Tag Archives: Teaching in Nashville

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On Acting and School Administration

Nashville education blogger TC Weber talks about what passes for leadership in school system central offices:

Most district administrators began their journey as classroom teachers. They know kids. They know learning. They know what works and what absolutely does not. Deep down—buried under layers of jargon, compliance documents, and motivational posters—they recognize the absurdity of much of what they’re pushing.

Nobody who has spent more than 10 minutes with actual children believes that forcing every kid to be on the same page at the same time in the same way is a kid-centered practice. It’s not even an adult-centered practice. It’s a bureaucrat-centered practice.

No one with chalk dust buried in their bloodstream believes loading down a teacher with mandates, trainings, videos, forms, surveys, dashboards, rubrics, walk-throughs, and “fidelity checks” is a recipe for success. It’s a recipe for burnout, and we’ve watched that soufflé collapse again and again.

Go ahead, read it all>

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Educators’ Cooperative Highlights Success

The Educators’ Cooperative, or EdCo, provides professional support and connection for teachers in Nashville.

In a recent email newsletter, the group celebrated some successes:

We are on track to exceed 2024’s annual total, increasing the opportunities, professional support options, and cross-sector, interschool connectedness for EdCo’s mutual aid network of 253 incredible teachers.

We are extremely proud of the growth we’ve made that allows us to provide these opportunities to our teachers—so they can get what they need to keep teaching and better serve their 107,361 students, regardless of sector or school!

The newsletter also highlighted the work of teacher and EdCo member Addison Barrack:

One example of Addison’s impact can be seen in the many awards she’s gleaned from the Nashville Public Education Foundation. When working at Margaret Allen Middle School, Addison was named one of Nashville’s “Blue Ribbon Teachers”. Then, she was recognized as a “Teacherpreneur” award winner for her project designing a flexible school environment for students who need to work and attend school simultaneously. This September, NPEF again awarded Addison, this time naming her an Annette Eskind Inspiring Educator in the “Public Schools Hall of Fame.”

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Teachers Need Support

Teacher Josh Rogen writes about the support young teachers need to succeed.

While I’ve written some about teacher attrition in Nashville and noted that teachers in Nashville — and across Tennessee, for that matter – need a raise, Josh offers some perspective on the type of support new teachers need.

Here’s what he has to say:

  • Every single school needs a school-wide behavior program, created and trained in the summer, and implemented in the year. The lack of SWBS is crushing for new teachers. Doesn’t need to be the same plan, but there needs to be a plan.
  • End the idea of 1-3 time district-wide PD on behavior management and push management to school-sites. Context across the district vary too widely for district-wide PD on behavior management to matter. Plus, good grief, one day in central office is obviously not going to make a difference for a first year teacher; it’s just convenient.
  • Assign and really pay a mentor teacher to observe weekly and coach all 1st and 2nd year teachers. Maybe this teacher’s only role is to coach other teachers. I loved the MCL model for that reason, and I’m concerned when I hear schools moving away from it. Why?
  • Train coaches on TLAC techniques at the district level, using the skills sequence found in Get Better Faster.
  • Create district partnerships with Relay and similar programs with experience in training teachers in behavior management. They also really ought to reach out to the old NTF crew. I want to underscore that there are people in Nashville, and within MNPS right now, who know how to train new teachers. Pay them. Use them differently.
  • Random, unannounced, but formative district-level culture walkthroughs of all buildings with a real culture rubric.
  • Stop punishing or judging teachers for writing referrals. That’s a school problem and needs to be solved at the school level.

There’s more, and it’s worth checking out.

More on MNPS and teacher retention:

Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati

Computers Replace Teachers

 

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