Thank you for participating in this week’s survey. There were 52 respondents and they responded as follows to their opinions of CUSD teachers:
30% overwhelmed
23% educated
17% creative
16% experienced
11% effective
9% ineffective
3% uneducated
2% inexperienced
OVERWHELMED. Most folks feel our teachers are overwhelmed. I’m curious to know what aspects of the job they find overwhelming.
EDUCATED. UNEDUCATED. I would hope that most teachers are educated since you need a degree and certification to teach.
CREATIVE. How creative are our teachers to help our students learn? Is it an important skill?
EXPERIENCED. INEXPERIENCED. Don’t know how to read this one. Only 16% of the teachers are experienced, which could mean having 5 or more years teaching. However, only 2% of teachers are inexperienced suggesting that we have a lot of long term teachers.
EFFECTIVE. INEFFECTIVE. It seems teachers are as effective as they are ineffective. Can that be?
Describe what you think about Chester-Upland teachers because I don’t know what to read of the survey results?
I guess I had to bite the bullet on this one just wondering about the outcome. So I still had a sample of students vote online and I took hand counts for the survey. Out of about 70 students again some participated and some did not. Here are our results:
ReplyDelete27 Experienced
21 Creative
19 Educated
11 Inexperienced
9 Overwhelmed
5 Uneducated
4 Effective
4 Ineffective
Experience vs. Inexperience: I like the way you grouped these because that’s how I saw it too. 27 said teachers were experienced while 11 said teachers were inexperienced. The amount of years worked was not considered by students. Their votes were based on personal experience with their teachers. However, levels of experience in years can be taken into account. Any teacher who has met the student teaching requirement is experienced on a small level while others who have been teaching for 5 or more years are more experienced. Inexperienced does not suggest we have a lot of long term teachers. Long term teachers have varying levels of experience as well.
Educated vs. Uneducated: This comes with a qualifier. You are right. Teachers need a degree and certification to teach. I can’t think of any schools, with the No Child Left Behind requirements, that have uneducated teachers. All teachers are required to take courses in order to keep their certification. This is a state requirement that must be met every 5 years. Most teachers I know are at the Masters level or higher. Long term teachers are educated too.
Effective vs. Ineffective: All tied up. I think this is a case by case situation based on personal experience with a teacher.
Creative: With all that professional development and in service training, I can definitely see more creativity. With access to Smart Boards and student laptops, more and more students are using technology with good results. Teachers don’t have to scheduled time in the library to use computers for research to do a project. It takes place in the classroom. Students can use PowerPoint, Word, Publisher, and other programs to experience differentiated instruction. No more boring current events. With people like you in the community, we can experience blogging and other creative ideas. At least, I hope we can. Blogging is new to us and it is something to learn.
Overwhelmed: Teachers aren’t talking about with actual work but discipline. We can do without the discipline problems. Without discipline problems, what a wonderful place this would be.
I heard that CUSD is allowed to have uncertified teachers in the classroom, again it is a rumor I heard, not sure if it is true. There is a huge problem with discipline. I am a teacher and I am tired to having to teach students manners, respect, and common sense. These are all things students should come to school with. It is a tragedy that parents allow their children to disrespect schools and teachers. I should be able to teach without hearing "he's looking at me" and then a fight erupting. Parents need to take more action in their child's life, not just dump them at school and want a miracle from me as their teacher.
ReplyDeleteHaving been on both sides in education (teaching and administration) I must say that without effective administration, it is difficult for teachers and other staff members to effectively do their jobs. Let's begin with the elected school board. Since being returned to power and leadership, the first items of business were to spend money, re-hire former district administrators (where is that national search?), and just wondering where the positive press that Dr. Thornton was able to garner (does the present superintendent visit the schools, or at least know how to get to them?) I am concerned. Sure there are workers in every profession that do not accomplish what most other employees can. But then the administration is responsible for not following steps necessary to have them removed from the profession. And these are the teachers that get the attention. What about the rest? What about those who advise the extra=-curricular activiites? the co-curricular activities? the athletics? Oh, with regards to athletics, a recent news article dealt with the football coach wondering why the Philadelphia Union did not respond to his requests for assistance in teaching players how to kick. SOLUTION: maybe the district could re-institute the sport of soccer!!! What a novel idea. As to those who responded to surveys, I take the results with a wary eye. Just like on television when the reporters are at the scene of an event...how in the world do they find some of those "knowledgeable" people that they interview? That scares me.
ReplyDeleteSo, after this extensive rant, my ending statement is that teachers should be respected (just as all other professional people are), they should not have to worry about disruptive incidents in the classrooms or the buildings (where are these parents for support??), and despite what many think of teachers as only working 10 months a year for those high salaries while teaching 100 to 150 students a day, let's refer to all these teachers as "supermen" and "superwomen" as the recent movie (dealing with finding the new superman of education refers). It is their right. Thanks for your time in reading my thoughts.