Who benefited from the No Child Left Behind?

[AGDee]

I remember the principal coming in to observe even way back when I was in elementary and I somehow understood that they were evaluating the teacher. Performance appraisals are part of any job. We always behaved perfectly when the principal was in the room though! He was scary.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I remember the principal coming in to observe even way back when I was in elementary and I somehow understood that they were evaluating the teacher. Performance appraisals are part of any job. We always behaved perfectly when the principal was in the room though! He was scary.

We were always well-behaved when the principal was in the room, too. But he wasn't scary... he was my dad.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by agzg

We were always well-behaved when the principal was in the room, too. But he wasn't scary... he was my dad.

This reminds me of our elementary school principal...he was so tall his head scraped the tops of the doorways. He was such a nice man. Awww, happy memory

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by agzg

We were always well-behaved when the principal was in the room, too. But he wasn't scary... he was my dad.

In my case, that would be even MORE scary! But, our elementary principal was really tall and really big. He was completely bald and had a mole right on top of his head. He was scary looking. I don't think I ever saw him smile. He walked slightly hunched, kind of like a woman with osteoporosis. I can picture his walk in my head. Lumbering is the word that comes to mind. He would lumber down the hall with a scowl on his face and kids would just scatter as far away from him as they could.

[PM_Mama00]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Yes, but some of these new programs are focusing on getting these teacher candidates into the classroom much faster and for a much longer period of time before they're off on their own.

I think that's what they do with the Early Childhood majors. They do an internship in the beginning, and then the student teaching at the end. I know UMD does that, but I'm not sure about other schools.

That is awesome. And it is even more awesome that your administration paid attention. My experience has always been that those situations were unwinnable, thus were battles not worth fighting. Did you by any chance go to a school where teachers weren't tenured? I do think tenure is a blight on our education system (at least in the K-12 context) and needs to go. Before we can even talk about holding administrators accountable, we have to let them be able to hire and fire so that they can get the people they want so that they can implement their strategies for success. It's all about making education more focused on the students than on the employees and institutions which deliver it.

I'm not sure if our teachers had tenure back then. I know we got stuck with a HORRIBLE professor that was pretty suspect and they couldn't let him go cuz of his tenure. Boo on that.

As far as principals, our elementary one was loved by everyone. He made the school fun: we had a black cat named Angelo as a mascot. They let him roam the halls. He was Irish, so every St Patrick's Day he had this HUGE rock brought in and told us it was the Blarney Stone, so every year we'd go down and take pictures by it. He was really cool. I got along great iwth my high school VP and I was his assistant one year. I got along with my counselor too but I was the kid who liked being in school. I'd go back to HS in a second and do it all over again.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by AGDee

In my case, that would be even MORE scary! But, our elementary principal was really tall and really big. He was completely bald and had a mole right on top of his head. He was scary looking. I don't think I ever saw him smile. He walked slightly hunched, kind of like a woman with osteoporosis. I can picture his walk in my head. Lumbering is the word that comes to mind. He would lumber down the hall with a scowl on his face and kids would just scatter as far away from him as they could.

My dad's tall, big, and bald, but smiley, no mole, doesn't lumber.

Plus, the kids loved him. Every day he'd stand out in the lobby and greet the kids coming in, and they all gave him hugs. He also set fun goals for them. If the kids in first grade read X number of books in a time period, he'd wear a chicken costume to school when it was done. Another time he did something similar, but for math, and since the school was only two stories (at that time) he conducted business from the roof (no children were sent to his "office" that day) where all the kids could see him when they were on recess. He also (and this is the benefit of being in a small, rural school) knew each child by first, last, and often middle name, knew their parents names, and knew where most of them lived. He would take a lot of kids home if they missed their busses.

I realize I'm a little biased, but my dad was like the best elementary school principal ever. It was really really hard for him to let go and retire, but with all the sadness that happened in our family the year he retired and the realization that things really had changed since he started, he made the right move by retiring. Better to go out on top while everyone loves you than to hold on too long and become the old crotchety principal that everyone hates.

ETA: My MOM (God rest her soul and you know how I feel about her) was the one to be afraid of if we got into trouble at school. For me, at least, my dad is a total pushover. I'm pretty sure I could get him to sign the deed of his house over to me if I asked nicely enough. He wasn't that way for all kids (here comes the preferential treatment part) so whenever I got into trouble and got sent to his office, he had to call mom who would come in and punish me.