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By Dr. Harry Tennant

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Trends: How Accountable Will We All End Up Being?

EdConnections Posted by Dan S. Martin
Many social media on the internet now provide a forum for speech of all kind, including some examples we might wish away.

"Is ignorance bliss?"  I asked myself this question for days before I wrote this post.  Or, "is forewarned forearmed?"

So many other questions about it had me leaning against writing about the topic.  After discussing it with a number of other educators, however, none of whom were aware the website below and others like it exist, I decided to post about it. 

Indeed, there are other such websites.  And the likelihood that there will be more with rising participation is very high.  The internet gives individuals a stage (and a huge potential audience) to voice their opinion on people, places, and things.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Guilty by opinion.  Praised if lucky, uh, I mean deserving.  It is all so public.

Much like the teacher-ratings for individual teachers many states are now publicizing (I wrote about it in a blog entry-- In The News: California Teacher Ratings Released; New York Teacher Ratings Release Delayed), this can feel downright personal and, I bet, can often be off-the-mark!  In fact, though those official ratings in the LA Times might get seen by more people, the types of comments that can be left on sites like the one below can certainly produce as least as much damage even when viewed by fewer people.

So, in considering whether to post on this topic, I came down on the side of.......when in a mine field, isn't it best to know as much about the situation as possible?  What can we as individuals do to best navigate this mine field?  What are the implications for education professionals, campuses, and districts?  Clearly it is better to consider these questions sooner rather than later.


Click Here To Go To The Website

When school personnel consider these questions sooner rather than later, potential problems can be more easily defused and this potential "threat" can actually become an opportunity!!!  That is the ticket!

A few questions and suggestions for you to consider:
  • Do criticisms of your school or the administration by personnel mean that these employees (often teachers) understand but disagree, or does it mean they don't understand? In other words, is better communication within the school needed? 
  • Could comments on TeacherVoice about your school provide insights and a starting point for important discussions with the staff?
  • If there are one or two disgruntled comments, is that representative of the entire staff?  You may choose to ask the staff.  If the answer is yes, maybe you should do something about it. If the answer is no, maybe you should encourage your teachers to join in the TeacherVoice discussion and tell the positive side of the story.
  • Is there a channel for complaints from staff within the school, and do you take it seriously? If not, you're nearly forcing people with problems to make them public.
  • Do prospective teachers check you out on TeacherVoice or similar sites (almost certainly, they do)? If so, you'd better know what's being said about you. If it's inaccurate, take steps to fix it. If it's embarrassing, take steps there too.
  • Google your school periodically to see what's being said about you.
  • If you have a positive environment in the school, you might encourage your staff to post comments. If these sites can improve the reputation of the school, you'll likely be able to hire better staff members than otherwise. That's good for the school and will be good for the other teachers there.
  • Take your story to the Web. Have an informative and up-to-date website. Keep the community informed through newsletters, blogs and the rest. By taking the information initiative, it's more likely that your story will be told. If sites like TeacherVoice bring to light that something needs to be fixed, announce plans to fix it on your website. (You needn't refer to the complaints as the impetus to make the improvements.)
Thank you Dr. Tennant for your contributions to the end of the post!

Posted at 6:13 PM Keywords: Trends , Teacher Voice , Accountability 0 Comments
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