In a series titled Well-Know Nationally- Struggling at Home, The Washington Teacher appears on the News Hour With Jim Lehrer this week. Some have asked me to post this link here on my blog.
Finally, after covering DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee for an entire school year, Jim Lehrer and his team from Learning Matters responded to requests to tell more than just Rhee's version of the story. Even though this segment was a much longer interview, I am happy that at least viewers will get to hear another perspective than just Chancellor Rhee. Here's the link:
http://learningmatters.tv/blog/current/michelle-rhee-in-dc-episode-9-well-known-nationally-struggling-at-home/1525/ (Posted by The Washington Teacher).
Thanks, Candi for the link!! I plan on watching all of them this evening, though I believe I've seen some of them already on PBS.
ReplyDeleteCandi - you did a great job - as did the other brave teachers who were interviewed. I can hardly believe Principal Slade gave his speech on national TV blaming teachers' "poor instruction" as the major cause for classroom violence against teachers.
ReplyDeleteI guess Chancellor Rhee must agree with him, because he's not getting fired.
There's still time, though -- let's see what happens to him at the end of the year.
I am a teacher. Like most of the teachers in the DCPS I grew up in the community where I teach, I raised my own children in that community and I will finish my career in that same place.
ReplyDeletePrincipal Slade has obviously decided to break the bonds of community to curry the favor of Chancellor Rhee. He might want to rethink that strategic decision if he didn't cross the point of no return with his gross denigration of teachers in this video.
Rhee is a mercenary. She is the latest carpetbagger in a long line. And like all those before her, she will fail and slink away.
Mr. Slade you should consider your future prospects. When Rhee flees the District soon, she will have no use for you. She won't even know your name. And you will still live and work in DC among those teachers that you have betrayed--unless you run after her.
Slade's diction was an embarrassment. The perfect administrator for Rhee someone whom seems to enjoy being "stupidly aggressive."
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy to see a real teacher being interviewed on MSM. It's odd that education is supposedly such a hot issue yet it rarely occurs to reporters to get a teacher's perspective.
ReplyDeleteI usually email the News Hour video clips regarding DC education to my grandma, but I won't be forwarding this one. She was a public school teacher for 40 years, and being familiar with my experience, Principal Slade's comments regarding the reasons for serious discipline issues would make her blood boil.
ReplyDeleteWhile poor instruction and poor classroom management can cause discipline problems in the classroom, it is not the case that all discipline problems - or even most - are caused by teacher incompetence. All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
Teachers with instructional ability and classroom management skills can still get books thrown at their heads, evidently.
And teachers who work in schools where the students simply have no respect for the administration (due to lack of enforcement of simple rules and consequences, *cough cough*) are going to see major discipline issues in the classroom, hallways, and cafeteria that have nothing to do with teachers' abilities.
read Bill Turque's article in the Post today. Looks like that Principal at Ron Brown might get canned after all. Sure would have been nice if Rhee had instructed him earlier that it isn't cool to treat teachers badly.
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