Comments on: Job Insecurity

By: Katharina

Katharina — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:25:49 +0000

Hi! Another not-a-teacher-and-no-kids-reader here who didn’t mean to freak you out.
And if I was Obama, I’d call you asap.
Never give up.

By: Ms. H

Ms. H — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:53:04 +0000

I think there is a LOT to be said for giving students choices. We’re so busy running around thinking we know what’s best that we all miss out by failing to ask the kid what they want. As much effort as a teacher expends to motivate a student, at the end of the day it all comes down to the student making a choice to be motivated and/or engaged. I see this play out with ELL students. There are some students who put every last effort into learning English — they are constantly exercising their speaking/listening skills, looking up words, staying afterschool for tutoring — all in an attempt to improve their English. These would be the students jumping at the chance for Option 1.

The Option 2 students who haven’t yet had the Gotta-Master-English Epiphany are no less deserving of an opportunity to learn English, but we need to design/deliver their instruction in such a way that we prioritize their learning of English above all of the “great works of Literature” that are challenging enough for native speakers, much less someone who struggles to form a simple past-tense sentence.

Maybe my blue-collar roots go a bit deeper than I thought, but I struggle to see what good it does us, as a society, to tick off all of the “classics” that we cover in high school English classes when we are producing citizens that can’t read, comprehend, and coherently respond to newspaper articles about civic concerns. Yes, we need to have a “cultural canon”…but at what cost?

Oh, and If he (they) call….can you please patch me in? Please? Because I would super-fat-puffy-heart LOVE to dogpaddle around in that thinktank.

By: angie

angie — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:48:48 +0000

Hang in there, Kelly! I’ve been reading you long enough to know that you land on your feet. Things are tough all over, and only the strong will survive. And you’re genuine. That’s got to count for something, too, right?

By: Mocha Momma

Mocha Momma — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:13:21 +0000

So, Ms. H, I have a question:

What if we took those ELL students and gave them a choice? Here, students, you may:

1) stay in this course which is accelerated and take another course (or go to tutoring) to help support you here so that you may get into that Tier-1 university

2) go into a course that will be an average-weighted course for ELL students where instruction is differentiated to support your learning.

Worthwhile and beneficial for ELL students, yes or no?

Also, when will Obama call me so I can think tank all this stuff? Or Arne Duncan? Either phone call I will take.

By: Caffeinated Librarian

Caffeinated Librarian — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:34:35 +0000

Not to add to the misery, but have you seen this? Bad times all over. I know it's been said but I've seen nothing like it in my lifetime.

By: Ms. H

Ms. H — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:25:04 +0000

I totally agree with you: we don’t want it to be better. If we did, we’d put aside all the personal issues and make decisions based on what is truly the best for the kids. ALL of the kids. I teach 12th grade English in a large, urban, Texas high school where I’m not always appreciated by all the teachers/admins I come in contact with…but I can sleep at night because I know that I have done my best for my kids.
Sadly, I think our desire to help children succeed has gotten in the way of actually helping them be successful. We spend so much time trying to make sure that no child feels stigmatized by their individual learning challenges that we mainstream the entire group right into mediocrity. In my district, our ELL population is the latest to be “included” in the regular classroom: the separate ELL classes have been disbanded. And while I AM a rockstar at running an eight-ring circus, my Supergirl cape gets a little frazzled at trying to meet the needs of students who have been in the country for 2 weeks while trying to make sure that I’m preparing the collegebound kiddos for success in a Tier-1 university. I realize it’s not a popular opinion, given the hype around the “differentiated instruction” buzzword, but I don’t see how it could be anything BUT helpful to both populations to separate the classes. I think we in education have bought into the “in America, we CAN be everything to everyone — all at the same time” propaganda. Perhaps we need to do a little more of admitting that we are, in fact, human, and need to let ourselves be okay with being reasonable about the limitations of our abilities.

By: Kathy G

Kathy G — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:47:10 +0000

I taught for three years before my kids were born, then was a stay-at-home mom for MANY years…all my boys are in their 20s. After running a tutoring center for teens for several years, I was ready to move back into the field this year. Couldn’t find a job, and I suspect it won’t happen next year either. Maybe the year after that.

The ironic thing is that my life experiences would make me a much better teacher than I was fresh out of college. Go figure.

By: Hilly

Hilly — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:07:10 +0000

I have no children, duh…but you know what, I appreciate educators who are motivated to make kids learn. These are the future awesomesauces of the world and we need to shape them.

I’m sorry you are worried…for whatever reason.

By: April

April — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:31:06 +0000

I’m a pissed parent that completely agrees with you! I am so so so frustrated right now, and I know that the administrators and teachers and students are, too. Thanks for being brave enough to talk about this. I think this is the 2nd post that Florinda has shared on the Reader that I’ve read, and I’ve just added you to my own subscription list.
The good news is, never before have we had these kinds of opportunities to all come together like this. I have to believe that doing so will make a difference that helps all of us.

By: ozma

ozma — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 23:03:20 +0000

PS: Also, is this all about messing with the teacher’s unions? Just putting on my conspiracy theory hat for a moment.

I’m not down with that. My sisters had their union effectively destroyed and lost any possibility of job security forever. My sister lost her tenure. My brother in law is a public school administrator, as is my aunt. Both my grandmas were teachers. So I guess I am kinda pro-teacher’s union. My grandma was a staunch Republican and I don’t know how she felt about the union but she always had NEA pencils and such around the house!