How your tax money is being spent

[pbbeck]

I am a public school teacher who takes his job very seriously. Most teachers I have known and worked with do, as well. It bugs me when my time is being wasted, like when I am pulled out of the classroom for a "planning" meeting.

 

The photo below shows the culminating product of SIX HOURS of a so-called "planning" meeting. At this meeting, four teachers (not me) were pulled from their classrooms, four subs had to be paid, and all so this nonsensical crap could be written on poster paper. It represents a mission statement for some new program our principal is forcing on our school. If you can tell me what this garbage means, please let me know. Our principal was pleased with this outcome. Damn, this makes me angry. Just thought you ought to know how your tax dollars are being spent.

 

[subvet]

Obviously, I wasn't there, but it sounds like you'll be spending time convincing kids to take some ownership for the outcome.

 

 

Meetings are one of those necessary evils with any job. For the most part, they don't produce results immediately and they sometimes push people out of their comfort zones

 

What is the significance of the colors?

[bakerzdosen]

Yes, but there are pretty colors in the mission statement. How can that be wrong? [/sarcasm]

 

So, someone actually sat there, took the lid off of a marker, wrote one word, put the marker down, took the lid off marker b, wrote one word, put the marker down, took the lid off marker c, wrote one word, picked up the first marker... etc until the statement was finished eh? Or was this done with three different people where each person took turns choosing and writing a word and seeing what kind of mission statement they could come up with?

 

And you have an abbreviation in your mission statement? Nice touch.

 

I've never been a huge fan of the touchy feely stuff - although some of it makes more sense to me now after I worked in HR for a few years. But yeah, most of it's just not worth the time IMHO.

 

However, I especially don't ever want to go to a team-building exercise with Lisa if racing vehicles are involved.

[pbbeck]

Obviously, I wasn't there, but it sounds like you'll be spending time convincing kids to take some ownership for the outcome.

 

If that was the intended meaning, that's what it would have/should have said. I guess I'm a strong supporter of the KISS principal. (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

[Les is more]

Ooh! I feel a paradigm shift coming on!!

[Tony_K]

No child left BEHIND!

It's changed everything.

[Francois_Dumas]

Looks like your principal has spent time in 'corporate management'. During the final 10 years I spent MY time there we had more and more of these 'experts' being hired to teach us how to manage our business, using all sorts of modern-day 'methods'.

 

Of course, the company was wasting our bonuses, not tax payers money !

 

 

 

I also spent many years in the educational world (as a volunteer manager) and I can understand your feelings.

 

On the other hand I discovered that often times 'management' of schools was lacking in quality just because of lack of experience and certain leadership skills.

 

I tried to improve the latter, without being a 'pain'.... and eventually it worked and it was appreciated by the teaching staff. But in all honesty, that took a year or two, 'enduring' comments such as the one you wrote here

 

 

Interestingly we had major students demonstrations these past days (with police clubbing people, students destroying private property... very 'un-Dutch all), and the issue is about a new 'law' that says each pupil needs to have 1040 hours of 'school'.

 

The protests are against the fact that there just aren't enough teachers to lecture those hours..... because they get sick, are off to meetings (yes indeed), do other projects, etc. So the pupils get stuck in a class room without being taught anything.

 

Life's tough, wherever you live.

[Joel]

Ooh! I feel a paradigm shift coming on!!

 

I'm guessing that the game of Buzzword Bingo would have been over pretty quickly.

 

Paul, I think the good news is that the KISS version of that B.S., ... er I mean mission statement, is just what you're doing anyway. For your sake, I hope there won't be any TPS Reports involved.

[eddd]

How can you be so callous? Important ideas were discussed, like:

 

Where are we going for lunch?

What should we order at lunch?

[Lynn]

One of Mark's Ed Professors once said, in all seriousness, "What a wonderful rubrik for problem-solving. Let's role-play!"

 

Some of what comes out of inservices and meetings can be really frightening.

[Lets_Play_Two]

Student-centered learning.....man, what a novel concept. And all it will take is the collaboration of teachers to identify the learner profile. Of course, lets throw in the global word because everything needs to be global. Oh for the old days of learning reading, righting and rithmatic!!!

 

Back in the day when I cared about stuff like this, if an employee of mine had presented a statement like that as the culmination of any effort I would have fired her.

[Lets_Play_Two]

Obviously, I wasn't there, but it sounds like you'll be spending time convincing kids to take some ownership for the outcome.

 

 

Sounds to me like it says the teachers are going to get together to ponder the profile of the learner! Whatever that means.

[pbbeck]

Francois,

 

Interesting comments. Thank you. You have mentioned an issue that I have been trying to advocate for years. If I ran the show, instructional hours would be explicitly defined, as in "no student shall receive less than xxx days of instruction per year. Professional development days would also be defined, as in "The district is entitled to require teachers to attend xx days of professional development each year." Then, the State would get xx number of testing days to assess students."

 

I'm currently in the midst of a masters program. In studying leadership in education, it appears that no matter how successful a new program or strategy is, no teacher will be open to externally imposed ideas unless they are SHOWN how it can be useful to them in a genuine way. This is where workshops like the one I described above are such a egregious waste of time and material resources. There's too much at stake to be screwing around like this.

[rob1100r]

In wonderul New Jersey where the Liberals and the mob are running wild....Where do I start? I may be a bit 'young' at 38 but I have seen much change, and I don't understand why my taxes in a small split level need to be about $7000 A YEAR! The crooks will let you 'vote' on 'the new school' and 'the new police dept', and even after it gets shot down, they build it ANYWAY! The $450 Million stem cell bill was voted down recently, and they are building the facility anyway! I can't and won't get into details of the WASTE that goes on (ESPECIALLY in the school system, my future mother in law worked in it)....RANT RANT...It's not worth it, just SHUT UP and PAY...$

[Hermes]

There's too much at stake to be screwing around like this.

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Amen to that!

 

(I am trying to come up with something witty re your comment

but I think you covered it all, too much at stake, indeed!)

 

Jurgen

[subvet]

Obviously, I wasn't there, but it sounds like you'll be spending time convincing kids to take some ownership for the outcome.

 

 

Sounds to me like it says the teachers are going to get together to ponder the profile of the learner! Whatever that means.

 

I'm sure your interpretation is much closer than mine....I may have been confused by the multi-color mission statement

[Quinn]

Several years ago, we were suddenly supposed to be "impowered." That means we were to have weekly meetings and come up with a mission statement and vision statement. Our first act of "impowerment" was to decide that meeting every other week would be just fine. We were told that we couldn't do that. So much for our impowerment.

My suggestion for a mission statement was, "Try not to get fired this week." And the vision statement was, "Making it through 'til Friday." Neither one was approved and we ended up going to the corporate website and stringing together nonsense words that satisfied the target. I learned that in most cases, just agree with whatever is being presented and then don't do it. By the time anyone checks on your progress, it's too late and there's a new program starting anyway. Most new programs fall under the catagory of "Game of the Month."

I sound bitter don't I? Maybe if the meetings improved anything I wouldn't be; but I never saw a positive outcome from any of them.

[tallman]

Looks a lot like differentiated SCL constructivism including portfolio assessment.

[Matts_12GS]

How can you be so callous? Important ideas were discussed, like:

 

Where are we going for lunch?

What should we order at lunch?

 

You forgot what color Golf shirts the PTO will buy for the next fundraiser.

 

I'm so farking tired of being shaken down by the school and PTO for stupid widgets. \

 

I mean, "Is our chirren really leanin'?" (sic)

[SeanC]

Wow. Worst sentence diagram ever.

 

Other than "Pick Your Pocket," what do you suppose PYP is supposed to mean? All those colors for emphasis, yet they abbreviate "trans."!? What are "trans. skills"? Why three exclamation marks??? My learner profile hurts....

 

Hey, you might be able to sell that photo. It would make an effective recruiting poster for home schoolers.

[Francois_Dumas]

In studying leadership in education, it appears that no matter how successful a new program or strategy is, no teacher will be open to externally imposed ideas unless they are SHOWN how it can be useful to them in a genuine way. This is where workshops like the one I described above are such a egregious waste of time and material resources. There's too much at stake to be screwing around like this.

 

I agree to that Paul, and that goes for ANY 'change' in any industry I guess.

At the time I was asked by both the school board (of which I was a member) and the teachers to set up a program to introduce certain improvements in the general running of the school....

 

The very first thing we did was establish some rules, like the teachers are the experts on education and the (voluntary) schoolboard will only get involved in OTHER matters.

 

The second thing we did was set up a session with a few teachers at a time (in THEIR and OUR spare time) to talk about THEIR problems and the SCHOOL's problems.

 

Major part of the school's problems were reflected upon the work of the teachers and 'inflicted' by the authorities.... like getting less and less money so some instrcutinal materials could not be refreshed until well after 15 years of usage, the school building falling apart.... you get the drift.

 

One of the main projects we as 'outsiders' did was to take care of some of those administrative burdens AND come up with a plan to better manage materials and money that was available. Teachers did not have time (nor experience) to handle all that in structured manner.... they wanterd to (and NEEDED to) teach !

 

In a period of 3 years we worked very well together and managed to make real improvements, basically by ultimately SAVING TIME of the teacher's tasks, so they could spend more on teaching and less on administrative things... including meetings ;-)

 

Oh.. enough rambling.. back to riding !

[Timmer]

I'm not considered a team player in my public education organization because I refuse to attend or contribute to these kinds of insane exercises in futility. I'm just amazed at how highly educated folks can believe this is meaningful to a student who needs to learn the basics.

 

I work as the a procurement director for a public education district serving 40,000 students. Trust me, you don't want to know how teachers and administrators can throw away money. It'd would just make you

 

Teachers who would shop 10 dealerships and the internet for the best price on a $30k vehicle, think nothing of paying MSRP for a $100k piece of equipment without getting any other pricing. Go figure.

[Dave McReynolds]

The corporate world is not immune. One of the nice things about going into business for myself is that I don't have to attend stupid corporate management or planning meetings. In those days, we didn't have pc's, so about all we could do to keep our minds from going numb was to doodle with a pen on paper, and your doodles couldn't get too extravagant or people would notice. Now I guess they pretend to monitor things on their pc's. Dilbert has quite a number of his cartoons devoted to corporate meetings.

 

The building manager of our office complex used to call quarterly meetings of owners, but since we are calling the shots, we decided annual meetings were good enough. At the last annual meeting a few weeks ago, about a half hour was devoted to conducting necessary business, and from then on it was basically several female members complaining about color schemes (sorry to admit my sexism on this point, but the reason I'm even willing to admit it is that after a while, one of the women looked around the room and commented that if all of us men were bored with this issue, why not just turn it over to us? Which we were happy to do).

 

/Edit/ There's an idea - why don't all you workers who don't like to waste time in meetings pretend you're owners and tell whoever is setting up the meetings that you don't want to waste any more time in meetings? I don't suggest you mutiny, which could get you fired, but voicing your opinions won't get you fired, will it?

[Lets_Play_Two]

Teachers who would shop 10 dealerships and the internet for the best price on a $30k vehicle, think nothing of paying MSRP for a $100k piece of equipment without getting any other pricing. Go figure.

 

OPM....other people's money!!

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Teachers who would shop 10 dealerships and the internet for the best price on a $30k vehicle, think nothing of paying MSRP for a $100k piece of equipment without getting any other pricing. Go figure.

 

I'm surprised that's allowed - and, given that it's allowed, I'm not surprised that it happens; in the workplace, the teacher's most valuable resource is time, and they're not going to waste it bargain-hunting if they're not required to do so.

 

Where I work, if we're ordering something over $3K, we have to get three quotes and buy from the lowest bidder (or write a real explanation for why we shouldn't buy from the lowest bidder). If the school/district wants people to be frugal with funds, they need to put rules in place to make that happen...

[zbassman]

I hate this sort of crap and it seems NO work place is immune. My company goes through periods where actual work is replaced by revising "Mission Statements" or defining various goals. We've had outside "experts" come in and address the whole organization on this or that issue. Its usually around whatever topic is the current corporatespeak buzzword of the day.

 

The worst, for me, was when we had these experts come in and help us define what sort of worker/person we are. Are you a "feeler" or a "doer" or blah blah blah. It produced absolutely ZERO in terms of productivity gain or real insight in to how to work more effectively with my co-workers. It was useless. But the whole company participated and I'm sure we spent LOTS of money on the experts.

 

The last one we had was a series of presentations on how to work with and manage the young generation entering the work force, who are oh so special and need to be treated just so, with lots of praise, everyone's a winner, blah blah blah.

 

I guess I'm getting old and grumpy but I think all this is just so much B.S. that companies embrace because we have too many managers and V.I.Ps with too much time on their hands.

 

There's no need for "misson statements". My misson as an employee is to do the work my boss tells me to do as quickly and to the best of my ability as possible.

 

As the great Red Forman once said: "Work is about seeing how much crap you can take from the boss and then, taking some more"

[Dick]

Many years ago when I was still working, the company that employed me was TOLD by its largest customer they would no longer buy our products unless we implemented a formalized quality improvement program. Subsequently the company implement a program purchased from the Juran Institute. A look at their web page will fill you with all this gobbly-gook crap to last you a lifetime.

 

Part of the program was to suggest 10 projects each year and, of these ten, recommend 3. Of course the three you recommended were "APPROVED" (to give senior management the illusion they knew what was going on). Then to make matters worse, after a project was completed, each year there had to be an additional report to prove you had 'held the gains'. In short, nothing ever went away. The satisfaction of getting the job done was never enjoyed. It was painful to be a manager. Everyone was focused on following the process rather than servicing customers.

 

And then, while all this was going on, a not-to-be-outdone vice president decides it would be nice if we sought the Malcomb Baldridge Award. More wasted time. Especially since one of the first companys to get the award went bankrupt two years after being so blessed.

 

What ever happened to management by shoe leather?

 

P.S. The company of which I speak has been sold twice in the last 5 years.

[MWS]

 

 

Sounds to me like it says the teachers are going to get together to ponder the profile of the learner! Whatever that means.

 

I thought we weren't allowed to profile anymore.

[KMG_365]

 

 

[pbbeck]

 

 

 

HA!

[steve.foote]

 

I've seen that before, back in the 1980's while in the military. Back then it was called, "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, you baffle them with bullsh#t." It's a classic product from someone who has absolutely no idea of what they are trying to do.

[steve.foote]

There's no need for "misson statements". My misson as an employee is to do the work my boss tells me to do as quickly and to the best of my ability as possible.

 

I agree with the rest of your post, but this comment stood out. Mission statements, if well constructed, are very effective for any organization. They are useful to keep the organization focused on its ultimate objective and to prevent deadly 'mission creep.'

 

The problem with most mission statements is that, like our example here, they are poorly written. Or just plain BS. In order to be effective, they must be succinct. The second sentence you wrote above is actually a pretty good mission statement.

 

Over the years, I have served on several boards and committees and nowdays I always insist on a focused mission statement before anything else happens. Otherwise, before you know it, the topic starts to wobble and we begin chasing our tails and end up getting absolutely nothing done.

 

In a diciplined organization, a well written mission statement is your friend.

[Francois_Dumas]

Mission statements for schools: Teach Our Kids !

 

How's that for a succinct, no frills, no colors time saver ??

[steve.foote]

I have an even simpler one.

 

Mission statement: Educate.

[Francois_Dumas]

See ?

 

No need for frigging 360's and color scribers

[Warren_H]

A game of BS Bingo may get you through the roll-out meeting you'll be having soon. There is a commercial currently running, can't remember the product, where one of the "valued associates" yells out BINGO during a presentation.

 

BS bingo is a satirical version of Buzzword Bingo, usually played in a clandestine manner by office workers frustrated by the verbiage of their superiors. - Wikipedia

 

BS Bingo aka: Buzz Word Bingo

 

Meeting Bingo Card

[SeanC]

Remember when we were students? It was part of a teacher's job to try to understand their pupils back then, too, but there was another important aspect of the student/teacher equation: it was more incumbent upon us to understand them. I mean, if you wanted good grades, if you wanted to learn, or even if you just wanted to make it through a class without hassle. Students would get together to do things like, um, study (are they required to do that any more?) and sometimes we'd even discuss "teacher profiles."

 

They didn't have the time to understand individual "learner profiles." They were teachers, after all, not tutors, not psychologists.

[AdventurePoser]

[russell_bynum]

Sean, that's just crazy talk.