NY times op ed on the teacher crisis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. If we can’t have an honest discussion where constructive criticism of discipline policy is a focal issue then we can continue to bury our heads and lament as teacher shortages rise. If teachers don’t feel safe they won’t teach. If they have disruptive or violent kids in their classes who must remain there because of policy then you’ll see the problem be an issue.

I'm a teacher and I love restorative justice programs. It's not even in the top 5 reasons I'm constantly one foot out the door.

1) The pay
2) The hours outside of contractual time
3) Parent expectations in terms of constant communication
4) Abundance of mandated state testing
5) Being in one of the few fields that will never transition to a remote or hybrid model.

You don't like RJ clearly, considering your OP was immediately blaming progressives for the teacher shortage. Here is a teacher telling you that RJ is not an issue to me at all.

+1 As a former teacher, I still have nightmares about the freaking paragraph length e-mails I would receive from SAHMs angered by a slight that their precious child received in class. Go do something else with your life! The teacher is already overburdened with the KIDS in her actual class in front of her. She doesn't have time to get on the computer and wrote you in length back.

This is such a petty and dumb complaint in a conversation that is about bigger issues that all I can think is that it's good you, specifically, are a former teacher. "I hate that some of my students' parents were very invested in their kids' education, and also were not always succinct in their communications." That's fine, but not an industry-wide issue in need of addressing. Do you want to... eliminate SAHMs? Discourage parents from contacting teachers? Enroll parents in writing courses so they can ask their questions and make their comments more directly?

I hope the paragraph length of my comment isn't too much for you to handle.

You are exactely the reason why my DD as an elementary teacher will quit her job. Insufferable parents of uneducated kids.

Why is it a problem if the kids are uneducated? I have a 1st grader and she's definitely uneducated. That's why I send her to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

In this thread we have a teacher telling you that's why they're thinking of leaving and a former teacher (who presumably has another job to compare) telling you it was a problem, so why do you think you know better?

[Anonymous]

The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.

That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever. That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

In this thread we have a teacher telling you that's why they're thinking of leaving and a former teacher (who presumably has another job to compare) telling you it was a problem, so why do you think you know better?

But if teachers are leaving the profession because of annoying emails from parents, that's just normal attrition from people who just don't like the job. Dealing with annoying emails from parents is part of teaching. It is not something that is going to change. It is not even unique to teaching, as many jobs involve getting annoying emails.

That is different than larger policy issues that make teaching an undesirable job. Things like pay, lack of respect, poor administration or oversight, outdated and even dangerous facilities, lack of adequate funding to do their jobs well, etc.

You have to learn to separate the inherently annoying but inevitable aspects of having a job (all jobs have annoying things) from the systemic or policy-related issues that might actually be addressed and fixed. I am sorry but there is no policy fix for "I don't like responding to sometimes annoying or lengthy emails from parents."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.

That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever. That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you.

I agree pay and benefits are the core issue. FWIW, we are in DCPS and it seems like even in our Title 1 school, they retain teachers really well. I know there is a pay bump for Title 1 teachers and I think it makes a difference. Some of the veteran teachers at our school make as much as 120k. That's a very good salary in the public sector -- there are engineers who make less, and even high level administrators who oversee large departments only make a bit more. So paying teachers well definitely helps with retention (and I'm betting also helps with job satisfaction -- it's easier to deal with annoying work stuff if you feel you are being well compensated).

But I think the other key issue is administration. The number one complaint I hear from DCPS teachers is frustration with either Central Office or school administration, and the biggest issue is the feeling that the people setting policy, deciding on curriculum, determining schedules, etc., are checked out or don't really care about what is happening at the classroom level. So I think one concrete thing school districts could do to improve teacher retention is to hire more people with actual classroom experience into administration and support roles, and to do a better job of listening to teachers and responding to their feedback. Teachers should have a say in curriculum changes, and their input should be essential to other aspects of policy-making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

+1000 if teachers think there's no annoying emails in the corporate sector that they will need to respond to, they are sorely mistaken. Also, I constantly hear "working outside of contract hours" as a reason they dislike the job. I don't know any corporate employee that doesn't. In fact, I go to my DD's activity several nights a week and there are a few moms that are teachers and they are NEVER working, but nearly every other working parent there is tethered to their laptop and cell phone.

I just don't buy it. Now, issues like ill behaved children and lack of support from their admin... those seem much more valid reasons to quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.

That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever. That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you.

I agree pay and benefits are the core issue. FWIW, we are in DCPS and it seems like even in our Title 1 school, they retain teachers really well. I know there is a pay bump for Title 1 teachers and I think it makes a difference. Some of the veteran teachers at our school make as much as 120k. That's a very good salary in the public sector -- there are engineers who make less, and even high level administrators who oversee large departments only make a bit more. So paying teachers well definitely helps with retention (and I'm betting also helps with job satisfaction -- it's easier to deal with annoying work stuff if you feel you are being well compensated).

But I think the other key issue is administration. The number one complaint I hear from DCPS teachers is frustration with either Central Office or school administration, and the biggest issue is the feeling that the people setting policy, deciding on curriculum, determining schedules, etc., are checked out or don't really care about what is happening at the classroom level. So I think one concrete thing school districts could do to improve teacher retention is to hire more people with actual classroom experience into administration and support roles, and to do a better job of listening to teachers and responding to their feedback. Teachers should have a say in curriculum changes, and their input should be essential to other aspects of policy-making.

DCPS has some of the highest pay for teachers in the whole country, maybe the highest. DCPS also has terrible problems with retention, before the pandemic would regularly lose teachers who quit throughout the school year (which, before the pandemic, was unheard of almost everywhere else in the country).

Pay is important but not the most important factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

+1000 if teachers think there's no annoying emails in the corporate sector that they will need to respond to, they are sorely mistaken. Also, I constantly hear "working outside of contract hours" as a reason they dislike the job. I don't know any corporate employee that doesn't. In fact, I go to my DD's activity several nights a week and there are a few moms that are teachers and they are NEVER working, but nearly every other working parent there is tethered to their laptop and cell phone.

I just don't buy it. Now, issues like ill behaved children and lack of support from their admin... those seem much more valid reasons to quit.

I'm sorry you don't buy what the teachers in this thread are telling you about their lived experience. There's not much more they can do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

+1000 if teachers think there's no annoying emails in the corporate sector that they will need to respond to, they are sorely mistaken. Also, I constantly hear "working outside of contract hours" as a reason they dislike the job. I don't know any corporate employee that doesn't. In fact, I go to my DD's activity several nights a week and there are a few moms that are teachers and they are NEVER working, but nearly every other working parent there is tethered to their laptop and cell phone.

I just don't buy it. Now, issues like ill behaved children and lack of support from their admin... those seem much more valid reasons to quit.

I'm sorry you don't buy what the teachers in this thread are telling you about their lived experience. There's not much more they can do.

No we are listening, we're just saying this is not something anyone can change and it's also just sort of part of the job. There is no teaching job that doesn't involve talking to parents (at least not at the K-12 level, and especially in elementary) and it is just a fact of life that some of those parents will be annoying.

Similar issue with lack of flexibility and remote work options. It just is what it is. Teaching in a public school is never going to have that kind of flexibility. If that is something very important to you, you might need to look into online teaching gigs, which naturally pay less. It's just a reality. Teaching is an in-person job for the most part.

I understand needing to complain about that stuff, but that's the kind of thing you complain about with fellow teachers when you need to blow off steam and kvetch about things unique to your job that are irritating. But they are not really useful in this conversation because no one is going to be able to change the in order to increase teacher retention. You aren't going to get some kind of school-wide or district-wide policy that bans parents from contacting teachers, you aren't going to get a hybrid work schedule.

We are suggesting you focus on the things that are actually fixable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

+1000 if teachers think there's no annoying emails in the corporate sector that they will need to respond to, they are sorely mistaken. Also, I constantly hear "working outside of contract hours" as a reason they dislike the job. I don't know any corporate employee that doesn't. In fact, I go to my DD's activity several nights a week and there are a few moms that are teachers and they are NEVER working, but nearly every other working parent there is tethered to their laptop and cell phone.

I just don't buy it. Now, issues like ill behaved children and lack of support from their admin... those seem much more valid reasons to quit.

I'm sorry you don't buy what the teachers in this thread are telling you about their lived experience. There's not much more they can do.

NP. But the things being complained about are pretty much present in every single profession. Long hours, “overtime”, annoying emails, using your own money and resources toward something to do to with your job. To me, these are standard issues every professional adult deals with at work.

[Anonymous]

These things are fixable and would keep me in this job. If I didn’t have a kid in college, I would’ve quit years ago.

1) Ridiculous amount of testing. So many hours are wasted on this. If I’m testing, I’m not teaching.

2) Student behavior. If a student causes a disruption in a classroom and normal techniques don’t work in ending it, teachers should be allowed to have that child removed. The entire class shouldn’t be held hostage.

3) Curriculum. All teachers should meet and choose appropriate curriculum for their students. There should be flexibility because what works in one school or classroom doesn’t necessarily work everywhere.

4) Work load. If you want me to spend hours on administrative tasks like entering grades in some spreadsheet or platform, give me time other than my planning time to do it or hire us secretaries.

5) Anyone who comes in to observe better be an expert ready to give actual suggestions for improvement and be prepared to model them if needed. I’m tired of tons of suits coming in from central office to observe and then not know what they are talking about.

6) Adequate staffing. I’m shouldn’t have to sub for others because admin can’t find subs. Up the pay big time and fix it.

That’s all for now. My brain is tired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents constantly email, about every little thing. I don’t need to know why Susie has a band-aid on her knee. Believe me, she’s going to tell the whole class. I don’t care that a week from Tuesday Jose will be leaving early to see his grandparents. Just send him with a note that morning. There’s nothing worse than opening your computer in the morning and having to take time to read and respond. Ask yourself, if this was in your childhood, would your mom have called the teacher on the phone about it? If it’s that important, go ahead and email. Otherwise, let it go.

Ok, so if it is not relevant, ignore and move on. I don’t get why this is such a burden.

I think sometimes in this conversation, we need to make a distinction between "things about teaching that are hard or annoying" and "aspects of education that make teaching intolerable or not worth it."

Now, if you want to talk about parents who harass teachers, try to insert themselves into classroom management, complain about normal things to administration, etc., I get it. A unique thing about teaching is this relationship you have with your students' parents, and while you don't work for them, you still have to deal with them. If they are awful and your administration doesn't back you up, that is a huge issue. Ideally teachers and parents should operate as partners in educating kids -- there should be mutual respect and collaboration.

But complaining about a parent whose like "hey Jimmy cut up his knee pretty badly last night on his bike -- it's bandaged up but just wanted to let you know in case you complains about it or has any issues" is just petty. I get why getting a lot of emails like that would be annoying, because I have my own version of that in my own job. It cannot be the reason people are leaving the profession, and if it is, I think they will discover that almost any other job they get will have annoyances at a similar level.

In this thread we have a teacher telling you that's why they're thinking of leaving and a former teacher (who presumably has another job to compare) telling you it was a problem, so why do you think you know better?

But if teachers are leaving the profession because of annoying emails from parents, that's just normal attrition from people who just don't like the job. Dealing with annoying emails from parents is part of teaching. It is not something that is going to change. It is not even unique to teaching, as many jobs involve getting annoying emails.

That is different than larger policy issues that make teaching an undesirable job. Things like pay, lack of respect, poor administration or oversight, outdated and even dangerous facilities, lack of adequate funding to do their jobs well, etc.

You have to learn to separate the inherently annoying but inevitable aspects of having a job (all jobs have annoying things) from the systemic or policy-related issues that might actually be addressed and fixed. I am sorry but there is no policy fix for "I don't like responding to sometimes annoying or lengthy emails from parents."

I don't know of anyone who is leaving because of annoying emails. I agree with you. There are annoying emails or annoying things at every job. I suspect when people say that this is a big issue, what they really mean is this: The OTHER aspects of the job which are HUGE issues, the ones that demoralize people and endanger them, have so dragged them down to the point that they can no longer distinguish between what is merely annoying and what is a major issue.

It's a straw that broke the camel's back kind of thing. When a couple gets divorced they might say it was because the wife finally had enough of his dirty socks lying around. But what she really means is he never helps her and is always going out drinking with his buddies, leaving her to raise the kids on her own while married and the annoying socks? That was the straw that broke the camel's back and now she's filing for divorce.

Fellow teachers, it is okay to leave if you want to leave. Save yourself. Seriously. It is not on you to save the system or even to "save" children. I don't know what the U.S. is going to do, but it is okay to leave. I truly feel for all the families and children who are suffering or will suffer due to the shortage. I hope something works out for everyone. I think things are going to get much, much worse before they get better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These things are fixable and would keep me in this job. If I didn’t have a kid in college, I would’ve quit years ago.

1) Ridiculous amount of testing. So many hours are wasted on this. If I’m testing, I’m not teaching.

2) Student behavior. If a student causes a disruption in a classroom and normal techniques don’t work in ending it, teachers should be allowed to have that child removed. The entire class shouldn’t be held hostage.

3) Curriculum. All teachers should meet and choose appropriate curriculum for their students. There should be flexibility because what works in one school or classroom doesn’t necessarily work everywhere.

4) Work load. If you want me to spend hours on administrative tasks like entering grades in some spreadsheet or platform, give me time other than my planning time to do it or hire us secretaries.

5) Anyone who comes in to observe better be an expert ready to give actual suggestions for improvement and be prepared to model them if needed. I’m tired of tons of suits coming in from central office to observe and then not know what they are talking about.

6) Adequate staffing. I’m shouldn’t have to sub for others because admin can’t find subs. Up the pay big time and fix it.

That’s all for now. My brain is tired.

This. All of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These things are fixable and would keep me in this job. If I didn’t have a kid in college, I would’ve quit years ago.

1) Ridiculous amount of testing. So many hours are wasted on this. If I’m testing, I’m not teaching.

2) Student behavior. If a student causes a disruption in a classroom and normal techniques don’t work in ending it, teachers should be allowed to have that child removed. The entire class shouldn’t be held hostage.

3) Curriculum. All teachers should meet and choose appropriate curriculum for their students. There should be flexibility because what works in one school or classroom doesn’t necessarily work everywhere.

4) Work load. If you want me to spend hours on administrative tasks like entering grades in some spreadsheet or platform, give me time other than my planning time to do it or hire us secretaries.

5) Anyone who comes in to observe better be an expert ready to give actual suggestions for improvement and be prepared to model them if needed. I’m tired of tons of suits coming in from central office to observe and then not know what they are talking about.

6) Adequate staffing. I’m shouldn’t have to sub for others because admin can’t find subs. Up the pay big time and fix it.

That’s all for now. My brain is tired.

This is such a thoughtful and action-oriented response. Thank you for taking the time to write it!