Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018
This post will not be a long political diatribe about all of the churn in this administration. Instead, I want to take a few moments to express how grateful I am to be a member of a union, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. I can state unequivocally, that I would have been fired on more than a few occasions had the decision been left solely up to the local school administrator. No, I was not engaging in anything illegal, immoral, unethical, dangerous, or anything like that. I'll confess here and now as to what I was doing....teaching. Want to know what the students were doing? Learning.
So why do I believe that I would've been let go a long time ago were it not for my being a union member? Well, without mentioning any school years in particular, when the boss visits your classroom every single day, does informal observations and fails you for the year, that might be a clue they're not "feeling you". I had to develop a performance improvement plan. If I didn't improve the following year, I would've been given a teacher coach to help me improve. I have nothing against improving my practice. I don't think that was the goal.
Then there was that season in my career when the one in charge and I had fundamental differences of opinion about teaching and learning. In short, I was to just do as I was told. Our spirited discussions were followed by at least three surprise visits to my classroom by the Assistant Superintendent in two months. It's important to note that "Mr. Flemming" was asked for by name. I won't reveal how I found out. Those visits were followed by either memos or zeros in every observation category for what I didn't even know were official informal observations.
Oh the memories.
I have more. I do. Maybe later...
A school administrator in another district in these United States once told me "evaluate them out" is a strategy used by some administrators. Intriguing. In other words, get them to walk on their own. Hmmm.
Our collective bargaining agreement contains language guarding against decisions being "arbitrary and capricious". While 45's decisions seem to be just that at times, I'm grateful for processes and teachers unions that fight against it. One misguided notion is that "those teachers unions" protect bad teachers. No. What teachers unions do is ensure that processes are FAIR and that decisions made by school districts and school administrators aren't arbitrary or capricious! For that, I'm grateful! And because of that, I'm still...teaching!
I have more. I do. Maybe later...
A school administrator in another district in these United States once told me "evaluate them out" is a strategy used by some administrators. Intriguing. In other words, get them to walk on their own. Hmmm.
Our collective bargaining agreement contains language guarding against decisions being "arbitrary and capricious". While 45's decisions seem to be just that at times, I'm grateful for processes and teachers unions that fight against it. One misguided notion is that "those teachers unions" protect bad teachers. No. What teachers unions do is ensure that processes are FAIR and that decisions made by school districts and school administrators aren't arbitrary or capricious! For that, I'm grateful! And because of that, I'm still...teaching!
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