Skip to main content

DeVos Tweets #1


This tweet comes after DeVos' aborted visit to Jefferson Middle School Academy in Washington DC. She got up to the front doors before being confronted by protestors. At that point, she decided to not visit the school and drove away. The goal of this visit was to visit a public school in the DC area.

Now the visit prompted the Ed Secretary to fight back against the Academy. She told a Townhall columnist:
This quote all on its own is highly insulting to, not just the teachers at Jefferson Academy, but to all teachers. It implies that teachers are not doing their job correctly at this time and are waiting to be given some sort of "permission" to actually teach children. 

Her followup and mea culpa is no better. She tries to imply that teachers need "freedom & flexibility" in order to be successful. However, this implies that this alone is what teachers need. 

Burn-out happens because teachers are over-extended & unsupported. Teaching is an emotionally exhausting job as one adult is required to manage 20-30 other people who have disparate emotional, physical & mental needs. Teachers cannot leave a classroom if they feel overly emotional - they must maintain emotional composure for hours without breaks or timeouts which causes teachers to feel cynical, exhausted & depressed. 

Teachers need flexibility in the sense that they should be allowed to teach in their styles. Every professional does their job a little differently & this includes educators. Freedom & flexibility allows a teacher to modify curriculum or include different modalities to best serve their students.

But DeVos appears to want teachers to be free on all levels. There is no talk of support with money for materials & staff. Teachers desperately ask for money on DonorsChoose for reading supplies, nutrition curriculum, or just basic staff needs.

There are huge problems in schools with students that language learners, have mental/emotional needs or are learning disabled. These students routinely fall behind in a mainstream classroom because their real needs are not supported. A homeroom teacher cannot address these very complex needs on a daily basis in the way the kids need to be supported.

So this hands-off approach is a disservice. Kids need help. Adults need help. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Reasons Teachers Give Homework

Homework.  Kids & parents alike get stressed out just thinking about it.  It is the catalyst of fights, a source of frustration and is responsible for countless broken pencils and snapped crayons. If everyone hates it so much, why does it exist? Why are teachers so cruel as to foist homework on children when it makes everyone furious? Don't worry...there are reasons. Homework is there for a few purposes: To be a bridge between school & hom e: It keeps parents informed as to what their child is learning at school. It lets parents know HO W things are taught as well the level of expectation of the teacher for their child. It lets the teacher communicate with the family on a daily basis. In turn, the parents can speak to the teachers with authority. Allow for reflection : Because there is no time limit for that math worksheet, children can take as long as they want. It allows them to think slowly, reflect on their work and double-check what they've writ
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is the Respect?: 3 Reasons Teaching Is Not Taken Seriously

Teachers are seen as some kind of martyrs in society. There is this odd amount of condescending respect for teachers. Most conversations go like this: Person: What do you do? Teacher: I'm a teacher Person: Aw...that's awesome. How fun... But this is the disconnect. The public appreciates teachers but sees them as simplistic service workers who have fun jobs. They remember their own teachers and recall the basics of a school day and extrapolate from that.   How could teaching be that hard, my own teacher barely did anything. And there comes the disrespect in society. Teachers suddenly become this overprivileged group that is mocked in the public sphere for being greedy or lazy or both. There are three reasons for this disconnect in society: 1. A Typical Teacher's Work Load is Not Understood Most people have attended school and had a teacher. They know that their teacher stood at the front of the room, had them read from books, assigned homework and gave grades. It
Post a Comment
Read more

Parent/Teacher Connection: Give Positive Reinforcement

Classroom management is all about learning how to work with a large of group of diverse children in an organized and controlled manner. Like parents, a teacher needs to get through tasks that may not entertain the child at all times (parents have to grocery shop/teachers have to teach long division). The activity may not be inherently interesting to the child and therefore, behavior can become an issue as they try to entertain themselves. One skill that a teacher employs is positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement  is an action that occurs after a positive behavior is shown. For example, if a child raises his hand instead of blurting, he gets a reward. Or, if a child says "please" and "thank you", they are rewarded. It gives treats to good behavior and therefore increases that chances that the behavior is done again. The child wants the reward, so they repeat that good behavior. There are many ways to do this in the classroom and at home: Nonverb
Post a Comment
Read more