What can be done for FCPS teacher BURNOUT right now?
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Anonymous
| Teacher here- I am burned out and stressed out because of testing pressures, constant student misbehavior and a lack of support from the administrators. I plan on leaving my school's toxic culture, but I am considering an alternative career. |
Anonymous
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Teachers have had their hands tied. They have no tools left. The upper echelons are in control. It's like putting the stockholders in charge of a company. They only have one focus. |
Anonymous
| So one person said get the mom volunteers out of the classroom and another said she/he needs a secretary. As someone who works flexible hours and can volunteer a bit, I ask-why not put out a wish list of what parents could do to help and let us sign up. I admit I am not willing to do too much secretarial work, as I in my profession don't have a secretary either so I do my own. However, I am willing to xerox once a semester for you and I am happy to go sit and help a child with work or calming down who is acting up since my own child has special needs. On teacher had us simply supervise independent work while she did small group work and she loved the help. |
Anonymous
Agree that those things could be helpful. Having been a teacher, I was surprised when DS's teacher gave volunteers tasks that should have been private. The teacher was naive if she things that parents keep their mouths shut. (I always did as a volunteer--but that came from my experience as a teacher when I would have never discussed a child's work with another child's parent.) I was stunned to hear other parents share information that should have been private. Copying, helping out kids while the teacher works with small groups is fine--grading tests and using the gradebook is not. |
Anonymous
You have no idea what type of pressure young teachers are under, much of it financial b/c of low salaries, expensive housing and college debt and the fear of not doing well b/c they need the $$ badly. Hate it when the baby boomers chime in with their holier than thou comments. |
Anonymous
I have a very good idea. I understand the pressures. We all face them. We are a two teacher household in an expensive area with a child headed to college. Stating that being stressed isn’t an excuse for a second grade teacher to be intoxicated at 2pm while at work is hardly a holier than thou comment. |
Anonymous
Furthermore, you don’t think Fairfax County was expensive when I started 25 years ago, or that salaries were low and I had no college debt? I also find it funny that you refer to me as a baby boomer since my birthdate misses the end of that era by about at least 8 years. |
Anonymous
I agree. i am a parent volunteer, I come in once a week and do copying, filing, laminating, even grading! I know I am not supposed to, but I have earned it by being discreet about what goes on in the classroom. And I really don't care if Larla is better or worse at spelling than Larlito. I also work part time. But I make sure to set aside several hours a week for the teacher. I cannot imagine how much more time the teacher spends doing what I do, in addition to planning and such. |
Anonymous
I am a parent volunteer and these are some of the things our teacher mentioned, too. I didn't feel it would be appropriate to ask for details, so maybe you could tell me? Are the kids now worse behaved than some years ago? Why? and What support is the admin not giving you (assuming they could, if they wanted to)? |
Anonymous
| Teachers, do you think that dealing with a much more diverse population than, say, 20 years ago, adds to your stress? |
Anonymous
It's posts like this that help non-teachers like me appreciate the difficulty of k-12 teachers' jobs. I don't have any nice, neat answers to the question of how to help teachers deal with people like you, but I'm deeply sympathetic to these challenges. |
Anonymous
Yes. I teach in a high FARMS school and so many students don't come to school ready to learn. They aren't ready socially, physically or mentally. Their language skills are delayed (native English speakers; I'm not referring to the ESOL students). A lot of them are screamed at when they are at home so they don't respond to less aggressive forms of discipline. I remember when I first started student teaching, my students would furrow their brow at me when I gave them "the look" from across the room. I actually had to tell them what "the look" meant because their parents started off and ended screaming at them. "The look" wasn't something they had experience with. Calling parents means nothing to these kids. When I was in school, all a teacher had to do was say they were going to call home and the students got scared. Not at my school. Many times when we call home, the phone numbers are disconnected anyway. Physically the kids are in bad shape. Overweight and have trouble going up and down stairs. Kindergarteners shouldn't be huffing and puffing after two flights of stairs. They are extremely sleep deprived. Most of them have their own phones/tablets/gaming systems in their rooms. They don't have bedtimes so they are up half of the night. They look hungover especially on Monday mornings or after a break. They are often late so because they overslept. I try to schedule observations on Monday mornings because they kids are the calmest they will be all week. Academically, they come to school with very little. Most haven't had exposure to books. Some kindergarteners hold them upside down. They don't know concepts of print. Some of them don't recognize their name in print when they have to pick their name tag up off their table (they sit at tables of 4 or 5). They have been raised on electronics but they don't know letters and letters names despite a million free apps. They don't know how to use scissors and some haven't held a pencil or crayon. I could go on forever. All of this is exhausting. My friends who teach at low FARMS schools have their own issues. They mostly revolve around helicopter parents. The parents at my school are mostly non-existent but my friends are bombarded with emails all day long. My students' parents rarely show up at conferences but my friends have parents who want a ton of meetings about their kids. I'd love to find a school in the middle. |
Anonymous
| I disagree. Teachers teach. Regardless. It is administration's expectations of how children are to be taught that makes it so stressful. A good teacher will teach any child from where they are and take them as far as they can go. If teachers were allowed to simply teach it would alleviate a lot of pressure. Susan from the high SES family is not going to come in one the same level as Juan whose family just arrived in the country. However, a good teacher with the right resources can have them both on the same level playing field by year's end with the proper supports in place. |
Anonymous
Wow! This would be funny if it were not so wrong. I am NOT the PP you to whom you are responding. I only have one issue with her post--I taught many years ago in a very, very poor Title I school. The situation was the same then as it is now. Parents not showing for conferences and native English speakers with low language development. I taught kids in first grade who could not count to ten (not just could not do one-to-one counting, but literally could not count out loud to ten. Are you a teacher? You seriously believe that Susan and Juan can be on the same level by the end of the year? Maybe, if Juan comes from the same socio-economic background--maybe, Dad is a corporate businessman or something. But, if Juan does not have skills in his own language and has not had books in his home, it is highly unlikely he will be even with Susan by the end of the year--even with the "proper supports in place". Have you ever taught a kid who did not have basic skills--like being able to describe a flower or fruit in any language? A child who does not speak in complete sentences--ever? Those children exist--and, they are not necessarily immigrants. They are children who are ignored and whose parents neglect them. Things you take for granted and foreign to some people. |
Anonymous
I couldn't disagree with this more. If this was true, there would be no need for ESOL teachers if you mean that Juan is not a native English speaker and Susan is. It takes many years for students who are non-English speakers to catch up to their peers. A good teacher can make sure they both make progress but they will not be on the same level at the end of a school year. |