Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for the teachers of this forum. It seems clear that a reason for job dissatisfaction is the demand for teachers to work beyond their contracted hours. Does that mean that the expectation is that all of a teacher's work should be accomplished during the regular work day?

In my county, the teachers' contract calls for a 7-hour, 35-minute work day which includes a 30-minute duty free lunch. If the expectation is that all work can be done during the contracted hours, does that mean that teachers are only expected to work 7 hours per day?

The adults I know who work corporate jobs usually work either 9-5 or 10-6, and they take lunch too. That’s eight hours, minus a lunch that ranges between 20 minutes to an hour plus, depending on the day. Is there a reason you think teachers should work longer days than other similarly educated professionals? Most of them also take half days for appointments or work from home on days when the weather is bad, they have a sick child, they have a plumber coming, etc. and teaching offers none of that flexibility. If they asked us to work for any longer, when would I schedule anything? Every business closes at 5 and we start at 8:00 in the morning (most teachers are there by 7).

Is this a joke? The government requires employees to work 8.5 hours a day and to take the .5 hours as a lunch. If we are taking snow days, we are working from home and not actually making hot cocoa and playing in the snow. If I have to take off for a plumber, I'm taking the time off or I'm trying to juggle a work meeting/call while the plumber is at my house.
And 5pm is not closing time unless you close your Outlook calendar and hope someone doesn't book a meeting then anyway.

Teachers have a warped view of corporate world. Do you know have friends who work office jobs?

Yes, the only people I know who are off at 5 work retail, in a store that has a closing time. Everyone in the corporate world has to work long after 5pm. Yes, there’s usually a bit of flexibility for bathroom breaks, but most people work WAY more than their 40 hours. 60 hours a week is quite common.

You know that the "corporate world" is a huge place with a wide variety of jobs, right? I have never had a job that required me to work long after 5pm and I make a comfortable salary. Maybe you should find a new corproate job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

DP. I don’t disagree but the first teacher in this exchange sounds like they’re working in a self contained special ed classroom. There’s literally no opportunity to plan or clean up or do anything besides be hands on with the students for the hours when they’re in school. That’s a big contributor to the high burnout rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

DP. I don’t disagree but the first teacher in this exchange sounds like they’re working in a self contained special ed classroom. There’s literally no opportunity to plan or clean up or do anything besides be hands on with the students for the hours when they’re in school. That’s a big contributor to the high burnout rate.

I’m the PP. I don’t work in a self-contained classroom, but I do have 20+ students with IEPs in my classes. As for the recommendations above, my administration won’t allow it. I am not supposed to be at my desk during a period. That would be considered “lazy” teaching. (I don’t personally agree, but I’ve had it told to me during informal observations.) Our grades must be for “valuable” and “meaningful” assignments, so they can’t be short MC assignments or worksheets. My school district provides a textbook and a bare curriculum, so it requires a lot of my unique content.

I get what you’re saying about a 40 hour week. I just don’t have a situation that allows for it. That’s why I’ll be leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

Lol. Where do you teach PP? Remember that line from the movie Kindergarten Cop? "Kindergarten is like the ocean. You never turn your back on it." That describes every grade at my school. In a good year, I only have 1-2 students who flip out a few times each day. They throw things and scream and destroy the room. They push/hit/kick/bite, etc. This is general ed. No teacher can sit down and grade/plan, etc with the students there. Planning time is either meetings, meetings about these students or cleaning up in the aftermath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

Wait until Larla tells her mom that the teacher is always on her computer rather than interacting with students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

High school teacher? I'm just guessing you teach at a secondary level because an elementary classroom teacher is not going to be able to be that automated. There is no way to get all of that done when you are running a morning meeting, facilitating a sense making session, meeting with small math groups while monitoring stations during Math Workshop, meeting with students during Writing Workshop, meeting with groups during an intervention block, preparing materials from the science kit, meeting with reading groups, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

A quote from that website: The average teacher joining our program works 62 hours per week. Upon completion, the average member works just 52 hours in a typical week.

52 hours is still too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Are you expected to work all day and then do all your paperwork at home, unpaid, on your own time? Because we aren’t actually allowed to do any of this at work. They took away all our administrative time this year so we could stay with our kids in the classroom all day, and we’re not even permitted to check our email. I teach special Ed so this amounts to hours each week. I also have the distinct pleasure of creating and differentiating the entire curriculum myself. The cherry on top is that there is no ventilation system and the kids aren’t required to wear masks due to their special needs. You have no idea what my job entails, weird how you think it’s no different than your own.

This.

As I type, I am listening to one of my fifteen required virtual trainings I must complete before school starts (each taking 1-3 hours). Our contract days before school starts are spent doing different in-person trainings. Planning and preparing for the actual teaching part of my job is happening in my "free time."

x1000

During winter break this past school year, we received an email the last morning of classes with mandatory training that needed to be completed before the start of classes again on January 3. It consisted of 9 videos - the shortest was 45 mins. and the longest was 2h15m. These aren't simply videos you can throw on in the background while you do something else, either, because you have to interact to get "credit" for the video and also answer questions along the way. It's stupid, pointless training. We don't need more training. We need admins who will support us when we say "this student needs XYZ services ASAP in order to remain in my classroom or they need removed ASAP." Because to be blunt: not all kids are capable of traditional learning. It's a fact. We need less "everyone is special and equal" BS in education right now and we need to go back to accepting that some students are better academically than others. Does it make them a better person? No! But treating all 22 kids in my classroom as if they are on the same level is not working. We're hurting 90-95% of the class to bend over backwards to accommodate 5-10%.

My corporate husband had to answer one 30-minute work call on Xmas eve and his company gave him a bonus day off in his bank for his trouble. He had a coworker slapped by another coworker during a heated fight and the slapper was immediately fired. In teaching, the kid who throws a chair at you will be right back in your classroom the next day to hurl a stapler at your head.

This breaks my heart, but it is consistent with what I hear from teacher friends. I'm so sorry.

Mainstreaming special education students is required by law. It's not some fluffy policy that admins dreamed up. They are sued if they don't follow the law.

No. Not all special education students. Only those who can be successfully integrated into mainstream classrooms. The definition of “successfully” is currently a total joke and needs to be legally changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

Lol. Where do you teach PP? Remember that line from the movie Kindergarten Cop? "Kindergarten is like the ocean. You never turn your back on it." That describes every grade at my school. In a good year, I only have 1-2 students who flip out a few times each day. They throw things and scream and destroy the room. They push/hit/kick/bite, etc. This is general ed. No teacher can sit down and grade/plan, etc with the students there. Planning time is either meetings, meetings about these students or cleaning up in the aftermath.

Yesterday I spent my planning hour in a meeting with about 10 other people. We worked on completing and discussing a personality trait survey about ourselves.

[Anonymous]

My friend left teaching after 6 years to return to her college job of managing a Starbucks. She made way more money managing a Starbucks and then got promoted to district manager and then was being recruited for corporate jobs (she ended up taking a corporate job elsewhere).

Better pay, less stress, significantly better promotion potential.

[Anonymous]

Yup elementary school teaching is nuts. You have to always be on and teach across all subjects with original material the whole day.

On the other hand secondary teaching can be a cakewalk. Many times the same lesson can be taught across multiple periods and its much easier to wing it by having a class discussion for example.

Its an apples and oranges comparison

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just jumping on at p. 26 here, but no one is talking about how demoralizing it can be to work with young people. I taught for many years and loved it for many years, but there are so many days where the kids won't work, can't work, are rude, won't quiet down--and this is even in schools that are considered functional. The number of days that I cried or went home feeling miserable were higher than those of anyone I knew in a non-teaching job. You can plan so well and be creative, but the kids can just blow it all out of the water if they're not feeling it. I am in an office job now, and even when my boss or co-workers are frustrating, it's nothing like being in minute 10 of a 100-minute block scheduled class when Nick in 8B getting everyone to disrespect you because he's in a jolly mood. It's you alone with them for hours all day, and everything rests in your hands. It's so hard.

Warning--off-topic.

The above statement reminded me of one of my favorite stories from the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books.

https://archive.org/stream/ChickenSoupForTheSoul/ChickenSoupForTheSoul-JackCanfieldAndMarkHansen_djvu.txt

All The Good Things

He was in the third grade class I taught at Saint Mary's School in
Morris, Minnesota. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark
Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, he had that
happy-to-be-alive attitude that made even his occasional
mischievousness delightful.

Mark also talked incessantly. I tried to remind him again and again that
talking without permission was not acceptable. What impressed me so
much, though, was the sincere response every time I had to correct him
for misbehaving. 'Thank you for correcting me, Sister!" I didn't know
what to make of it at first but before long I became accustomed to
hearing it many times a day.

One morning my patience was growing thin when Mark talked once too
often. I made a novice-teacher's mistake. I looked at Mark and said, "If
you say one more word, I am going to tape your mouth shut!"
It wasn't ten seconds later when Chuck blurted out, "Mark is talking
again." I hadn't asked any of the students to help me watch Mark, but
since I had stated the punishment in front of the class, I had to act on it.
I remember the scene as if it had occurred this morning. I walked to my
desk, very deliberately opened the drawer and took out a roll of masking
tape. Without saying a word, I proceeded to Mark's desk, tore off two
pieces of tape and made a big X with them over his mouth. I then
returned to the front of the room.

As I glanced at Mark to see how he was doing, he winked at me. That
did it! I started laughing. The entire class cheered as I walked back to
Mark's desk, removed the tape and shrugged my shoulders. His first
words were, "Thank you for correcting me, Sister."
At the end of the year I was asked to teach junior high math. The years
flew by, and before I knew it Mark was in my classroom again. He was
more handsome than ever and just as polite. Since he had to listen
carefully to my instruction in the "new math," he did not talk as much in
ninth grade.

One Friday things just didn't feel right. We had worked hard on a new
concept all week, and I sensed that the students were growing frustrated
with themselves — and edgy with one another. I had to stop this
crankiness before it got out of hand. So I asked them to list the names of
the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space
between each name. Then I told them to think of the nicest thing they
could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish the assignment, but as
the students left the room, each one handed me their paper. Chuck
smiled. Mark said, "Thank you for teaching me, Sister. Have a good
weekend."

That Saturday, I wrote down the name of each student on a separate
sheet of paper, and I listed what everyone else had said about that
individual. On Monday I gave each student his or her list. Some of them
ran two pages. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" I
heard whispered. "I never knew that meant anything to anyone!" "I
didn't know others liked me so much!"

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. I never knew if they
discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The
exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with
themselves and one another again.
That group of students moved on. Several years later, after I had
returned from a vacation, my parents met me at the airport. As we were
driving home, Mother asked the usual questions about the trip: How the
weather was, my experiences in general. There was a slight lull in the
conversation. Mother gave Dad a sideways glance and simply said,
"Dad?" My father cleared his throat. "The Eklunds called last night," he
began.

"Really?" I said. "I haven't heard from them for several years. I wonder
how Mark is"

Dad responded quietly. "Mark was killed in Vietnam," he said. "The
funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend."
To this day I can still point to the exact spot on 1-494 where Dad told
me about Mark.

I had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. Mark looked
so handsome, so mature. All I could think at that moment was, Mark, I
would give all the masking tape in the world if only you could talk to
me.

The church was packed with Mark's friends. Chuck's sister sang "The
Battle Hymn of the Republic." Why did it have to rain on the day of the
funeral? It was difficult enough at the graveside. The pastor said the
usual prayers and the bugler played taps. One by one those who loved
Mark took a last walk by the coffin and sprinkled it with holy water.

I was the last one to bless the coffin. As I stood there, one of the soldiers
who had acted as a pallbearer came up to me. "Were you Mark's math
teacher?" he asked. I nodded as I continued to stare at the coffin. "Mark
talked about you a lot," he said.

After the funeral most of Mark's former classmates headed to Chuck's
farmhouse for lunch. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously
waiting for me. "We want to show you something," his father said,
taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he
was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook
paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. I
knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which I had
listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can
see, Mark treasured it."

Mark's classmates started to gather around us. Chuck smiled rather
sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my
desk at home." John's wife said, "John asked me to put his in our
wedding album." "I have mine, too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out
her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry
this with me at all times," Vicki said without batting an eyelash. "I think
we all saved our lists."

That's when I finally sat down and cried. I cried for Mark and for all his
friends who would never see him again.

Helen P. Mrosla

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
High school teacher? I'm just guessing you teach at a secondary level because an elementary classroom teacher is not going to be able to be that automated. There is no way to get all of that done when you are running a morning meeting, facilitating a sense making session, meeting with small math groups while monitoring stations during Math Workshop, meeting with students during Writing Workshop, meeting with groups during an intervention block, preparing materials from the science kit, meeting with reading groups, etc.

Nope! I teach elementary school too.

You HAVE to figure out ways to do it. Do less. Grade less. Provide less feedback.

For elementary school "automated" means checklists and stamps and universal rubrics and basically just lowering your standards.

I've seen young teachers writing detailed responses every week into student journals. Takes hours. Then, the leave after 3 years "because soooooo much is expected of us".

The school district will squeeze every inch of work out of you if you let them. "It's for the kids!!"

Ideas:

https://www.weareteachers.com/save-time-grading

Batch scoring Homework Grades 3-5 Rubric

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Assignment-Rubric-Elementary-1469587


Universal Rubric:
https://truthforteachers.com/streamline-standards-based-grading-best-practices/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Wait until Larla tells her mom that the teacher is always on her computer rather than interacting with students.

How to Grade Papers in Class without Getting Caught:

https://languageartsteachers.com/sneaky

Sit at a table and enter grades. Pull students over to "conference" about their individual grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is it takes 3-4 hours of work to prepare for that 7 hours, especially if you are a newer teacher. You don’t actually get time AT work to complete your work. I get 42 minutes to myself each day to plan all my lessons, grade all my assignments, contact my parents, respond to emails, complete required trainings, plan for committee meetings, meet with committees, etc. The remaining 6 hours of my day are directly in front of students. I may get to sit at my desk for 2-3 minutes at a time, but that is rare and I can’t actually complete any of my tasks when students are in the room with me. That 42 minutes needs to actually be 3-4 hours. Since it isn’t, I get a tremendous backlog of work. That’s why I work 6 days a week, with Saturday being my “catch-up” day from home. Usually it’s 10-12 hours, so I spend almost every Saturday in my home office completing what I didn’t have time to do during the work day. I often can’t do it after school because I have an obligation to run one club, help with parking duty, and run tutoring. When I do get home, usually 2 hours after my contracted time, I have to check in on my own family.

This is why I am dissatisfied. I think many teachers would feel better if our time in front of students was scaled back to give us more time for the other 50% of our job.

- Signing off to start working. I attended 6 hours of meetings today, so received no time to prepare for the school year

Friend -

You HAVE to .... HAVE to ... HAVE to! figure out ways to automate and get most of your work done while you are "in front" of the students.

Things finally got manageable for me when I started working like a doctor. You know how they sit in the room with you but are spending the whole time typing on the computer? You need to assess and grade, and organize, and clean up, WHILE the students are in the room with you.

You need to reduce the amount of grading and planning you are doing ahead of time. If it can't get done at school, it isn't going to be done at all. Automate, automate automate. Grade for completion and participation. Computer score multiple choice tests. Parent contact via automated systems if at all possible instead of lengthy phone calls. Plan adequate lessons, not fancy lessons. Have handouts or slides that are decent, good enough. Use whatever your school district provides; don't reinvent the wheel.

Spending Saturdays, all day, at home doing schoolwork is completely unsustainable.

We aren't paid enough for that. Sure, it's an amazing way to be a teacher. But to teach the way you are doing, you should teach 3 hours and have 3 hours for reflection and planning and grading. But, they won't give you those three hours without students. So you need to skimp on the thoughtful reflection, use whatever they will give you instead of creating your own, and take back your life.

Check out the 40 hour work week if you haven't already:

https://join.40htw.com

A quote from that website: The average teacher joining our program works 62 hours per week. Upon completion, the average member works just 52 hours in a typical week.

52 hours is still too much.

That is less than most professionals. I don’t know anyone that works 9-5 exclusively and never takes work home or works outside of those hours. Most professional jobs require “extra” hours of work or preparation for various things that can’t be done during the work day. Plus most jobs don’t have the summers off and extended holiday breaks for every major holiday.