SLO's or Value Added? Take your pick?

The district I will be teaching in next year, Dover City Schools, has been conducting meetings for Student Growth Measures and Student Learning Objectives. I attended one recently and had a few thoughts. First of all, I wondered why would I need to learn about this? I am a Value-Added teacher so I don't need to learn about the SGM's. Maybe this is just something that all first year teachers have to go through. I had been operating under the assumption that I didn't need to write SLO's because the value-added data would make up the SGM portion for OTES. As it turns out, we may have the opportunity to include a percentage of SLO data into our SGM even if we are value-added. Also, we may not have to write them now, but give the legislators a few more years and we'll see what happens.

But seriously, I actually liked a few aspects of the SLO process. A FEW not all. Here are a few of my random thoughts:

I was surprised at how east the SLO's seem to be to write. The template seems pretty straight forward. 

I am not thrilled about spending time to write these rather than spending time on curriculum.

Easy is not a word I would use to describe the Tiered Growth Target portion.

I like that I would be reading and interpreting the data rather than another agency (ODE, Batelle).

I like that I would have control over the growth targets.

All of this leads me to a question for those of you reading this. Would you rather take the gamble on OAA's and OGT's, or go throught all the work to write your own growth targets? Would you rather be a teacher that is all value-added, or a teacher that has to write SLO's? I find this interesting. Please let me know your thoughts on this one.

Remember your Inspiration

I recently returned from volunteering at a 4-H summer camp. If you are not familiar with 4-H, it is an organized youth development program that allows children in ages 9-18 take projects that are hands-on learning and geared towards real-life application. Projects range from sewing, model rockets to livestock projects that will be exhibited at the county fair. I have helped with this camp for 12 out of the last 15 years. It is a wonderful experience for all of those involved.

This year I found myself thinking about my first year there as a camp counselor. It was the summer between my Junior and Senior year of High School. I was in a cabin of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade campers. I had a blast. I was so happy to see the kids having fun and I enjoyed helping them learn new things and meet new people. I didn't realize how happy I was until after all of the campers left. I stared around the empty and silent cabin. I was beside myself. I knew in that moment that I had to do something with my life that would put me in the presence of children all of the time. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I enjoyed the relationships with the kids and I enjoyed leading others and stepping up when leadership was needed.

I wanted to share this with you because in the midst of new legislation and mandates and summer we sometimes lose our way. We forget why we became educators; for the kids! Let's not get lost in all of it. You might think I'm crazy for spending my summer doing some of the same stuff that I would do during the school year, but let me tell you it has energized me for the coming year. OTES, OAA and SLO's be damned, I will start the  year remembering my inspiration. Although in August I may have to revisit this post myself to get that extra push to really get motivated for the year.