Thursday, April 22, 2010

Extracurricular

I write from a desk in the middle of a jumble of  sixty cardboard cartons, twenty-five chairs, twelve tables, ten bookcases, five student desks, four filing cabinets, and a couple of miscellaneous storage cupboards-- sixteen years of teaching all packed up and ready to move. In forty-eight hours, my experience as a vagabond teacher will commence. On Saturday morning, I'll be surrounded by boxes in a temporary space, trying to figure out how to make do with what I have, mindful that I'll have to pack and move again in a few weeks.

The disruption has been enormous. We try to minimize it when the kids are around, but there aren't enough hours in the day to deal with the demands of moving seven fully-functioning classrooms and a team conference room AND to teach effectively.

I'm exhausted and my patience is thin. In my mind this is a good example of misplaced priorities. Much of the current talk of educational reform centers on ensuring that we have the best teachers for all students, but without optimal working conditions, any teacher is undermined. You want good teachers? Take anything that doesn't directly benefit students off our to-do list.

1 comment:

  1. I was a teacher before having my second child but I agree 100% with you. If only administrators would stop micromanaging teachers and allow them to do what they do best which is teach! Take off the completely useless staff meetings,PDAS evaluations, and other nonsense they require us to do and let us show students what it is to love learning.

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