Teachers, what surprised you most about the profession?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we could go back to teaching the basics in the early grades. None of this ridiculous close reading for 90 minutes a day. Kids need to listen to books but not imitate high school and college kids by spending entire classes doing an analysis of why the author chose that vocab word instead of this one. Do kindergarteners who can barely write their names and hold a pencil need to be wasting time talking about shades of meaning? Nope. Math needs to be simpler because there are students who cannot handle learned 10 different "strategies" to add single digit numbers. We need to pre-test students for math and regroup them for each unit. The slower kids just need to basics. The higher kids can handle all of those strategies. We also need more recess. 10-15 minutes per day for little kids is not nearly enough.

As a parent, I’d like to see schools stop doing this too. But, who makes these decisions? Who has the power to change it? Is this decision at the state level? Do individuals districts decide? Principals?

Educational philosophies come into vogue, and any educator who doesn't buy into it is viewed as old fashioned, too traditional, etc. Teacher colleges are mainly responsible for a lot of what is commonly considered "best practices" also a lot of education organizations come up with these trends. For example, the way math is currently taught is not the fault of common core, it can actually be attributed to the National Counselor for Teacher's of Mathematics. Their opinion on how math should be taught influences the teaching colleges, textbook publishers, and so forth and that becomes how math is taught. It is the same for many other subjects. In History, there is a huge push to analyze primary documents, even in 6th grade. I'm not sure where that idea came from. But it is now considered "best practices" for teaching Social Studies, so any SS teacher who thinks it's a load of crap knows better than to say anything.

Thank you for explaining. And do school boards vote to decide what textbooks to use? Or what philosophy to embrace? Or do these “educational philosophies” slip in without leaders intending it?

No, school boards don’t vote on textbooks and no one officially decides what philosophy a district has, it’s just that certain philosophies come into vogue as being the “correct” philosophy to have, same as in all other areas of society.

There’s also a modern belief that learning has to be fun all the time. Learning about grammar is not fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD’s Ap calc teacher told the class that she only got an 1110 on the sat. She was a great teacher though

How old is the teacher? An 1110 used to be considered a good score.

I’m a teacher and my score was higher than our salutatorian. My grades weren’t higher lol. Some test well and some don’t... I didn’t really spend much time caring about high school too much, I just wanted to pass. I did very well on my SAT though. You can’t really judge someone off one test. I wasn’t the greatest student. A lot of things we had to learn bored me so I didn’t care to excel, just wanted to pass.

If I could go back to high school I would care more about grades, but high school me just didn’t want all A’s and my parents just cared that I pass. Not all parents obsess over grades (not wrong either way).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD’s Ap calc teacher told the class that she only got an 1110 on the sat. She was a great teacher though

How old is the teacher? An 1110 used to be considered a good score.

I’m a teacher and my score was higher than our salutatorian. My grades weren’t higher lol. Some test well and some don’t... I didn’t really spend much time caring about high school too much, I just wanted to pass. I did very well on my SAT though. You can’t really judge someone off one test. I wasn’t the greatest student. A lot of things we had to learn bored me so I didn’t care to excel, just wanted to pass.

If I could go back to high school I would care more about grades, but high school me just didn’t want all A’s and my parents just cared that I pass. Not all parents obsess over grades (not wrong either way).

There also didn’t used to be the obsession with test prep and tutoring for the SAT. You took the PSAT for practice, maybe went and got a practice book at Border’s, and then you took the SAT.

[Anonymous]

Plus SAT scores are on average higher than they used to be. Kind of like grades!

[Anonymous]

I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Curious by what you mean by this. Are you saying that the content itself doesn't really affect how you feel about the job, that it's more enjoying the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Curious by what you mean by this. Are you saying that the content itself doesn't really affect how you feel about the job, that it's more enjoying the kids?

No. The process of learning how to think for yourself, how to seek answers and follow curiosity, relate to other people and manage coworking relationships, to have tough but productive discussions, to see other’s viewpoints and develop your own beliefs and values, ALL of those things are what is really important for kids in school. The content is maybe the vehicle to make that happen but whatever book we read or whatever set of problems we do are entirely beside the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Curious by what you mean by this. Are you saying that the content itself doesn't really affect how you feel about the job, that it's more enjoying the kids?

No. The process of learning how to think for yourself, how to seek answers and follow curiosity, relate to other people and manage coworking relationships, to have tough but productive discussions, to see other’s viewpoints and develop your own beliefs and values, ALL of those things are what is really important for kids in school. The content is maybe the vehicle to make that happen but whatever book we read or whatever set of problems we do are entirely beside the point.

And this is why people don't know anything...

[Anonymous]

1110 was a good SAT score when I was in high school and there was absolutely no test prep. Class of 94.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Curious by what you mean by this. Are you saying that the content itself doesn't really affect how you feel about the job, that it's more enjoying the kids?

No. The process of learning how to think for yourself, how to seek answers and follow curiosity, relate to other people and manage coworking relationships, to have tough but productive discussions, to see other’s viewpoints and develop your own beliefs and values, ALL of those things are what is really important for kids in school. The content is maybe the vehicle to make that happen but whatever book we read or whatever set of problems we do are entirely beside the point.

And this is why people don't know anything...

I love when people who don’t do my job think they know how to do my job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Curious by what you mean by this. Are you saying that the content itself doesn't really affect how you feel about the job, that it's more enjoying the kids?

No. The process of learning how to think for yourself, how to seek answers and follow curiosity, relate to other people and manage coworking relationships, to have tough but productive discussions, to see other’s viewpoints and develop your own beliefs and values, ALL of those things are what is really important for kids in school. The content is maybe the vehicle to make that happen but whatever book we read or whatever set of problems we do are entirely beside the point.

And this is why people don't know anything...

I love when people who don’t do my job think they know how to do my job

What do you mean? Are you saying only your opinion is valid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1110 was a good SAT score when I was in high school and there was absolutely no test prep. Class of 94.

Yep. I worked my ass off and was pretty happy with my 1010. Class of 1993.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually love other people’s kids

Every single class is its own distinct little society. What works for one won’t in another. The dynamic of the kids can make or break the class.

How little the content itself really matters.

Different teacher here. Agree 100% with this.

High schoolers are finding their place in the world. They are forming their own opinions and considering new ideas. Having young people discover what they value and having them learn to express themselves is exceptionally fun. Every single year, I get thank you cards from students (and parents) thanking me for all of the wonderful conversations in class. And also for the world language that they learn.

[Anonymous]

How terrible parents are in general.

It doesn't matter their SES, either, they are all terrible in their own ways.

High SES parents can be very demanding and believe that their child is incredibly gifted in all areas. Also, nearly every high SES kid has some form of ADHD these days and comes with accomodations.

Low SES parents can be very hands-off and often have language barriers. We offer support services for those language barriers but many choose to avoid teachers and coming into the schools at all costs due to their legal status.

[Anonymous]

Oh the parents. Exhausting in so many ways. I assumed (my fault, I know) that everyone wanted the best for the kids and was willing to do what they could to make it happen. Nope, nope, nope. I feel like the education system has taken over so many responsibilities that used to belong to parents. I make sure my kid gets to school on time. That is part of my job as a parent. It is not part of my job to make sure everyone else gets their kids to school on time. Yet a large chunk of my EOY evaluation includes student test scores. I work in a school with a chronic absentee problem. Students are habitually absent or late and there are no consequences for that except for me and my fellow teachers. I can't teach if students don't come to school or if they miss my class. We have collaborative team meetings to address this issue. We talk about it weekly. We bend over backward to try to fix this problem but at the end of the day, this is a parent issue.