If you're really fed up with some administrator, and other teachers whom you know are fed up, too... why not just ask for a meeting with the new 'Soup'. Tell it like it is, and hope that he'll take you seriously. I know a couple of administrators who deserve more serious punishment than a simple "Good-Bye".
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Any time I see Dr. Sanchez, he's working, working working. He's working on curriculum, attendance, policies, articulation etc etc. I wish he would stay with LCPS; he'd be a tremendous asset to our downtown instruction office. The best thing that's come along in a long time!
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Blogger, what did you find out about Dr. Sanchez? I want to know why we have money for him and we need to layoff 300 employees in the schools? Dr. Sanchez is here until August. At that time the district will probably hire an Assoc Supt for Instruction. He came to Las Cruces as a favor to Stan Rounds. He worked at the the state level in education and taught for many years before retiring.
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Our district is broke, yet we are hiring yet another high dollar associate superintendent position. I was told by my student teacher that she was told there would most likely be no new hires for teachers. If we don't have enough money for teachers, we don't have enough money for another high dollar associate superintendent. You could pay three or four teachers for the kind of money just so one of the big wigs downtown makes. What is our district about? Are we about teaching and learning or are we about politics and lining the pockets of the few chosen ones downtown?
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I have heard that Dr. Sanchez is changing all of our assessments. What is the point--he will be here another month? Is he getting kick backs from a publisher? Is he Sonia Diaz reincarnated? Hopefully Mr. Rounds will see through him.
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Is it true that Dr. Sanchez is going to dump the DRA before we even have a chance to use it for some online assessment? Here we go on the roller coaster again!
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Looks like LCPS has too many employees. Lets see if the Board of Education will support Mr. Rounds in making some hard decisions. The only way that will happen is if Mr. Rounds can dance very fast without stepping on any toes. Good luck with that one!
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In response to the comment regard Sheryl White and the Teacher's Center: Maybe the person who oversees Sheryl White will open their eyes and do something so that she won't have to be working 70+ hours a week. After all, she has been the only stable employee in the Instruction department besides Betsy Bennett and Sally Velez. She is by far one of the hardest working Central Office employees that I know exists. If everyone in the district followed the example that she set, we would be leaps and bounds ahead of the other districts in New Mexico. Instead, we have people who criticize those that do good. I guess that's why we keep being the laughing stock of school districts in New Mexico.
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Why doesn't the new super start at mid-level and work up?? For example, eliminate the Coordinator for Safe/Drug Free Schools and let Ms. Bennett run the show. The current coordinator has a tendency to take credit for his employee's hard work. He also has a habit of "running off" all its dedicated employee's. Whats the status of Mr. Peace?? We still need him to help in the gang/drug problem. The current programs/curriculum is a farce. Starting here would be a good start. Don't eliminate the ground zero employee's, without them, the school system would crumble.
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Not only do we have Dr. Sanchez consulting, we now have the arrogant Herb Torres consulting in human resources. The district was going to hire him, but ran into a problem with the university. So he is now "consulting". Don't insult our intelligence. We know where this is headed. Right to the Assoc Supt for Operations. Check the job description - looks like it was written just for ole Herb.
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AES students do benefit from having someone work as their advocate...the same way any learner would. AES students do benefit from being challenged and from higher-level critical thinking projects...the same way any student does. AES students do benefit from having a "go-to person" to advise them on course work and learning...get it?
posted by LCPS1 @ 6:14 AM
7 Comments:
I'm glad to see that someone out there is in agreement that Mr. Zamora needs to go. He is nothing but an arrogant, farse, egotistical and incompetent man. He has run off good QUALIFIED employees. It's a shame that he has "ADMINISTRATION" employees fooled. We can not afford to keep this monster in our district. ZAMORA NEEDS TO GO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LCPS is in sad shape. Teachers are overworked, blamed and asked to do the impossible. Currently, teachers seem to want stablility. Let's start the new school year with no changes: same attendence form, same lunch form, same report cards, same IEP forms! Teachers are the flunckies - make parents happy, make principals happy, make the state happy. Do not discipline the dear little children you might harm their self concepts. What is with different demands at the schools? What is with the lesson plans withstandards and benchmarks? You know the ones the substitute can not make heads or tales out of them . Most teachers make separate lesson plans for substitutes or come in very sick in order not to make separate lesson plans! Aren't the teachers suppose to follow the approved curriculum? If the approved curriculum is mandated by CO people, shouldn't they read the standards and benchmarks prior to selecting the curriculum? Hmmmm
Also I question the future of quality education in the future. Teachers are dropping like flies. They are retiring or counting the days before they retire. Many are living off drugs to survive the attacks made on them daily and pretending nothing is wrong. I haven't seen so many burnt out teachers in ages. Perhaps administration should take a hard look at what they are demanding. Soon there will be no sane teachers left!
I can't take this anymore! I am going to quit!
I sure hope Dr. Sanchez does not kill the DRA tests. I actually feel like they are going to help me with my instruction next year. I do not wish to be trained on yet one more thing!!! I am so tired of us adopting something, getting good at it and then throwing it out the window for something new. Can't we ever just be allowed to keep something long enough to get good at it?
How is it that this blog has gone from a worthwhile way for people to discuss serious topics to the electronic equivalent of the teachers lounge?
About 8 years ago, I completed an internship at one of the elementary schools here as a requirement for my Master's in Counseling degree. Up to that time, I had seriously considered becoming a school counselor--I love kids, believe strongly in public education, the schedule was wonderful, and the idea that I would actually be paid halfway decently and get some retirement benefits were all very, very appealing. Thank God I did the internship.
Over the semester, I got to listen to the inside chatter of all the teachers in the lunch lounge everyday. Almost all of it was just endless complaining: denigrating their students, denigrating their supervisors, gossiping about someone else and how much money they got, b**tching about how they had to submit this form or that report. Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch. I never saw such a bunch of unhappy people who felt and took no control over their own lives in my life. I decided then and there that there was NO WAY I would sacrifice my own health to work in an environment I hated.
What I also noticed was the effective teachers-- the ones who seemed to enjoy their work and kids, got good results in their classrooms, and accepted as mature adults that the work world is flawed and imperfect-- were rarely if ever in the lunch lounge at all. What I saw was those teachers were usually taking their lunch in their class rooms or with their students or maybe one on one with a collegue discussing educational issues. They were not wasting precious time wallowing in and venting negativity, but instead chose to engage in productive and self sustaining activity.
That is what I see, unfortunately, has happened on this website. Constant catty and negative commentary. Constant whining that you don't make enough money, when the truth is teachers are being paid record salaries and raises here in the district. Gossip that has no purpose other than to zing someone you are envious of or disagree with. Petty, nasty small minded s**t.
There is a difference between productive descriptions of problems, and plain ole' garden variety whining, folks. The thing is, if you are feeling hopeless, angry, blaming and helpless all the time, it is a sign of depression and burn out. That is a real thing, a valid issue for the profession you are in and you deserve to address it by seeking out some supportive mentoring or counseling before it kills you. Hanging around other people in an endless "misery loves company" coffee break doesn't help anyone feel any better--you just reinforce how bad you feel, tear down your energy reserves, stunt your creativity. You reinforce the wrong-headed notion that things are hopeless to change. Which, of course, is wrong.
Is it really worth turning into the proverbial unhappy, unhealthy crabby 3rd grade teacher who yells all day at her students for the last 10 years of her career, goes home exhausted every night, and no one likes? Is it possible that some of you need to move on to bigger or greener pastures, challenging yourself with new and refreshing ways to use your God-given talents and experience---instead of staying stuck in a place that is not giving you what you need?
At the very least, stop hanging out with people who just reflect and magnify your own misery. The damn retirement check won't be worth anything if you croak six weeks after retirement.
This link seems to provide Dr. Sanchez' professional background:
http://www.educationcenternm.com/SanchezResume.pdf
Maybe it would help teacher morale if the district would start paying for unused sick leave when a teacher retires. That way, teachers would feel more inclined to keep teaching up to the last day rather than create "fluff" lesson plans for substitutes.
Students would get more quality instruction time. As it is now, many retiring teachers call in sick for the last few weeks - or months. I'm not saying its right - just reality.
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