NRHEG Star Eagle

137 Years Serving the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Area
Newspaper of Record for NRHEG School District
Newspaper of Record for Waseca County, MN
PO Box 248 • New Richland, MN 56072

507-463-8112
email: steagle@hickorytech.net
Published every Thursday
Yearly Subscription: Waseca, Steele, and Freeborn counties: $52
Minnesota $57 • Out of state $64

As I start this column, my iTunes is playing “School’s Out,” the classic song that every student longs for in May. However, it has been applying to the students in Chicago recently, as the teachers union there went on strike last week.

I’ve taken a keen interest in these doings since I’m a negotiator for our local union, and I truly hope nothing like that ever happens here. As many people have been quoted, the refrain is the students are the ones who suffer. I always hope a sense of understanding of what is best for all involved pervades our contract talks at NRHEG.

What’s this strike all about? It’s certainly not about money, since the average teacher in Chicago makes around $70,000. Part of the problem lies in how the teachers will be evaluated, a task that the state of Minnesota faces in the next year. Part of our next contract will have to involve language regarding teacher evaluation.

I don’t mind being judged, but like the teachers in Chicago, I have problems with how the government wants to judge us. So much push has been placed on standardized tests that those have also become the focal point of teacher evaluations. In other words, a large portion of teacher evaluation could be made considering a one-day test for students who have no incentive to do well.

Considering that students take reading, language arts, and math tests every year from grades 3-8 under different acronyms (NWEA and MCA), and that many of these tests are taken multiple times during each year, some kids have taken 13 tests a year! Do you suppose students get burned out by testing? By junior high, if you don’t dangle a big enough carrot in front of them, there are a number who just don’t care. Would you have cared about a test that didn’t count in your grade or your ability to advance to the next grade?

Please come in and judge my performance in my classroom. But do it by measuring the progress of my students in more than just a one-day test. Look at their writing from the beginning of 7th grade to the end of 8th grade. 

Take a look at their vocabulary tests that involve reading stories and answering questions much more difficult than the MCA tests since I don’t give them the option of making a lucky guess, but encourage deeper thinking skills.

And how do you judge a teacher in an area that doesn’t have a test? Should our phy ed teachers be judged on how many kids pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test? 

Is it the teacher’s fault if the students go home and sit in front of the TV eating chips? How about the kindergarten teacher who has a student who can’t count to 10 coming into school because the parents never worked on that or never read to the child, leading to an inability to recognize letters?

Please judge me. Come in and watch me work. Offer constructive criticism. 

I’ve changed the way I teach over the years based on advice from my peers, and I’m a better teacher for it. I hope we can take that into account when we face language like the Chicago teachers have in their contentious contract talks.

Word of the Week: Another of my favorite words this week: impeccable. Impeccable means without flaw, as in, “Tim was impeccable in both his school work and his athletic endeavors.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!


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