We recently received our contracts for next year in the APS. The contracts are given out in February for a school year that starts in August and you have 10 days to sign them or they become null & void. But that is not the main point. This upcoming year they have instituted a 191 day work year for teachers. This was instituted because there were complaints about not having enough planning. So instead of doing what’s right and actually using planning days for planning, the system has added another day which is just going to be taken away for something else anyway.
This year when we came back to school our 1st 2 and ½ days of planning were used for so called “professional development” leaving us with only a day and a ½ to actually get our classrooms together and get organized for the 1st day of school. Then every year the 1st teachers planning day of the school year is used for a convocation, where every teacher in the APS boards a bus and heads down to the Georgia Dome for the superintendent’s State of the Union address, yet we still have to have grades in on time. Why should we have extra days added on to our school year when the days we have now are not being used effectively and for their primary purpose? Unfortunately these are the cards that have been dealt us. I would like to know if this goes on in other systems, or do you actually get to use your planning days for planning?
Showing posts with label APippinsII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label APippinsII. Show all posts
Friday, March 2, 2007
Friday, January 26, 2007
You're not going to believe this
You're not going to believe this
I guess this is a blog and a comment. After reading Disposition for Teaching/Dangthatboycancook’s blog, I reflected on my reasons for teaching. At this point I’m not even thinking about summer, I can’t wait until President’s Day. Even though I was unemployed or shall I say underemployed at the time I accepted this position I had thought about going into teaching for a while. My reasons were to make a difference. This is one of the reasons I chose to work for the APS because it was the system I came up in.
I remember reading an article during my undergrad career that discussed the where education was heading and what could be done to improve it. The basic gist of the article was that the brightest students were not going into education but were majoring in fields such as engineering, business, and medicine thus leaving the sub par students as the educators of our future. The article stated that we needed to figure out how to attract our brighter population into education. I realized the truth in the article from the moment I read it. At my university (which happened to start off as a teaching college) when ever a student flunked out of their original major, the first place they would head to would be the College of Education whose GPA requirements were only a 2.5. I’m looking at the people I went to school with and thinking I would not want them to teach my child yet they were the one that were ending up as teachers.
With that being said when I went into teaching it was for the right reasons. I felt I could make a difference; I was tired of hearing how bad the education system in Georgia was when I am a product of both the public school system and the university system. Unfortunately it takes more than a few good teachers. The students have to take some responsibility and ownership too. The apathy of this generation is ridiculous. When we were in school, we may not have wanted to be there, we may have cut class or acted up, but at least we did our work. Even the real problem students realized the value of an education. The students today don’t care.
Why was everyone in uproar when Oprah decided to spend her 41 million overseas? Can you argue with her reasoning? When she visited schools here in America and asked the students what would make things better and how they could use money they requested ipods and tennis shoes while in Africa they wanted to the money to purchase uniforms just so they could attend school. Our students’ values are mixed up. They have been given so much and don’t realize how good they have it.
In conclusion, we don’t the reasons why people get into teaching but with the state of education now can we really blame them for taking solace in the fact that summer is near. If that is what helps them make it through the day then so be it.
I guess this is a blog and a comment. After reading Disposition for Teaching/Dangthatboycancook’s blog, I reflected on my reasons for teaching. At this point I’m not even thinking about summer, I can’t wait until President’s Day. Even though I was unemployed or shall I say underemployed at the time I accepted this position I had thought about going into teaching for a while. My reasons were to make a difference. This is one of the reasons I chose to work for the APS because it was the system I came up in.
I remember reading an article during my undergrad career that discussed the where education was heading and what could be done to improve it. The basic gist of the article was that the brightest students were not going into education but were majoring in fields such as engineering, business, and medicine thus leaving the sub par students as the educators of our future. The article stated that we needed to figure out how to attract our brighter population into education. I realized the truth in the article from the moment I read it. At my university (which happened to start off as a teaching college) when ever a student flunked out of their original major, the first place they would head to would be the College of Education whose GPA requirements were only a 2.5. I’m looking at the people I went to school with and thinking I would not want them to teach my child yet they were the one that were ending up as teachers.
With that being said when I went into teaching it was for the right reasons. I felt I could make a difference; I was tired of hearing how bad the education system in Georgia was when I am a product of both the public school system and the university system. Unfortunately it takes more than a few good teachers. The students have to take some responsibility and ownership too. The apathy of this generation is ridiculous. When we were in school, we may not have wanted to be there, we may have cut class or acted up, but at least we did our work. Even the real problem students realized the value of an education. The students today don’t care.
Why was everyone in uproar when Oprah decided to spend her 41 million overseas? Can you argue with her reasoning? When she visited schools here in America and asked the students what would make things better and how they could use money they requested ipods and tennis shoes while in Africa they wanted to the money to purchase uniforms just so they could attend school. Our students’ values are mixed up. They have been given so much and don’t realize how good they have it.
In conclusion, we don’t the reasons why people get into teaching but with the state of education now can we really blame them for taking solace in the fact that summer is near. If that is what helps them make it through the day then so be it.
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