Thank you for this great perspective. |
I think another challenge is the way that admins treat teachers as fungible resources. I have lost count of the number of teachers in my local district who share that they have been teaching 5th grade language arts but are being moved to 3rd grade, or some other ridiculous change.
It takes time to understand the developmental stages of kids and to master content areas, it is crazy to switch them with 2 weeks notice. How can they reasonably be successful? |
DCUM posters constantly bash teachers and then wonder why there's a shortage of people willing to go into the profession. The burnout rate in the first couple years of teaching is extremely high I honestly look back at my first two years of teaching and I am amazed I didn't quit |
I cried a lot during my first couple years of teaching. I was teaching at a school in DC with the highest rate of suspensions. My classes were out of control. It was hard. I'm very proud that I didn't quit |
There is a charter in DC that does something like this (inspired teaching) where each classroom has a mentor teacher in the classroom with a new teacher |
Maybe things should change so that it's not like this anymore. I worked at a high school where we would have 5+ new teachers every year and not all would make it to Nov. I agree with PP that said something about late October being the quitting time. I'm sure the stress of this year hasn't helped the situation. |
I have only ever seen two teachers do this in my career, both SpEd who had sign on bonuses. Once they got the first paycheck with a 5k bonus, they disappeared. Not 1st year teachers by the way. One was 30ish, the other was 60 or so. |
I think they should substitute teach for a year, as you build more classroom management skills. I am in the Midwest, too. I am in a state that has over 20,000 certified teachers who are not teaching in public or private schools. My experience is that administration is hiring poor idiots, as most administrators could not make in the classroom and can't find a job outside of education, if they tried. Once you bring in TFA teachers and alternative certified who have NO business in the classroom, good teachers see the grass is green elsewhere and leave. Or, administration pushes out good teachers to collapse the school so higher-ups can sell the building to a charter school. It's happening in the city, I reside in now. I am certified teacher, who would not mind teaching in a classroom, but I keep getting beat out by 22-years old or older people who don't want to stay in the classroom. |
That is real. I was 7/8th of the way through elementary ed certification in college and realized in fall of my senior year, as i watched my peers apply for jobs with consulting firms and in in the federal government, that I didn't want to spend my entire adult life in a classroom with children and not have colleagues who I could be an adult with. It was a shock to me because I had always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but I realized that I actually didn't...I just wanted to me a mom some day. I had another major so I dropped the ed, found my way to grad school soon, and worked in my field for 10 years and in a full-circle move I'm now a mom and a college professor in my chosen field. Makes sense, but I didn't see that coming at 20. Dropping K-12 education was one of the most self-aware, smartest decisions I made as a young adult. |
There are too many 22/23 years who are still living in mom's basement and working at Starbucks. In my experience, a lot of 20 somethings are working 16+ hours trying to get the next promotion. Their freetime is at the socializer to schmooze for the boss. |
Yes, but he would have gotten it in his final semester of a bachelor's degree in education, or with an education certification. At that point he's about to graduate--what else is he going to do? |
+1 Also in student teaching you aren’t in charge of the most critical portion of the school year which is the first month. If you are too lax and don’t set up really clear expectations and procedures early on you are done for the year. The veteran teacher next door to me my first year told me don’t smile or be nice for three weeks. This was at a very tough high school and it was some of the best advice I got. It was a really hard year for me but I did have classroom management. Some other first years had kids throw books at them, curse them out, threaten physical harm, etc. Most quit after one year. |
Stop blaming high turnover on new teachers. The situation is really so toxic and unsustainable. I've seen it mentioned that people realize they are stressing so much to earn so little. To top it off a lot of buildings are unsafe, filled with mold and falling apart. When I taught there was also a lot of violence in schools.
My second month teaching a girl had a razor blade and started cutting herself in class. After the incident, no administrator never talked to me or checked on me. I should have left then. I honestly don't think there's a way to fix the system. I'm sorry if you're vested and counting on it as a career, really. It's a damn shame. I know misery loves company but if you're not stuck in the system why the hell would you stay? You have one life to live. |
They don’t pay teachers enough to put up with the stress and they don’t give them any support either.
When I started out teaching at 25, I was making around 45k. I was working 80 hour weeks and my husband was making around 300k working much much less. At the he same time, I had no support from fellow teachers, admin, or parents. Everyone criticized me. I once got a bad review from my principal because he didn’t think I had enough posters or artwork up on the walls. He said nothing about the quality of the lesson he had just observed, my interactions with students, or the materials I spent hours slaving over creating from scratch. As DH continued to make more and more money, at some point I was like eff this nonsense and left. |
There really is no work/ life balance for teachers, and that alone can lead to burnout.
It dependents upon your role, system, and district. I taught English Language Learners and worked on average 45 hours my first year of teaching. I know perfectionist who worked more, and people who didn't care work less. |