Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows (That's How This Refrain Goes, Everybody)
It's a sunny day in our district. Kids are eager for summer to end so that they can get back to their classrooms. With larger classes, there are more friends. Yay! Of course, we are changing our student assignment plan but here's crossin' our fingers that our kids and their friends can all go to school together in the future. But not to worry, it'll all turn out okay. Oh tay!
Everyone in our district works very hard (well, most of them because nothing is 100% in this world except for Katie Couric's smile - don't you just love her?). And effort does count for something. I mean, results are great but if we give kids a gold star for effort, it should be the same for adults.
Good For Us:
(All posts must now contain at least one good thought about the district or a happy emoticon. Otherwise, you will be considered "negative". We are adults but that doesn't mean you can't turn that frown upside down.)
(And if you know what song the thread title is, you are old like me. No fair Googling it to find out. But, in my defense, I did have much older sisters.)
Go Team!!!
Everyone in our district works very hard (well, most of them because nothing is 100% in this world except for Katie Couric's smile - don't you just love her?). And effort does count for something. I mean, results are great but if we give kids a gold star for effort, it should be the same for adults.
Good For Us:
- Tracy Libros
- mostly good to great high schools
- mostly good to great elementary schools
- mostly good to great K-8s
- The Source
- lots of new buildings
- lots of historic buildings
- many dedicated teachers and staff in many schools
- many, many dedicated public school parents who, if not for their time and resources, well, we wouldn't have as many great schools
- Montessori programs
- foreign language immersion programs
- APP and Spectrum
- Special Education with more autism help than most other districts
- Teen Health Centers
- Michael DeBell
- Harium Martin-Morris
- Hale's radio station
- School Messenger
- alternative schools
- Oprah ( If Dr. Goodloe-Johnson likes her, she must be good for the district.)
- the pledge of allegiance at Board meetings
(All posts must now contain at least one good thought about the district or a happy emoticon. Otherwise, you will be considered "negative". We are adults but that doesn't mean you can't turn that frown upside down.)
(And if you know what song the thread title is, you are old like me. No fair Googling it to find out. But, in my defense, I did have much older sisters.)
Go Team!!!
Comments
Good to Great to Amazing music programs in many schools
ALOs (in most elementary schools north of downtown)
Picture Day!
A Central Kitchen that cooks nutritious, wholesome meals for every school
A one year truce with the teachers' union
A one year truce with the principal's union
Aspirational goals
At least we're talking about accountability
Mostly public meetings
Plenty of money available to hire coaches for teachers
Lots of support from big name philanthropic foundations
Plenty of passion and interest from activists
Michael DeBell spoke at length at last night's meeting about how wonderful NYCs community schools are! Health care! Social services! Adult Ed! The whole dang community wrapped lovingly around its school, a warm embrace surrounding the children with the love and support they need and deserve! Yea!
And the district alredy has in its hands a nearly complete blueprint for such a school: The Ravenna Boulevad Academy design that four educators at John Marshall spent hours and hours working on, in an effort to change themselves in a positive direction as the district moved to close the building! 100 pages of detailed planning and logistics drawing together health services! social services! adult ed! safety net! case management!...
Yea! When that document was shown around to various community organizations, there was much celebration! Yea!
Let's dust that puppy off and get to work. The only thing left uncompleted was identifying the funding sources...
Thanks, Melissa, for the demand that we contribute positive comments each and every time. RBA or not, there is much we can do to work together supporting what is great, building even greater, and celebrating the many wonderful successes the city sees as it takes care of and educates its young upstarts.
(strangely, WV must be in a dour mood and in no mood to celebrate with us, for it is casting an unglo on my post! C'mon, WV! Join us!)
That could mean implementation of "Core 24" by September 2011. Core 24 increases the high school graduation requirement from 19 to 24 credits. And it would mean the State would pay for an extra period in high school.
It could happen. Of course we need to keep up the pressure on our lawmakers and Randy Dorn. But it really could happen.
But, is it really such a bad thing to point out good things about SPS once in awhile? Not to be a "wow everything is so great all the time" person, but to balance out the negative with some positive?
Why is that a bad thing?
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There are some strong teachers in every school.
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We don't have a school board who wants to censor what kids read.
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We don't have a community who wants to limit health clinics in the high schools and restrict access to accurate sex education.
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We had a good "Welcome Back, Summer Social" last night. It was good to see the kids re-connect and be excited about seeing each other and just running around and blowing off some steam. I imagine it helped use up some of that energy before the first day of school. It gave me hope that, in spite of my misgivings about the changes, we were still in the right place.
Oh, and puppies... and butterflies... and a good deep tissue massage... and the new Ezell's location... and a fine bottle of scotch...
When I think of these things, however, I cannot help noticing a strong pattern.
The things about Seattle Public Schools that are strong, good, or beneficial tend to be in the schools and from the schools.
The things about Seattle Public Schools that are weak, bad, or damaging tend to be in the District headquarters or from the District headquarters.
When people talk about Seattle Public Schools I think we all need to remember that there are two almost separate universes that share that name. There are the schools and there is the District.
Think of the list of good things - truly good, not ironically listed among the good - and count how many are good because of initiatives or efforts that started with teachers, principals, or school communities versus the number of them that are good because of initiatives or efforts by the District. Then think of the things that need improvement or are just misguided and count how many are sourced in the schools and how many are rooted in the District.
There are, of course, exceptions. There are times when schools are not doing what they should and the District stepped in and fixed it. There are examples of that, but there are many more examples of situations in which the District did not step in when they should have or examples of situations in which the District stepped in and broke something that was working.
People get this. That's why surveys show that people, on the whole, really like, trust and have confidence in their kids' teacher, principal and school, but that the same people, on the whole, don't like, trust, or have confidence in the District.
There isn't much discussion here of good things happening because most of the good things happen in the schools and just for those schools. We could write about them more, and perhaps we will. I'll create a thread for that.
The district-wide situations that gets most of our focus are generally sourced in the District headquarters. Consequently, most of our discussions are about problems because that's what they make there.
I don't think you'll find much criticism of schools here, and what you will find is balanced by well-deserved praise. The vast majority of the criticism is for the District. It's a shame when the bureaucrats in the District headquarters try to deflect the criticism and accountability they deserve by hiding behind a human shield of students.
Do others see the schools and the District as two, almost separate entities or do you see them as a cohesive unit or a homogenous whole?
Two years ago four races with 8 school board candidates to find out about .... but this year only two races with 4 candidates.
On the radio last night I heard a Doctor talking about how medicine was a calling to service for many Doctors of 50 years ago.... BUT not so much today. Today for most people there are Jobs and not callings .. and so it goes today for most Doctors as well.
What I see in schools is we have many teachers there who are following a calling ... this is especially true of the absolutely terrific ones (like Mariam Lemcio and Pam Hering etc.).
Now at the District's upper levels sorry they have mostly just people in Jobs.
So Hooray for the persons called to serve Seattle's kids. They put up with a lot and unfortunately a lot of what they put up with comes directly from the JSCEE.
I would add that school administration falls into a similar category as facilities, maintenance, or engineering type services in that those are jobs where one doesn't routinely get praised for doing one's job (compared to say, a firefighter or EMT who saves a life or keeps your house from burning down - it's their job but they get more praise for doing it - that's just how it is).
If the lights are on and the hot and cold water is running, that's expected and no one gives you a pat on the back for just doing your job. But if the AC is broke and the roof is leaking you can believe you are going to hear about it.
I expect the district administration to choose quality textbooks, to maintain their facilities, to ask for and listen to public input, to do what's best for the kids, and to be accountable - without heaps of praise, because that's their job (it's what we pay them for, isn't it). When they fail to do their job, they get to hear about it, too.
2. I have only talked to one parent whose child's bus ride for next year is longer than last year, and a number of parents whose children have shorter bus rides. I would love to see actual data, but it looks possible that bus routes actually will be shorter for kids in the coming year.
PTA and Private fund raisers who turn over every stone to make sure that their school can offer the best, and perhaps more a complete, education.
People like Melissa and Charlie who constantly challenge the administration to provide evidence of improvement or, at least, accountability.
Everything could be wonderful if we worked together . . . to paraphrase Leslie Gore.
Of course, it's the young, exciting, energetic, and inspiring first and second-year teachers that get fired first.
stu
"Of course, it's the young, exciting, energetic, and inspiring first and second-year teachers that get fired first."
C'mon, Stu, that's just an insult. You're implying that older teachers don't have energy or don't inspire...what a crock.
It's ageist and conveniently ignores the value of experience.
Not to say ANY teachers should be fired, but to malign experienced teachers (by the way, there are OLD new teachers who are laid off along with the "young" ones.
You got me saying it, Stu. Teachers are fired, or should be, when a) they do something horrible; or b) when they prove ineffective after attempted remediation.
You meant, of course, that "younger" (less seniority) teachers are laid off, not "fired."
My gut reaction was based more on two experiences with really wonderful first-year teachers who were let go simply because they were newest. At the same time, our son has had a "more experienced" teacher who had obviously taught the same thing over and over again and, to be honest, couldn't have appeared less excited about teaching. And again, reflecting my poor choice of original language, she wasn't be any means "old." She was just uninspired.
Didn't mean to insult anyone . . . this time.
stu
There are new teachers who aren't inspiring or excited, also.
But I hear what you're saying. Teachers come into the profession excited, scared, running at a million miles an hour because there's so much they don't know and they're trying to get everything they know done, plus do all the things they didn't know about that pop up hourly.
New teachers rock, for the most part. They're entering a wild and crazy wild west of a career: all sorts of things to know, all sorts of stakeholders watching, calling, emailing...all sorts of well-thought out changes to curriculum, all sorts of crappy on-the-fly dictates from the district, the state, the fads, these parents, those parents...and last but least the students themselves.
It's a roller coaster, and they're voluntarily jumping aboard.
Most come in full of great ideals, great enthusiasm, about what they, personally, can bring, their unique skills, perspectives, methodologies...I'm afraid that some of the "loss of excitement" we might notice is that after a year or two it becomes apparent that there are many, many, things expected that either preclude, or leave no room for, the individual teacher to work their magic. THIS might be what is noted as diminished excitement; the growth to realization that one can't just do what one wants, that there are structures and mandates, many of which were unknown to the newbie...
But one would hope that the good teachers settle in to a groove where they use their own enthusiasm for the subject, for the students, for learning, while leavening it with some nuts and bolts and recognizing that all big bureaucracies have some crazy stuff. And a bureaucracy like a city school district, huge and unwieldy, has institutional inertias while also having almost daily demands to change, from various constituents. So the battleship, all 100,000 tons of it, is on a course when it's asked to do a ninety degree left. It starts turning, but of course its momentum makes the radius huge. Moments later, the order comes down from the bridge, "hard left!", the whell is spun, and the ship slooowly comes about....meanwhile the crew is puking over the rail. (sorry, cloiuldn't resist, it jsut fell out! That's not true, the crew is nimbly jumping from task to task, trying to get the ol' girl to turn a bit faster to meet the commands, folowing orders like any good sailor.
"Welcome aboard, plebes!" the old salts gleefully cry.