I am going to go point by point and discuss my opinion about the policies you have proposed.
1) School classrooms are not private domains in any way. Remember the public pays your salary and trusts you with their most important commodity. They have every right to view your public classroom and see the quality of work they are paying for. Cameras are an effective way to make sure teachers are doing what they need to in the classroom every day. Not just the days the observers come and teachers put on a new face.
2) The model you propose outside the classroom mimics the Japanese one. In this model teachers are expected to be like parents outside of school hours. I see how teachers are a valuable part of the community but I in no way can comprehend that it is one of the requirements to keep your job. Families and friends make up this community and to force teachers to forgo a significant portion of their life is absurd. They would be treated no less than criminal if they were forced to do community service like this.
3) This next point is a highly controversial one. I do see how teaching how to take tests dumbs down our learning environments. But at the same time tests have their own purposes. They are successful motivators for children to learn. People in general are goal oriented and setting a goal for students is very important. This is their goal, and it is both the family and teacher’s job to make sure that goal is important to each child.
In my opinion I believe the most important thing you get out of school has nothing to do with acquiring knowledge. School gives us the basic tools to be able to maximize our ability to cope within the environment. And if tests get anything out of us it is to put in hard work, improve memory, and develop strategies. This is all while repeatedly pounding in information that has been deemed important.
4) On the topic of teachers not getting paid enough to justify their education…I agree. Their pay compared to their education is extremely low. But if you compare them to a social worker; teachers work considerable less (hours and vacation time), have undergone less schooling (grad school required) and get paid roughly the same amount. And in contrast being a teacher is a much more desirable job then being a being a social worker. This remark is justified at the large quantity of teachers that are finding it difficult to become employed.
5) Now the next point is that you stated raises should be based on performance because there is no incentive to be a teacher. The incentive to be an amazing teacher has to come from within the individual and not from the system. The truth is good teachers are just the dedicated, energetic and kind type of people. They value what their work do. I have seen quality teacher in both the young and old. The only quality that they all possess is that they care about how good of a teacher they are. As long as the demand for teachers is so high and the job has security; both good and bad teachers will be flocking into the field. This is in order from where you posted it. Point number 7 will contain more on the topic.
6) This topic concerns your idea that the school pays for furthering teacher’s education. I personally think that teachers should have the basic information that is required of them before even applying to the job. They have experienced the education they are teaching (although out dated) and they have gone to 4 more years of schooling. Teachers should know the subject manner that they have focused on and decided to teach. Don’t think I expect you to know everything about history or government but you should know the curriculum well enough to teach it. What I do recommend though is that teachers are supported for schooling in order to become better teachers and creating learning environments. But isn’t this what is suppose to be taught to everyone in the first place? I also feel like the teachers that are good already have these qualities and the ones that are bad are direly set in their ways.
7) Tenure is a tricky topic. You were talking about incentive earlier and how it is important to get teacher to want to be good. While tenure can be ridiculous and keep bad teachers in the system it also causes good teaching prospects to join the career. What is teaching if it doesn’t give you job security. There is always going to be a younger better teacher out there and teachers shouldn’t have to worry about getting replaced every year. High paying jobs such as professional athletes get perks because their job is always on the line. They can always get replaced but they make enough money to justify entering the career even if it is just for a couple of years. In order to lure in good teachers you have to show them that it is a safe job.
And last but not least. Your form of incentives.
1. involvement in the school community (forced community service in order to keep your job.)
2. ability to develop curriculum and dynamic lessons ( agreed upon but there needs to be a justifiable way to grade peoples curriculum and lesson planning’s. I don’t see their being a quantifyable way of doing this and it would make the job much much more stressful.
3. observations ( I think the cameras are a good idea. Even with unannounced observations the teacher puts in even more effort than usual.
4. test scores (getting paid more for test score could increase cheating, make teachers hate slower students, and can possible be out of the control of the teachers themselves.)
5. work outside the classroom. You cant judge someone on the amount of work they put in when they are not suppose to be paid. Kind of the same thing as number one. Besides teachers who have been doing it for a long time generally have to prepare less, even if they are changing and perfecting the lesson each year.
6. professional development. How do you quantify this?
7. further education. you should get more for what you put into it but does it make you a better teacher to be in the system longer?
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