As an educator I sympathize with all teachers because every single teacher has been thought of as a bad teacher at one point. At least one student or parent complains and often we have more than one complaint throughout our careers. I believe that great teachers ruffle a few feathers because learning is about challenging our beliefs, experiences, and misconceptions. Therefore, I find it quite difficult to believe every teacher in an institute can be labeled as “bad” with credibility. Moreover, I think that most educators enter this field with extraordinary passion and humility. I don’t believe most teachers enter the field wanting to be bad at their jobs. Perhaps the problem isn’t about firing all bad teachers? Perhaps, we should consider the way a school community fails its students and aim to fix versus weed out?
This past Wednesday on the #PTCHAT educators, parents, principals, and other stakeholders gathered to discuss and debate the topic of firing bad teachers in light of the recent firings of several teachers.
Parentella: How do we quantify WHAT is a “bad” teacher?
ksivick: Has anyone experienced a great mentoring program?.. 2 teaching jobs = 2 lousy mentoring situations for me 
nerdette: in many states (esp. TX where I am) it’s less a challenging of firing teachers, much more an issue of a shortage of good teachers
JaneBalvanz: I’m a parent, a school counselor, and a member of the NEA. Have seen this debate from two viewpoints.
pisanojm: @tonnet I made a post about this back in October: Signs you might want to re-think being a teacher: http://bit.ly/af78gm
Parentella: @JaneBalvanz But how do you “know” the teacher has improved? By giving another year? How to evaluate?
getsweetie: #ptchat Retaining teacher: respectful actions taken, excellence recognized, time given for furthering professional development, individual positive regard
Parentella: Newsweek writes an interesting article re: why we must fired bad teachers. http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590
BmoreSchools: Isn’t there a website where students rate their teachers? Maybe students should be required to rate teachers like they do in college
JaneBalvanz: Our district has a 2-yr mentoring program 4 new teachers. A 2-yr mentoring program 4 Teachers Needing Improvement (TNI) = 2 yrs
flourishingkids: thinking about the “what to do about teachers who need to improve” issue
sgaboriau: I like the idea of teachers watching others that are successful.
BmoreSchools: I’d say it’s DEFINITELY not fair to fire teachers solely over students’ test scores.
Parentella was created to solve the issue of parent and educator communication at elementary, middle school and high school levels. As part of this mission, we are hosting weekly #PTCHAT discussions to encourage a productive dialogue between parents and educators. We hope you will join us Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST.
If you are new to following hashtag discussions, you may want to check out this video tutorial on using Tweetdeck for hashtag discussions.
by Shelly Terrell
Related posts:
- Are Parents Seen as Outsiders in our Education System?
- Are Kids Bored in Schools?
- How Do We Get Parents More Involved in Education?
- Topic for 2/10/2010 #PTChat
- #PTChat for 2/24/2010
Tags: education, policy, PTChat/EdChat, teachers
