TEACHER DECISION MAKING – PRE CRISIS VS THE PRESENT
A friend asked me what I thought was the biggest difference between teaching forty years ago and teaching today. There are many, but none more so than the fact that today’s teachers are solely responsible for the success of every child and yet have virtually no say in how to achieve that success.
Years ago most teachers devised their own curriculum, (I taught for 15 years before I ever heard of a curriculum director). Teachers were responsible for implementing their own goals and for selecting their own textbooks. Teachers were responsible for implementing their own discipline plans in their classroom, we never had to follow a school wide discipline plan. Each teacher used their own motivational techniques based on the type of children they had in a given year. Teachers rarely “taught to the test” and achievement tests played only a mino
Years ago most teachers devised their own curriculum, (I taught for 15 years before I ever heard of a curriculum director). Teachers were responsible for implementing their own goals and for selecting their own textbooks. Teachers were responsible for implementing their own discipline plans in their classroom, we never had to follow a school wide discipline plan. Each teacher used their own motivational techniques based on the type of children they had in a given year. Teachers rarely “taught to the test” and achievement tests played only a mino