Teacher trainee?

[Anonymous]

making $50000 is more than nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:making $50000 is more than nothing.

True gotta start somewhere. I remember when I graduated college, Teach for America was a thing and my good friend's husband did it for two years before he started his job. Wondering whatever happened to that program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's our area's way of "fully staffing" schools with folks who have no training.

I give it 10 years until the majority of teachers come in alternatively. Nobody is majoring in it anymore.

Not true. My DD just graduated with her Elementary Education Degree with SPED - of course she had no problem getting a job.

There are fewer majors in it, for sure, and she'll be living at home until she saves up some money to move out, but I wouldn't say "nobody."

The problem is it's a national problem—and with many states such as VA offering universal licensure by reciprocity—if my DD had wanted to, she could have gone anywhere to teach. Schools are so desperate that they are doing Zoom interviews and hiring pretty much on the spot. Even though DD's degree was in ES and her student teaching was all ES focused, she was being actively recruited by HS principals who were calling her directly to convince her to teach HS SPED.

What they really need to do is focus on WHY there is such a teacher shortage....and it's not just about salary. My DD refuses to teach anything higher than ES and prefers lower grades just so she doesn't have to deal with all the political/cultural war BS in schools nowadays. And I won't say how I feel about it, but I'm so glad my kids are not in school today, and will be homeschooling any future grandchildren to ensure they learn to respect all beliefs equally and that there is no true or false, right or wrong belief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:making $50000 is more than nothing.

True gotta start somewhere. I remember when I graduated college, Teach for America was a thing and my good friend's husband did it for two years before he started his job. Wondering whatever happened to that program.

TFA is still around. A KG teacher in my school is part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's our area's way of "fully staffing" schools with folks who have no training.

I give it 10 years until the majority of teachers come in alternatively. Nobody is majoring in it anymore.

Not true. My DD just graduated with her Elementary Education Degree with SPED - of course she had no problem getting a job.

There are fewer majors in it, for sure, and she'll be living at home until she saves up some money to move out, but I wouldn't say "nobody."

The problem is it's a national problem—and with many states such as VA offering universal licensure by reciprocity—if my DD had wanted to, she could have gone anywhere to teach. Schools are so desperate that they are doing Zoom interviews and hiring pretty much on the spot. Even though DD's degree was in ES and her student teaching was all ES focused, she was being actively recruited by HS principals who were calling her directly to convince her to teach HS SPED.

What they really need to do is focus on WHY there is such a teacher shortage....and it's not just about salary. My DD refuses to teach anything higher than ES and prefers lower grades just so she doesn't have to deal with all the political/cultural war BS in schools nowadays. And I won't say how I feel about it, but I'm so glad my kids are not in school today, and will be homeschooling any future grandchildren to ensure they learn to respect all beliefs equally and that there is no true or false, right or wrong belief.

It is absolutely true in my district. It is unusual for new teachers to come from a teacher prep program in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Except most other majors do internships for credit AND they are paid. When my DS looked at Drexel, they said that they never had partnerships with businesses who would offer unpaid internships.

My DS did two internships, received credit for both, and got paid for both. Why would anyone want to student teach and not be paid when there are so many other options out there? School districts don't care about the answers to these questions. They'll just hire random people to fill the gaps.

The issue is who pays for the student internships? My DD did all her student teaching in Title 1 Schools. They barely had funding for the free/reduced lunches, teacher/staff salaries, etc. It all comes down the lack of budget.

[Anonymous]

Who pays for them? The tax payers should if you care that your kid is being taught by a trained teacher rather than a random adult who passed a background check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's our area's way of "fully staffing" schools with folks who have no training.

I give it 10 years until the majority of teachers come in alternatively. Nobody is majoring in it anymore.

Not true. My DD just graduated with her Elementary Education Degree with SPED - of course she had no problem getting a job.

There are fewer majors in it, for sure, and she'll be living at home until she saves up some money to move out, but I wouldn't say "nobody."

The problem is it's a national problem—and with many states such as VA offering universal licensure by reciprocity—if my DD had wanted to, she could have gone anywhere to teach. Schools are so desperate that they are doing Zoom interviews and hiring pretty much on the spot. Even though DD's degree was in ES and her student teaching was all ES focused, she was being actively recruited by HS principals who were calling her directly to convince her to teach HS SPED.

What they really need to do is focus on WHY there is such a teacher shortage....and it's not just about salary. My DD refuses to teach anything higher than ES and prefers lower grades just so she doesn't have to deal with all the political/cultural war BS in schools nowadays. And I won't say how I feel about it, but I'm so glad my kids are not in school today, and will be homeschooling any future grandchildren to ensure they learn to respect all beliefs equally and that there is no true or false, right or wrong belief.

It is absolutely true in my district. It is unusual for new teachers to come from a teacher prep program in college.

With such a teacher shortage, new teachers coming from college teacher prep programs have the pick of the litter...many years ago....new teachers were usually relegated to teaching in less desirable Title 1 schools and had to put in the "trench work" before moving up and out. My DD was being recruited by so many good schools within a 10 mile radius of home that she didn't even consider interviewing for any schools where her commute would have been more than 20 minutes.

She was warned that while the administration at her new school is great, it's the parents that can be difficult to work with. Also, the attrition level for teachers is also at an all-time low of 3 years -- another result of the huge teacher shortage...any teacher not happy could quit after 1-3 yrs and even during the middle of the school year and almost immediately get hired in another school.

[Anonymous]

So...what's the difference between TFA - Teach for America and Teacher Trainees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So...what's the difference between TFA - Teach for America and Teacher Trainees?

One is through national organization and one is through FCPS. Teach for America focuses on title I schools, teacher trainees can work at any local school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So...what's the difference between TFA - Teach for America and Teacher Trainees?

TFA is an actual organized program with support. From what I saw of a trainee at my school last year, it was pretty much sink or swim. I honestly don't think anyone who is going to be in front of a classroom should be allowed to do so without prior student teaching experience. You are setting people up for failure if you think they can learn on the job that they've never had any training in. It's like saying that a surgeon can be talked through surgeries and figure it out when nobody is around to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So...what's the difference between TFA - Teach for America and Teacher Trainees?

TFA is an actual organized program with support. From what I saw of a trainee at my school last year, it was pretty much sink or swim. I honestly don't think anyone who is going to be in front of a classroom should be allowed to do so without prior student teaching experience. You are setting people up for failure if you think they can learn on the job that they've never had any training in. It's like saying that a surgeon can be talked through surgeries and figure it out when nobody is around to help.

I worked with a teacher once who did TFA. They described it as baptism by fire - thrown into a high needs school with very little support.

[Anonymous]

Looks like we've got one from the Philippines this year. I'm trying to think positive thoughts here but this is going to be a bumpy ride. Shame on FFX for not giving them the 6% they were promised. Our school lost 16 teachers between the school year, not just bc of the raise thing. So many of the replacements are just that, the "warm bodies".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A paid internship in another field because nobody paid student teachers. I also had to pay for the year of student teaching. It was so intense with classes four nights per week from 4:30-8pm that I would’ve never been able to work on top of it. I got a regular summer job in the summers in between.

My DS is a Math and Secondary Education major. He's starting his senior year next week. The fall semester he'll be student teaching full time AND taking 2 Education courses at night. We still have to pay his tuition and room and board (he's off campus in an apartment, but we're paying for the apartment and groceries.) and he doesn't get paid for the student teaching. Last year, he had to do 20 hours in a classroom each semester. It was "observation" but the teacher he was assigned to in the fall had him helping out in the classroom - working one on one with students when they were doing independent work. He also led the class twice at the end of the semester.

My DS is really excited to get into the classroom. I need to stay away from these threads because I get so worried about him. I want him to love his job - he really enjoyed doing the observation and working with the kids. I think he'll be a great teacher. But reading about all the "crap" he may be dealing with is disheartening.

[Anonymous]

Not necessarily PP. I loved teaching the first few years or so. I had energy, no other obligations, etc. It was great. It's the grind and the constant yearly expectations that increase but we aren't given any more time to complete them. It wears you down.

I hope he has a great mentor teacher and student teaching experience. Mine was okay but I did learn what I didn't want. Lol! No grades above 3rd grade. I now teach kindergarten and I still love the kids. The rest of the job sucks though.