So maybe this Kindergarten/Jedi thing has gone to my head. I'm not Rosa Parks, but I have spoken out to "the powers that be" in my county about the injustices being perpetrated upon us (teachers). Back at Thanksgiving, my superintendent sent us all a letter telling us to be thankful for all the many blessings we had (including many accomplishments in our county). It came at a very bad moment for me; after I had received my scores from my 2 formal evaluations (both before Thanksgiving, in Kindergarten) and so I responded from my gut (where all of our passions are stored). If you are interested, read on....
(The superintendent's name is being withheld)
I appreciate the sentiments of your letter. However, you need to know that many of us are so under pressure that we are struggling to be happy. We are NOT happy for an evaluation system that sends us home in tears feeling like failures. Your kind words are not enough to make up for the pain which your evaluation system is causing us teachers.
Come and look around our classes and tell us it's not a beautiful learning environment for kindergartners. It's because we have spent so much time and our own money!! I know of many of my kindergarten teammates have gone home crying....CRYING! because we are devestated that we are given such poor scores. And yet our school has been an A school for 12 years; how can that be if the entire kindergarten team is so inadequate??? Can you explain why all of us have had BOTH of our formal observations done on children who have only been in school for less than 65 days??? Do you have any idea how disheartening this is?
To be told that after teaching for 20 years (6 years in kindergarten, 5 years in first) that I am "requiring action" in pedagogy ....by 2 people who have never taught Early Education, is a total insult. In kindergarten, we have been told there is no time for nap or social play.....which is more DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE than the CLOSE readings we are forced to put our students through. Now suddenly they are admitting these are important, but not important enough to make time for.
I love teaching. It's all I ever wanted to do. I love my kinders. I love the teachers I work with who are hurting. I prefer teaching in Hillsborough to other places (I taught in Pasco and private schools as well). I am scared of losing a career I value because of the over-active fault-finding of a poor evaluation system.
I hope you think about these things over your break, because "something stinks in Denmark"
With much respect and sincerity,
Tari Baldwin
Teaching....it's not only what I do; it's what I am!
Now, in January, 2 people from the superintendents office are coming to meet with me. My teammates want nothing to do with this. I have been instructed to go into this meeting with facts & research but without the passion and to not mention any of their names. But I ask you; where would this country be without the passion of Patrick Henry and John Adams? Would we still have slavery if not for the passion of Frederick Douglas, William Wilberforce and Harriet Beecher Stowe?? Would we still be segregating if not for the passion of Dr. Martin Luther King and the bravery of Ruby Bridges?? Go back further; what would our churches be like without the passion of Martin Luther who nailed his 99 thesis to the church door? Look at New York and all the passionate parents who are saying "NO!" to all the testing that has gone overboard.
Well, I for one am standing up and saying, "ENOUGH!" to how we as teachers are maligned and pressured and financially abused (pitifully low spending accounts which force us to use our own money to subsidize our classrooms and purchase resources to teach the new CCSS standards). Join together as teavhers....not the unions which are fat cats sitting back and licking up the cream of their kickbacks. As teachers, we need to stand up for ourselves. We are the ones working with individual children from diverse backgrounds and needs. We are the ones who have to motivate them and teach them - not only academics, but character and responsibility. We are the ones who bear the burden for the new standards and expectations. If we do not stand up for ourselves, then we have no right to complain!
