Comments on: My Report Card, 08-09

By: james

james — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:34:33 +0000

hi!
i am about to start student teaching and i just wanted to let you know that i really enjoyed your blog. as has been said, it IS inspirational. thanks.

By: Vickie

Vickie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:38:45 +0000

It is admirable to see teachers who have such insight and drive to better what is going on around them. I am hearing from my children’s teachers more about “what the district mandates” than their true opinions of what needs to be done and changed. I am truly concerned about the district we are since due to parent complaints they have “mandated” that teachers can send home next to no homework. How prepared are they going to be to compete with students in other districs when it comes to SAT/other scores? How will they stack up when they are competing for scholarships and colleges? My son used to come home with 1-2 hours of homework. Now it barely lasts for 15 minutes. Am I wrong here? He loves school this year (5th grade). He says this year is “easy”. My son has ADD and we struggle through homework at the end of the day but I can tell already his advancing has slowed to a snail’s pace. Any comments from your side on this?

By: Kim L.

Kim L. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:31:13 +0000

I think it is a misconception that the majority of educators do not care for improving their craft. Pointing fingers at “the lazy teacher” or insisting that it is the instruction that is the fault for school woes distracts from honestly assesing education as we practice it.

As colleagues and educators, we need to encourage each other and focus on how our strengths can best fit together to help our kids. That process starts by recognizing that all participants, including the students, have their unique, essential strengths.

Sometimes, the definition of what is “good education” becomes so narrow that we forget that
we might not recognize aspects of another colleague’s teaching that work with certain kids. Quick analyses of a practice therefore may not yield a true understanding of the impact of that methodology.

I am not arguing that certain people are not a disgrace to the profession, only that there are more amazing people than is given credit. Let’s start giving credit.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:15:42 +0000

I loved your list and all the comments as well! I kept thinking of all those mentioned in the last comment, who want the stabler to work. I can hear them groaning about more to do. Then I start to think that maybe those of us who think of teaching as a true profession could start a club and work on our own report cards with each other. (It would be a small group at first, in each building) Maybe those time clock punchers would begin to work elsewhere and this would begin to be the respected (and well compensated) profession it should be.

By: ken

ken — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:11:24 +0000

This is a perfect echo-chamber post. What I mean is, it’s no shock that those people posting comments agree; they’d slather it all over themselves like sun tan lotion.

Aren’t we the group that invites criticism? evaluation? observation?

The problem here lies in the fact that there are not enough of “us” in every school (sorry for the broad-based generalization).

Yes, I’d post this by the copier. Yes, I’d hold myself to these notions. But no, the majority of educators that I know just want the copier to auto-staple.

A job well done. That’s what they would say.