Wednesday, February 17, 2010

If We Are A Business, Treat Us Like We Are In Business


When computers came to my husband's office, his company not only paid for his training, they gave it to him on company time. There was none of this after work or weekend business . When he decided he wanted to get a master's degree, they paid for that as well.

The education field is supposed to emulate the business world, but only in certain instances. All teachers pay for their own master's degree. In the past, I have paid for most of my own training. I went to many weekend workshops to learn how to teach AP calculus. I spent a small fortune getting the proper training I needed to learn the subject and to master the graphing calculator. I managed to get a grant to pay for a week long summer seminar one year. (The paper work required to get this grant was mind boggling.)

If teaching is to be considered a business, it is time to treat teachers like business people and give them the same training they would get in the business world.

Posted from Atlanta--no snow but it is almost as cold here as it is in NY.

6 comments:

Schoolgal said...

Ha ha ha.....for a minute I thought it was April 1st because that would be the only day the DoE would treat us as professionals and then take it back.

Anonymous said...

Sorry but I disagree with part of this. I do agree that schools should pay for any required training, and the opportunity to ask for additional training should available.

I disagree with training happening on working days. Your husband probably averages 50 work weeks a year. I only have my kids 180 days and to much learning time is wasted with assemblies, drills and such. I don't need to lose more time with them.

I am happy to attend training during the summer - if it is usable in my classroom. We had a fantastic tech conference in our district this past summer. I was able to complete all my required training in one week - and came away with a ton of usable ideas.

ChiTown Girl said...

Amen, Sista, AMEN!!

It's always really fried my ass that the board of ed here doesn't pay for A THING!!! However, my ex-husband, who was a Chicago cop, could get any and all schooling paid for, if he wanted it.

Pissedoffteacher said...

We have almost no learning time wasted with assemblies and other things. Missing a day here or there for training will not hurt my students. I never take off because I don't want them to waste time. But, summer vacation is something I earned and need. I don't want it taken away from me. During the year I already give up nights and weekends doing school work. Even now, on vacation, I have tests to mark and lessons to write.

NYC Educator said...

Actually I don't think education is a business. It's also pretty clear to me, after having watched Klein try to run it like one for 8 years, that it's a complete failure.

I'll agree, though, that treating people decently plays no part of the Chacellor's business model.

Schoolgal said...

I remember a time when we had Assembly twice a month. Classes used to put on productions. Yes, they were stressful to produce, but the kids enjoyed it, and it was an important learning experience too. Now those days are gone thanks to test prep. Classes no longer "assemble" unless it's to watch a movie after lunch.

To say that every moment of those 180 days should be spent in the classroom is totally ridiculous. School should be more than the 3Rs. Trips and other activities have an important purpose--to help foster creativity.

On those days I was sent to staff development on school time, I always had a good sub in place with well-written plans. Lack of continuity was never an issue. In fact I was part of a very special program sponsored by NYC and my district that allowed me to visit a different school for a week and spend time with a teacher who taught the same grade but was using different methods. I learned a lot from my experience and so did she when she got to visit my classroom for a day. It was the best training because it was realistic. I was able to actually see how a program was run and be part of it instead of having it lectured to me--truly hands on.

The program provided the subs who would stay with the classroom teacher for a week to learn the routines before the teacher left for the other school.

Every borough used to have a special Science workshop. Those workshops were incredible because they were taught by real teachers with wonderful hands-on lessons and materials we could bring back to the classroom. Yet, it was the first program to lose funding under Klein.

The only summer courses I took were the ones I wanted to take--such as Teacher's College Reading/Writing Project. The district paid that bill, but it was my decision to sign up. Otherwise vacation time is my time. I also stayed after school to finish up work, so any day without the alarm clock was a day I deserved.