Teachers feel judged daily by students, parents, administrators, district administrators, the state board of education, state legislatures, and society as a whole. Nothing about that system is going to change. Teachers who spend countless hours railing against this are doing themselves and their students a disservice. To paraphrase an old adage: let me change the things I can, know those that I cannot, and know the difference. I am not saying that teachers should be quiet because we should have more control over our profession. The secret is to change what you can inside your class, school, district, & state. I encourage them to contribute rather than complain. What this leads me to is what I am the most thankful for in teaching and that is the students. The times I have had frustrating interactions with colleagues or administrators fade when I return to the classroom and my students. Students crave acceptance and guidance from adults and will give adults the benefit of the doubt that we do not see from other adults. Learning stems from that acceptance and guidance. Most of my lessons are not solely learned in the classroom. I believe my best lessons happen 5, 10, 15, & 20 years after they graduate.
Teachers are judged on test scores and all that leads to that mentality. Some of the presumed harmless questions from administrators and parents are where so many teachers focus. “You have the most F’s in the XXXX department? I can assure you that the teacher will not have to most Fs next semester if they are new teachers. Those teachers come back into the teacher’s lounge and ask what everybody is giving in terms of grades and they have many fewer. The challenge is that this equates Fs with learning.
I left the above because I wanted to illustrate how easy it is to go down rabbit holes on the philosophy of teaching theory, {Pedegodgy for all of you that like the big education words.) Just before I wrote this I was getting some things from students for the holidays. I am deeply appreciative and can’t thank them enough. One gift came with a note. That note and others I have received over the years far outweigh any evaluation I can ever be given by an outside entity. They speak of the things I did for them and how better off they are for having known me. This is where I disagree a little. I really feel like the only thing I do is give them the opportunity to find out who they can be and give them resources and options. I also hope that I set an example as a learner and, more importantly, as a person. With the curriculum, I teach I tell them that the process is as important to learn. The things I teach in cybersecurity, programming, and engineering may be very different when they get into the world and so the process is critical because that won’t change.
I am so thankful that I have a job that is that important to our society. I even sometimes think about how hard it would be to do a job that wasn’t this important. As for evaluation and judgment, I will take those judgments from students 5, 10, 15, & 20 down the line. I have stories where I figured this out for myself that things come by many years later. If you ever want to know about something that took 40 years to appear I can tell you about Modulo Operations and encryption and programming. Next week is finals so I may do testing stories for those days.