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Friday, October 13, 2006
Atlanta’s Teacher Pep Rally
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta Public Schools had a “convocation” at the Georgia Dome on Friday to celebrate 37 schools that met 70 percent of their “academic targets” in 2005-2006. I don’t know what these targets are, but Hall said in her speech that the district’s standards are higher than the state’s.
A photo sent out by the school system to the media shows teachers from Parkside Elementary jumping up and down, smiling and waving Parkside flags. They seem happy to be there.
But a blog reader had a different perspective, viewing the event as a burden for teachers, taking them away from planning lessons on what was a teacher planning day. The reader writes:
“Please have your paper highlight the thousands of hours lost, and the literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers funds spent to send overwhelmed, overburdened teachers down to the Georgia Dome for a pep rally today, when they finally had a teacher planning day.”
I will request from the district the cost of the event. (It’s possible that corporate partners picked up the tab.) Meanwhile, do you think this event was a waste of time and money? Or was it a worthwhile occasion to motivate teachers?
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Teaching in Challenging Schools Wears Thin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Any other fans of the Up series, the British documentary that has been following a dozen random people for more than 40 years? Well, the latest installment, 49 Up, is now in theaters, and I went to see it at the Midtown Arts Cinema with my mom. ($8.50 for a matinee?!? And we didn’t get any previews! What’s up with that?)
Anyway, one of my favorite characters is Bruce. At seven, the child of privilege says he wants to be a foreign missionary. By 14, he’s not so sure. By 21, he is a math scholar. At 28, he is teaching at a school that serves kids from poor families. At 35, he is in Bangladesh teaching and living among the poorest of the poor. At 42, I am happy to see Bruce married to another teacher and contemplating children. He is teaching, I believe, at a girls’ school with students from various backgrounds.
At 49, Bruce is a father with young sons. And, he’s still a teacher, though now he has come full circle and is at a school for the very elite. He talks about the challenges of working with the - sorry I hate this word, but it fits - underprivileged. He noted that when a teacher works in a challenging environment, he sees that over time he can help the students improve their prospects. Yes, he can teach them. But as he sees these tiny victories with the students, the reverse happens to the teacher. Over time - little by little - he sees his life … in need of a different classroom environment. (This is paraphrased … I wasn’t taking notes.)
Teachers, is this true in your case? How do you stick it out in a school where the kids just need and need and need? If you got out of such a school, did you feel guilty? (Bruce doesn’t seem to…)
