T’was the night before the board meeting and all through the city
Was a bunch of teachers that need a lot of pity
No transparency, no fairness, no fun, oh my
What happened to honesty and looking people in the eye?
Evaluations, PDs, and meetings
What happened to a smile and season greetings
So who is at fault for our big mess?
I bet you can make an informed guess.
It starts at the top where it is really bad
Teachers want to teach and can’t, that is sad
Principals and their elves don’t have a clue
They would be better off asking a reindeer what to do
The union is no help as we approach the New Year
They don’t know what it is like to teach in fear
Please Santa just give us all one big gift
Load a boat with Wisconsin Avenue and set it adrift
So what is the answer to all that we ask?
Just have the queen put on a Harry Whittaker mask
Students used to have manners and goals to share
But today all we see is underwear
Teachers, 2013 will soon be here
Hopefully there is a sale on ice cold beer
Teachers keep battling and hope Saint Nick
Can pull off a much needed magical trick
We need someone to lead us out of this mess
New union leaders and not someone wearing a North Carolina dress
Wondering when I had time to write all of this down
It was during a PD when we all wear a frown
My lasting wish as I sit in this room
Is for all of Wisconsin street to ride off on an O’Cedar broom
Merry Christmas to all…and to all good luck!
22 comments:
Applause, applause. Well said.
We need Randy Simmons to get his superintendent's certificates.
The superintendents coming from out of state experiment has not worked.
D150 needs one of us, with a real superintendent's certificate (not a 2 month short-cut curriculum), to regain peace & discipline throughout the whole district.
Its odd that a professional like Randy Simmons, who has such a longstanding relationship with families, the City and the schools, would resign his tenure during Christmas Break. How unfortunate for all concerned.
"Never has the dedication of the people who practice the teaching profession been spotlighted in the way it has over the past few days. We were shown, in dramatic terms, to what lengths teachers are willing to go to fulfill the crucial mandate they have been given: the education and welfare of the most precious members of our society. Yet they are so often treated with disdain.
Teaching is a calling. Not everyone has the will or the stamina to do it well. It takes love, pride, and an almost sacred commitment that can't be explained in words. In America, teachers have traditionally been underpaid, because in America's early communities, "schoolmarms" were always spinsters who were not expected to support families.
In other countries, the teaching profession is considered so noble that it is well paid in comparison to many other professions, as it should be. In this country, politicians—acting as proxies for taxpayers—haggle with, lowball, denigrate and harass teachers as if their demands for job security and decent pay are unreasonable and selfish.
A teacher invests in the future, student by student, and his or her legacy consists of the product of those students' fertile minds. Occasionally, teachers are even called upon to throw themselves into harm's way to protect the lives of their charges as if they were their own children—and last week six of them demonstrated most profoundly that they do not shrink from the task. About this, no one can argue."
I would have done what the teachers at Sandy Hook did. My very first job in the classroom is to keep the children safe. Administrators in D150 do not understand that concept.
Evidently there aren't any teachers in the district qualified - to teach gifted classes since they had to bringin another warm body to fill the job. The reason no one in the district wanted the job is because its a JOKE OF A PROGRAM.
Brought in from N. Carolina, of course!
Please don't expect Simmons to be the "Great Hope" for Peoria.{Sarcasm}....Lots of talk, little substance. There are MANY qualified IL educators with Supt. endorsements out there. Doesn't take much to find them. Peoria NEEDS a leader and Dr. Lathan (unfortunately) is leading Dist. 150 off a very high cliff. Time to carpetbag out of Peoria, please feel free to take "Toy" and her Hello Kitty's with you. bye bye!
"Lots of talk, little substance." Kinda like that "Dear Santa" letter...
Thank you for the letter. It sounds if many of the teachers are feeling the same way.
Lots of talk and little substance is what I hear from several people when teachers voice concerns about what is happening. What do you want me to do as a teacher? I can't speak out publicly or I will lose my job or be moved from a place I actually enjoy being at for the most part.
What accountability is there? One area I'm concerned about is student behavior. I can write up students for behavior until I'm blue in the face--I don't actually write that many referrals because it is easier to handle it in my room but when I write up a student for something serious and I see them back in school or the consequence was to "call the parent" how effective is that? I've had administration delete out referrals--hence why I now print a screen shot of all my referrals and print the referral itself. I also print all e-mails and attach to the referral. Even when teachers and coaches are threatened with physical violence our administration "investigates it" and the kids always come out the winners. Why is that? Why are we backed into a corner with little recourse? What's the point in writing discipline referrals when the consequences are such a joke? We can't even call it detention anymore it has to be "merit hall" or a "conference."
The saddest thing is that D150 has a lot of awesome teachers, staff, students, and parents--and even some building administrators are decent (they're frustrated too). Most of my kids are fantastic--I mean they all have their moments but so do I. Bullying and bad behavior are acceptable across the board it seems.
The public has no idea how bad it really is in 150 and that the students are really not learning much in the classroom because most of the teachers' time is spent with disrupting students. It is well known by students that if parents don't like something go straight to the superintendent and she will intervene.And now she gets involved in Athletics and messes it up. One example is Ruffin and another example is an assistant coach didn't like what her head coach or AD says told her so she went over their heads to the Superintendent to get things changed and now the Superintendent is involved in athletics telling the coaches and AD's how to do their job. Something again she knows nothing about. So besides having students not respecting rules you have assistant coaches doing what they want to. It will take years and years after Lathan leaves to clean up all the messes she has made. Why do you think all the people she has brought in are here in Peoria. Because they can't find jobs elsewhere as they aren't qualified. So she has us take the losers. Come on Board wake up, do you hate the school system that much that you are letting her ruin it?
I'm the anon from the student behavior example...actually, there is a lot of teaching going on, at least in my classroom and in the teachers around me. I have expectations and the kids meet them or they don't do well. Yes, I'm also frustrated but I still do my job.
Sad that the author is educating our most needy students. Self-pity begins on line 2 and blame is placed by line 10. Professionalism is lacking throughout as much as is the true spirit of the season.
Merry Christmas, Emerge! I hope it is blessed with family, good food and friends.
bah humbug to Anon at 2:26pm...must be another NC transplantee
Randy Simmons was greatly loved by parents and students. Why he was moved is beyond me. What a terrible thing to do to a dedicated school administrator. I don't blame him for retiring - not one bit, but am so sorry to see him go. He would make a great super, but who needs the awful headaches when one has already given their best.
Here's wishing all those who work with children a safe 2013!! I ran into a friend who teaches. She was sporting a fat lip from being head butted by a student and was limping from spraining her ankle chasing a special ed student making a break for it and chasing him/her outside. I also talked with a teacher who was assaulted breaking up a fight at a holiday dance. She also told me about an older support staff worker at a high school being denied permission to park in a safer location when she arrives in darkness because the male support staff members who arrive later could just as easily be raped. Maybe if their mothers called......
Does anyone know something about the teachers who are not returning to Glen Oak after the holiday break? I hear they are fed up with the crap going on and quit!
I heard there is at least one at Manual as well.
Yet nobody is running against Martha Ross...
A lot of people who post here are part of the problem. They have proven over the past 3 years that they do not want to be a part of the solution.
Keep bitching though. Misery loves company, or something like that.
Anonymous @ Thursday, December 27, 2012 8:29:00 AM...
Very few people who read or comment on this blog actually live in the 1st District, where Martha is running.
Martha is the only one that actually speaks up so why would anyone run against her?
In response to the person asking about Glen Oak teachers not returning after break. I am very proud of them for taking a stand.
To anonymous On Thursday 8:29 am that would include you. Ha ha
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