Thoughts on Sat Oct 25th

Teacher motivation is a big issue in every district. In the Davenport district, the main reason is the top-down decision making that occurs with every major decision. I am currently on the committee to develop the freshman academy at Central. We started this process last year, and have deliver our recomendations by this December. This being my 4th year in Davenport, it was interesting to see how the top-down decision making from the district destroyed the motivation of this group. I could tell from the comments and actions of the veteran teachers that they had been beat down in the past and were not willing to put a lot of effort into this because we were going to be told what to do anyway. I cannot blame these people because I asked questions about this and was told about the amount of work they had put in on projects in the past only to have them shot down or trimmed beyond recognition by the central office. We are also in the process of implementing High Schools That Work and our principal is working very hard to convince the staff that this is what we will be for the forseeable future with a little success. Yet, the veteran teachers are wary because this is the next greatest program that they have been involved with in their career. The balance between effort expended and the reward for that effort doesn't exist and it is lowering the motivation of teachers.