InTASC Model Core Teaching Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the needs of each learner.
Essential Knowledge;
9(i) The teacher understands how personal identity, worldview, and prior experience affect perceptions and expectations, and recognizes how they may bias behaviors and interactions with others.
9(j) The teacher understands laws related to learners’ rights and teacher responsibilities (e.g., for educational equity, appropriate education for learners with disabilities, confidentiality, privacy, appropriate treatment of learners, reporting in situations related to possible child abuse).
Critical Dispositions;
9(m) The teacher is committed to deepening understanding of his/her own frames of reference (e.g., culture, gender, language, abilities, ways of knowing), the potential biases in these frames, and their impact on expectations for and relationships with learners and their families.
9(n) The teacher sees him/herself as a learner, continuously seeking opportunities to draw upon current education policy and research as sources of analysis and reflection to improve practice.
9(o) The teacher understands the expectations of the profession including codes of ethics, professional standards of practice, and relevant law and policy.
One discussion that we had in this class was over the legal rights we have as teachers, and the lack of rights students have in general. I found it extremely helpful to get a more realistic sense of what rights we have as teachers, and what we can do to help protect our students privacy. What goes on in my personal life, my own views on the world and other cultures will never effect my ways of teaching. I believe that if I want to be a truly effective teacher, I must let everything personal go once I step into that classroom. Opening my mind and heart for infinite amounts of learning through teaching will only make me a better educator.
3. Speech: At your school’s parent-teacher meeting, a parent asks you about the lack of curricular materials in your classroom. There are not even enough textbooks to go around. You respond publicly that the school board simply has not appropriated enough funds for school materials, and the problem is with the school board. The next morning you are greeted by the school principal and a school board member. You are told that your contract will not be renewed and,if you protest, you will receive a great deal of negative publicity and will probably become unemployable in most school districts. They advise you to leave quietly.
Is this legal? What would you do?
3. "Speech - In this situation, what the school board and principal threaten is illegal since what I said wasn't thoughtless and to just bash the school board. Attempting to black mail a teacher because they speak the truth is hypocrisy. As a teacher, I would never put the blame on a another part of the system just to save face. If I was so sure of what I said had actual grounds of validity, I would then pursue the Supreme Court. Knowing that what I said was not to denounce the school board, but to just be honest with the parents. If the school board can't own up to their own mistakes and face the parents concerns, then they should not be making those important decisions."
4. Strike: The teachers in your community have decided to strike for higher salaries. As a second-year teacher, you would also like a higher salary, but you are untenured. The school district has announced that teachers who participate in the strike will be terminated.
Is this legal? What would you do?
4. "Strike - The NEA and AFT say that a teacher can't be disciplined for fighting for better salaries or compensation, but certain states won't recognize those rights and will seek to terminate the teachers. This is an odd situation where I am a second-year teacher, yet untenured. Would I risk losing my job for a better raise at a job where it's not even permanent? If I did feel as though I was being underpaid for my position along with experience I have as a second year, I would say that I would probably not risk it, depending on a few variables. If I believed I was going to be offered a permanent job, with a clear salary raise, I would not participate. If I was not being promoted to a more secure position because of the lack of higher salaries, I would then strike. Strikes are a serious risk to take, especially with only two years of teaching under my belt."
3. Speech: At your school’s parent-teacher meeting, a parent asks you about the lack of curricular materials in your classroom. There are not even enough textbooks to go around. You respond publicly that the school board simply has not appropriated enough funds for school materials, and the problem is with the school board. The next morning you are greeted by the school principal and a school board member. You are told that your contract will not be renewed and,if you protest, you will receive a great deal of negative publicity and will probably become unemployable in most school districts. They advise you to leave quietly.
Is this legal? What would you do?
3. "Speech - In this situation, what the school board and principal threaten is illegal since what I said wasn't thoughtless and to just bash the school board. Attempting to black mail a teacher because they speak the truth is hypocrisy. As a teacher, I would never put the blame on a another part of the system just to save face. If I was so sure of what I said had actual grounds of validity, I would then pursue the Supreme Court. Knowing that what I said was not to denounce the school board, but to just be honest with the parents. If the school board can't own up to their own mistakes and face the parents concerns, then they should not be making those important decisions."
4. Strike: The teachers in your community have decided to strike for higher salaries. As a second-year teacher, you would also like a higher salary, but you are untenured. The school district has announced that teachers who participate in the strike will be terminated.
Is this legal? What would you do?
4. "Strike - The NEA and AFT say that a teacher can't be disciplined for fighting for better salaries or compensation, but certain states won't recognize those rights and will seek to terminate the teachers. This is an odd situation where I am a second-year teacher, yet untenured. Would I risk losing my job for a better raise at a job where it's not even permanent? If I did feel as though I was being underpaid for my position along with experience I have as a second year, I would say that I would probably not risk it, depending on a few variables. If I believed I was going to be offered a permanent job, with a clear salary raise, I would not participate. If I was not being promoted to a more secure position because of the lack of higher salaries, I would then strike. Strikes are a serious risk to take, especially with only two years of teaching under my belt."