One in Five Teachers Say They Won’t Return to School in the Fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LCPS sent an email about FTE getting impacted.

Hybrid model is good to appeal the masses. It is not practical whatsoever and there are no $$ to back it up.

Distance learning will be the norm until the end of the year AT A MINIMUM.

What does the bolded mean? Loudon County is letting some teaching staff go? RIFs?

Hybrid model makes sense to be able to meet the needs of those who want face to face and those who want distance learning -- and to be able to send kids home for distance learning if need be.

Yes. People will lose their jobs. Hybrid model does make sense but how do you implement it?

Who stays home? Who stays inside the germ-infected schools?

Who pays for such model?

The parents demanding F2F could send their kids. Teachers and hired-in-mid-Aug-but-not-really-teachers willing to work F2F can teach those kids. Everyone else does DL.

I think this would be a good solution. Parents demanding F2F could get the desperate not-really-teachers who need a job and can't afford to care about catching COVID. It's probable that those students will also be the classroom management problems, so it will just end up being babysitting anyhow.

Let the kids who can learn at home get DL from the real teachers who can't go in due to prexisiting conditions, etc..

You mean the teachers who didn’t teach anything the last three months? My DD’s 3Es grade teacher is in her late 50’s - there is no way she could teach full time remotely in a scenario where it actually counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

That isn’t going to happen. What about all the parents screaming that their children’s educations are being sacrificed? They don’t actually care and just want babysitting

+1

Teaching is not as easy as you might think. I know plenty of Ivy League grads who did TFA and got their butts kicked in the classroom. It’s not just about being smart or knowing the content. There is classroom management, interactions with students, parents, lesson planning, etc.

These threads are starting to make me think there should be a compulsory teach for a week for all college grads. So they can see how difficult it is.

The classroom management part is by far the hardest component. And if you don't get that down, you're not teaching anything at all. Your entire time in the classroom is spent trying to control the room. If parents (who are genuinely interested in their kid's education) saw classrooms like this they'd pull their child immediately.

I see a lot of parents on here complaining about how they can’t engage or control their own child, but still bashing teachers who manage to do so with thirty of them every day. Truly boggles the mind.

Truth!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it will vary by state. I have a friend who left the corporate world to get trained to be a teacher. She did one of those alternate programs. She is in a state where teachers are paid well and get tenure. Well nobody wanted to leave their job. She ended up subbing and then moving on to a job where she could get health insurance.

As far as I’m concerned tenure is a thing of the past. DCUMers and the likes nationwide didn’t like that teachers were set for life (professionally speaking) and so they got rid of such privilege. FL started it and the rest followed suit.

Can you sure which state your friend is in?

Yeah teachers don’t leave as often in tenure states. It sounds like PP’s friend never got to teach. I subbed for two years in a tenure state because it’s really competitive to get a teaching job. Now I teach around here. However, I have a job next year and in my home state tons of teachers are getting laid off even some with tenure. It’s bad up there right now.

What’s your home state?

Massachusetts. I know a few laid off teachers, two have tenure. It’s possible they’ll get hired back, but they pink slipped way more than usual so they aren’t feeling great about it. There are a lot of certified teachers in north east states who sub, work as aides (they have aides in most k-2 classrooms up there), or they have their teaching license but left for business jobs since sub pays is worse than fast food worker pay (up there it is!! I was getting $75/day...).

Many people in states where they can’t get a teaching job don’t want to move though. I like teaching but it is different here and the biggest issue I have is class size. I’m curious how on earth the 1st and 2nd grade teachers get time to teach much when they have almost 30 kids! Where I’m from there were 20 or less students on first and second, and they had an aide all day. So the teacher could do small group instruction as a center and the aide would monitor 2-3 other centers to make sure the kids were actually doing them, behaving, not running away or hurting each other, etc. I really don’t know how they do it here. Are those grades just whole group instruction and then centers with no real small group teacher time? I’d imagine kids get really off task if their teacher is trying to meet 1:1 or in a small group and the other twenty kids are supposed to be completing centers. If there’s no other adult in the room to ask questions, do they just interrupt the teacher?

I don’t really blame people who get trained to teach in other states for not wanting to move to states that need teachers. There’s reasons why some states attract and retain many teachers and others don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

That sounds like a terrible idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

That sounds like a terrible idea.

I think it sounds great. They could replace the teachers who can not come back due to health issues (or retirements) and they could find out how "easy" it is to manage a classroom of kids and teach them something at the same time. Oh, and also how to hold their pee and not have to use the bathroom. I think they should go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

That sounds like a terrible idea.

+1

We already know what the kids will look like who get the most uncertified teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

Are there stats on many of the people who are out of work right now have a college degree?

[Anonymous]

You mean the teachers who didn’t teach anything the last three months? My DD’s 3Es grade teacher is in her late 50’s - there is no way she could teach full time remotely in a scenario where it actually counts.

This is such an ageist statement. I am in my late fifties and have easily mastered the DL technology. Many of my younger colleagues come to me for help. Please don't make statements like this; ageism is real and can be as economically devastating as other forms of discrimination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

They tried something similar during the shutdown last year. How many furloughed workers were willing to come in and sub? Of those people, how many came back a second time? We had a laid off project manager come in our school and he couldn't even handle a reasonably tame group of 4th graders. He took off at lunch time without notice and was never heard from again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

Are there stats on many of the people who are out of work right now have a college degree?

Farming and fishing are the hardest hit sectors of the economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need to get rid of teacher certification. Hire anyone with a college degree (after interview and teacher demo)

They tried something similar during the shutdown last year. How many furloughed workers were willing to come in and sub? Of those people, how many came back a second time? We had a laid off project manager come in our school and he couldn't even handle a reasonably tame group of 4th graders. He took off at lunch time without notice and was never heard from again.

I was alt cert and started in late 2001. We were a cohort of 20. Despite a crappy post-9/11 economy with freezes everywhere, only 1/2 of my cohort lasted until the end of the year. And these were people who had already had a couple grad-level edu classes under their belt over the summer. It was much harder than they anticipate. Some quite as soon as they found another job. Others quit without a parachute. Of those of us who stayed only 5 of us still teach today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You mean the teachers who didn’t teach anything the last three months? My DD’s 3Es grade teacher is in her late 50’s - there is no way she could teach full time remotely in a scenario where it actually counts.

This is such an ageist statement. I am in my late fifties and have easily mastered the DL technology. Many of my younger colleagues come to me for help. Please don't make statements like this; ageism is real and can be as economically devastating as other forms of discrimination.

I was simply stating the facts. The teacher IS in her late 50’s and DID do a terrible job with DL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not very promising...

https://www.weareteachers.com/teachers-afraid-to-go-back/?utm_source=WAT_MDR&utm_medium=Enews&utm_campaign=WAT_Enews06112020

I have read many posters talking about there are no teacher shortages and that teachers would not resign.

Talk about uncertainty!

What could this really mean for our children?

There are plenty of new teachers graduating from their programs desperate for a job. What it means is we will have a less experienced staff, but also likely more optimistic and less cynical about the profession. It will cost the school system less. Some will be stars who were meant for this, others will be green as can be. Some of who we lose will be true seasoned gems and a huge loss, a small subset of who leaves will be teachers who don't belong in the profession anyway.

The vast majority of first year teachers are not that good. There is a huge learning curve and I would say true confidence and ability comes around year five. All of the superstar teachers I know sucked their first year and readily admit it .

I have a different experience. The young teachers right out of our excellent University program had the latest techniques for stimulation, classroom control, etc. They have been amazing. But we have a great local U program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You mean the teachers who didn’t teach anything the last three months? My DD’s 3Es grade teacher is in her late 50’s - there is no way she could teach full time remotely in a scenario where it actually counts.

This is such an ageist statement. I am in my late fifties and have easily mastered the DL technology. Many of my younger colleagues come to me for help. Please don't make statements like this; ageism is real and can be as economically devastating as other forms of discrimination.

I was simply stating the facts. The teacher IS in her late 50’s and DID do a terrible job with DL.

DP, younger than 50. You may not have meant to imply a correlation, but it comes across that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not very promising...

https://www.weareteachers.com/teachers-afraid-to-go-back/?utm_source=WAT_MDR&utm_medium=Enews&utm_campaign=WAT_Enews06112020

I have read many posters talking about there are no teacher shortages and that teachers would not resign.

Talk about uncertainty!

What could this really mean for our children?

There are plenty of new teachers graduating from their programs desperate for a job. What it means is we will have a less experienced staff, but also likely more optimistic and less cynical about the profession. It will cost the school system less. Some will be stars who were meant for this, others will be green as can be. Some of who we lose will be true seasoned gems and a huge loss, a small subset of who leaves will be teachers who don't belong in the profession anyway.

The vast majority of first year teachers are not that good. There is a huge learning curve and I would say true confidence and ability comes around year five. All of the superstar teachers I know sucked their first year and readily admit it .

I have a different experience. The young teachers right out of our excellent University program had the latest techniques for stimulation, classroom control, etc. They have been amazing. But we have a great local U program.

I am glad that university is preparing teachers well. I've worked in many different school settings and only a few first year teachers were good their first year. Many became good teachers over the years. To be fair I also worked in the type of schools where veteran staff took bets in August as to when each first year would quit and who would make it the full year.