Inside Four Walls: Elementary Bulletin Boards hurting education?

Via The Quick and the Ed (via Joanne Jacobs);
It seems as though competition to create the best room or "environment" hasn't helped test scores or anything else for that matter.

That's not what I wanted to talk about though. It's the "bulletin board" mentality. My wife is an elementary teacher (has done them all K through 5) and I have witnessed this first hand. Elementary teachers try to one up each others rooms all the time. My wife was staying late one night getting her room ready when she saw another teacher going room to room (open concept no walls/doors) taking pictures of other teachers' bulletin boards and learning areas.

This comes from the top down. And when I mean top, I mean parents. I asked my wife why she spends so much time and she said it's the parents. If a parent sees that your room isn't as "pretty" as another teachers they won't want you and complain until they are moved out. If you have a parent who never goes in your room, chances are they aren't "in touch" with their child's education and it might be harder to get that parental involvement.

After the parents, it's the principal. Human nature strives for recognition. And most principal/administrators will pit teachers against each other. A principal will praise one teacher just to piss off motivate the others to make them work harder.

Lastly, it's the other teachers. The ones that need the attention because they aren't getting enough praise from elsewhere. When you have a teacher that can spend literally 12 hours a days at work, you can't win.

Elementary teachers hurt themselves though. In our district, the elementary schools are being slaughtered due to class size reduction. Instead of banding together and saying "we aren't coming in 3 weeks early to get our rooms ready" or "we aren't spending any extra money in our rooms this year"; they go ahead and do it anyways.

I hope that the elementary teachers can have that proverbial light click on so they can have a voice because right now they look like a bunch of lost sheep.

Inside Four Walls: St. Patrick's Day (elementary edition)

So I don't have a funny St. Patrick's Day story, but my wife has one that definitely takes the cake.

Back when my wife first started teaching (1st grade) she worked in a less than desirable district and school. In fact, it wasn't out of character for her school to go into lock down once a week.

So it was the week of St. Patrick's Day and my wife always likes to portray the Leprechaun as a mischievous guy who hides things and messes up things trying to get his gold. So during the week, my wife always moves things around (like turning desks upside down) or will hide different items from the students. So when the kids come into the class they all get shocked and my wife blames the Leprechaun.

It just so happened the night before St. Patrick's Day, her school was broken into...including her room. So when she got at school her room was ransacked. The school wanted the teachers to get their rooms reorganized before the students showed up. She put the room back together and sprinkled some green clovers in the room and let the students in.

About an hour into the day, my wife needed to use her cd player. She was looking for it and couldn't find it. She asked her teacher next door if she had it. She kept looking for it and told the class that she couldn't find the cd player. Kids being kids they started telling her that the Leprechaun must have taken it. Of course, my wife knew it was stolen, but she couldn't say anything. The more serious she got about it being gone the more excited the students became over the fact that the Leprechaun had been to their room again.

That was almost 10 years ago and it is still my favorite story to hear my wife tell. And since it is St. Patrick's Day I will pass it onto you.