Anyway, thinking about leadership this semester, after a brief email conversation with my mentor, got me a little depressed. After responding to questions about me as a leader and being a risk taker kind of got me to thinking. Since No Child Left Behind and the whole AYP thing, I have found myself being less and less of a creative teacher and overall leader in my school. Many of the cool units I created and implemented in past years have fallen to the side as they don't directly correlate to 2nd grade SOL's. In the whole scope of the units, all of the SOL's were met, but not directly each day. Volunteering for extra curricular activities dwindled away to nothing and my visibility at evening school functions has all but disappeared. Scratching my head and watching my final few hairs fall to the ground, I couldn't help but wonder why my involvement has diminished. What I came up with was the amount of time spent coaching as well as the huge amount of time spent working on my Masters Program has greatly impacted my time spent participating in school activities. I also feel No Child Left Behind has negatively impacted what has made me the teacher I am (or was a few years ago). Creative and motivational activities are no longer designed as they do not seem to fit into the facts driven demands of passing the SOL's. It makes me wonder if we are actually making things worse for our students in our attempt at getting them to PASS THE TEST. What have our students really LEARNED. All will be seen I guess.
Alright I am getting off track a bit. Anyway I am hoping that my efforts to increase my activity in my school will greatly improve as my Masters Program comes to a close and my time can be spent in a variety of school activities and programs.
Interesting post! Good luck with the rest of the semester and with wrestling.
ReplyDelete