The Faculty Meeting

Yesterday morning we had our monthly faculty meeting. As we entered the auditorium bleary-eyed at 7:45 AM we received a packet detailing how we were going to be evaluated. You may ask why we are getting this so late in the year. Well, because of our state's glorious STAR plan that forces teachers to teach for the horrible FCAT state test our county had to revise their evaluation sheet to reflect the levels needed to implement the plan. Did I mention that a teacher can actually receive a mixture of mostly 'above average' scores and two 'satisfactories' and be out of the running for the extra money! Silly, isn't it? That's our wonderful educational system in action here in Florida.

The principal spent a lot of time explaining that parent comments, room visits, and verbal/written comments from those visits would be used as the basis of our evaluations. Though I've never received anything but great evaluations for 27 years now, the thought did worry me a little. Seeking clarification, I raised my hand and loudly asked "From what you are saying, would it be correct to assume that if no administrator has given a teacher any written or verbal feedback about their performance this year so far, this would mean that the teacher is doing a good job?" Loud laughter and applause from the teachers probably meant they were all thinking the same thing. The principal responded, "Well, yes. I mean, no news is good news." Guess what? The next day after my comment an assistant prinipal appeared in my first period Anatomy class and sat taking notes for over an hour. (heh, heh, heh!) Retaliation for my question or just coincidence? What do you think? He got to see me at my best all period interacting with groups deeply involved with making circulation drawings. They couldn't have been better behaved and more on-task if I had paid them!
When he left I patiently waited for written or verbal comments about the class. After a day I'm still waiting. You know, this old teacher hasn't stayed on the job this many years by being stupid.

I just wonder what insanity will follow this whole STAR plan. The school board met again yesterday and again they approved the plan. There is talk that the teachers will have to vote again whether or not to ratify the plan. There is a lot of pressure on us, mainly 'scare tactics', to vote yes to the plan. The truly ironic thing is that rumors are now flying that the state legislature in both houses are discussing a motion to scrap the STAR plan before it even begins and give the monies to the county for use in education. That sounds like a sane, rational approach so I'm almost certain our state representatives will not follow through with it. And life goes on.