Comment From Jessica

Just something I wanted to say and see what everyone thinks because maybe I am just looking at it wrong. I often feel like many of the decisions that I hear fall under two categories. "Teachers should do it all" or "It only matters how it looks, not the final outcome".

The "Teachers should do it all" decisions I am talking about are things that I hear like, it doesn't matter if the students are present, working, sleeping, or even if they care. The must learn and the teacher MUST FIND A WAY to teach them the material. I understand that this school of thought has good intensions, but I wonder when the students apathy or accountability is taken into account. I just wonder sometimes what I am doing by giving and giving despite the students role in their academic success. What am I really teaching them if their is never any substaintial consequences in their academic life. After all the work towards graduation, are we setting them up to fail as soon as they step out of the building by not preparing them for life? By saying that they will get access to instruction regardless to attending, paying attention, or, in essence, trying, we are saying that attendance and effort doesn't matter when in fact, according to AYP, attendance is important. I just feel like some of our thinking needs to be modified or go in a new direction.

The "It only matters how it looks, not the final outcome" decisions I am talking about include some of what was talked about above and more. As long as they pass their SOLS and pass then I am a "good teacher". How the students achieve post graduation doesn't seem to impact whether we are doing our job but I feel like this is the ultimate goal of my job as a teacher. Or that we need to push ALL STUDENTS to pass the same tests and get the same diploma when in fact, our instruction must be infintestimally different to meet the differences amongst students. By making the majority of students pass the same tests and get a standard diploma, are we doing whats best for them? Many students are just not showing the ability to pass the amount of SOL tests required if any and where getting a modified diploma. I recently found out that students recieving a Modified diploma count as a "drop" as far as our numbers go so something like that. If that is true, people are going to be pushing students that should not be working towards the same diploma as their peers to achieve the same way and for what - to make our "data" look good.

I am sure that there are complaints either way you look at things so I am glad that I am not making the decisions. I am not trying to be a downer; I just have a hard time matching my reasons for teaching with the guidelines that I percieve measure the quality of my teaching.

Jessica