Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Marzano Madness
My state has revamped its entire teacher evaluation system and has moved to Marzano's Teacher Evaluation model. This has been a very difficult transition and today just was the icing on the cake. We had a staff meeting and the things we were told would be OK are now not OK. We were told at the beginning of the year we could use a generic scale to gauge student understanding, now today we are told that the generic scale isn't gonna be good enough, now we have to do individual scales for each and every learning goal/standard. I am so frustrated. My state is SO unorganized and its frustrating. They have decided that instead of rolling it out over a 3 year period they decided in July that the roll out would be in September. So instead of a 3 year roll out, they did a 3 month roll out, so we have administrators who have no idea what they are supposed to do! The administrators will say "well at our training we were told A...B...C..." so we all run around and do A B C and then 2 weeks later they come back and say "Well at my latest training I found out that A...B...C... is not what we are to be looking for, we are to be looking for X...Y...Z" and all I can think is W T F!!!!! I am just SO frustrated and for the first time in 12 years I am seriously considering leaving the profession. I LOVE teaching, but I don't know if I can deal with all this. I don't get paid enough nor do I get enough respect to deal with all this. I keep wondering if I should get out while the getting is good. I don't know what else I would do, but I have a Master's degree so I am sure I could do something. The sad thing is I have a Master's degree but my sister, who only has her GED, gets paid more than I do. I'm just so frustrated with all of this. I don't think the new evaluation system is fair because it seems to be all about paperwork and not about teaching. When did rubrics, scales, and scores become more important than the kids? I'm not sure I can live with those standards, I can't put paperwork ahead of kids. I just don't know what to do.
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I am with you!! I really feel sometimes like the idiots in power have no idea what REALLY goes on in a classroom and make these ridiculous mandates that are too stupid to even put into words.
ReplyDeleteI live in a totally different state and we are experiencing the same problems. I love the teaching, but hate the amount of paper work I have to do to document everything. Do you do RTI or is that just a Texas thing? It is a pain no one really knows how or what to do so we get the this week it is the A.B.C. next week who knows which acronym we will be following. I have seriously thought about getting out of teaching. I will never be able to retire from it I started to late in life. Good luck in making the choice. I know several excellent teachers are probably going to leave the profession in the next few years and it is a shame. The powers that be need to spend 2 weeks in our job one with with lesson plans and the second where they have to do everything then maybe the would understand, but probably not.
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating, I know!!! I've only been teaching for 7 years, but I feel like policies, budgets, "best practices" have been changing non-stop. I am so tired of the "powers that be" telling me how to do my job, especially when they have never done the job themselves. It makes me sad to see the state of education today...especially since all of the politics does not seem to be improving the quality of education. When I got into teaching, I thought I was getting into the business of inspiring and enriching. Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but that's still where most of my energy goes ;)
ReplyDeleteI also teach in Florida this is year 24, I am feeling the same way! I hate to see such great teachers leave the field because of politicians!!!! No one knows what they are doing! the evaluattion based on test scores is ridiculous!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't this how teaching has been? We're always expected to adapt and modify to roll with whatever new is being sent our way. I hope you got over the hump and your teaching and kids are better for it. Keep pressing on.
ReplyDeleteWe miss your posts!
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A Teacher's Treasure
I also teach in FL. Last year they told us we needed specific scales for the kids. Now I'm being told that a generic one is OK. After what you wrote, I'm not certain what to do anymore! I've even gone to principals in other schools/counties and ask them what they require. I don't mind using specific scales in my plans, but to ask me to write specific scales for kids that can't even read them is ridiculous!
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