NY times op ed on the teacher crisis

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I agree with some earlier posters that talking about emails is a bit of a red herring. Every profession (and presumably teachers want to be considered a profession not just a job) deals with long hours and annoying emails.

The difference for me, and frankly the thing they should actually be complaining about, is the behavior of the kids and especially the violence. That should be 100% unacceptable. No student or teacher should go to school knowing there’s a non-insignificant chance that they’ll be hurt today.

If teachers rallied around that one issue only then they’d get full support from the community - and therefore the lawmakers - and we could actually keep teachers (and kids!) safe. I think that would help a lot.

No, they wouldn't get full support from the community. We don't have support from admins on this. We don't have support from school boards on this. Why do you imagine "the community" would support us? There'd be push back from all kinds of groups of people.

+1. The people supporting discipline are reviled as racist or ableist or not respectful of the kid's lived experience or something.

Yep. The behaviour is kids is pretty much the only (and it is huge) valid complain teachers have and it absolutely needs to change how schools deal with it. It is sad that it wont likely change bc everyone is too afraid it isn’t PC, and the backlash they would receive.

All the other teacher complains are pretty much complaints everyone has about their job

I agree about the discipline but I think you're naive to think that their other complaints are petty and incidental. There are huge systemic problems with our education system that teachers are forced to grapple with. Schools are not adequately funded, particularly when viewed in the context of our other inadequately funded social safety net programs. Even as teachers are underpaid, schools are forced to pick up the slack in non-educational areas as well. Right wing policymakers are trying to side-step dealing with these inadequacies with programs like vouchers and charter schools; but this is foolish. None of the successful educational systems in other parts of the world use vouchers or charters.

Schools are adequately funded, in fact, better funded than most of the world. But the funds are misused. Schools can’t and shouldn’t function as the provider of a days worth of food, therapies, counselling, medical needs, clothing closet, etc. School is an educational institution and needs to start functioning solely as such. Majority of educational funds are inappropriately allocated for social welfare purposes.

Students can't function adequately as educational institutions if the students don't have counseling, medical services, and food. Generally speaking those other areas of the world you're talking about have social safety nets that take care of those needs so schools don't have to. Also the majority of education funds go to payroll, and the majority of that is teachers and admin.

Schools would function so much better if they actually focused on what the should be focusing on- education. All the other non school related social things that schools take on are crap and not even helpful. It is just a money and time waste. Students aren’t any better off for these sub par “services”

I think the point is that we CAN'T just focus on "education" given the societal problems many students face, because there's no other safety net in society for them to get the things they need to just be "EDUCATED." Have you ever tried to teach math to a kid who comes to school on an empty stomach? (Or worse, on a bag of Skittles and a can of Red Bull?) Teach a kid to read who's on 4 hours of sleep because they were up playing video games all night bc their parent was at work (or whatever other reason) and not supervising? Tried to calm down an escalated, hysterical 6 year old who has a total melt down at a slightly raised voice or minor peer conflict because they've experienced so much trauma that their little brain operates wholly on "flight or fight" to every single perceived threat? Consoled a kid who fell asleep the previous night to their parents fighting and dad beating the crap out of mom? Tried to offer support to a student whose family had to leave their home in the middle of the night to flee a domestic violence situation? That's why schools have stepped in.

(All of the above are situations I experienced in my mere two years as a teacher...plus more I didn't list...and this wasn't even in a poor, inner city school or anything. It was in Burke, Virginia. Which is to say that it's not even comparable to the situations that educators are up against in say, West Baltimore.)

I get it, but schools can’t fix this (poor parenting, home trauma, junk food) no matter how hard we try. No one has an empty stomach. Kids are more obese than ever. So now schools throw pop tarts at them and try to fix their home trauma? Not happening. Sorry, schools can’t do it so we should stop funneling money to these social problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with some earlier posters that talking about emails is a bit of a red herring. Every profession (and presumably teachers want to be considered a profession not just a job) deals with long hours and annoying emails.

The difference for me, and frankly the thing they should actually be complaining about, is the behavior of the kids and especially the violence. That should be 100% unacceptable. No student or teacher should go to school knowing there’s a non-insignificant chance that they’ll be hurt today.

If teachers rallied around that one issue only then they’d get full support from the community - and therefore the lawmakers - and we could actually keep teachers (and kids!) safe. I think that would help a lot.

No, they wouldn't get full support from the community. We don't have support from admins on this. We don't have support from school boards on this. Why do you imagine "the community" would support us? There'd be push back from all kinds of groups of people.

+1. The people supporting discipline are reviled as racist or ableist or not respectful of the kid's lived experience or something.

Yep. The behaviour is kids is pretty much the only (and it is huge) valid complain teachers have and it absolutely needs to change how schools deal with it. It is sad that it wont likely change bc everyone is too afraid it isn’t PC, and the backlash they would receive.

All the other teacher complains are pretty much complaints everyone has about their job

I agree about the discipline but I think you're naive to think that their other complaints are petty and incidental. There are huge systemic problems with our education system that teachers are forced to grapple with. Schools are not adequately funded, particularly when viewed in the context of our other inadequately funded social safety net programs. Even as teachers are underpaid, schools are forced to pick up the slack in non-educational areas as well. Right wing policymakers are trying to side-step dealing with these inadequacies with programs like vouchers and charter schools; but this is foolish. None of the successful educational systems in other parts of the world use vouchers or charters.

Schools are adequately funded, in fact, better funded than most of the world. But the funds are misused. Schools can’t and shouldn’t function as the provider of a days worth of food, therapies, counselling, medical needs, clothing closet, etc. School is an educational institution and needs to start functioning solely as such. Majority of educational funds are inappropriately allocated for social welfare purposes.

Students can't function adequately as educational institutions if the students don't have counseling, medical services, and food. Generally speaking those other areas of the world you're talking about have social safety nets that take care of those needs so schools don't have to. Also the majority of education funds go to payroll, and the majority of that is teachers and admin.

Schools would function so much better if they actually focused on what the should be focusing on- education. All the other non school related social things that schools take on are crap and not even helpful. It is just a money and time waste. Students aren’t any better off for these sub par “services”

I think the point is that we CAN'T just focus on "education" given the societal problems many students face, because there's no other safety net in society for them to get the things they need to just be "EDUCATED." Have you ever tried to teach math to a kid who comes to school on an empty stomach? (Or worse, on a bag of Skittles and a can of Red Bull?) Teach a kid to read who's on 4 hours of sleep because they were up playing video games all night bc their parent was at work (or whatever other reason) and not supervising? Tried to calm down an escalated, hysterical 6 year old who has a total melt down at a slightly raised voice or minor peer conflict because they've experienced so much trauma that their little brain operates wholly on "flight or fight" to every single perceived threat? Consoled a kid who fell asleep the previous night to their parents fighting and dad beating the crap out of mom? Tried to offer support to a student whose family had to leave their home in the middle of the night to flee a domestic violence situation? That's why schools have stepped in.

(All of the above are situations I experienced in my mere two years as a teacher...plus more I didn't list...and this wasn't even in a poor, inner city school or anything. It was in Burke, Virginia. Which is to say that it's not even comparable to the situations that educators are up against in say, West Baltimore.)

I get it, but schools can’t fix this (poor parenting, home trauma, junk food) no matter how hard we try. No one has an empty stomach. Kids are more obese than ever. So now schools throw pop tarts at them and try to fix their home trauma? Not happening. Sorry, schools can’t do it so we should stop funneling money to these social problems.

Let's have a moment of silence for all the time wasted trying to explain something to this person...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I absolutely adored my job as a high school math teacher. Seriously, the 7:30-3:30 part was amazing. The kids were fun, the teaching was meaningful, and I enjoyed the challenge.

I quit in June.

I found a job making $50k more than my teaching salary making slide decks for a government contractor. How do you turn that down? $70k-$120k is a no brainer. It's going to pay for my kids to go to college.

Do you work the same hours? Have the same amount of time off?

Way way way less hours, way more flexibility. I have gone to sleep by 11 pm every night since I started the new job. In teaching, the kids left at 3:30 but I always brought piles of work home. I'd work until 10 pm on a good night, 2 am on a rough night, and usually at least 5-6 hours on the weekend. The amount of effort it takes to make good lessons and provide real feedback is unreal. I was sick all the time from lack of sleep, and I had taught for almost 15 years. It wasn't 1st year teacher burnout.

Now? I get to work from home 3 days a week. If I have a doctor's appointment I flex an hour instead of having to create an entire day's worth of sub plans in addition to my regular work. I have 6 weeks PTO plus the week between Christmas and NYD my company is shut down, so less than a teacher but not drastically so. My contract as a teacher was 195 days - 5 PTO days = 190 days (38 weeks), my contract with my new employer is 260 days - 10 holidays - 30 days PTO - 5 days shut down = 215 days = 43 weeks. So 5 weeks (13%) more than before, but they're at home and they're 40-50 hour weeks max, instead of 60+. Plus, 70% more money.

Regardless, I can't pay bills with time off. College tuition can't be paid with winter break. Private sector salaries have ballooned in the last decade, while after 13 years of teaching I only made $11k more than I did when I started. If pay can't keep up, anyone who has the skills to leave is going to.

Maybe teachers should be paid more, and expected to work 12 months per year. Instead of all the breaks they get, time kids aren’t in school on breaks can be used for planning and professional development. It is silly to expect teachers to only work the hours students are in the building. That isn’t realistic. Teaching should be considered, and compensated, as a full time job 12 month per year with 2-4 weeks vacation they can take on any days kids they are not expected to be in building teaching.

I think if school were 2 less hours per day or 1 less days per week, it could be year round and work. That is how much extra time teaching requires to keep it to an 8-9 hour a day workload. If you're going to make it 12 months but keep it 7 hour school days and 5 days a week of lessons and grading, then you need to double all salaries at minimum. The only way most teachers survive September - June is because of July and August.

I’m not saying students should be in school 12 months, just teachers. They should get the bulk of their planning and training done in June,July, August- while students are not there. Working 8-10 hrs per day during the school year should be acceptable. Most professionals put in somewhere between 8-12 hrs per day on a regular basis with no official overtime pay, just their salary

Ahh sorry, I misunderstood. Like the other poster said, most of my work couldn't have been done in the summer. Grading and providing feedback had to be done real time. When the kids took a test on tuesday, the only option was to grade it tuesday night. No matter how much work I put into July, it still needed graded on Tuesday in October.

I had piles of great lessons from years prior that I'd created, but they needed modified in real time. One year's kids need extra practice with equations while the next year they come in super strong with solving equations but act like they've never evaluated using negative signs. You find holes on Monday and modify tomorrow's lesson on Monday afternoon to address these weak points on Tuesday.

It's just not something you could prep for in advance most of the time, at least not the super time consuming day to day things. I needed 2 more hours a day, not 2 months in the summer.

Goodness. How does it take 2 hours a day to modify a basic math lesson? It’s not differential equations. I can’t stand when people pretend their jobs are harder than they are.

You’ve never taught, have you?

It’s not 2 hours of modifying lessons. It’s 2 hours of modifying lessons and grading and providing feedback and remediating kids with extra support after school. It’s making videos of the day’s lesson for absent kids, sending instructions to the homebound teacher for the kids (plural, always more than one each year) in the psych hospital, and emailing families to CYA so when the kid fails math and doesn’t walk at graduation I have documentation of communication at least once per month.

The lesson modifying was 45 minutes or so to adjust and copy if I’d taught the course before, maybe 2 hours to make for the first time.

And yes, one year it was differential equations. The next year that class was gone because we didn’t have enough kids taking it, so all the work was only good for 1 year.

All of this was supposed to be accomplished in the 3 hours of planning I had per week.

But you’re probably right and I’m inventing stories of how time consuming it was. That’s why people are flocking to be teachers and it’s really hard to find a position right now…right?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

+1000 if teachers think there's no annoying emails in the corporate sector that they will need to respond to, they are sorely mistaken. Also, I constantly hear "working outside of contract hours" as a reason they dislike the job. I don't know any corporate employee that doesn't. In fact, I go to my DD's activity several nights a week and there are a few moms that are teachers and they are NEVER working, but nearly every other working parent there is tethered to their laptop and cell phone.

I just don't buy it. Now, issues like ill behaved children and lack of support from their admin... those seem much more valid reasons to quit.

I'm sorry you don't buy what the teachers in this thread are telling you about their lived experience. There's not much more they can do.

NP. But the things being complained about are pretty much present in every single profession. Long hours, “overtime”, annoying emails, using your own money and resources toward something to do to with your job. To me, these are standard issues every professional adult deals with at work.

Right? I could say all of the same things about my job. Especially the overtime part. I'm never really off. I have clients texting/calling/emailing all hours of the day. I know teachers are off most evenings (at least my kids') because of how long it takes them to respond. In all of our years at school, I've only had one teacher regularly respond within 24 hours. And I'm not a parent that emails a whole lot. That would be absolutely unacceptable in my job.

I'm not saying they aren't dealing with annoying emails and overtime, I'm sure they are, but if those are the deal breakers ... well, there's a lot of jobs that aren't going to be a great fit for you. Not sure what to say.

Do you realize teachers don’t sit at a desk staring at a computer all day like you do at your job? When I was a teacher I never sat down, never had time to check email let alone respond to it until after hours because I was…teaching.

PP you are quoting. I love how you assume that my job entails being at a desk all day. It does not. Some days, I am not in front of my computer at all and I respond to all emails after hours. I get pulled in a million directions a day ... just like a teacher. And I could chill out that an email wasn't replied to in 24 hours if it didn't turn into a week+ after a reminder email. That is my experience with teachers (minus maybe one).

And your salary?

PP. NOW as a very senior level person, it's decent (nothing super crazy) but this was the case when I was younger earning $30K (about $45K in today's dollars). I don't dispute that teachers are underpaid (some, not all... I know some making very good money) but I just get frustrated with the posts that insinuate no one else could possible have a job similar to a teacher's, when many, many people do. I don't know a single person in the corporate world that has a job I'd consider easy and stress free. And a lot of us don't make extravagant salaries.

So why are so many teachers leaving the profession and citing stress as the reason?

I would wager that most people quit their jobs due to stress or not getting paid enough. It’s not unique to teachers.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely adored my job as a high school math teacher. Seriously, the 7:30-3:30 part was amazing. The kids were fun, the teaching was meaningful, and I enjoyed the challenge.

I quit in June.

I found a job making $50k more than my teaching salary making slide decks for a government contractor. How do you turn that down? $70k-$120k is a no brainer. It's going to pay for my kids to go to college.

Do you work the same hours? Have the same amount of time off?

Way way way less hours, way more flexibility. I have gone to sleep by 11 pm every night since I started the new job. In teaching, the kids left at 3:30 but I always brought piles of work home. I'd work until 10 pm on a good night, 2 am on a rough night, and usually at least 5-6 hours on the weekend. The amount of effort it takes to make good lessons and provide real feedback is unreal. I was sick all the time from lack of sleep, and I had taught for almost 15 years. It wasn't 1st year teacher burnout.

Now? I get to work from home 3 days a week. If I have a doctor's appointment I flex an hour instead of having to create an entire day's worth of sub plans in addition to my regular work. I have 6 weeks PTO plus the week between Christmas and NYD my company is shut down, so less than a teacher but not drastically so. My contract as a teacher was 195 days - 5 PTO days = 190 days (38 weeks), my contract with my new employer is 260 days - 10 holidays - 30 days PTO - 5 days shut down = 215 days = 43 weeks. So 5 weeks (13%) more than before, but they're at home and they're 40-50 hour weeks max, instead of 60+. Plus, 70% more money.

Regardless, I can't pay bills with time off. College tuition can't be paid with winter break. Private sector salaries have ballooned in the last decade, while after 13 years of teaching I only made $11k more than I did when I started. If pay can't keep up, anyone who has the skills to leave is going to.

Maybe teachers should be paid more, and expected to work 12 months per year. Instead of all the breaks they get, time kids aren’t in school on breaks can be used for planning and professional development. It is silly to expect teachers to only work the hours students are in the building. That isn’t realistic. Teaching should be considered, and compensated, as a full time job 12 month per year with 2-4 weeks vacation they can take on any days kids they are not expected to be in building teaching.

I think if school were 2 less hours per day or 1 less days per week, it could be year round and work. That is how much extra time teaching requires to keep it to an 8-9 hour a day workload. If you're going to make it 12 months but keep it 7 hour school days and 5 days a week of lessons and grading, then you need to double all salaries at minimum. The only way most teachers survive September - June is because of July and August.

I’m not saying students should be in school 12 months, just teachers. They should get the bulk of their planning and training done in June,July, August- while students are not there. Working 8-10 hrs per day during the school year should be acceptable. Most professionals put in somewhere between 8-12 hrs per day on a regular basis with no official overtime pay, just their salary

Ahh sorry, I misunderstood. Like the other poster said, most of my work couldn't have been done in the summer. Grading and providing feedback had to be done real time. When the kids took a test on tuesday, the only option was to grade it tuesday night. No matter how much work I put into July, it still needed graded on Tuesday in October.

I had piles of great lessons from years prior that I'd created, but they needed modified in real time. One year's kids need extra practice with equations while the next year they come in super strong with solving equations but act like they've never evaluated using negative signs. You find holes on Monday and modify tomorrow's lesson on Monday afternoon to address these weak points on Tuesday.

It's just not something you could prep for in advance most of the time, at least not the super time consuming day to day things. I needed 2 more hours a day, not 2 months in the summer.

Goodness. How does it take 2 hours a day to modify a basic math lesson? It’s not differential equations. I can’t stand when people pretend their jobs are harder than they are.

DP.
And I can’t stand when people comment on topics they are completely ignorant about.

I’m a high school teacher. I already worked 55 hours Monday-Friday this week. I just woke up at 6:30 today (Saturday) so I can begin my routine grading marathon. I work 12-14 hours EVERY Saturday. If I’m lucky, I can see my family tomorrow.

The people on this thread are posting “teachers have it easy” and “teachers exaggerate” — I wish you could shadow me for seven days. That would bring a very quick end to those types of comments.

Off to work. All day. At least there’s an end in sight. I’m quitting at the end of this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely adored my job as a high school math teacher. Seriously, the 7:30-3:30 part was amazing. The kids were fun, the teaching was meaningful, and I enjoyed the challenge.

I quit in June.

I found a job making $50k more than my teaching salary making slide decks for a government contractor. How do you turn that down? $70k-$120k is a no brainer. It's going to pay for my kids to go to college.

Do you work the same hours? Have the same amount of time off?

Way way way less hours, way more flexibility. I have gone to sleep by 11 pm every night since I started the new job. In teaching, the kids left at 3:30 but I always brought piles of work home. I'd work until 10 pm on a good night, 2 am on a rough night, and usually at least 5-6 hours on the weekend. The amount of effort it takes to make good lessons and provide real feedback is unreal. I was sick all the time from lack of sleep, and I had taught for almost 15 years. It wasn't 1st year teacher burnout.

Now? I get to work from home 3 days a week. If I have a doctor's appointment I flex an hour instead of having to create an entire day's worth of sub plans in addition to my regular work. I have 6 weeks PTO plus the week between Christmas and NYD my company is shut down, so less than a teacher but not drastically so. My contract as a teacher was 195 days - 5 PTO days = 190 days (38 weeks), my contract with my new employer is 260 days - 10 holidays - 30 days PTO - 5 days shut down = 215 days = 43 weeks. So 5 weeks (13%) more than before, but they're at home and they're 40-50 hour weeks max, instead of 60+. Plus, 70% more money.

Regardless, I can't pay bills with time off. College tuition can't be paid with winter break. Private sector salaries have ballooned in the last decade, while after 13 years of teaching I only made $11k more than I did when I started. If pay can't keep up, anyone who has the skills to leave is going to.

Maybe teachers should be paid more, and expected to work 12 months per year. Instead of all the breaks they get, time kids aren’t in school on breaks can be used for planning and professional development. It is silly to expect teachers to only work the hours students are in the building. That isn’t realistic. Teaching should be considered, and compensated, as a full time job 12 month per year with 2-4 weeks vacation they can take on any days kids they are not expected to be in building teaching.

I think if school were 2 less hours per day or 1 less days per week, it could be year round and work. That is how much extra time teaching requires to keep it to an 8-9 hour a day workload. If you're going to make it 12 months but keep it 7 hour school days and 5 days a week of lessons and grading, then you need to double all salaries at minimum. The only way most teachers survive September - June is because of July and August.

I’m not saying students should be in school 12 months, just teachers. They should get the bulk of their planning and training done in June,July, August- while students are not there. Working 8-10 hrs per day during the school year should be acceptable. Most professionals put in somewhere between 8-12 hrs per day on a regular basis with no official overtime pay, just their salary

Ahh sorry, I misunderstood. Like the other poster said, most of my work couldn't have been done in the summer. Grading and providing feedback had to be done real time. When the kids took a test on tuesday, the only option was to grade it tuesday night. No matter how much work I put into July, it still needed graded on Tuesday in October.

I had piles of great lessons from years prior that I'd created, but they needed modified in real time. One year's kids need extra practice with equations while the next year they come in super strong with solving equations but act like they've never evaluated using negative signs. You find holes on Monday and modify tomorrow's lesson on Monday afternoon to address these weak points on Tuesday.

It's just not something you could prep for in advance most of the time, at least not the super time consuming day to day things. I needed 2 more hours a day, not 2 months in the summer.

Goodness. How does it take 2 hours a day to modify a basic math lesson? It’s not differential equations. I can’t stand when people pretend their jobs are harder than they are.

DP.
And I can’t stand when people comment on topics they are completely ignorant about.

I’m a high school teacher. I already worked 55 hours Monday-Friday this week. I just woke up at 6:30 today (Saturday) so I can begin my routine grading marathon. I work 12-14 hours EVERY Saturday. If I’m lucky, I can see my family tomorrow.

The people on this thread are posting “teachers have it easy” and “teachers exaggerate” — I wish you could shadow me for seven days. That would bring a very quick end to those types of comments.

Off to work. All day. At least there’s an end in sight. I’m quitting at the end of this year.

I’m a teacher too. Just stop doing it. I work during the school day. I’ll do stuff after hours when there’s big grades and such. But not often.

Just do less. I do and I’m still well above average as a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These things are fixable and would keep me in this job. If I didn’t have a kid in college, I would’ve quit years ago.

1) Ridiculous amount of testing. So many hours are wasted on this. If I’m testing, I’m not teaching.

2) Student behavior. If a student causes a disruption in a classroom and normal techniques don’t work in ending it, teachers should be allowed to have that child removed. The entire class shouldn’t be held hostage.

3) Curriculum. All teachers should meet and choose appropriate curriculum for their students. There should be flexibility because what works in one school or classroom doesn’t necessarily work everywhere.

4) Work load. If you want me to spend hours on administrative tasks like entering grades in some spreadsheet or platform, give me time other than my planning time to do it or hire us secretaries.

5) Anyone who comes in to observe better be an expert ready to give actual suggestions for improvement and be prepared to model them if needed. I’m tired of tons of suits coming in from central office to observe and then not know what they are talking about.

6) Adequate staffing. I’m shouldn’t have to sub for others because admin can’t find subs. Up the pay big time and fix it.

That’s all for now. My brain is tired.

THIS!! My background - I worked in the corporate world for ten years before I changed careers and became a high school English/Social Studies teacher. Back in my corporate life, we had secretaries, or administrative assistants to help with admin-type work. DH has always had his own admin in his long career in tech and venture capital. I taught for several years at a high school in another country where every academic department had secretaries who worked FOR the teachers! We each didn't have our own, but the larger the department, the more secretaries the school provided. So maybe two to three teachers shared a secretary. In addition, if I had a larger, lecture-hall type class, I had a teaching assistant who was a fully qualified, new teacher who I mentored and in turn he helped me with planning, grading, etc. When I became department head, I got my own secretary AND my teaching load was reduced from six classes to three. I can't tell you how much this reduced my non-teaching work load. Yes, this was a very well-funded private school, but what a difference it made to the quality of my teaching and my career.

Cut the fat in the central offices and the ridiculous amount schools spend on useless technology and professional development, and direct the funds to administrative and teaching assistant help for teachers. That would make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

I work in a classroom as a specialist and I think teachers are so burnt out that they don’t think clearly. They waste a lot of time not using human and technological resources such as coteachers who are constantly in and out of their rooms (and end up, sitting on their asses observing all the time because the teachers want to have control). They spend their planning periods complaining about how hard they have it. They waste a ton of time on trying to keep kids quiet instead of working with how they are naturally wired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in a classroom as a specialist and I think teachers are so burnt out that they don’t think clearly. They waste a lot of time not using human and technological resources such as coteachers who are constantly in and out of their rooms (and end up, sitting on their asses observing all the time because the teachers want to have control). They spend their planning periods complaining about how hard they have it. They waste a ton of time on trying to keep kids quiet instead of working with how they are naturally wired.

Huh.
I get 38 minutes of planning a day (and that includes my lunch time). I don’t have time to complain or even TALK to another adult.

Co-teachers? What are those? I have 150 students, over 40 with IEPs or 504s. I haven’t seen another adult even check on them. I’m responsible for all that paperwork on my own.

Keeping kids quiet? That’s kind of necessary every now and then. I am responsible for delivering content, after all. And those activities that appreciate how kids are wired? I do those… and they take huge chunks of my weekends to plan.

If you understand this SO MUCH BETTER than a classroom teacher, then step up and take over a classroom. We need you to show us how it’s done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a classroom as a specialist and I think teachers are so burnt out that they don’t think clearly. They waste a lot of time not using human and technological resources such as coteachers who are constantly in and out of their rooms (and end up, sitting on their asses observing all the time because the teachers want to have control). They spend their planning periods complaining about how hard they have it. They waste a ton of time on trying to keep kids quiet instead of working with how they are naturally wired.

Huh.
I get 38 minutes of planning a day (and that includes my lunch time). I don’t have time to complain or even TALK to another adult.

Co-teachers? What are those? I have 150 students, over 40 with IEPs or 504s. I haven’t seen another adult even check on them. I’m responsible for all that paperwork on my own.

Keeping kids quiet? That’s kind of necessary every now and then. I am responsible for delivering content, after all. And those activities that appreciate how kids are wired? I do those… and they take huge chunks of my weekends to plan.

If you understand this SO MUCH BETTER than a classroom teacher, then step up and take over a classroom. We need you to show us how it’s done.

Not a teacher. But I do have kids in public middle school. The days of teachers standing in front of class and actually teaching the entire hour are gone. Much of the time the kids are told to do canned online programs like Lexia, IXL, or blooket for the class period. Or they have a short lesson then are told to do those time filler programs. So I just don’t get how teachers are so busy with all this “planning.” Maybe plan a real lesson while the kids sit on IXL for an hour?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a classroom as a specialist and I think teachers are so burnt out that they don’t think clearly. They waste a lot of time not using human and technological resources such as coteachers who are constantly in and out of their rooms (and end up, sitting on their asses observing all the time because the teachers want to have control). They spend their planning periods complaining about how hard they have it. They waste a ton of time on trying to keep kids quiet instead of working with how they are naturally wired.

Huh.
I get 38 minutes of planning a day (and that includes my lunch time). I don’t have time to complain or even TALK to another adult.

Co-teachers? What are those? I have 150 students, over 40 with IEPs or 504s. I haven’t seen another adult even check on them. I’m responsible for all that paperwork on my own.

Keeping kids quiet? That’s kind of necessary every now and then. I am responsible for delivering content, after all. And those activities that appreciate how kids are wired? I do those… and they take huge chunks of my weekends to plan.

If you understand this SO MUCH BETTER than a classroom teacher, then step up and take over a classroom. We need you to show us how it’s done.

Not a teacher. But I do have kids in public middle school. The days of teachers standing in front of class and actually teaching the entire hour are gone. Much of the time the kids are told to do canned online programs like Lexia, IXL, or blooket for the class period. Or they have a short lesson then are told to do those time filler programs. So I just don’t get how teachers are so busy with all this “planning.” Maybe plan a real lesson while the kids sit on IXL for an hour?

I’m the PP and a high school teacher. I don’t use IXL or any other online program. I teach AP coursework and I’m responsible for developing my entire curriculum.

Do not assume anything based on your narrow view of what teachers do. (You are aware they have to examine that IXL data and course correct future lessons, correct?)

DCUM is certainly supporting this teacher shortage by providing a forum for comments like the one above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like how the author casually fails to mention of the impacts of progressive education policy in recent years, like instituting restorative Justice programs or less punitive approaches to managing disruptive students (like suspensions or of removing trouble students from classes), and it’s effect on teacher retention. If teachers feel they can’t teach properly because they have no recourse for disruptive students, or are in danger, but are forced to keep violent kids in classes because of these types of idealistic, naive policies, it would be good to read about that. Instead we get a watered down version of the truth.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/opinion/teachers-schools-students-parents.html

America needs to outsource their education, academic calendar, subjects, curriculum, syllabus, pedagogy, teachers and school discipline to Indians. And outsource their school security to Israel.

USA needs to make separate schools for students who cannot speak, read and write English. These people will be incorporated in regular school if and when they learn English. Furthermore, even in separate schools, the immigrants should be made to also learn another foreign language and their native language. Americans need to be trilingual.

Thing that USA needs to retain - textbooks, media centers, school supplies, fieldtrips, AC buildings, free meals, social services, free school, sports and gym.

I don't understand how school transportation can be solved. We pretty much drove our kids to their public schools because as an immigrant I was aghast to see that the school bus was a metal box with uncomfortable seats, no AC/heating, and bullying in the bus. I went to a private school in another country and our school bus was pretty luxurious with a driver and a helper who made sure that all of us were properly seated and there was no bullying or bad behavior.

Finally, do not promote the kids to next grade is they are functionally illiterate. No other country has some thing as rotten as 'no child left behind'. Without consequences this is a doomed and failing system.

[Anonymous]

I supplemented, enriched my public school kids on my own from past 20 years, because K-12 education was so substandard in US compared to other countries.

It is pretty shameful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely adored my job as a high school math teacher. Seriously, the 7:30-3:30 part was amazing. The kids were fun, the teaching was meaningful, and I enjoyed the challenge.

I quit in June.

I found a job making $50k more than my teaching salary making slide decks for a government contractor. How do you turn that down? $70k-$120k is a no brainer. It's going to pay for my kids to go to college.

Do you work the same hours? Have the same amount of time off?

Way way way less hours, way more flexibility. I have gone to sleep by 11 pm every night since I started the new job. In teaching, the kids left at 3:30 but I always brought piles of work home. I'd work until 10 pm on a good night, 2 am on a rough night, and usually at least 5-6 hours on the weekend. The amount of effort it takes to make good lessons and provide real feedback is unreal. I was sick all the time from lack of sleep, and I had taught for almost 15 years. It wasn't 1st year teacher burnout.

Now? I get to work from home 3 days a week. If I have a doctor's appointment I flex an hour instead of having to create an entire day's worth of sub plans in addition to my regular work. I have 6 weeks PTO plus the week between Christmas and NYD my company is shut down, so less than a teacher but not drastically so. My contract as a teacher was 195 days - 5 PTO days = 190 days (38 weeks), my contract with my new employer is 260 days - 10 holidays - 30 days PTO - 5 days shut down = 215 days = 43 weeks. So 5 weeks (13%) more than before, but they're at home and they're 40-50 hour weeks max, instead of 60+. Plus, 70% more money.

Regardless, I can't pay bills with time off. College tuition can't be paid with winter break. Private sector salaries have ballooned in the last decade, while after 13 years of teaching I only made $11k more than I did when I started. If pay can't keep up, anyone who has the skills to leave is going to.

Maybe teachers should be paid more, and expected to work 12 months per year. Instead of all the breaks they get, time kids aren’t in school on breaks can be used for planning and professional development. It is silly to expect teachers to only work the hours students are in the building. That isn’t realistic. Teaching should be considered, and compensated, as a full time job 12 month per year with 2-4 weeks vacation they can take on any days kids they are not expected to be in building teaching.

I don't mind the breaks they get, and their pay is prorated over 12 months. I don't feel they are being over compensated because of the summers they are off - I feel they are being under compensated for the difficult work they do and the extra hours they put in during the school year.

Consider them non exempt from overtime and we'll see how fast the workload gets addressed to make it more manageable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in a classroom as a specialist and I think teachers are so burnt out that they don’t think clearly. They waste a lot of time not using human and technological resources such as coteachers who are constantly in and out of their rooms (and end up, sitting on their asses observing all the time because the teachers want to have control). They spend their planning periods complaining about how hard they have it. They waste a ton of time on trying to keep kids quiet instead of working with how they are naturally wired.

Huh.
I get 38 minutes of planning a day (and that includes my lunch time). I don’t have time to complain or even TALK to another adult.

Co-teachers? What are those? I have 150 students, over 40 with IEPs or 504s. I haven’t seen another adult even check on them. I’m responsible for all that paperwork on my own.

Keeping kids quiet? That’s kind of necessary every now and then. I am responsible for delivering content, after all. And those activities that appreciate how kids are wired? I do those… and they take huge chunks of my weekends to plan.

If you understand this SO MUCH BETTER than a classroom teacher, then step up and take over a classroom. We need you to show us how it’s done.

Not a teacher. But I do have kids in public middle school. The days of teachers standing in front of class and actually teaching the entire hour are gone. Much of the time the kids are told to do canned online programs like Lexia, IXL, or blooket for the class period. Or they have a short lesson then are told to do those time filler programs. So I just don’t get how teachers are so busy with all this “planning.” Maybe plan a real lesson while the kids sit on IXL for an hour?

I’m the PP and a high school teacher. I don’t use IXL or any other online program. I teach AP coursework and I’m responsible for developing my entire curriculum.

Do not assume anything based on your narrow view of what teachers do. (You are aware they have to examine that IXL data and course correct future lessons, correct?)

DCUM is certainly supporting this teacher shortage by providing a forum for comments like the one above.

I am a teacher working in an elementary school - not a homeroom teacher, but I push in all the time. I completely agree with the PP that students are often put on those computer programs.