Mrvaudrey

Tag: ed reform

  • Open Letter to Tom Torlakson, California Superintendent

    Mr. Torlakson,

    Good morning, you’ve no doubt heard that theB existing tenure situation was ruled unconstitutional yesterday.

    I myself was tearing up as I read the brief. For my entire career, I’ve felt what the court realized yesterday, and my relief and joy nearly made me weep during my meeting.

    Mr. Torlakson, you’reB currently “farther up” in the education chain of command than I–a lowly teacher–so it’s been a while since you’ve sat in a staff meeting or observed stinky teaching by a tenured “permanent” teacher.

    It’s probably been even longer since you watched a stinky teacher make more money than you. For me, that memory is fresh.

    Anyway, let’s talk about education.

    In the court briefing:

    “… teachers themselves do not want grossly ineffective colleagues in the classroom.” (page 13, line 1)

    If I were in your position, posed for reelection,B I would be tempted to please the California Teacher’s Association (one of my biggest supporters) in order to secure my seat in November.

    I’m asking that you focus on the students instead. Our students deserve great teachers, and as State Superintendent, you’ll have the proper pull toB drive the design of a system where great teaching is rewarded. This would helpB flush out the dummies and keep the hard-working professionals.

    I hope you see that, by encouraging teachers to be our best, we place the students first.

    In short, I’m a teacher, and my right to a job matters less than my students’ right to a quality education.

    Mr. Torlakson, please support this court ruling in the next few months and continue to reform teacher tenure after your (probable) reelection in November.

    ~Matt Vaudrey

    UPDATE June 25, 2014:

    P.S. No doubt that by now, you’ve read the highly polarized brief fromB the CTA website, you’ve heard complaints that the “1-3% of teachers are grossly ineffective” statistic is unfounded on any data or studies, and you’ve seen that Students First is hailing the decision as an important step, with many more to address going forward.

    Two things:

    1. As a classroom teacher, the “guesstimate” of 1-3% of all teachers are grossly ineffective is not only statistically likely, but it sounds pretty generous based on my anecdotal experience.
    2. The CTA press releases are full of negative language and the Students First releases are full of optimism and urgency. Why do you think that is?

  • Teachers Will Always Exist

    For dinner, my wife and I will sometimes get frozen pizza from the grocery store, and put a ton of vegetables on it. So we can tell ourselves it’s healthy and that we’re allowed to drink beer on a Tuesday night.

    Don’t judge me.

    Tonight, I diced vegetables while my wife bathed our baby.

    And she LOVES it!
    Above: Much cuter than sun-dried tomatoes.

    Our conversation went like this:

    Vaudrey: How hot is the oven for this pizza?
    Wife (from the bathroom): What?
    Vaudrey: How hot does the oven have to be?
    Wife: It says on the box.
    Vaudrey: I already recycled the box, and I don’t want to dig it up, I just want you to tell mb

    I froze mid-sentence.

    Oh, God. I thought.B I have become my students.

    Just like Zac Efron, but with less gorgeous.
    Just like Zac Efron, but less gorgeous.

    How am I any different from them when they ask me the myriad of silly questions, to which, they could find the answer?

    “What page does this go on?”
    “How do I factor a difference of two squares?”
    “What’s five times eight?”
    “What page does this go on? I forgot already.”

    In recent years, websites like Khan AcademyB and MathTV have sprung up, hosting hundreds of videos to explain Math to students in their own home. The sites are met with resistance and gnashing of teeth from teachers, who don’t want our jobs outsourced to the internet. I’ve never been worried.

    My discussion with my wife is why online courses will never replace the classroom for adolescents. The most efficient content-delivery system in the world cannot reproduce relationships. Students come to my class for the math, but they stay because conversation is how they build a framework to understand the world.

    I finish with a quote from Sugata Mitra:

    “A teacher who can be replaced by a computerB should be.”

    Sleep well, knowing your job is secure.