Building a better teacher

I spend a lot of time thinking about my job - teaching - and how to do it better...

Bill Gates is using part of his fortune to fund research about teaching.  One pioneering concept is videotape teachers and allow outside reviewers to evaluate.  Another idea is rate teachers as "value-added":  Test the students each year to see which teachers help their students progress more than a grade level in one year.  Teachers' unions don't like the idea, but it sounds good to me.  A teacher that has class after class not progressing is obviously doing something wrong.

Another part of the research has discovered that student evaluations are pretty good at identifying good teachers.  I don't find that surprising but many in my profession don't consider student evaluations important.  Also, they found that teachers spend most of their time teaching to the test produce students with lower scores.  Hallelujah!

I am always trying to find ways to be a better teacher.  I wish others in my profession had the same attitude.  The "I'm here to collect a paycheck" attitude is something I've seen too much of at Coe, Hamilton/Kaplan and here.  I think outside reviewers, believing student evaluations, and measuring student progress are all good steps.  I am not sure that even a foundation with backing as powerful as Bill Gates will be able to convince my fellow teachers.