a general malaise
Sometimes it's hard working in public education. When I was in the classroom there was no funk that couldn't be cured by a good laugh with - or sometimes at - students. Working in central office, not only do I sometimes feel like I'm not only both expendable and unnecessary, even worse is the occasional worry that I'm making the problem worse. I mean, aren't administrators and coordinators supposed to make life easier for teachers and folks in schools?
On the state level, we've decided to abandon the national assessment consortiums and go with 1) an unknown and 2) an Alaskan-only test that provides us no way to compare our students with others nationally. We're also looking at flat funding, or even worse a possible decrease. Some legislators think we should "look outside the box" at solutions (to what problems, I don't know) that include regional boarding schools, mandated state-wide curriculum, and vouchers.
On the local level the reality is that we're facing teaching cuts. Now, this possibility is if the school board accepts the administration's suggestions. Looking at the board's past decisions, cuts at central office will be proposed. That could mean the loss of a coordinator in the Curr. department (could be me, except that's I'm the only secondary person). Granted, we're all already incredibly busy and have too much on our plates to do it all well. And if we lose teachers, how we'll maintain the good stuff while implementing the unfunded state mandates will be interesting to see.
I'm grumpy about it all. I think about the joys I had teaching, and feeling like I had a pretty good gig going. Do we still have a good gig for teachers, and students, in our system??
On the state level, we've decided to abandon the national assessment consortiums and go with 1) an unknown and 2) an Alaskan-only test that provides us no way to compare our students with others nationally. We're also looking at flat funding, or even worse a possible decrease. Some legislators think we should "look outside the box" at solutions (to what problems, I don't know) that include regional boarding schools, mandated state-wide curriculum, and vouchers.
On the local level the reality is that we're facing teaching cuts. Now, this possibility is if the school board accepts the administration's suggestions. Looking at the board's past decisions, cuts at central office will be proposed. That could mean the loss of a coordinator in the Curr. department (could be me, except that's I'm the only secondary person). Granted, we're all already incredibly busy and have too much on our plates to do it all well. And if we lose teachers, how we'll maintain the good stuff while implementing the unfunded state mandates will be interesting to see.
I'm grumpy about it all. I think about the joys I had teaching, and feeling like I had a pretty good gig going. Do we still have a good gig for teachers, and students, in our system??
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