[Ansteorra] Teacher evaluation {mundane spam}

Michelle Hanson bmhanson at airmail.net
Fri Nov 15 14:28:11 PST 2002


Caladin said in part:

<SNIP>

Take a given amount of money, distribute it to each school, the teachers
who are in the top 50% in that schools scoring, get to split the money,
the bottom 50%, don't. Split it evenly or on a performance gradiant,

<SNIP>

**************************************

This would play havoc with the system.  Teachers are encouraged to work
with
each other all the time.  They are EXPECTED to cooperate and share
ideas, supplies, etc.  You have teacher A who is in the top 50% and
getting extra money because s/he is an excellent teacher and they are
EXPECTED to share their innovative ideas with teacher B who is the
bottom 50% of the scale (or anyone else for that matter).  Most people,
being human as we are, will do this for only so long before they realize
that by sharing they are only hurting themselves, monetarily speaking.
Then add into the mix the fact that pretty soon teacher B will EXPECT
that s/he will never have to do anything creative for themselves, they
will get everything handed to them.  Then Murphy's Law being what it is,
teacher B will have had time to get their Master's degree and will get
another raise, then be promoted while the good teacher A will passed
over, having had no opportunity to get their Master's degree (because
they are busy coming up with fantastic ideas to help their kids) and
well...do you see how that isn't very beneficial?  The burnout of good
teachers is bad enough as it is.

Now, realize this only applies to those people who went into teaching
for the "cool" vacations.  These are the people we want to get rid of in
the first place.  IMHO, people who are in the business of children for
these reasons do not make good teachers.  They are not willing to put in
all the extra time and energy (not to mention personal money) to help
their kids (of whatever ability) do the best they can and learn to love
to learn - the ultimate goal of every teacher: learning for the sake of
learning.  :) :)

I firmly believe there are definitely people who were born
teachers...they do the job because they are called to it.  The money is
mostly irrelevant.  Don't mistake me to mean by that that the money is
not moderately important...my kids like to eat and have a roof over
their heads, not to mention the utility companies who just don't
understand the logic behind, "I may not get paid much, and what I do
make I have to spend on other people's kids to help them learn better,
but I LOVE MY JOB!!!"  They don't get it.  Hmmmmmm?!  That's a real
shame.

Yes, teachers deserve to be paid more, but more importantly than that,
they deserve to be respected by the public at large.  Not blamed for
every little trifle they have no control against.  Unlike other public
servants, we are not allowed to strike against unfair practices and
IMHO, a good teacher probably wouldn't anyway.  That would definitely
not be in the best interests of the students.  We should have the
respect that other professionals expect, demand, and receive.  More
money to me is just icing, the respect is the cake.  And I want the
cake!

Oh well.  Sorry to rant so much, back to lurking.

Margarite











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