Friday, June 28, 2013

Joplin Schools Watch addresses administration's Big Brother tendencies

In their second post on their Joplin Schools Watch blog, reporters Laela Zaidi and Rylee Hartwell, both Joplin High School students, address Tuesday night's board meeting, including a mostly overlooked (except in the Turner Report) new $20,000 device that will enable upper administration to receive immediate feedback on whether teachers are implementing their new initiatives and technology in the manner expected.

The Big Brother comparisons are apt.

The application will allow administrators and technology specialists, presumably Technology Learning Coaches, to live monitor one-to-one technology implementation. This will put teachers into a position where their artistic teaching abilities are placed in jeopardy, as many teachers still do not use fully use technology to administrators standards. However, this app will force educators to make lessons plans which are technology driven.The cost of the application is $19,200.Other policies adopted include a $15,000 plan to put Wi-Fi on four school buses. The cost will be covered by the Joplin Schools Foundation. Huff explained why the Wi-Fi was necessary, “On the long conference trips, the students will be able to do homework. We’ll be wired up and on the road.”
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:38 PM

    Oh, surely that one percent raise will make up for any inconveniences the teachers feel they have suffered!
    My goodness, what more can people want! I'm sure that feedback from the new program will seem like a blessing to teachers as they flounder around, trying to figure out what the heck they are supposed to do from one day to the next.

    Shoot, this is a blessing in disguise! Teachers don't even have to think. They have TLCs to model lessons and administrators to monitor their every move. What a cake job teaching is now. I wonder, then, why so many are fleeing Joplin?

    I wonder what else might have been purchased with the funds spent on this latest initiative? And yet, it is approved without so much as a blink of an eye.

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  2. Anonymous7:59 AM

    What about all of the new teachers who haven't had the training, such as it is, or the experience using the technology? Not only do they have the pressure to adjust, now they know they'll be constantly monitored.

    This is just one of many reasons Joplin teachers left and are leaving. An overly intrusive, micromanaging, mean spirited upper level administration with more initiatives than common sense is driving them out. And despite their ridiculous claims in their Stadards of Excellence, no one believes they care that the teachers left. If they did, the Board would be insisting on immediate, visible, transparent changes. Instead there has been this purchase, a one percent raise, and tremendous silence.

    Thank you for speaking out about the schools. Certainly, the media won't.

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