Teachers in my district leaving mid year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if school districts can have teachers sign a contract that requires them to stay the entire school year as a way to avoid mid-year exodus?
Otherwise, the teacher will have to pay back benefits, relinquish sign-on bonuses, and other perks previously granted upon hiring.

It tends to work in other professions (at least in mine). I imagine the teachers union would have a tantrum and it would be a deterrent in recruiting, but if this was a normal standard in academics as a whole then the (even bigger ) problem of teachers leaving mid-year would be minimal.

Most districts already have this. It's considered bad form to leave mid-year and other districts will not hire teachers who do. That isn't making as much of an impact anymore, however, because teachers are leaving for other fields instead. We just lost a teacher last week to another career field and we're currently covering her classes since there is no replacement.

It's going to keep happening because teaching is TERRIBLE right now. As an example: I woke up at 6am on Saturday and worked for 10 hours. I only took breaks to drive my kid somewhere and to make dinner. I was up again at 6am today and I'll work through to the evening... probably another 8-10 hours. DCUM is my 5-minute break I give myself between stacks of papers. I can't keep this up. My last day off was September 10th (a Saturday). I've worked at least 7-8 hours every day since then and often much more.

I'm quitting at the end of the year. The only thing keeping me going is the fact I don't want to dump this work on my already too-busy coworkers.

what do you teach???

Also, what changes could realistically be made that would make teaching tolerable for you?

Working lights and HVAC, adequate textbooks and instructional materials, smaller class sizes, less standardized testing.

I'm a former high school teacher. Even after my first year teaching I'd laugh at the TFA teachers who would drop out in November. I resigned (with notice) at the end of my 7th year and wonder if those TFA dropouts had the right idea. I loved teaching high school and miss the kids and the atmosphere all the time, but the increasing demands with decreasing resources weren't worth it. I decided I would quit when I came in to make copies on the weekend, after grading 170 papers, and found that I had used up my paper budget for the month and we didn't have textbooks and I had already reached my max # of kleenex boxes allowed for the year and when I put in a request for dry erase markers I got ONE - in a color of my choice.

I now teach at a (public) university. While I am not amazingly resourced and I still don't get paid a ton and my colleagues tease me for being a workaholic (I give students my cell phone number. I zoom with them on weekends to help with homework). I can at least leave my classroom to pee whenever I want. Also, I love to remind my students that they're now in college and if they don't know something, they should get their darned phone out and google it (and I can use much stronger language than "darned" because I work with adults! sometimes I use the "f-word" just because I can).

In case you're curious: The marker I chose was a "Marks-a-Lot" in blue. I could have chosen an "Expo" in red, but I thought my students would be grumpy since the red doesn't show up as well. I know all the other teachers are out there being like "oooo you could have gotten an Expo!" well... sad to say, maybe it's Stockholm syndrome, but I prefer marks-a-lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

We do know it. I have 4 students who can barely read in 4th grade. We don’t hold kids back anymore - it hurts their feelings! So we just move them on.

So why do any teachers bother testing and grading papers then? If everyone is going to move up anyway, just do away with grades altogether (seems like college admissions are a lottery these days anyway if you don’t have “diversity” hooks) and give everyone a pass and give teachers back the time to actually teach.

I'm not the OP. However, I grade *hit because I actually care about my students. Sure, I could give the paper back with 26% on top- but since I actually want them to learn something, I take the tine to check off a rubric and make some comments. It's getting harder and harder to spend the time on this, as the number of students seems to be increasing and the logic in their writing is decreasing. I really do care about my students- but the time is coming when I care more about my own family and my own time than I care about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular opinion: It is completely impossible to educate children in any way close to how public schools operate. It is economically unsustainable to provide what is expected

Another unpopular opinion: The root cause of ALL of these issues is a breakdown of society/culture...beginning with the parents.


Flame away

my god shut up.

Private schools have teaching shortages as well.

and kids scores and grades have dropped across all socioeconomic lines— as well as mental health.

just shut up.

No one is going to shut up because you demand they do so. Who the hell do you think you are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unpopular opinion: It is completely impossible to educate children in any way close to how public schools operate. It is economically unsustainable to provide what is expected

Another unpopular opinion: The root cause of ALL of these issues is a breakdown of society/culture...beginning with the parents.


Flame away

my god shut up.

Private schools have teaching shortages as well.

and kids scores and grades have dropped across all socioeconomic lines— as well as mental health.

just shut up.

No one is going to shut up because you demand they do so. Who the hell do you think you are?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came back this year after taking a few years off to care for an elderly parent. I came back because I love teaching and the kids. If I'm being honest, I do very little teaching. I do a lot of paperwork, sit in meetings about meetings, and complete pointless assessments. Assessments are good to a point but we have so much data my team doesn't even know where to begin with it or how to use it. Each day seems like a lot more busy work and zero time to plan or teach. Teachers are unhappy and I'm seeing a disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher-I'm sure it's exhaustion and low morale. I feel micromanaged by the county and in turn the admin. Kids are not getting what they need-teachers feel unseen, disrespected, and disregarded. Nothing is being done for morale.....just more and more to do- less and less actual planning and teaching. The shortage will get worse. I've been in education for 20 years and this is the worst I've seen it.

Can you elaborate on “ disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher”? My school is seeing unprescedebted burnout, but we are still respecting and supporting each other for the most part. If things go south, what might I see?

I can....I'm seeing a lack of mutual respect for others time. One educator thinking their time and their job is more important than their colleagues. Gen ED. SPED, ESOL, specialists(Intervention teachers, art, music, PE, etc) all have a lot on their plate and deal with a lack of time and a never ending to do list. They shouldn't have to deal with a lack of respect from their colleagues. We are all in this together and we all have our stressors-let's respect each other's time.

[Anonymous]

In MCPS there is a par system that packs on loads of extra work for new teachers. Also if you are new you are most likely in the bad behavior classes without support. They will make your paper work look like you are the reason for the bad behavior. Then they will pressure you to inflate all the grades. Then they will non renew you and force you to resign to no get unemployment benefits. The best move for teachers is to quit education. It will not get better until we quit in masse so they realize that we will no sit idle while we are abused by the very people that should protect us

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came back this year after taking a few years off to care for an elderly parent. I came back because I love teaching and the kids. If I'm being honest, I do very little teaching. I do a lot of paperwork, sit in meetings about meetings, and complete pointless assessments. Assessments are good to a point but we have so much data my team doesn't even know where to begin with it or how to use it. Each day seems like a lot more busy work and zero time to plan or teach. Teachers are unhappy and I'm seeing a disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher-I'm sure it's exhaustion and low morale. I feel micromanaged by the county and in turn the admin. Kids are not getting what they need-teachers feel unseen, disrespected, and disregarded. Nothing is being done for morale.....just more and more to do- less and less actual planning and teaching. The shortage will get worse. I've been in education for 20 years and this is the worst I've seen it.

Can you elaborate on “ disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher”? My school is seeing unprescedebted burnout, but we are still respecting and supporting each other for the most part. If things go south, what might I see?

I can....I'm seeing a lack of mutual respect for others time. One educator thinking their time and their job is more important than their colleagues. Gen ED. SPED, ESOL, specialists(Intervention teachers, art, music, PE, etc) all have a lot on their plate and deal with a lack of time and a never ending to do list. They shouldn't have to deal with a lack of respect from their colleagues. We are all in this together and we all have our stressors-let's respect each other's time.

The last school I taught at was filled with fighting - by the adults! A literal fight happened, in addition to constant yelling and profanity. I was so disturbed.

[Anonymous]

I left last year after a decade of teaching and have never felt so LIGHT. I’ve thought long and hard about what would make things better to make me even consider going back

- 250k salary (this sounds extreme, but people who teach know how hard it is if you do it well)

- no work outside of contract hours

- one planning period per class

- a co-teacher in every class

- 15-20 students max per class

- no extra duties (like lunch or hallway duty)

- not having to create sub plans if I need to take off work

- student behaviors handled immediately by other adults in the building if the usual tactics don’t work in the classroom so we can focus on instruction

- being treated like the graduate-degree holding professional I am by society at large

- no more admin who talk the talk and never walk

- all classroom expenses covered

- dedicated grading time before report cards

- being treated with kindness and respect by all parents and colleagues

I’m sure there’s more that I’m forgetting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I came back this year after taking a few years off to care for an elderly parent. I came back because I love teaching and the kids. If I'm being honest, I do very little teaching. I do a lot of paperwork, sit in meetings about meetings, and complete pointless assessments. Assessments are good to a point but we have so much data my team doesn't even know where to begin with it or how to use it. Each day seems like a lot more busy work and zero time to plan or teach. Teachers are unhappy and I'm seeing a disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher-I'm sure it's exhaustion and low morale. I feel micromanaged by the county and in turn the admin. Kids are not getting what they need-teachers feel unseen, disrespected, and disregarded. Nothing is being done for morale.....just more and more to do- less and less actual planning and teaching. The shortage will get worse. I've been in education for 20 years and this is the worst I've seen it.

Can you elaborate on “ disregard for professionalism teacher to teacher”? My school is seeing unprescedebted burnout, but we are still respecting and supporting each other for the most part. If things go south, what might I see?

I can....I'm seeing a lack of mutual respect for others time. One educator thinking their time and their job is more important than their colleagues. Gen ED. SPED, ESOL, specialists(Intervention teachers, art, music, PE, etc) all have a lot on their plate and deal with a lack of time and a never ending to do list. They shouldn't have to deal with a lack of respect from their colleagues. We are all in this together and we all have our stressors-let's respect each other's time.

The last school I taught at was filled with fighting - by the adults! A literal fight happened, in addition to constant yelling and profanity. I was so disturbed.

Teachers =humans
Humans fight over resources.

For reference see wars, colonialism and the economy in general.

Also see Congress for more information about people who should know better fighting.

Humanity itself is disturbing.

The cure is making sure we have enough resources and that we share. Schools (and teachers) are not utopia but are often starved for funding and enough people to help.