Frightening New Stats

According to the latest national education statistics:

Washington now ranks 46th in class size.

Washington is now 45th in per-pupil spending.

Yikes! We’re getting worse.

New Idea

I’m thinking about giving my students a choice with their final novel projects. The students may compose a second literary analysis paper, or they may create an alternative project which incorporates an analysis and a visual. They will have to decide on the option and what they will create by Monday and get my approval before proceeding.

This way I can chat with the kids individually and give them some freedom.

Frustration

I’m not teaching as well as I should want to right now. I’m just going to throw out my frustrations in a venting session and call it good. Catharsis time.

1. My classes are just too large! My smallest class has thirty kids, and all of my courses are literature and writing courses. I’m getting overload pay, but it doesn’t buy me more time. I can’t do as much or spend as much time with individual students as I’d like. The district doesn’t seem to be looking to help with this overcrowding any time soon.

2. I’m teaching a new class, a college in the high school class, for the first time. This requires quite a bit more of my time than I normally have to put into a course, and I know I’m not my best right now. I absolutely know I’ll do a better job with this class next year, but it doesn’t make me feel better right now.

3. I’ve put a lot on my plate outside of teaching. I have the following jobs this year: football stats guy (which is over now, thankfully), committee member for creating a new intervention system, union executive board member, Knowledge Bowl coach, regional Knowledge Bowl coordinator, and am now being asked about the department chair position. I am going to have to cut something soon. I’m getting too tired, and my attention is taken from my classes too often.

4 . My administrative team doesn’t inspire me to be better or to be more involved.  I just don’t see a big vision, a plan to improve, or a willingness to know what we (teachers) do every day. There’s a definite us vs. them and divide and conquer mentality here.

5. Meetings are killing me! We have them weekly just to have them. Almost everything in these weekly meetings could be e-mailed. Grrr. And they never start on time! I just don’t feel my time is valued.

6. Most importantly, I miss my wife! She’s about as busy as I am, and I want to be a better husband and want us to have more “us time.” We need to make this a more conscious priority.

Ok, my complaint session is over. I’m good now.  I love the kids, love what I teach, and love my colleagues, and I’m honestly excited to get back to work tomorrow.

Higher Pay?

Ok, before you read this post, I’m going to admit freely that this issue is one which brings out my snarky and biased side.

A writer with the News Tribune advocates higher pay for math and science teachers to lure better and new teachers to the profession. No other content area would receive the extra pay; it would only be given to math and science teachers.

I take issue with for a few reasons:

1. I absolutely believe all teachers deserve more pay across the board, not just a select few. Education is not a free market based system and shouldn’t be run like one in my humble opinion.

2. Snark alert — offensive statement coming — I don’t believe that extra pay should be given to content areas struggling to produce better results. Now I admit that I believe the math and science teachers are in a very difficult spot (plus, I don’t believe in the validity of the math and science WASL tests mainly used to define their success), but I would rather give bonuses to areas which are showing successes if I had to give extra pay to anyone.

3. I believe everyone in a school should be rewarded monetarily when test scores and graduation rates improve.

In my high school reading and writing scores have risen every year. Math and science scores rose slightly and have now plateaued. When an informal lunch discussion began with a mix of teachers in different content areas, this idea of extra pay for math and science teachers came up and, of course, the math and science teachers were all for it. People debated the idea back and forth with some people pinning the results solely on the teachers, others pinning it on the students, and others pinning blame on the parents and community.

While I know the competitive market is making it much more difficult to get math and science teachers, I don’t believe higher pay for that area is acceptable. Maybe I’m too prejudiced or jealous, but I don’t think this is the answer. Plus, part of the shortage in my area is the new math mandate for students failing the WASL where we take away student electives and double the kids up on math. The math department went from 9 to 16 teachers in two years! Students who didn’t enjoy math before now doubly don’t enjoy it, and the attendance rates have worsened in the math department since the new mandate.

Like I said, I believe in better pay for all and school rewards for everyone when test scores and graduation rates climb. I think it’s equitable and builds community.