I really dislike our union. They always come across as very confrontational and I have never felt they represented my concerns. Of course, they believe they represent the concerns of the majority and I really don't fit in.

There are some teachers at our school who are not changing with the times. Our clientele has changed dramatically since the school opened and they refuse to change. Or they are incapable of it. The reality is test scores are important whether we like it or not. I do believe you can teach students to be good thinkers and still have them do well on tests. The union protects these teachers who have demonstrated sub par testing performance over SEVERAL years. My last class came to me with fewer than 50% Proficient in Lang. Arts and several students scoring Below Basic or Far Below Basic. When they left me I had the same group at 83% Proficient and the the other 17% had all risen to Basic. My current crop of 4th graders is even worse. The average reading range in my class is 2.9 - 4.3.

The teachers below me are still doing the things that worked when our students had all attended preschool, and had parents who could help them. They don't want to change "what they have always" done. It's frustrating. I'd love to have a class like I had 20 years ago - very little blurting out, kids knew their basic facts, knew how to read... But that's not our reality.


Veronica