I am very excited! The Mandan Education Association and the Mandan School Board have come to an agreement on contracts for next year. The School Board and MEA have yet to ratify the agreement, but this is according to an article in today’s Bismarck Tribune. Many of you may wonder what the big deal is. The big deal is that we will have a contract prior to school starting in the Fall and we will not end up going to impasse. The big deal is that no one – not the teachers or the board members – have ended up feeling slighted. The big deal is there was no resorting to hurt feelings, name calling, accusations of hidden money, or arguing across the table. The biggest deal is that teachers will go back to school this Fall with very positive attitudes towards our employer and towards education. In some years past, teachers have felt under-appreciated by the school board. The attitude at the start of school has sometimes been hurt or anger on the teacher’s part, feeling like they are only going to work the hours they are paid for and whatever gets done, okay. If it doesn’t get done, well, the students will wait. (Yeh, I know, not a real professional attitude!)
The biggest deal is that if teachers feel they are being paid what they are worth and that they are appreciated, they are more willing to look at making changes. Maybe these changes have to do with a more constructivist approach to learning. Some teachers may wish to explore more inquiry directed learning. Teachers might be feeling so good that they want to revamp their lessons to include more critical thinking skills or revise their questioning strategies.
Students can only benefit from these great attitudes and happy feelings from their instructors. Students will pick up right away on the positive attitudes of their classroom teachers, and positive attitudes are usually catchy. Maybe students will feel more positive about the work they are doing. Students’ attitudes may be affected for the better as well. They may be more excited about coming to school, more excited about the material they are studying, and willing to work harder as a result.
Settled contracts going into a school year is a definite win-win for everyone. The going gets tough soon enough as we settle into winter (especially if we have a winter like the last one). With everyone willing to give a little more, our educational success should be a given.
Taking a Look at Engaged Learning
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Before teachers can see how engaged learning can affect the education
of their student's one has to take a look at the definition of it. Engaged
lear...
13 years ago
Congratulations! Our district settled as well and I'm very happy with the results. You are absolutely right about teachers needing to feel appreciated by the school board and administrators. I often think of the irony of the situation. Administration members are often former teachers yet much of the time they fail to see things from our point of view. And school board members unfortunately all too often have an agenda other than education that they are serving. It's nice when all sides can come to an agreement for the good of the students.
ReplyDeleteI agree that teachers feeling appreciated leads to a better attitude in the classroom. It is amazing how the attitude in the building or classroom can really affect the atmosphere. I couldn't imagine teaching without a contract being settled or possibly going on strike during the year. It would be hard to come back from that as often it leads to lots of hurt feelings. Our school is a little different being it is private. This year they froze all of our salaries. It led to lots of hurt feelings and sour attitudes in our building and I was in the minority that was just happy to have a job and be guaranteed a contract for another year.
ReplyDeleteI read your article and it reminds me of a Blog that David Woods posted on week three. His blog spoke about a school that is being formed in New York that is going to pay teachers 125,000 dollars. It is an experiment to see if teachers will work harder and make more interesting and more involved lessons due to their pay. Your blog is similar even though I’m sure you’re not going to being making 125,000 (although that would be awesome!), it is still the same principle. If a school has good morale and makes happy teachers, they will be more willing to go to work and put more time and effort into making really well written lessons. If you enjoy your work, you are going to do your best and give it your all; if you are underappreciated you are not going to work as hard. It will be interesting to see how your school year goes being everyone is happy and morale is up.
ReplyDeleteTeachers need to feel appreciated. If they do not feel this, then they will not do their job as well as they could have if they are properly valued. The way school districts can make teachers fell respected is to give them fair contracts. If this is not done then the attitude of working contract minimums will spread. Teacher will be more willing to do extra activities as long as they are rewarded for their efforts.
ReplyDeleteIn order to not hinder the educational process, all of settlement details should be carried out before the start of school in the fall. This way the student’s education will not suffer as a result of negotiation disputes.
Beth,
ReplyDeleteWhat a good feeling to be appreciated. It's good to see two sides come to agreements quickly, especially in comparison to how negotiations have gone in the past. I'm not sure what the atmosphere is going to be like when we start school. I am a grant employee, so have no negotiation ability, but I know that the public employees were going to negotiate this summer and I haven't heard how that goes/went. The overall atmosphere at the end of the year wasn't good, so we'll see what the start of the year is like. Students pick up on the vibe the staff puts off, so hopefully all is well.