Texas Teacher Law

New Features

I am working to improve the usefulness and the useability of this blog.  To that end, I am introducing some new features:

categories - posts will be assigned a category based upon their topic, and links in the sidebar will enable you to pull up all posts on that topic at once.  I will be assigning categories to all previous posts, but it will take a little time before that task has been completed.

Fundamentals - each Friday will see a post discussing some specific aspect of school law

Community - I have included links to all the Texas based teacher groups that I am aware of, and I will be inviting each of them to contribute a post describing their mission, their goals, and how they serve the teaching profession.  If you are associated with a group that I have missed, please let me know and I will gladly include it as long the group is primarily involved with k-12 teaching in a school setting

Tasks on Tuesday - Tuesdays will see posts that give a short, specific task for you to do that will keep your career in order

Resources - Wednesdays will have links to or forms and templates that will help you do your job

My aim is for this site to be not only a source of information, but also a tool to help you enjoy your career.  As I get it going, jump in and let me know what helps and what else you'd like to see here.

Leadership Trickles Down

This post is a direct response to all the political finger-pointing at teachers - specifically, all the alleged "bad" teachers who are causing the ruin of our education system (a position which assumes without proving that our education was "better" in some earlier time). 

Robstown ISD school board president Rosendo Espinozo and Superintendent Roberto Garcia wrote a joint letter to TEA, without the knowledge of the remainder of the board, asking for help.  They alleged in the letter that the board was unable to conduct district business due to the behavior of several of the board members.  The Board learned of the letter from Garcia and Espinozo when they reported on the response they received from TEA.  TEA's response was basically, "shape up or we'll come down and do something."

Anyway, the story is unusual because or who the plea for TEA intervention came from, but there are teachers in many other districts who feel that their own school boards, or at least certain members, need to be taken to task and put on a growth plan, so to speak.  Unfortunately, even though many board members across the state could use a good intervention, TEA has no authority over individual board members, but they can intervene in the governance of a district in limited circumstances. 

What really caught my eye about this story in the Nueces County Record Star, however, was the very last line. "In other business Thursday, the board was informed that the district failed to meet Average Yearly Progress standards at Robstown High School, Seale Junior High School and Ortiz Intermediate."

Seems to me that the quality of leadership in a district is almost always a far better predictor of student success than anything to do with what classes a teacher took in their education program.  

Are you listening, politicians?

Welcome

I'm welcoming you to the new home on the web of the Texas Teacher Law blog.  The blog is pretty much the same, but the move to it's own domain (www.texasteacherlaw.com) and onto a new blogging platform (TypePad) opens up the ability to add new features that I hope will be helpful to all my Texas teachers out there.  Right now, you will periodically find some funky looking stuff in the sidebars, or things that don't work right, because I'm doing all this myself and I'm slow at it.  I will eventually get everything figured out and looking pretty and working smoothly, but in the meantime I am bumbling around and I ask your patience.  The posts in the middle should continue in their usual fashion, however, because even though I'm slow at tech and graphical things, I'm pretty good with words.

Please feel free to let me know if you have ideas for things I can do here that would be helpful, or if you have a tip for how to get something to work!

So have a great day at school, and come back often.

Teaching Was Always Dangerous

There is a stereotype of schoolteachers as timid, conservative, and unworldly. I'm not sure how they can be thought of that way when they are constantly surrounded by teenagers, but I guess it's the same way all parents are "square."

Anyway, I thought I would contribute to busting the myth by noting that on this day in 1859 the very first person went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She was Annie Decker, a teacher from Michigan.

There, busted a few stereotypes with that one.

It Does Matter

Humans - Americans - have coined a number of sayings to help us deal with the mundane, boring parts of life.
"Just put one foot in front of the other."
"Keep your head down and your mouth shut."
"Stay the course."
"Soldier on."

All of us ocassionally get lost while putting one foot in front of the other, because we forget to look up. I was suddenly reminded of this earlier today while reading an article on the author Anne Rice. One small comment in the story gto me thinking. Rice was talking about her college years at Texas Woman's University. The article says "In the memoir, she recalls that, while at TWU, her literary ambitions weren't exactly encouraged. One English teacher told the class that not much was expected beyond "decent sentences."
"I loathed the very thought of assuming mediocrity," Ms. Rice writes. "I barely got by." (You can see the full article here)

The teacher was obviously doing her best to get by, but had forgotten that not every day requires you to keep your head down while putting one foot in front of the other. And forty-some years later, Rice remembered.

Kids remember what their parents say to them. They also remember what their teachers say to them. We can't do anything to stop them rembering our words, and we don't get to choose which of our words make a lasting impression. The only thing we can choose, is whether our words are inspiring, or mundane.

Politics and Public Policy

I'm writing this as I watch the vice-presidential debate. Political analysis aside, I believe this is the most intelligently spoken political I have ever seen. They are all speaking in a lively, articulate manner and I've been able to watch the whole thing so far without turning away and deciding to look for the analyst's highlights tomorrow. It's a pleasure to hear people who are well able to handle extemporaneous public speaking, because if is very difficult and therefore rare to find people who are truly good at it. Biden and Palin are both good - though I make no comment on the substance or responsiveness of either candidate.

I am also reading the news from Dallas ISD on the lay-off proposal. The reported approach of the Dallas superintendent highlights to me the importance of making sure that our public servants - whether elected, appointed, or employed - have respect for the governance procedures and rule of law that our country is based upon. We can and should constantly debate the wisdom of our policies, but we should do it carefully and deliberately and with input from many perspectives, just as the founding fathers envisioned.

Therefore, I am dismayed at the possibility, apparently suggested by Dallas ISD trustees, that the superintendent is intending to implement his proposed layoffs in a way that is not in cmpliance with clearly established board policy and state law. A reduction in force for contracted public school employees can only be done in accordance with a pre-established method defined in board policy. Dallas ISD has a policy. Kudos to the trustees for paying attention to their job and making sure that they steer the district in a lawful direction. Choosing teachers to lay-off in any way other than that prescribed by the board policy will ensure great troubles, in morale, trust, and finances. Read the latest story from the Dallas Morning News.