Teachers in New York State received a special Teacher Appreciation Week email message from the state education commissioner this week that, in addition to expressing thanks “for all the work you do every day” etc., spent a few paragraphs fleshing out the details of the state’s new evaluation system. N.Y.C. teacher Ms. Eyre scratches her head:
Usually when I tell someone that I appreciate them, I don't tell them that I'm going to be figuring out a new way to evaluate their performance (and presumably re-evaluate exactly how much I appreciate them) in the next breath. But maybe that's just me. ... I'm thinking of getting a different Mother's Day card for my mom, for example. "Thank you for everything you did as my mother. In the next few months, I'm going to roll out an evaluation system that will allow me to compare you with other moms across the state on a variety of metrics, including post-college income and marital happiness, among the similar daughters of similar mothers."
And if you can’t get enough love (or at least acknowledgement of some sort), the Ed Week Commentary team has put together a nice sampling of Teacher Appreciation Week tweets, from the glowing to the cynical. Enjoy it while it lasts.