I apoligize for not "blogging" earlier but I guess I was waiting for motivation. Today, I was approached by my vice principal who said that the k-2 cirriculum was in what they call phase 3 which is the writing phase. The two teachers in their respective elementary schools have refused to write and/or volunteer due to their age and their general hatred of helping out anyone. Therefore, here comes the VP coming to see me (26 years old) and my non tenured co-worker in the Phys Ed health dept. He said "well, there's no one to write this so I told the super that you guys would be team players and help us out" My question is, who's job is it really to write curriculum. What if I have no plans to ever teach at that low level. Is volunteer work really optional. All these questions weigh on my mind as I dread the rest of the school year knowing that I have to re-vamp a whole curriculum before June. Health included. During phase 1 and 2 we're just looking at the overall status of the curriculum and in phase 3 we start writing. Phase 3 does earn you the pay rate of writing but what does that come down to per hour. Are we just bailing them out by doing their job? Does the strong arm come down because you're non-tenured? Is volunteer work mandatory!?
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4 comments:
I can sympathize here because I have been in a very similar situation. At the end of last school year, myself and several other teachers were asked to come in during the summer and "help" revise the reading curriculum. Most of us being non-tenured, we didn't really have a choice. We spent several days in July with our Language Arts supervisor working with the curriculum. "Helping" turning into "doing" and she got a check at the end of it. Our compensation was knowing we helped better our curriculum. The ONLY good way to look at it is, our reading curriculum is now slightly more reflective of the way WE wanted to teach it. :)
You've hit on another one of my passions -curriculum. In addition to wanting to train or mentor other teachers, I also am interested in curriculum writing. I'm interested in this because I think there should be more synergy between the classes and grades. I'm also a nosy person and I like to know what everyone is doing and am very concerned with the quality of my school's curriculum. I totally understand your frustration at ending up doing the work and not getting the pay or recognition for it (I experience this first-hand quite often). That isn't fair or right, but a little bragging might get the word out about your efforts and contributions. What I don't like is when people write curriculum if they are not somehow invested in its outcome. Sadly the work does often fall on non-tenured teachers because of AGAIN the somewhat poor work ethics of some of the old-timers. The frustrating part of that for me is not just that some people end up doing more work than others, but that there is not a real sense of community or "team-i-ness" (I know that's not a word). I hope my passion is not just a result of not having any social life to speak of. Maybe my feelings would change if I had a family of my own. I'm not sure. Ultimately, I think volunteer work does need to be voluntary.
Hi Mike!
After reading your blog, one thing completely sticks out in my mind and that is the word "non-tenured". Your right, did you get this so-called job handed to you being that you are non-tenured? Because in most cases, what non-tenured teacher is going to say no if they'd like to remain in the district? Probably no one. My second year teaching I was also handed a job to run a fundraiser along with one of my collegues who was also non-tenured at the time. We are now tenured and still are running this fundraiser. How is this fair? I just feel it comes with the duties we accept as being non-tenured. I'm sure this goes on everywhere, no matter what the district is. Hopefully this process won't be as bad as it sounds. It will also be a great learning experience for you!
The hardest part about this is that you may never use the curriculum that you are writing, and you may not have any experience with the current curriculum. No offense, but how good a job is going to be done by people who have no vested interst in the project? If it were me, I would just get it done. Stick it on the pile and I'll do what I can, when I can. That's terrible. Shame on the individuals who are going to be using this curriculm, but have no interst in being a part of creating it. You know they will be the first to complain about it too.
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