This site is a class blog space for new Career and Technical Specializations and Heathcare Science teachers enrolled in the New Teacher Institute (NTI) at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
I do not refuse math at the door...
Well, it's funny that we have this topic considering what a student told me only a few minutes ago. My fourth block class is in charge of producing our daily morning announcements show. The shows have gradually gotten better as the weeks go on, but this morning we had an equipment problem. The show is taped the day before then played to the whole school the following morning. This morning the player failed giving us a late start (VERY BAD in the world of TV) and then failed AGAIN, cutting off our show half way through. Equipment failures don't bother me - I'm a realist. But what surprised me was the "feedback" that filtered in over the rest of the day. Several students came to me to report that their first block teachers were very unhappy with the broadcast this morning. I did not find that surprising. Everyone is a critic. But, the specific comments they made (in front of, or to, the students) were shocking. Now, I know these stories are coming from students, and can't always be taken literally, however, some are so outrageous I can't get them out of my mind. One teacher was heard to say, "we should just do away with RNN." (RNN is the name of our network) Well I don't doubt that today wasn't our best day, but you would think that other teachers in the building would realize that I don't have much to do with the show...it's the student's work they are bashing. All of us know that teachers, as a whole, are notorious complainers, but this seems like too much. I have vented all of this to basically say that I am most surprised at another teacher's willingness to discount what goes on in another part of the building. I do not stand at my door at the beginning of the day and say, "Sorry kids, leave your math at the door." Or, "There will be absolutely no social studies in THIS classroom!" I am sure this is an ongoing battle for many CTAE teachers. I hope that in the future critics will come to me to voice opinions instead of barraging my kids.
Bruce, you had to know I was jumping on this one. For the most part our faculty is positive, but we got some of the same stuff in our school. "Why don't you do this? How about trying that?" It gets frustrating when people, who for the most part are unaware of what goes into a studio production, want to tell you how to make improvements. They forget that these are students creating these programs from scratch. Luckily most of the feedback comes directly to me and I can filter it, but it is such a heartbreaker when people focus in on the negative first, and the positive second. "Would you like some creative criticism?" "NO! I would like for you to tell the kids they did great!" I totally feel you on "leaving math at the door." Sometimes we forget that we are sharing the same kids, and we are all ultimately trying to reach the same goal.
ReplyDeleteJust remember guys, we in career tech are the ONLY teachers in the building providing students with direct real world application. Academic teachers hate this. Most academic teachers look down thier noses at the CTAE department. If they are complaining it means you are doing something right!
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