Right now the Colorado Assembly is contemplating changing teacher tenure in Colorado schools. To me this is an idea that is way overdue. My feelings about tenure started back when Ward Churchill was calling the victims of the World Trade Center attack "little Eichmanns". My thought was "How can we not fire this [place expletive here]."
I don't understand how one industry can have an established system to allow for unlimited employment. In my opinion it is about time someone based teacher job performance to pay. Even the most powerful job in the world, President of the United States, has to have a good job performance to get re-elected.
I understand that teaching our youth is a difficult task. I also understand, if done well, it can be most rewarding. What I don't understand is why teachers would oppose these changes. Don't teachers want to be better at their job? Every job I have had I have been evaluated on my job performance. Sometimes they are good sometimes they are bad. When evaluations are good I get more benefits or a wage increase, when they are bad I get knowledge on what I can do to improve my job performance, thus making me a better employee.
On a side note about employee evaluations...The best evaluation I have ever received was actually a poor evaluation of my performance. I knew I had done better than the other employees so I when I asked my boss why I received a poor evaluation he gave me a simple answer. "Todd, I know you did better then the other employees, but I am not evaluating how you did in comparison to them, I am evaluating your performance based on what I know you can do versus what you have done." Lesson learned.
Back to my rant... I believe that if a teacher is going through the motions to pick up a check, maybe this isn't the line of work for them. Equally, I believe that a good teacher can be overlooked, thus an opportunity to learn from the good teacher on how to educate our children best, is lost.
I would think that the good teachers would be in favor of a merit based system, as bad teachers just make their job more difficult as well as lessen the teaching professions credibility as a whole.
I think that instead of being beholden to the teachers unions good teachers need to stand up and support Colorado Senate bill 191.
I don't understand how one industry can have an established system to allow for unlimited employment. In my opinion it is about time someone based teacher job performance to pay. Even the most powerful job in the world, President of the United States, has to have a good job performance to get re-elected.
I understand that teaching our youth is a difficult task. I also understand, if done well, it can be most rewarding. What I don't understand is why teachers would oppose these changes. Don't teachers want to be better at their job? Every job I have had I have been evaluated on my job performance. Sometimes they are good sometimes they are bad. When evaluations are good I get more benefits or a wage increase, when they are bad I get knowledge on what I can do to improve my job performance, thus making me a better employee.
On a side note about employee evaluations...The best evaluation I have ever received was actually a poor evaluation of my performance. I knew I had done better than the other employees so I when I asked my boss why I received a poor evaluation he gave me a simple answer. "Todd, I know you did better then the other employees, but I am not evaluating how you did in comparison to them, I am evaluating your performance based on what I know you can do versus what you have done." Lesson learned.
Back to my rant... I believe that if a teacher is going through the motions to pick up a check, maybe this isn't the line of work for them. Equally, I believe that a good teacher can be overlooked, thus an opportunity to learn from the good teacher on how to educate our children best, is lost.
I would think that the good teachers would be in favor of a merit based system, as bad teachers just make their job more difficult as well as lessen the teaching professions credibility as a whole.
I think that instead of being beholden to the teachers unions good teachers need to stand up and support Colorado Senate bill 191.
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