Wednesday, October 5, 2011

What if the NFL played by Teacher's Rules?

Here is an article that one of my friends put up on Facebook and the title was very intriguing to me. Think about this for a second, what if players could never be cut from the roster as long as they have been playing with the team for 3 years. What would this alternate league be like? If the players were never getting cut and their pay was increasing each season, then the product of the players on the field would decline as well as they probably wouldn't want to risk getting hurt on the field. If the players are guaranteed a spot, wouldn't they work a little less harder because they are guaranteed a spot? Right now of course this isn't true because players give it their all every week to be better than the other team and to make the most money. The only way a player could be cut is if they retire or if there are cases of misconduct against them. This can be turned around and relate to the American public education system. It is true that when a teacher is in a school district for 3 years they are offered a permanent job there where they cannot be fired unless they retire or there is misconduct against them. The salary of a teacher and how good they are at their job have nothing in common. A eighth year teacher can be making more than a first year teacher, but that is only because they have been there longer. That does not mean that the eighth year teacher is better than the first year teacher. Some teachers that have been in a school district for a while and know they can't be fired may do just the bare minimum because they know they won't lose their job. Teachers that help the learning process should be rewarded other than those teachers that  don't get the job done. I know there are plenty of those teachers out there, especially in the physical education department. For example, when I observed in a middle school in 256, 2 out of the 3 physical education teachers had been at the school for 20+ years. The other teacher was younger and she had only been there for around 5. The way the 2 older teachers handled their classes was not the way that I thought they would. The unit was volleyball, and they set up the nets and threw the volleyball out for the students to play. From what I observed, I didn't see much teaching going on, although I was only there for a week. But the attitude of the teachers that were there for a longer time made me think that I could do a better job than they could. They had a mentality that they were there for a long time and what they have done in the past years has worked so they are going to keep doing it. Students need to be exposed to teachers that are motivated and love their job and are going to get the students involved. These are the teachers that should be rewarded for their hard work and dedication to the subject they are teaching.

3 comments:

  1. Love your title and argument regarding job security and seniority. So are you for annual professional performance reviews that link to merit pay/tenure/promotion?

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  2. https://sites.google.com/site/rockstarpe/standards/nyse-annual-ppr

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  3. I would say that I am for the annual professional performance reviews that link to merit pay/tenure/promotion. We won't know what is going on in classrooms unless it is documented by a reliable source. I think plenty of teachers are getting by just doing the bare minimum and may not be assessed in the correct way. The components of the evaluation are important in seeing how well a teacher can manage the class and what they are doing in their classroom to promote learning for their students. It would be beneficial to our education program to implement something like this so that we know what is going on in classrooms all around. With the follow-up, teachers will know how they were assessed and what they can do to improve their teaching as they move on. Many teachers may be thrown off guard by these promotion reviews and this may sort out some of the "dead wood" in our schools today. I think that this is going to be a good idea for teachers all around, and it may give younger teachers a chance to show what they have learned and how they are putting it to use in the classroom.

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