IPS B.S. got an e-mail yesterday asking how we can save money in the District? What suggestions do you have? Don't go for the easy mark of firing Dr. White, anybody can say that.
One high school with 500 students has 3 vice principals and one with 2600 has 3 vice principals. One is either very overstaffed or the other is very understaffed. Abolish the school board and their staff and salaries since they dont make any decisions anyway.
Obviously we can't just fire the superintendent and schoolboard without replacing them (or turning them into charter schools), so that's not really helpful. But I do think IPS is so obviously top heavy. I think programs that "feel good" but don't help education should be eliminated. I think administrative positions that "sound good" but don't help education should be eliminated. And I think merit bonuses to the teachers would help as well (It's cheapter to give a bonus than to hire a specialist, aide, etc.)
"One high school with 500 students has 3 vice principals and one with 2600 has 3 vice principals. One is either very overstaffed or the other is very understaffed."
This is why Dr. White doesn't want to share the budget details with the board or the public--there is no consistancy or fairness in how funds are allocated to schools.
Instead of relying on a central office to be fair (not going to happen) how about funding schools first using some type of formula and then have the schools pay 3-5% back to central office for admin costs. Schools would then have the funds they need and central office would get no more than absolutely necessary.
Three words: BACK TO BASICS!! Why is it that every little problem has to get its own special program with its own administration and funding? It seems the more special programs get created, the worse the overall results are with more and more money spent. I would much rather see graduates with a quality foundation in math, english and science than to see them wallowing in mediocrity and failure having exposure to multiple "programs". How can we expect results from more advanced studies when there is no foundation for it?
How about eliminating instrumental music in the elementary schools? Many of these people STILL aren't seeing kids. One actually complained that it was boring trying to keep busy without any students. Are you listening big guy? BUDGET CUT alert!! If a student wants to play an instrument, they can start in middle school.
We had tosa's who coordinated music and art, citing budget issues they were eliminated and replaced with full pay administrators who were so dangerous they couldn't be left in the schools. One chased a handcuffed kid out of a building into a locked parking lot. Jumped into a van. Chased the kid through the parking lot. Cornered the kid, jumped out of the van and ran themself over. What would have happened if he had run over the kid?
Cut all the instructional coaches and all people not working in a classroom. If the position is really needed, have these people share their expertise during a coordinated, planned instructional time. Cut the compliance monitors and trust that the building administrators will see that the toilets are cleaned and the grass is cut. We are too top heavy in adminsitration and they could save miilions of dollars.
"Cut all the instructional coaches and all people not working in a classroom."
Are the instructional coaches administrators or teachers? Some of them are really helpful in our building but some of them strut around like central office people.
Instrumental music in the elementaries does not cost extra. The only thing cutting that program would do is cut a few music teachers. As for teachers not having any kids yet......many times the music teachers are moved due to ADM. There is no point to begin an instrumental program if you may be moved. Also, it is a lengthy process getting students into the program. With a limited number of instruments, the teachers have to be careful about who they accept. If the music teachers is in the building one or two days a week it is hard. The process usually takes longer in that is the case. VH1 paid for the instruments. Most teachers bought the music stands, reeds, oil, etc. themselves. There is not an instrumental budget. If the teacher is lucky they get textbooks for instrumental music, but that is a long shot. IPS only pays for the books when it comes to instrumental music.
I have worked in 2 community high schools that have Parent Information Centers or PIC's, as they're called. From what I've seen, the PIC's are a waste of school funds.
Mainly, the PIC room is just a designated place for people (school folks, usually classified employees, and visitors) to hang out, chit-chat, gossip, drink coffee, eat donuts, have pitch-in's, and generally take up prime classroom space.
Instructional coaches are a complete waste of money, as well as teacher time. 95% of them are completely out of touch with what really happens in a classroom. Overall, they seem to be acting as unofficial administrators this year....checking up on everyone and taking notes on clipboards. When they do demonstrate lessons, the students love it because they know they will be bribed with candy! Afterwards, the students express their true feelings about how childish the lessons are!
There are some notable exceptions though! I had a fantastic math coach a few years ago...
So I guess it's O.K. for the instrumental music teachers to be paid the same for WAITING for their classes to begin as an English or math teacher carrying four preps with almost two hundred kids? Yeah, right.
PIC centers should be centralized to one location, the jobs there seem to be political patronage jobs, since 11 months of the year all they do is sit. Poor things they do nothing, it must be so very BORING. Open them at the five or six sites in August, the rest of the year you just need to go downtown.
Instructional coaches, compliance monitors, and PIC centers should all be shut down. They are of little use and the income saved can put how many more into the classrooms.
Instructional coaches at the HS level are dumbing down and slowing down classrooms. This at a time when we are being critical of scores. They want markers, crayons, and kids up playing instead of learning the skills like writing and reading. Most of these coaches are laughed at by students who know better (almost all) the next day after demonstration. They try to tell you about pacing guides but have no clue and realization if you follow their advice you will only get 1/4th done if that.
Compliance monitors? Why does Dr. White not trust his hired administrators? Why are they really needed? (Except to suck money from the tax payers. Take money that can be usued for usually two other CLASSROOM educators.)
Why can't the school office staff enroll students? They usually have better clue of what is going on than those in the PIC anyway. PIC centers are waisting tax dollars with the income those people get.
The instructional coaches are not only laughed at by the students but by staff also. They dont have a clue and come in like they are super teachers and teach some silly lesson. [i.e. T.E.} We dont have time for their nonsense. We have students to teachers and standards to meet. They just interrupt the flow of instruction, sit in offices and chit chat and hold worthless meetings that waste everyone's time. How many teachers could we hire if they were eliminated
The compliance monitors are nothing but overpaid spies. It's insane to pay someone to report that a few weeds need to be pulled, or some other nonsense. Their jobs are so pathetic, they should be ashamed to be doing them.
Money might be saved by concentrating on one assessment and remediation program. Oh, wait, it's just money and kids' time. Who cares; better, who knows what going on?
Hey you guys, I'm an Instructional Coach. This past week or so, I've saved a few teacher's butts by 'saving Units on Rubicon Atlas' for their Curriculum Mapping Individual Plans. These people are English teachers who've not received training for Curriculum Mapping for whatever reasons (actually most of them avoided the paid summer workshops for Curriculum Mapping), but I'm a teacher and don't want to see them 'trashed' by their principals.
I don't prance around the building looking important; I'm one of your group. I'm not 'into snitching to the principal' like you may believe. I'm a teacher. I know what the principals are looking for, and if I drop by your room for a visit, it is for your benefit. I want to make you look good; not look bad.
If I tell you something, it's because I'm a buffer; my job is to make you look better, not worse.
If your Instructional Coach presents himself/herself as an authority and/or as a branch of the administration, then your IC is not doing his/her job.
Instructional Coaches are teachers, not administrators. We do not evaluate teachers. We exist solely to help teachers meet the criteria that the administrators are expecting.
For the past two years, I've yet to have an administrator 'ask' me about a particular teacher. Maybe I'm in a prime situation, but administrators are 'not' required or asked to probe the Instructional Coaches for their 'takes' on particular teachers.
If what you said is true, you are an exception. Perhaps the teachers didnt attend the summer training because they hadn't been paid for the prior summer's training or they had 12 hours notice by some administrator who was supposed to tell them weeks in advance. Some teachers were never told until it was over....
I have known wonderful instructional coaches, but it appears that maybe there is little to no accountability, or perhaps just not a specific job description. Could the instructional coach positions be somehow cut down so that less are hired, if so many are not having a good impact?
I believe that there are fantastic and useful instructional coaches- but do all of them use their time wisely and help teachers? If not, this needs to be taken into consideration.
Others were told they could attend, however they were already attending other programs. Why were these trainings and meetings overlapped? Again one of the problems in IPS is the right hand has no idea what the left is doing.
Eliminate the principal in charge of buildings and grounds, in private industry this function is done by building managers who make about $50 to $60 thousand a year, and that is about 10 to 20% less then we pay an adminsitrator. Do you really need a Masters in Education to tell someone when to mow the lawn or order toilet paper?
I have several friends who do this job in private industry and the work is very comparable.
Eliminate people like Jimmy Hill (School Improvement Team) he gets paid big money(Over $1,000 a day) every time he walks into a school building just to sit on his butt!!!! I can sit on my fat butt for less than that( only for $500 a day) !!!! What a Waste!
Jim Hill is an overbearing, overpaid spy. He is not a freind to teachers and needs to go. I worked at a building that tried to cut him out and was told they couldn't.
I have found a few instructional coaches over the years that are good. Most are a waste of space, time and money. A number of the good ones decided to go back to the class room when they were required to become spies. I have one in my building, that is super. She helps, I trust her, and she is very supportive. Most need to go!
We've got a little "blonde-bimbo-Barbie" coach at our school who seems to suffer from a bad case of the "my shit don't stink" syndrome. Can anyone say BUDGET CUT ??
I know one position that needs to be eliminated at our elementary magnet school and that would be the nasty, unprofessional secretary at our building. She has no people skills what so ever, talks to teachers like they are dogs and does not have a very welcoming demeanor at all towards parents and visitors that come into the main office. If she would stop trying to be the Principal and just do her job( which she does not do well at all, she can't even multitask.......isn't that a requirement of most secretaries?) She takes a 1 hr. lunch everyday and goes to the mall on her lunch time and boldly returns to school with shopping bags in her hands. Getting rid of her would be a good place to start!
How about all of the money spent at Tech H.S. for flowers, plants, planters, a part time gardener so that the principal can enjoy her hobby of growing plants. We need books, copy paper, pencils etc not more Mums..
We've also got a nasty secretary at OUR elementary building! We had a parent ranting, raving, and cursing at a teacher yesterday, & old nasty-thing refused to call school police! The principal was out, & madame secretary thought she was in charge! Hmmm....could this be the same person described above???
Hey! Hey! Pick me!! I have a question!!! Is the secretary discussed in the two posts above the same one who stole the IPS rug?? I need a new rug. Does the school have any more?
I am an instructional coach and would have applied to go back to the classroom except it would have meant possibly bumping someone else out of a job. I work long hours; account for all my time in detailed logs which are submitted weekly, try to meet with kids, volunteer for after-school activities and want to be seen as a real part of the school. I long to be in classrooms to help, to teach, to get materials...offer to do whatever I can to make you successful. My job description makes me feel like I am only responsible for "the immediate world"...I am not the enemy...give me a chance (I don't know everything- never indicated that I do...but will always try and find the answer for you)
What a phony rationalization...they were 400 teachers dismissed.....you could have been placed without bumping some else out of a job..besides you know you are teacher level and there is no bumping in IPS...I suspect that with this attitude that the teachers you pontificate to do not agree with your self assessment of your importance.....when you are disrupting classroom instruction for your 'pretend" demonstation lessons...when you are keeping teachers in 2 or 3 hour long meetings and keeping them from preparing their lessons, you ARE the enemy.
well, I wasn't really meaning to rationalize; what I meant was that in my field they were cutting positions. I don't do "pretend" demo lessons - I cover classes so teachers can be freed up to observe other classes, meet other obligations...and have never kept anyone in any meetings. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with support folks who were trying to help. Many times I wish I had only students to work with and knew from day to day that I would be welcomed and accepted as another hard-woring professional rather than feeling like I had to justify my existence. I guess there are no easy answers but I am truly sorry if you feel that I was pontificating or have a inflated assessment of my worth. I know, after working in one of the most difficult areas of education (behaviorally challenged students) for many years, that your jobs are by far the hardest.
I think you have me confused with someone else; no one would mistake me for a "Barbie"...but thanks; that would be a compliment. I could only spell it because I copied it from your earlier post...see, I am willing to learn from others - you missed the fact that I made an error on "working professional", however. Again, I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with the instructional coaching (I actually do not like the term "coaching" myself)...it seems more like "coaxing" people to be open to the idea that we can learn from one another. Hopefully, this year will be better for you.
Let me tell you something about instructional coaching....you find out who you real friends are...when I left my position as a teacher in a building and became an instructional coach, the people who had supported me as a teacher, treated me horribly as a coach. I was treated as a spy, which trust me, I was anything but a spy. The principal had unrealistic expectations of me and the teachers, but for some reason, they wouldn't work with me to make it better. Very sad that we as teachers who try to help kids get along and work together, can't always do it ourselves. I am very thankful now to be in a building where I feel trusted and regarded highly as a fellow teacher, which I am first and foremost. Be careful about lumping all coaches into the same mix, we are not all the same.
One high school with 500 students has 3 vice principals and one with 2600 has 3 vice principals. One is either very overstaffed or the other is very understaffed. Abolish the school board and their staff and salaries since they dont make any decisions anyway.
ReplyDeleteObviously we can't just fire the superintendent and schoolboard without replacing them (or turning them into charter schools), so that's not really helpful. But I do think IPS is so obviously top heavy. I think programs that "feel good" but don't help education should be eliminated. I think administrative positions that "sound good" but don't help education should be eliminated. And I think merit bonuses to the teachers would help as well (It's cheapter to give a bonus than to hire a specialist, aide, etc.)
ReplyDeleteEliminate all the "special assignment" people. What do they do except not teach.
ReplyDelete"One high school with 500 students has 3 vice principals and one with 2600 has 3 vice principals. One is either very overstaffed or the other is very understaffed."
ReplyDeleteThis is why Dr. White doesn't want to share the budget details with the board or the public--there is no consistancy or fairness in how funds are allocated to schools.
Instead of relying on a central office to be fair (not going to happen) how about funding schools first using some type of formula and then have the schools pay 3-5% back to central office for admin costs. Schools would then have the funds they need and central office would get no more than absolutely necessary.
ReplyDeleteEliminate payroll department and out source payroll to some company that can do it for less cost and with efficiently.
ReplyDeletemerit pay as determined by whom and how???
ReplyDeleteThree words: BACK TO BASICS!! Why is it that every little problem has to get its own special program with its own administration and funding? It seems the more special programs get created, the worse the overall results are with more and more money spent. I would much rather see graduates with a quality foundation in math, english and science than to see them wallowing in mediocrity and failure having exposure to multiple "programs". How can we expect results from more advanced studies when there is no foundation for it?
ReplyDeleteHow about eliminating instrumental music in the elementary schools? Many of these people STILL aren't seeing kids. One actually complained that it was boring trying to keep busy without any students. Are you listening big guy? BUDGET CUT alert!! If a student wants to play an instrument, they can start in middle school.
ReplyDeleteWe had tosa's who coordinated music and art, citing budget issues they were eliminated and replaced with full pay administrators who were so dangerous they couldn't be left in the schools. One chased a handcuffed kid out of a building into a locked parking lot. Jumped into a van. Chased the kid through the parking lot. Cornered the kid, jumped out of the van and ran themself over. What would have happened if he had run over the kid?
ReplyDeleteCut all the instructional coaches and all people not working in a classroom. If the position is really needed, have these people share their expertise during a coordinated, planned instructional time. Cut the compliance monitors and trust that the building administrators will see that the toilets are cleaned and the grass is cut. We are too top heavy in adminsitration and they could save miilions of dollars.
ReplyDelete"Cut all the instructional coaches and all people not working in a classroom."
ReplyDeleteAre the instructional coaches administrators or teachers? Some of them are really helpful in our building but some of them strut around like central office people.
Instrumental music in the elementaries does not cost extra. The only thing cutting that program would do is cut a few music teachers. As for teachers not having any kids yet......many times the music teachers are moved due to ADM. There is no point to begin an instrumental program if you may be moved. Also, it is a lengthy process getting students into the program. With a limited number of instruments, the teachers have to be careful about who they accept. If the music teachers is in the building one or two days a week it is hard. The process usually takes longer in that is the case. VH1 paid for the instruments. Most teachers bought the music stands, reeds, oil, etc. themselves. There is not an instrumental budget. If the teacher is lucky they get textbooks for instrumental music, but that is a long shot. IPS only pays for the books when it comes to instrumental music.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in 2 community high schools that have Parent Information Centers or PIC's, as they're called. From what I've seen, the PIC's are a waste of school funds.
ReplyDeleteMainly, the PIC room is just a designated place for people (school folks, usually classified employees, and visitors) to hang out, chit-chat, gossip, drink coffee, eat donuts, have pitch-in's, and generally take up prime classroom space.
The instructional coaches are a total waste. Many, not all, could deliver a coherent lesson if they tried......
ReplyDeleteInstructional coaches are a complete waste of money, as well as teacher time. 95% of them are completely out of touch with what really happens in a classroom. Overall, they seem to be acting as unofficial administrators this year....checking up on everyone and taking notes on clipboards. When they do demonstrate lessons, the students love it because they know they will be bribed with candy! Afterwards, the students express their true feelings about how childish the lessons are!
ReplyDeleteThere are some notable exceptions though! I had a fantastic math coach a few years ago...
So I guess it's O.K. for the instrumental music teachers to be paid the same for WAITING for their classes to begin as an English or math teacher carrying four preps with almost two hundred kids? Yeah, right.
ReplyDeletePIC centers should be centralized to one location, the jobs there seem to be political patronage jobs, since 11 months of the year all they do is sit. Poor things they do nothing, it must be so very BORING. Open them at the five or six sites in August, the rest of the year you just need to go downtown.
ReplyDeleteEliminate paid health insurance for the School Board members.
ReplyDeleteTech High School spends lots of money for flowers of which many are annuals......They are unneeded.
ReplyDeleteInstructional coaches, compliance monitors, and PIC centers should all be shut down. They are of little use and the income saved can put how many more into the classrooms.
ReplyDeleteInstructional coaches at the HS level are dumbing down and slowing down classrooms. This at a time when we are being critical of scores. They want markers, crayons, and kids up playing instead of learning the skills like writing and reading. Most of these coaches are laughed at by students who know better (almost all) the next day after demonstration. They try to tell you about pacing guides but have no clue and realization if you follow their advice you will only get 1/4th done if that.
Compliance monitors? Why does Dr. White not trust his hired administrators? Why are they really needed? (Except to suck money from the tax payers. Take money that can be usued for usually two other CLASSROOM educators.)
Why can't the school office staff enroll students? They usually have better clue of what is going on than those in the PIC anyway. PIC centers are waisting tax dollars with the income those people get.
The instructional coaches are not only laughed at by the students but by staff also. They dont have a clue and come in like they are super teachers and teach some silly lesson. [i.e. T.E.} We dont have time for their nonsense. We have students to teachers and standards to meet. They just interrupt the flow of instruction, sit in offices and chit chat and hold worthless meetings that waste everyone's time. How many teachers could we hire if they were eliminated
ReplyDeleteThe compliance monitors are nothing but overpaid spies. It's insane to pay someone to report that a few weeds need to be pulled, or some other nonsense. Their jobs are so pathetic, they should be ashamed to be doing them.
ReplyDeleteRe compliance monitors: Kinda' makes you want to play a James Bond theme song over the pa when they enter the building.
ReplyDeleteMoney might be saved by concentrating on one assessment and remediation program. Oh, wait, it's just money and kids' time. Who cares; better, who knows what going on?
ReplyDeleteHey you guys, I'm an Instructional Coach. This past week or so, I've saved a few teacher's butts by 'saving Units on Rubicon Atlas' for their Curriculum Mapping Individual Plans. These people are English teachers who've not received training for Curriculum Mapping for whatever reasons (actually most of them avoided the paid summer workshops for Curriculum Mapping), but I'm a teacher and don't want to see them 'trashed' by their principals.
ReplyDeleteI don't prance around the building looking important; I'm one of your group. I'm not 'into snitching to the principal' like you may believe. I'm a teacher. I know what the principals are looking for, and if I drop by your room for a visit, it is for your benefit. I want to make you look good; not look bad.
If I tell you something, it's because I'm a buffer; my job is to make you look better, not worse.
If your Instructional Coach presents himself/herself as an authority and/or as a branch of the administration, then your IC is not doing his/her job.
Instructional Coaches are teachers, not administrators. We do not evaluate teachers. We exist solely to help teachers meet the criteria that the administrators are expecting.
For the past two years, I've yet to have an administrator 'ask' me about a particular teacher. Maybe I'm in a prime situation, but administrators are 'not' required or asked to probe the Instructional Coaches for their 'takes' on particular teachers.
If what you said is true, you are an exception. Perhaps the teachers didnt attend the summer training because they hadn't been paid for the prior summer's training or they had 12 hours notice by some administrator who was supposed to tell them weeks in advance. Some teachers were never told until it was over....
ReplyDeleteI have known wonderful instructional coaches, but it appears that maybe there is little to no accountability, or perhaps just not a specific job description. Could the instructional coach positions be somehow cut down so that less are hired, if so many are not having a good impact?
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are fantastic and useful instructional coaches- but do all of them use their time wisely and help teachers? If not, this needs to be taken into consideration.
Others were told they could attend, however they were already attending other programs.
ReplyDeleteWhy were these trainings and meetings overlapped? Again one of the problems in IPS is the right hand has no idea what the left is doing.
A person who shovels shit for a living has more dignity that a compliance monitor.
ReplyDeleteEliminate the principal in charge of buildings and grounds, in private industry this function is done by building managers who make about $50 to $60 thousand a year, and that is about 10 to 20% less then we pay an adminsitrator.
ReplyDeleteDo you really need a Masters in Education to tell someone when to mow the lawn or order toilet paper?
I have several friends who do this job in private industry and the work is very comparable.
The shovelers you referenced have more value and contribute more to society than the private snitch compliance monitors.
ReplyDeleteThat's right! Working on a trash truck contributes more to our society than a compliance monitor!
ReplyDeleteEliminate people like Jimmy Hill (School Improvement Team) he gets paid big money(Over $1,000 a day) every time he walks into a school building just to sit on his butt!!!! I can sit on my fat butt for less than that( only for $500 a day) !!!! What a Waste!
ReplyDeleteJim Hill is an overbearing, overpaid spy. He is not a freind to teachers and needs to go. I worked at a building that tried to cut him out and was told they couldn't.
ReplyDelete"friend" Sorry should have proof read!
ReplyDeleteI have found a few instructional coaches over the years that are good. Most are a waste of space, time and money. A number of the good ones decided to go back to the class room when they were required to become spies. I have one in my building, that is super. She helps, I trust her, and she is very supportive. Most need to go!
ReplyDeleteWe've got a little "blonde-bimbo-Barbie" coach at our school who seems to suffer from a bad case of the "my shit don't stink" syndrome. Can anyone say BUDGET CUT ??
ReplyDeleteI know one position that needs to be eliminated at our elementary magnet school and that would be the nasty, unprofessional secretary at our building. She has no people skills what so ever, talks to teachers like they are dogs and does not have a very welcoming demeanor at all towards parents and visitors that come into the main office. If she would stop trying to be the Principal and just do her job( which she does not do well at all, she can't even multitask.......isn't that a requirement of most secretaries?) She takes a 1 hr. lunch everyday and goes to the mall on her lunch time and boldly returns to school with shopping bags in her hands. Getting rid of her would be a good place to start!
ReplyDeleteHow about all of the money spent at Tech H.S. for flowers, plants, planters, a part time gardener so that the principal can enjoy her hobby of growing plants. We need books, copy paper, pencils etc not more Mums..
ReplyDeleteWe've also got a nasty secretary at OUR elementary building! We had a parent ranting, raving, and cursing at a teacher yesterday, & old nasty-thing refused to call school police! The principal was out, & madame secretary thought she was in charge! Hmmm....could this be the same person described above???
ReplyDeleteHey! Hey! Pick me!! I have a question!!! Is the secretary discussed in the two posts above the same one who stole the IPS rug?? I need a new rug. Does the school have any more?
ReplyDeleteI am an instructional coach and would have applied to go back to the classroom except it would have meant possibly bumping someone else out of a job. I work long hours; account for all my time in detailed logs which are submitted weekly, try to meet with kids, volunteer for after-school activities and want to be seen as a real part of the school. I long to be in classrooms to help, to teach, to get materials...offer to do whatever I can to make you successful. My job description makes me feel like I am only responsible for "the immediate world"...I am not the enemy...give me a chance (I don't know everything- never indicated that I do...but will always try and find the answer for you)
ReplyDeleteWhat a phony rationalization...they were 400 teachers dismissed.....you could have been placed without bumping some else out of a job..besides you know you are teacher level and there is no bumping in IPS...I suspect that with this attitude that the teachers you pontificate to do not agree with your self assessment of your importance.....when you are disrupting classroom instruction for your 'pretend" demonstation lessons...when you are keeping teachers in 2 or 3 hour long meetings and keeping them from preparing their lessons, you ARE the enemy.
ReplyDeletewell, I wasn't really meaning to rationalize; what I meant was that in my field they were cutting positions. I don't do "pretend" demo lessons - I cover classes so teachers can be freed up to observe other classes, meet other obligations...and have never kept anyone in any meetings. I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with support folks who were trying to help. Many times I wish I had only students to work with and knew from day to day that I would be welcomed and accepted as another hard-woring professional rather than feeling like I had to justify my existence. I guess there are no easy answers but I am truly sorry if you feel that I was pontificating or have a inflated assessment of my worth. I know, after working in one of the most difficult areas of education (behaviorally challenged students) for many years, that your jobs are by far the hardest.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Barbie. I'm impressed that you can spell "pontificating."
ReplyDeleteI think you have me confused with someone else; no one would mistake me for a "Barbie"...but thanks; that would be a compliment. I could only spell it because I copied it from your earlier post...see, I am willing to learn from others - you missed the fact that I made an error on "working professional", however. Again, I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with the instructional coaching (I actually do not like the term "coaching" myself)...it seems more like "coaxing" people to be open to the idea that we can learn from one another. Hopefully, this year will be better for you.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell you something about instructional coaching....you find out who you real friends are...when I left my position as a teacher in a building and became an instructional coach, the people who had supported me as a teacher, treated me horribly as a coach. I was treated as a spy, which trust me, I was anything but a spy. The principal had unrealistic expectations of me and the teachers, but for some reason, they wouldn't work with me to make it better. Very sad that we as teachers who try to help kids get along and work together, can't always do it ourselves. I am very thankful now to be in a building where I feel trusted and regarded highly as a fellow teacher, which I am first and foremost. Be careful about lumping all coaches into the same mix, we are not all the same.
ReplyDelete