Have you notice the shortage of teachers in your school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents, please make noise about this. Too many administrations try to save money by overloading classrooms or teachers. They need to know you notice and won't accept it.

Yes, they need more money to hire an associate head of school.

Have you complained to the school half as much as you’ve complained on DCUM?

Not complaining at all. Just stating the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually private school teachers aren't paid as much. STEM teachers have other options.

Agree. That’s why “elite” schools hire mediocre math teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

Usually the above is correct.

One way someone well off can have an impact - at some schools - is to fund a dedicated endowment for a STEM teacher at a higher than typical level and stipulate specific minimum academic criteria. Contrived example: The John Smith Math Instructor position, with a salary supplement beyond usual, but requiring that the incumbent must have an MS in Mathematics or PhD in Mathematics from an accredited university. “John Smith” might be name of donor or the name of a beloved and effective math teacher who already retired.

I could never do this because we are not wealthy, but I have seen it done at established K-12 schools in a different metro.

MS/PHD/ and other educational markers don't equate to good teaching. One of the worse math teachers I ever had had advanced degrees in math and had previously worked for NASA. I couldn't understand a thing he taught that year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

Usually the above is correct.

One way someone well off can have an impact - at some schools - is to fund a dedicated endowment for a STEM teacher at a higher than typical level and stipulate specific minimum academic criteria. Contrived example: The John Smith Math Instructor position, with a salary supplement beyond usual, but requiring that the incumbent must have an MS in Mathematics or PhD in Mathematics from an accredited university. “John Smith” might be name of donor or the name of a beloved and effective math teacher who already retired.

I could never do this because we are not wealthy, but I have seen it done at established K-12 schools in a different metro.

MS/PHD/ and other educational markers don't equate to good teaching. One of the worse math teachers I ever had had advanced degrees in math and had previously worked for NASA. I couldn't understand a thing he taught that year.

I agree. But that doesn’t mean that if you hire psychologists or biologists as math teachers they will excel at teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that private school tend to pay less than public schools, in particular considering the pension and healthcare programs.

To be fair, public schools may pay more and have better benefits but teaching at a public school is usually a lot more work than teaching at private. You teach more classes per day and you may have 30+ students per class. The range of students is huge as well. Lot of time consuming tasks that teachers have to do due to district and state requirements. Classroom management is tougher. Shorter summer breaks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that private school tend to pay less than public schools, in particular considering the pension and healthcare programs.

To be fair, public schools may pay more and have better benefits but teaching at a public school is usually a lot more work than teaching at private. You teach more classes per day and you may have 30+ students per class. The range of students is huge as well. Lot of time consuming tasks that teachers have to do due to district and state requirements. Classroom management is tougher. Shorter summer breaks.

But the teachers in my private school complain about the same things. Maybe they are spoiled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

Usually the above is correct.

One way someone well off can have an impact - at some schools - is to fund a dedicated endowment for a STEM teacher at a higher than typical level and stipulate specific minimum academic criteria. Contrived example: The John Smith Math Instructor position, with a salary supplement beyond usual, but requiring that the incumbent must have an MS in Mathematics or PhD in Mathematics from an accredited university. “John Smith” might be name of donor or the name of a beloved and effective math teacher who already retired.

I could never do this because we are not wealthy, but I have seen it done at established K-12 schools in a different metro.

MS/PHD/ and other educational markers don't equate to good teaching. One of the worse math teachers I ever had had advanced degrees in math and had previously worked for NASA. I couldn't understand a thing he taught that year.

The worst math teachers I had did not even have the ability to solve their own homework assignments - they might even have had dyscalculia. They just assigned homework from the textbook (e.g., problem 3 on page 42) and used the teacher's edition of the textbook to find the numeric value of the answer. Useless at telling any student where he or she went wrong. Totally unable to answer questions. And this was for Algebra 2. ...

I am betting your bad math teacher at least could solve the problem and afterwards show what a correct solution looked like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that private school tend to pay less than public schools, in particular considering the pension and healthcare programs.

To be fair, public schools may pay more and have better benefits but teaching at a public school is usually a lot more work than teaching at private. You teach more classes per day and you may have 30+ students per class. The range of students is huge as well. Lot of time consuming tasks that teachers have to do due to district and state requirements. Classroom management is tougher. Shorter summer breaks.

But the teachers in my private school complain about the same things. Maybe they are spoiled.

Actually, what they really complain about is the parents.

[Anonymous]

DMV teacher here, been at multiple area schools.

The job has gotten much harder in the last 10 years for a multitude of reasons:

1) classes are harder to manage with kids who have much less ability to sustain focus
2) parents are more intrusive and abrasive
3) salaries have risen slowly, cost of living and stress hasn't
4) terrible work flow with inefficient tech "solutions" that make things more complex
5) societal stressors bleed into schools
6) covid fractured school cultures and they haven't recovered

I enjoy most of what I do. Kids are still on the whole refreshing and pleasant to work with.

I would also advise any young person considering it to avoid the profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that private school tend to pay less than public schools, in particular considering the pension and healthcare programs.

To be fair, public schools may pay more and have better benefits but teaching at a public school is usually a lot more work than teaching at private. You teach more classes per day and you may have 30+ students per class. The range of students is huge as well. Lot of time consuming tasks that teachers have to do due to district and state requirements. Classroom management is tougher. Shorter summer breaks.

But the teachers in my private school complain about the same things. Maybe they are spoiled.

Actually, what they really complain about is the parents.

They complain mostly about kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at all. Multiple teachers leaving on an ongoing basis during the school year definitely suggests a systemic issue with the school.

Usually the above is correct.

One way someone well off can have an impact - at some schools - is to fund a dedicated endowment for a STEM teacher at a higher than typical level and stipulate specific minimum academic criteria. Contrived example: The John Smith Math Instructor position, with a salary supplement beyond usual, but requiring that the incumbent must have an MS in Mathematics or PhD in Mathematics from an accredited university. “John Smith” might be name of donor or the name of a beloved and effective math teacher who already retired.

I could never do this because we are not wealthy, but I have seen it done at established K-12 schools in a different metro.

MS/PHD/ and other educational markers don't equate to good teaching. One of the worse math teachers I ever had had advanced degrees in math and had previously worked for NASA. I couldn't understand a thing he taught that year.

The worst math teachers I had did not even have the ability to solve their own homework assignments - they might even have had dyscalculia. They just assigned homework from the textbook (e.g., problem 3 on page 42) and used the teacher's edition of the textbook to find the numeric value of the answer. Useless at telling any student where he or she went wrong. Totally unable to answer questions. And this was for Algebra 2. ...

I am betting your bad math teacher at least could solve the problem and afterwards show what a correct solution looked like.

She just plays YouTube videos in a 50k+ school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DMV teacher here, been at multiple area schools.

The job has gotten much harder in the last 10 years for a multitude of reasons:

1) classes are harder to manage with kids who have much less ability to sustain focus
2) parents are more intrusive and abrasive
3) salaries have risen slowly, cost of living and stress hasn't
4) terrible work flow with inefficient tech "solutions" that make things more complex
5) societal stressors bleed into schools
6) covid fractured school cultures and they haven't recovered

I enjoy most of what I do. Kids are still on the whole refreshing and pleasant to work with.

I would also advise any young person considering it to avoid the profession.

Agree thats why the best teachers prefer to get a job somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

Why is there this consistent notion on this forum that someone needs a PhD in Applied Mathematics to teach Algebra 2?

[Anonymous]

Not really. In my private school the math teachers are psychologists and biologists which are not great for math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the issue is that private school tend to pay less than public schools, in particular considering the pension and healthcare programs.

To be fair, public schools may pay more and have better benefits but teaching at a public school is usually a lot more work than teaching at private. You teach more classes per day and you may have 30+ students per class. The range of students is huge as well. Lot of time consuming tasks that teachers have to do due to district and state requirements. Classroom management is tougher. Shorter summer breaks.

But the teachers in my private school complain about the same things. Maybe they are spoiled.

Actually, what they really complain about is the parents.

They complain mostly about kids.

I’ve been teaching and working in independent schools for years. I rarely hear people complain about kids except in a good natured way. It’s really complaints about the admin, followed by the parents.