Why? Because the principals see good teachers as potentital threats to their jobs! Either by (1) directly taking their jobs one day, or (2) making them and their Ed School fad-based choices look bad.

Either way, a ‘successful’ principal in a K-12 public school in the U.S. needs to have teachers just mediocre enough and miserable enough to get scores that are good, but not mind-blowingly great, on state mandated exams, and not want to risk their paycheck by challenging the status quo.

Of course, many good teachers that don’t get martyred are just made miserable, on purpose, until they either “know their place” or quit…

I’m sorry–where did that come from?

FWIW, my building has no shortage of applicants when math positions open up. We had 30 something last year for two slots.

Please understand I love my job; if I didn’t, I’d be doing something else. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions about what needs to be done to improve working conditions and learning conditions for the children. If Margo is right, and in order to be a great teacher one must be a sort of martyr (I think that’s somewhat hyperbolic), then something is deeply, deeply wrong. We are never going to find enough martyrs to staff our schools.

In particular, the way that Singapore math uses bar graphs to teach students to solve complex, multi-step problems is outstanding. But without going through the entire series, it would be difficult to see why a 3rd/4th grade teacher would need to present the material using a bar graph until he/she could see how the 5th grade students use them to solve extremely difficult problems. Some of the 5th grade bar graph problems are more difficult than usually seen in Algebra.

It is unfortunate that your OSSU dictates EM and BM as these programs try hard but ultimately fail at getting students to both understand the underlying math concepts and become fluent enough with computation to make the transition to the symbolic math seen in Algebra easily. (In Singapore math, the transition from expressing problems/operations with bar graphs to using variables is rather simple and obvious.)

If you were bothered by my questioning your judgement that math teachers — don’t — work as hard as you do, then all I can say is that was meant as a challenge and not as condescension. I don’t find the judgement of a single teacher convincing, but perhaps by asking I would draw out a reference to something more convincing.

First I was addressing this statement:

“But I’ll be goddamned if a math teacher is going to make more than me for doing the same work. Actually, less work.”

If that was not you, then I’m sorry for the misguided statement.

In regards to your question, I’ll take that to mean you think I have been to you.

Seems like it wasn’t necessary for me to invoke basic principles, so if that is what bothered you I can only say that is a reflection of me and not you.

If you were bothered by my questioning your judgement that math teachers work as hard as you do, then all I can say is that was meant as a challenge and not as condescension. I don’t find the judgement of a single teacher convincing, but perhaps by asking I would draw out a reference to something more convincing.

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge teacher hours by when people arrive and leave. There are many days I’m out of there at the contracted time, but then spend three or four hours after dinner planning/grading. We do have a small amount of flexibility in that area (although not in when we get to go pee ).

pm: Have I been condescending to you in some way during this conversation:?