At the 46 minute mark, he explains that "putting people first matters. Take care of our school family. People don't care how much you know. What they really want to know is how much you care."
The most important thing, he says, is "Our school family and what we need to do to take care of our people."
Does that include the more than 100 who have left the school district this year? Does that include the staff at McKinley Elementary, which has been almost entirely replaced as we prepare to enter the 2013-2014 school year?
10 comments:
I will give them credit for their efforts immediately after the tornado. I only wish that concern and goodwill had lasted. Instead, the funnel with the silver lining brought out the worst that ambition can do. The tornado is now a prop for opportunism at its worst, and I doubt that many employees feel appreciated. Most feel frustrated, intimidated, or overwhelmed. Teachers didn't leave because of the tornado. That was why they stayed. Teachers left because of the current abuse of power that goes unchecked.
Same "stirring" speech in the sense that a very practiced stump speech can be stirring. How many times can the same speech be given before the world figures out its an act. And a very nicely paying one, at that. Like a politician's stump speech, this routine always has the predictable catch in the throat, just the right touch of humility, and all the right catch words. Why pay for this anymore? It's online from so many different places for free!
You aren't just burning your bridges, you are literally destroying them.
Burning his bridges? The district destroyed his teaching career and attempted to destroy his reputation with innuendo and inflammatory remarks. What bridges are there to burn? Now that everyone knows what district admin will do when threatened, no one feels safe. They showed their hand.
Huff is a resume builder. And will soon be gone.
We are less than a month away from the start of school. I find it absolutely disheartening that the issues facing the district have never been openly addressed. When the doors open, there will be so many new faces, yet the new teachers will be facing the same problems as the veterans because absolutely nothing has changed. Unless something gives, I will join the new group forming who are calling themselves "the next 100," and I will take my career in another direction. The issues cannot be glossed over with a tee shirt and a trumped up celebration. That in itself is insulting, and I will not attend. I hope other teachers will begin to take a stand this year. Our students desperately need a change in direction if they are going to learn. It may be the goal of Besendorfer and Huff to "phase out" teachers they believe to be too traditional, but looking at the district's long-range data, it would appear that tradition trumps innovation.
The thought of passive resistance becomes more and more appealing. We may be required by contract to waste the 14th in meetings and listening to speeches, but nothing says we must applaud and give standing ovations. I can happily ignore the tears of CJ Huff. I can not acknowledge Angie Besendorfer and whatever stupid activity or boring speaker she has drummed up for several thousand dollars. I can leave my unwanted tee shirt draped over the chair. Sometimes silence says what words cannot, and maybe even the lame media in Joplin will pick up on those cues. That time could be so much better spent in mentoring between new teachers and mentors, student teachers and their supervisors, in classroom preparation (we only get a half-day now), and in lesson planning. It is another grotesque waste of tax dollars to put on a show that nobody wants to endure. It meant something once, but those days are long gone. I hope hundreds of you will join me in making a silent statement. We can't control much at this point, but we can control our actions and reactions.
Wow. Has he been watching Superman again?
Now, everybody knows that CJ puts the staff ahead of himself. That way he won't get trampled as they go out the door! That's just good planning, don't you see?
Oh, that's such a joke. Putting his people first. Define "your people," please. Your partners in crime, maybe.
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