Transforming lives by instilling and inspiring lifelong learning in every student.This sure sounds good. I do believe that we as a teacher population believe in this. Yes, we want to transform lives, yes, we want to instill and inspire and we also want lifeling learning. But, as with any mission or organization what really matters is if we are acting on this. Are we putting in the work to make sure that we are doing this? Are we allocating resources to the proper place? I think for me the key word here is "every". As a teacher of the lowest elementary school in the district, I can unfortunately say no we are not. There are still vast inequities between schools in our district. I have taught at other schools, I have taught teachers in other schools, I have observed other schools and it is not equitable. When my school gets 10 textbooks for ELD per class and Vichy gets 10 textbooks per class, that is a problem. When we get questioned about our attendance when we still only get the same amount of counseling or social worker days as every other school, that is a problem. Our school is average sized and we have 90% of our students that live in poverty, that means we have a lot of trauma. We spend a lot of time on learning about trauma and how to handle it, not to mention the phone calls, SST meetings, differentiation... on and on really. Our kids need more, much more. When 75% of your class if far below basic, not everyone is getting what they need. Right now in this pandemic, I am not being dramatic when I say it is catastrophic for the kids at my school. I don't teach nearly as much academic content because my kids can't do it, they don't have support at home so the 2.5 hours a day is all they are getting, plus they need love and attention so we do a lot of social emotional lessons and a lot of talking. It was difficult before the pandemic and just so much worse now. I just wish all parties at the District Office understood that Title 1, Tier 3 schools need so much. So, no not for every kid.
1 Comment
Lynda Tuttle Bergner
3/10/2021 10:44:17 am
NOT A LIE DETECTED!!!! As a teacher of the middle school most of your students will be attending, unless they decide in their eminent wisdom decide to close us, I agree there is ZERO EQUITY!!! Our students come from the most humble homes, have parents working 10 hour days in order to make ends meet, but there are ZERO funds for extra supplies, books an materials. There are no extra counseling services, no extra administrators, no extra push in whatsoever. Something has GOT TO GIVE!
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About the AuthorI teach 3rd grade in Napa Unified. Archives
December 2020
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