This is immediately followed by a District vodcast with amazing graphics. The District people used to try to justify their salaries by dazzling us with amazing Powerpoint slide shows. Those years are almost over. Today, to justify why your department even exists at the Taj Mahal (our name for the extravagantly well decorated District headquarters), you need to produce a vodcast with twirling graphics, largely inspired by what you see on network newscasts. A District "Specialist" usually explains us how to teach, because just as we are being observed by people who have not taught in years, based on a protocol designed by people who have NEVER been in a classroom, we need to learn new tricks from a guy sitting all day in an office at the Taj, thinking about his next well-designed, graphics-twirling, vodcast.
So, Anthony (the "Specialist") inserts some humor into his presentation to distract us from the fact that after 2 minutes, he has used more acronyms than the IRS auditor used during your last audit. Of course, nothing makes any sense, as the evaluation this year will be based on a different "domain" than last year, but we are supposed to demonstrate progress nevertheless.
We are to create a "Personal Growth Plan." It used to be called "Professional Development Plan," but just as Marzano has renamed teachers "educators" and rubrics "scales," he also has the power to rename whatever useless paperwork we have to do, and make it more cumbersome at the same time. That is what Marzano sells: air in a nice package.
The principal explains how we can use unison response as a way to measure how many students are in fact getting the concept being taught, and I remember fondly being marked negatively on previous evaluation for asking questions prompting a unison response. So, now, it means that I was right all this time? Who's to say that the "truth" they're feeding us today won't be contradicted in a few years once the State or the District finds a new guru? Everyone nods at what she says, as if we were in agreement, while in fact I KNOW that the word "bullshit" is being thought at this very moment by a vast majority of us. This makes me laugh, and people wonder what I can possibly find funny in this.
Oh, how I wish I could find the courage to stand up and open my mouth, rebel against this ridiculous system. But I remain seated quietly, and the conversation evolves on how some teachers fail to release their students on time. Apparently, tracking the passage of time is getting more and more difficult, now that we are surrounded by electronics. A teacher complains that her "computer time" does not match "school time." I am happy for her that she has the opportunity to even look at her computer. When I teach, I teach, and I don't look at a computer screen.
Tomorrow, I will request the creation of a "Time Committee," whose task will be to convene on a regular basis to discuss what Time is, how it should be defined, how it is measured, and how it should be communicated to all so we all feel like we are on the same page. I shall request to preside over the Time Committee's proceedings, and hopefully it will be less of a waste of time than today's PDD.
