Pleased to Vent about BTSA

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2001 : June : 1

Pleased to Vent about BTSA
By Amanda K.

There was one good thing about BTSA for me this year... my mentor. She was fabulous, just the most wonderful person with the best advice. She also knew to stay out of my hair when I didn't need her. She didn't harp on
all that paperwork as some mentors do, even though we did get all the CFASST exercises completed. I will say, however, that some mentors are in it for the money and are not useful at all. Other mentors are too focused on the paperwork and forget that they are supposed to be mentoring a human being. (No offense to BTSA mentors out there, I think that it is an important role, and I hope

to be a BTSA mentor someday. I know how much work you put into it, and I really admire you for your experience and the work you do for us.)

The bottom line for that BTSA is: Less Paperwork = Better BTSA Program.

As for the rest of BTSA, it was a complete waste of time. I had to laugh at the end of the year survey... which was supposed to be confidential, but it asked for my social security number purely for "offical" reasons... one question asked how BTSA had served to alleviate my stress. Well, BTSA only added to my stress. I learned nothing, absolutely nothing from that program. It was a complete repeat of things I had already learned in my credential program. Plus, it was too theoretical, and had no practical value. I had plenty of theory in school, and the CA BTSA organizers at the state level don't seem to understand that educational theory that is new to them is NOT new to those of us who are fresh out of credential programs. The BTSA people need to keep it strictly related to practical matters.

A great use for BTSA funds, in my opinion, would be to put every dime of it into allowing new teachers to go to more conferences. That way, we are learning new practical ideas from other educators and C&I experts that we can use in our daily work. Plus, we'd be able to choose what area we wanted to learn more about. In our district, we had monthly BTSA lectures on theoretical matters that I already used in my classroom. The one practical thing that we got was about five grade levels too advanced for my class.

I think that there is high potential for BTSA to be a great program. The best way to go about this is to ask the new teachers themselves what they want to know, at the beginning of the year, and then again at the end of the year. After all, real support is based on what the people in need of support want, not what some state head honcho wants.

I'm sorry this is so long, but the BTSA program has frustrated me for a year now, and I'm still facing Year 2!