GSU Blogger - Dr. S. Kahrs
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Veteran Teachers Teaching Upper vs. Lower Levels - Building the Master Schedule
As we begin to think about planning for next year, I feel stuck as an Administrator when planning the master schedule for our teachers. We have many veteran teachers who only want to teach upper level because that has been the attitude and "culture" of the school. The feeling is that beginning teachers and teachers with minimal experience should have to be "baptized by fire" and learn the ropes. It's almost like buying their time before they move up the ladder and the "low man on the totem pole" philosophy. I am struggling with having the conversation with our veterans that they are the ones that belong in the lower level/college prep classes because they are to better prepare our students for upper levels. They are the ones with the classroom management that have the procedures and rules that our beginning teachers just don't have yet. But then we also don't have the experience and knowledge in our beginning teachers to teach upper level courses as well. I am just trying to figure out how to start the conversations with the upper level teachers and getting them change their mindset in regards to teaching the lower levels.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You are in a difficult position. I can understand both sides of the argument because you would teachers with more experience teaching students that are in the most need. Yet, you also want the more experienced teachers to challenge the more advanced students. Here is my suggestion. Do a combination of experienced and new teachers. Create teams to encourage collaboration. Thereby, the experienced teachers can mentor the new teachers on pedagogical skills necessary for student success. Remember, the number one focus should be students success. You may have to present your strategy to the staff prior to making decisions. Engage the staff in conversation on how placement can improve the students performance. Once teachers have a clear understanding of your purpose then you will have more buy-in on your decisions.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a problem ready for a hollywood movie set ---Freedom Writers--- I wish I could tell you I have the answer. I do not, but I have some questions that may spur some ideas. First of all, let me say, this appears to be a high school specific issue. I'm in the middle school setting. While all students are quite different, 6th, 7th and 8th grade teachers do not view one "better" or more advanced than the other. In middle school it's all about behavior. It is which behavior do you work best with. I'd love to hear from the elementary school perspective, is there a hierarchy between grade levels? Also, I agree with Omar. Do what is BEST for students. But I have a question Ashley, is there anything wrong with allowing teachers to have a choice in what they teach? I know as leaders were are left with making the hard choices as far as staffing goes, but in my experience, requiring a teacher to teach something they are qualified to teach but do not want to teach does not work out well for those student's who are in that teachers class. In which case, would turn out to be, not what is best for students. I was a math teacher before getting in to leadership and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE algebra. I wanted to teach algebra the students could have been 5. 10, 15 or 20 as long as I was teaching algebra I was one happy teacher. Does that mean that in my years as a math teacher I didn't spend my time teaching fractions to 6th graders or transformations to 7th graders, no it doesn't. My leaders; however, figured out my excitement for algebra was contagious and my students got
ReplyDeletegreat results when I taught Algebra. So all this to say, newbies, if they want to come to your school, will take the job you offer them. Once they're teaching find the right seat on the bus for them.