Teaching Insanity

positivelypersistentteach:

criticalconsciousness:

I’m clearly not a shill for corporate takeover of the public education system.  However, I want to clear up one misconception about (most) merit pay systems. 

A lot of people will say very uniformed things like “Oh, what if one kid doesn’t try on the test that day?  Should I be held responsible for that?” 

No, you shouldn’t.  And obviously this has been thought of when developing these systems for years on end with teams of PhD statisticians and generally intelligent people. 

First of all, most merit pay systems only place student growth/test scores at about 40% of the total. (The rest being on evaluations and surveys)

Second, the most common tool is a sort of Student Growth Percentile.  Let’s say we have a 9th grade student named Frank in Algebra I, and he scored a 280 on his last year’s state test.  This year he scores a 301.  The algorithm will look at EVERY 8th grader in the state (or specific area, depending on the district) who got a 280 LAST year, and create a bell curve distribution of their scores this year.  Let’s say he scores higher than 62% of 8th graders with a 280 last year.  This will assign Frank a score of 62 in Algebra this year.

This SGI, which essentially measures growth will be applied to every one of the teacher’s students (lets say 150 students), and then the mean (average) will be taken of that.  This process most certainly deletes a lot of random noise and error that would occur in a very small sample size or if you were just measuring raw scores rather than comparative percentiles. 

I totally understand the opposition to merit pay. But please, let’s not become raving Tea Partiers who are jettisoning all facts and yelling with big signs. 

I’m not sure that I agree with the points brought up here.  Personally, I know that as a kid I liked to make designs on test bubbles one year.   I don’t think that is ever going to fit a math equation, even the one you described.  Also, some kids (particularly the population I work with) do not do well on tests.  

I’d like to see what other teachers on tumblr think.

In Singapore, our pay increment and our bonuses are tied to our performance so I guess that’s similar to merit pay? I’m not sure.

Not everyone likes it and the same concerns are brought up about how unfair it is to have our performances as a teacher tied to our students’ performance because we aren’t the only determiner of our students’ performance.

Basically, our performance is based on our students’ results, observations by our reporting officers, checks on our students’ work, our contributing to the school outside of the classroom and a whole bunch of other stuff. From what I know, all these carry about equal weight (teaching in the classroom sometimes a little more) and a panel is convened to assess each teacher.

I am so used to this, it no longer bothers me that much. It’s not completely fair but at the same time, I’ve never felt completely short-changed by it either.

I’m struggling with my marking. I need to get these essays done by Monday. I am not marking fast enough.

1. Results for the students’ examinations have come in and my students have shown improvement. Yay!

2. My work review is coming up and I suspect I haven’t done enough this year. My vice-principal can be quite cutting and blunt and I’m expecting the worse.

3. I am thinking of using something like Game Achievements in class next year. I’m wondering if anyone has done something similar.

My students are in the midst of taking their preliminary examinations - examinations as preparation for their standardised tests. 

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than how they do in the standardised tests - it’s important to both me, my students and my school. Me because their results informs people about my capabilities as a teacher. My students because their results determines their future. My school because schools are ranked as well based on their results. No school wants to be at the bottom of the barrel (which is unfortunately where we are - we are an underperforming school). 

I hate standardised tests. They test such a narrow spectrum of skills and knowledge. In the chase for results, I know teachers who teach only what will be tested. Important skills that are not assessed are secondary. We also strategise - past year exam papers are examines, patterns determined, topics spotted.

I hate that despite how much I hate the standardised tests, I continue to play the game. 

Who cares that my students still cannot use English effectively after school? I can get them to pass the examinations by memorising essays. And while I don’t encourage it, I allow it. At their final year, I stop teaching important writing genres and focus on the narrative because it’s easier to score. I don’t teach them why they learn all this and how it applies to their life beyond the fact that it impacts their exam results.

This is why I like to teach the years without standardised tests - because there is so much more scope for learning. But because I’m considered a good teacher, I always get the final year students. And I continue to teach to the test.

And I think I’m not a good teacher at all. 

positivelypersistentteach:

girlwithalessonplan:

This quote I posted about the hectic nature of teaching has made the rounds, and I’ve caught quite of few people say that quote makes them not want to teach, or it terrified them.

To be sure, the quote is accurate.  The job is hectic, but it’s not impossible.

Nor is it for everyone.

Quotes like this draw attention to the ugly truth of our jobs:  It’s dirty, and sometimes it lacks respect and glamor.  Our time is both valued and unvalued at the same time.  

But if you’re in teaching for the right reasons (because it’s what you like to DO, a subject you have a passion for, because you like to help others), then the brief, small rewards are worth it.  

Absolutely.  My job tires me out like nothing else I’ve ever done.  However, I spend every day with hilarious kids who make me laugh so much.  I see their eyes light up with excitement when they experience something new in my room.  Working with families to lay the foundation for their education for years to come is so worthwhile.  I am happy because I love what I do.

I would say THIS but recently, it’s been very hard. I love, love, love teaching for all the reasons given above and I enjoy the small moments and for most part of my teaching career, I have been very happy and fulfilled in my job. But recently in my more selfish moments, I feel like I am giving up so much of myself and my life to be a good teacher. Yes, I can cut back and do just what is needed but really, how fair is that to the students?

The English language syllabus is changing. I’ve been feeling a little blah about teaching this few months. Is it strange that the new syllabus has suddenly reinvigorated me?

Teachers are ranked in my country.

Today I had a very difficult class. I’ve been struggling with the class for a while - they’re rude, noisy, ill-disciplined. Possibly, it’s my fault for not being firm enough with them from the very beginning (in my defense, I usually teach the older students and well, the same classroom management style doesn’t work apparently with the younger ones. :/) but the point is that I’m very wary of asking for too much help because asking for help is often seen as a weakness and unfortunately may affect my ranking. Which is really stupid isn’t it? Because I think that teachers supporting each other is very important and in the end, we have teachers in competition with each other.