During the many years that I have taught, I have tried to keep fun in my instruction. This does not always have to be what you are teaching or even how you teach it. Each day, with each class period, I have one goal that remains constant: I want each of my students to smile or laugh at least once before they leave my classroom. This does not mean that I have to entertain and do a comedy act or be a clown to hold the interest of my students. Students must know that I am in control of my class and that I do want, and enjoy, student involvement. I must be able to steer the ship in the right direction. This takes a little practice to have the students smile or laugh and still maintain a purpose or direction to meet goals and objectives. Inexperienced teachers can lose control of the class when they joke around sometimes. It takes a lot of practice to keep things light and funny, but also be in control of the class.
Some students can take a lot more than others when joking around with the class, and until you can figure this out caution should be used. Once you get to know your students you figure out which ones can laugh at themselves and which ones cannot. Most students like to laugh and have fun, but some like to do it from the sidelines without being directly involved. Each class has its own chemistry which takes effort to figure out. This being said, I still have fun with each of my classes.
I believe that if students are comfortable with me as a teacher and my classroom they will give me more effort in the academic part of class. I want my students to think I am funny, but they must be respectful to me as their teacher and to their classmates. I like to laugh and have a little fun as we do the things that we must do in class and I think my students enjoy the same thing. I think most of my students have fun in my class, but at the same time I think I am a hard teacher with high expectations.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Merit Pay
There has been a lot of speculation around the country and here in Utah about doing away with teacher unions and basing teacher salary on merit pay. Northern Utah had one of the school districts sign new contracts during the summer for this very thing, to which if they did not sign they would lose their job. On the surface this does not seem that bad. I mean if you perform your job well you get more money, and if you do not you get less money. Scratch the surface, and I believe this is a very negative thing for education especially for teachers. First of all, who decides who makes the rules and regulates this? How can this be fair to every single teacher? Are some very good teachers going to leave the teaching profession? Will prospective college students be steered away from the teaching profession because it is very uncertain and unstable?
There has been a big push for PLC's (Professional Learning Community) with teachers working together, sharing information and strategies, and helping each other. I think with merit pay being put into place the PLC concept will fade fast. Why would teachers help other teachers do better so they might look better on paper and get more pay, which could result in a drop in pay for yourself. I can see teachers isolating themselves from each other with no communication or working together. It could turn into a very hostile work environment with coworkers stabbing each other in the back, throwing each other under under the bus (all figuratively speaking) to get a leg up on the competition. The counselors, administrators, and special education department are going to be in constant battle with teachers over lower scoring students being placed into classrooms. I mean, if your pay is based on test performance, teachers will keep close tabs on how many of these low scoring students are in their class compared to other classrooms. If teacher pay is based on test scores there will be a constant fight about this. Are these students going to feel welcomed or believe that the teachers like them?
It will be interesting to see what happens to the educational system if the pendulum swings this far. It may get a whole lot worse before it gets better for the teaching profession. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
There has been a big push for PLC's (Professional Learning Community) with teachers working together, sharing information and strategies, and helping each other. I think with merit pay being put into place the PLC concept will fade fast. Why would teachers help other teachers do better so they might look better on paper and get more pay, which could result in a drop in pay for yourself. I can see teachers isolating themselves from each other with no communication or working together. It could turn into a very hostile work environment with coworkers stabbing each other in the back, throwing each other under under the bus (all figuratively speaking) to get a leg up on the competition. The counselors, administrators, and special education department are going to be in constant battle with teachers over lower scoring students being placed into classrooms. I mean, if your pay is based on test performance, teachers will keep close tabs on how many of these low scoring students are in their class compared to other classrooms. If teacher pay is based on test scores there will be a constant fight about this. Are these students going to feel welcomed or believe that the teachers like them?
It will be interesting to see what happens to the educational system if the pendulum swings this far. It may get a whole lot worse before it gets better for the teaching profession. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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