Our district has thrusted upon us yet another heavy-handed, micromanaged solution. It is a specific, prescribed lesson plan format that every teacher must use. It's yet another move toward the standardization of education. I feel that slowly they are invading every aspect of my vocation and transforming me into a prototype. The following is a list of the assaults on my profession:
- Blackboard Configuration - that's right, they tell us exactly how to organize our whiteboard and we must follow it (it's in our evaluations)
- Word Walls - I have to waste my space jumbling up words on a wall in order to make them happy
- Lesson Plan Template
- Curriculum Maps
- Scripted Curriculum - one class period a day is spent with scripted curriculum. The district markets it as something easy for us, as a sort-of mid-day break, if you will.
- Every quarter we must take a three-day Galileo test. In all, we lose close to three weeks a year in testing (rather than teaching students)
- Common Assessments - All teachers in each department must follow the exact same schedule and students must take common assessments. This year, we get to develop our own department common assessments. I don't mind it, because the process is grassroots and collaborative. Yet, how long will it be before the common assessments are district-mandated?
I know that I probably seem too negative here. However, it is in the subtle acts like a Lesson Plan Template that teachers lose their professional autonomy and academic freedom. The district now tells me what to teach, how to assess it, what my room should look like, when I should teach what information and with what strategies. From the planning to the delivery to the assessment, Big Brother is there for me, looking over my shoulder and encouraging uniformity.