This blog is created with the intention of opening communication between teachers and adminstrators. This space is for the two groups to share ideas and provide support to better the education world.
It is the hope of its creators that participants of this blog act with professionalism.
I agree that we often do not have time to delve deep into the topic.
It has been pointed out to me by some colleagues that teaching is not considered as a profession by the majority of community members (parents and politicians). These community members feel that they have a strong understanding of our education system because they have gone through it. Therefore, they are in a position to make decisions that affect us as educators in the classroom.
I agree that some community members do not consider teaching to be a profession, and this can a frustration for a lot of teachers. I believe that in order to fully address the issue, we need to define who we work for. Once we have answered this question, we need to follow through with it in order to create the culture we want as educators.
Question to pose: Who do you think teachers work for?
How would your lives change if more people agreed that you were "professionals?" What do you see as the perceived advantages?
There is no doubt that I, as an MD, am considered a professional.... however, I still have to answer to my division chief, my Chief of Staff, my CEO, the Royal College, my patients, society... All of these people make demands and decisions that affect me, a lot of which I have no control over. I am sure that I have similar types of frustrations as teachers (but in a differenct context), whether the designation of "professional" is there or not.
I find that the teaching profession is full of contradictions. In many respects, we ARE our own bosses in our classrooms. For the most part our daily lessons are unsupervised, and we are given the task of structuring the lessons as we see fit. Sounds like a pretty autonomous and powerful career! However we are constantly working within the rigid constraints of curriculum, parental and administrative expectations. Bringing a community of teachers together will lead to the empowerment of educators as we can learn how to "steer the boat" together rather than as individuals. Teachers working for and with other teachers will lead to better classroom tools, instructional techniques and better learning.
Well, I agree that teachers might go through hard time and frustration in their professional life. Therefore, I don't think teachers should continue teaching forever, they (teachers) can do other jobs that could benefit from their long experiences.
Privacy and protection issues are major difficulties in school boards. The reaction seems to be first to ban the technologies which have potential to help create a new space for collaboration and communication.
A priori, this approach clearly remove from the spectrum of tools available to teachers among the most profoundly transformative communication tools emerging from a network driven society.
The key challenge for the current and next generation of school administrators - both at the school or schoolboard level - will be to devise practices and regulations which can help attained both the goals of protection of children (as stewart of children this is a critical role of the school) and the role of educators which implies using all of what is available to help students learn to the fullest of their abilities.
The solution might be to create a parallel infrastructure internal to school board where blogs, wikis and other tools might be available to teachers and students. Could be done at the level of the province.
This challenge is significant, not simple, and goes against the simple solution of banning. We will have to look for more imaginative solutions and seek to build understanding of the level of acceptable risk we are ready to accept to ensure quality education in line with today's digital society.
We would like to extend a welcome to bloggers who have contributed to this blog. It is our hope to open the line of communication between teachers and administrators. As teachers, we find it hard sometimes to make sense of our administrators (Why is this taking place? Can someone help us get our heads wrapped around this new initiative?).
You are more than welcome to post a question or comment on the blog. Please remember that we are professionals. We are here to give support to each other and to develop as professionals.
12 comments:
I agree that we often do not have time to delve deep into the topic.
It has been pointed out to me by some colleagues that teaching is not considered as a profession by the majority of community members (parents and politicians). These community members feel that they have a strong understanding of our education system because they have gone through it. Therefore, they are in a position to make decisions that affect us as educators in the classroom.
I agree that some community members do not consider teaching to be a profession, and this can a frustration for a lot of teachers. I believe that in order to fully address the issue, we need to define who we work for. Once we have answered this question, we need to follow through with it in order to create the culture we want as educators.
Question to pose:
Who do you think teachers work for?
What culture would you like to see for educators?
Education is publicly funded and therefore our curriculum is mandated by the government.
Im posting!
teachers work for the students, community, the society and the organization. the purpose of teaching is to evolve the state/nation through education.
e.g. gm car keying incident
How would your lives change if more people agreed that you were "professionals?" What do you see as the perceived advantages?
There is no doubt that I, as an MD, am considered a professional.... however, I still have to answer to my division chief, my Chief of Staff, my CEO, the Royal College, my patients, society... All of these people make demands and decisions that affect me, a lot of which I have no control over. I am sure that I have similar types of frustrations as teachers (but in a differenct context), whether the designation of "professional" is there or not.
I agree with R. Dufour wheras teachers are professionals and as professionals, should work in a Professional Learning Community (PLC).
Teachers improve their teaching buy collaborating with each other in order to reach a common goal.
Professional development and leadership go hand in hand with PLC and there lies the true power of teachers as professionals.
I think teachers should work for organizations in order to make the system work because it is a very sensitive field.
I find that the teaching profession is full of contradictions. In many respects, we ARE our own bosses in our classrooms. For the most part our daily lessons are unsupervised, and we are given the task of structuring the lessons as we see fit. Sounds like a pretty autonomous and powerful career! However we are constantly working within the rigid constraints of curriculum, parental and administrative expectations. Bringing a community of teachers together will lead to the empowerment of educators as we can learn how to "steer the boat" together rather than as individuals. Teachers working for and with other teachers will lead to better classroom tools, instructional techniques and better learning.
I totally agree!
Well, I agree that teachers might go through hard time and frustration in their professional life. Therefore, I don't think teachers should continue teaching forever, they (teachers) can do other jobs that could benefit from their long experiences.
Privacy and protection issues are major difficulties in school boards. The reaction seems to be first to ban the technologies which have potential to help create a new space for collaboration and communication.
A priori, this approach clearly remove from the spectrum of tools available to teachers among the most profoundly transformative communication tools emerging from a network driven society.
The key challenge for the current and next generation of school administrators - both at the school or schoolboard level - will be to devise practices and regulations which can help attained both the goals of protection of children (as stewart of children this is a critical role of the school) and the role of educators which implies using all of what is available to help students learn to the fullest of their abilities.
The solution might be to create a parallel infrastructure internal to school board where blogs, wikis and other tools might be available to teachers and students. Could be done at the level of the province.
This challenge is significant, not simple, and goes against the simple solution of banning. We will have to look for more imaginative solutions and seek to build understanding of the level of acceptable risk we are ready to accept to ensure quality education in line with today's digital society.
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