they want to talk about weird physics, or whatever.
Why do I feel like leaving? Because the administration is Treating Us Like Idiots.
We had a department meeting on Wednesday, in which we were told, once again, What We Need To Do. Fuck, we already know what we need to do. Every teacher in the godsdamned room can recite What We Need To Do. The kids need to be speaking the math with each other, they need to be doing problem solving rather than writing down notes and memorizing, and they need to demonstrate conceptual understanding both with and without the calculators. Duh. We've been told this every freaking meeting for at least the four years I've been there.
Clearly, if we're not doing What We Need To Do, then one of two things is going on:
1) We're brand-freaking-new to the profession and we need major help in classroom management before we can even address the instructional issues. This covers at least four people in the department, and possibly as many as six (two were brand-new last year, and at least one is having horrible management issues).
2) We're not interested in doing What We Need To Do, because we still think What We Used To Do In 1985 will still work. Obviously, the problem here is lack of connection with reality. I think this only applies to 2 people, though.
3) We're desperately trying to do What We Need To Do, and it's either not working or only partially working, and we feel like we're flailing in the dark with little to no support. I think this covers pretty much the rest of the department.
There are obvious ways to remedy each of these things:
1) Give some sort of direct instruction on good classroom management. Books and/or articles would be nice. FWIW, the building administration has taken some steps in this direction, although they're fairly small. The department administration seems to have done nothing, although it acknowledges the problem in private.
2) Smack with a Reality Clue Stick in the form of hard data. Repeat as necessary. Our API has finally started doing this, but I don't think she has a good handle on what sort of data to smack people with and why. I don't know why she started this late. However, she did this to the entire department, not just the two know-nothings who need it, which was at least a little discouraging for all of us and absolutely crushing to a couple of the people in category 1. This won't do a damn thing for people in categories 1 and 3.
3) Model good instructional strategies for us that use the techniques that have been proven to work for concept-building and mastery. (Emphasis on good strategies - I'm not interested in dumb ones, or goofy ones that work for elementary kids but not at the upper levels, or ones that cajole the kids into learning - I want ones that have been shown to work.) In this case, handouts and book probably aren't enough - we need to see them used on us, or on a class of kids, to learn them. Our previous API did this - he had a Cooperative Learning expert come in and work with us on three separate occasions. However, there's been next to nothing since then on a wing or building level (the district has offered some sessions, but they were not well publicized and were mostly over summer).
Yelling at us about What We Need To Do and giving us next to no tools to do this implies either (a) that we're all idiots in category 2 or (b) that we're all idiots who honestly don't know What Needs To Be Done. Either way, I feel like I'm being treated like an idiot. DD seems to feel the same way. (The PLC trainer who couldn't understand why her numbers were meaningless didn't help, for me, but she's clearly a symptom, not the problem.) The personal style of our building principal makes this even worse - everyone, from teachers to paraprofessionals to the students, seems to feel like she's talking down to them. I'm sure that's not her intent, but there's a huge "middle school" feel to her style of interaction.
I talked to our API a little about this Friday afternoon before everyone left. I have no problems with her style of interaction, but I know - and she said as much to me in the conversation - that her focus is on Algebra I and Geometry, not on the upper level kids. That's a matter of necessity. If those kids don't improve, then we as a school are screwed to the wall by the TAKS test. I understand that her focus - and RR's and the district coordinator's - have to be focused there. Algebra II comes second, and the AP classes a distant third - Pre-calculus isn't even on the radar. But I know everyone on our team (all three of us) is frustrated, because our materials and support are crappy to nonexistent and we're still getting the same shit that everyone else in the department is getting. Our ass is not going to be up on the firing line for TAKS, because if a kid's in Pre-cal, either s/he's a senior and has finished his/her mandatory testing, or s/he's an accelerated junior and shouldn't have to worry about passing what is still only a little more than a minimal skills test. (We won't argue here about whether a non-minimal-skills test, of whatever sort, should be a graduation requirement as opposed to a college-entrance requirement.) The three AP teachers have our balls to the wall for a different test, but Pre-cal is just sort of in the middle - every college-bound kid should take it, but not every one does, and the counselors don't push it as much as they should. We're sort of the ugly stepchild of the department, and as the pseudo-team-leader, it falls to me to be the one who gets to complain about the way we're being neglected. (Then again, the Geometry team might argue that it's a benign neglect . . .)
The only reason I don't commit to changing schools is that I'm not the least bit sure it'd be better in any of our surrounding districts. Maybe Fort Bend. I don't know if any of the magnet schools - HSPVA or Health Professions, or the Vanguard school - in HISD would be hiring, and I know I don't want to be in a non-magnet building in that district.
On the gripping hand, I know I should be grateful just to be employed and sufficiently employable that I can honestly consider job-hopping right now. Math teaching is a high-demand profession, in a market in which those are damned few and far between. I know if I changed, I'd likely get to keep Stats and get either Geometry or Algebra II for my other prep (maybe Pre-AP, maybe not). I'd be willing to step down if I knew I'd be respected. Having said that, I'm getting to work with the kinds of kids I need to be with here, and there's no guarantee it wouldn't take longer to get there at a new school.
Why a year and a half? Because I feel an obligation to this crop of kids to see them through. I've been their math mother for two years, and most of them who will still be here next year will be taking one of the two AP Calculus classes next year. A few of them will take AP Stats, which won't get taught, I think, if I'm not there - or worse, taught by Coach D. I owe it to them to be there for them - if I missed something important and they need tutoring, if they just need a little math help, if they want to talk about weird physics, or whatever.
Why do I feel like leaving? Because the administration is Treating Us Like Idiots.
We had a department meeting on Wednesday, in which we were told, once again, What We Need To Do. Fuck, we already know what we need to do. Every teacher in the godsdamned room can recite What We Need To Do. The kids need to be speaking the math with each other, they need to be doing problem solving rather than writing down notes and memorizing, and they need to demonstrate conceptual understanding both with and without the calculators. Duh. We've been told this every freaking meeting for at least the four years I've been there.
Clearly, if we're not doing What We Need To Do, then one of two things is going on:
1) We're brand-freaking-new to the profession and we need major help in classroom management before we can even address the instructional issues. This covers at least four people in the department, and possibly as many as six (two were brand-new last year, and at least one is having horrible management issues).
2) We're not interested in doing What We Need To Do, because we still think What We Used To Do In 1985 will still work. Obviously, the problem here is lack of connection with reality. I think this only applies to 2 people, though.
3) We're desperately trying to do What We Need To Do, and it's either not working or only partially working, and we feel like we're flailing in the dark with little to no support. I think this covers pretty much the rest of the department.
There are obvious ways to remedy each of these things:
1) Give some sort of direct instruction on good classroom management. Books and/or articles would be nice. FWIW, the building administration has taken some steps in this direction, although they're fairly small. The department administration seems to have done nothing, although it acknowledges the problem in private.
2) Smack with a Reality Clue Stick in the form of hard data. Repeat as necessary. Our API has finally started doing this, but I don't think she has a good handle on what sort of data to smack people with and why. I don't know why she started this late. However, she did this to the entire department, not just the two know-nothings who need it, which was at least a little discouraging for all of us and absolutely crushing to a couple of the people in category 1. This won't do a damn thing for people in categories 1 and 3.
3) Model good instructional strategies for us that use the techniques that have been proven to work for concept-building and mastery. (Emphasis on good strategies - I'm not interested in dumb ones, or goofy ones that work for elementary kids but not at the upper levels, or ones that cajole the kids into learning - I want ones that have been shown to work.) In this case, handouts and book probably aren't enough - we need to see them used on us, or on a class of kids, to learn them. Our previous API did this - he had a Cooperative Learning expert come in and work with us on three separate occasions. However, there's been next to nothing since then on a wing or building level (the district has offered some sessions, but they were not well publicized and were mostly over summer).
Yelling at us about What We Need To Do and giving us next to no tools to do this implies either (a) that we're all idiots in category 2 or (b) that we're all idiots who honestly don't know What Needs To Be Done. Either way, I feel like I'm being treated like an idiot. DD seems to feel the same way. (The PLC trainer who couldn't understand why her numbers were meaningless didn't help, for me, but she's clearly a symptom, not the problem.) The personal style of our building principal makes this even worse - everyone, from teachers to paraprofessionals to the students, seems to feel like she's talking down to them. I'm sure that's not her intent, but there's a huge "middle school" feel to her style of interaction.
I talked to our API a little about this Friday afternoon before everyone left. I have no problems with her style of interaction, but I know - and she said as much to me in the conversation - that her focus is on Algebra I and Geometry, not on the upper level kids. That's a matter of necessity. If those kids don't improve, then we as a school are screwed to the wall by the TAKS test. I understand that her focus - and RR's and the district coordinator's - have to be focused there. Algebra II comes second, and the AP classes a distant third - Pre-calculus isn't even on the radar. But I know everyone on our team (all three of us) is frustrated, because our materials and support are crappy to nonexistent and we're still getting the same shit that everyone else in the department is getting. Our ass is not going to be up on the firing line for TAKS, because if a kid's in Pre-cal, either s/he's a senior and has finished his/her mandatory testing, or s/he's an accelerated junior and shouldn't have to worry about passing what is still only a little more than a minimal skills test. (We won't argue here about whether a non-minimal-skills test, of whatever sort, should be a graduation requirement as opposed to a college-entrance requirement.) The three AP teachers have our balls to the wall for a different test, but Pre-cal is just sort of in the middle - every college-bound kid should take it, but not every one does, and the counselors don't push it as much as they should. We're sort of the ugly stepchild of the department, and as the pseudo-team-leader, it falls to me to be the one who gets to complain about the way we're being neglected. (Then again, the Geometry team might argue that it's a benign neglect . . .)
The only reason I don't commit to changing schools is that I'm not the least bit sure it'd be better in any of our surrounding districts. Maybe Fort Bend. I don't know if any of the magnet schools - HSPVA or Health Professions, or the Vanguard school - in HISD would be hiring, and I know I don't want to be in a non-magnet building in that district.
On the gripping hand, I know I should be grateful just to be employed and sufficiently employable that I can honestly consider job-hopping right now. Math teaching is a high-demand profession, in a market in which those are damned few and far between. I know if I changed, I'd likely get to keep Stats and get either Geometry or Algebra II for my other prep (maybe Pre-AP, maybe not). I'd be willing to step down if I knew I'd be respected. Having said that, I'm getting to work with the kinds of kids I need to be with here, and there's no guarantee it wouldn't take longer to get there at a new school.
