What happens if FCPS isn't staffed by the first day of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

I’m not a teacher. I’m a nurse. And F people like you who think that anyone should put up with crappy conditions and be a martyr to “fulfill their calling.” You call them heroes but do you support them?The same people looking all shocked that there’s a shortage of teachers were blaming them for school closures and having fits 3 years ago. The equity soldiers are making teachers quit? I agree that lack of student accountability is one thing driving teachers out. But unfortunately it impacts all SES. And look at Florida-which is going to have a huge teacher shortage this year. I don’t think it’s the equity soldiers pushing them out.

Thank you for saying this. I was about to but saw your post. So tired of people saying that professions like ours should just take all the BS for the good of the community. People are now standing up and saying NO MORE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are not that many vacancies. My (highly regarded) ES has 0. And the MS and HS we are zoned for have 2-3 each, mostly in autism SPED. So, not relevant for us.

If this comment doesn’t sum up one segment of our county (and country) perfectly, I don’t know what does.

PP states as fact that there are NOT that many vacancies.
And how does she “know” this fact?
Because there are no vacancies in her little utopia, therefore, vacancies do not exist.

Priceless.

Well, Miss Utopia, my neighborhood elementary school is short 2 K teachers, 1 2nd grade teacher, 1 3rd grade teacher, and 4 special ed teachers. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

The PP doesn't care about anyone but herself...in true NOVA style.

[Anonymous]

Let’s wait a week or two and those posters who are living in Fantasyland will post that their kid doesn’t have a real teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so? I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so? I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs.

No. I mean, I wish all parents were like that because it would help a lot, but at this point it’s just the system is so bad. It’s not good for us or the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started one year - I think it was 4th grade - without a teacher. He had a series of short term subs for the first week or two, then a long term sub for about 6 weeks. At that point the school gave up on hiring someone, split up his class, and added 8-9 kids to each of the other 3 classrooms. It was not good.

FCPS is a joke. They hire people with no teaching qualifications.
I don’t know how they are getting away with it.

Yes. Right here on the dcum dating board, on some tiresome thread about “high quality men”, someone equated teaching to hairdressing. It was unbelievably insulting. I have a masters degree from a university that DCUM parents love.

Think about the area you live in. Why would anyone become a K-12 teacher when they can go make better money -- and be more admired by their neighbors -- doing a different kind of work? NOVA is an expensive place to live. More to the point, it is a striver culture. Teaching K-12 is not as valued because it is perceived by the people who live in Fairfax County as lower pay, lower reward field, and therefore, commanding of lower respect. Why would you do that when you could strive for better? There is always the temptation to leave teaching behind for something better. In a mid-size or smaller town/area, teachers are much more valued and a pillar of the community because it is a sought-after job that pays pretty well.

It doesn't help that there are many mal-adapted children in the area with behavioral issues (including being incredibly spoiled) and checked out parents who don't ever correct their behavior and blame the teachers. The teachers are not to be respected, because they chose teaching, obviously. They're dumb for doing that when they could go to law school, or whatever.

When you run it through the lens of simply living in Fairfax County's striver culture, it all begins to make sense why teachers would leave for work that is higher pay, higher status, and higher reward with less work required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so? I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs.

No. I mean, I wish all parents were like that because it would help a lot, but at this point it’s just the system is so bad. It’s not good for us or the kids.

\

Exactly....the system is broken. If we are being honest FCPS is acting like it's the "teachers" problem and it's not. So teachers who can leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started one year - I think it was 4th grade - without a teacher. He had a series of short term subs for the first week or two, then a long term sub for about 6 weeks. At that point the school gave up on hiring someone, split up his class, and added 8-9 kids to each of the other 3 classrooms. It was not good.

FCPS is a joke. They hire people with no teaching qualifications.
I don’t know how they are getting away with it.

Yes. Right here on the dcum dating board, on some tiresome thread about “high quality men”, someone equated teaching to hairdressing. It was unbelievably insulting. I have a masters degree from a university that DCUM parents love.

Think about the area you live in. Why would anyone become a K-12 teacher when they can go make better money -- and be more admired by their neighbors -- doing a different kind of work? NOVA is an expensive place to live. More to the point, it is a striver culture. Teaching K-12 is not as valued because it is perceived by the people who live in Fairfax County as lower pay, lower reward field, and therefore, commanding of lower respect. Why would you do that when you could strive for better? There is always the temptation to leave teaching behind for something better. In a mid-size or smaller town/area, teachers are much more valued and a pillar of the community because it is a sought-after job that pays pretty well.

It doesn't help that there are many mal-adapted children in the area with behavioral issues (including being incredibly spoiled) and checked out parents who don't ever correct their behavior and blame the teachers. The teachers are not to be respected, because they chose teaching, obviously. They're dumb for doing that when they could go to law school, or whatever.

When you run it through the lens of simply living in Fairfax County's striver culture, it all begins to make sense why teachers would leave for work that is higher pay, higher status, and higher reward with less work required.

Yup....so many entitled DC people acting like they are better than everyone. I had a friends husband say to me oh you are teaching-it's good to have something to keep you busy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so? I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs.

DP
I recently stopped teaching at least 3 years earlier than I planned. If you would have asked me maybe 5 or 6 years ago I wouldn’t have told you I’d be done now.

One of the main reasons for doing so was I had so many students who just wouldn’t or couldn’t listen. It was very frustrating that I couldn’t get through a whole group or small group lesson without constantly having to stop. Side conversations during whole group and off-task students while I was working with small groups were disruptive and their volume was so loud. Other than a student here or there I never had such difficulty maintaining instruction in my first 25+ years of teaching.

I had never been one to refer students to the office. It just was never necessary. During the two years prior to last there were a couple of instances that I felt needed immediate intervention from someone other than me. After getting my hand slapped and lectures about relationship building how I must have been negligent in some way for it to get to this point, I learned (was basically told) to avoid referring students to admin. With other support staff occupied with more frequent, serious things such as students running from class and evacuated classes due to the chair throwers, I dealt with the issues in my class basically on my own. Most parents were supportive but it still became too overwhelming.

Finally, the instructional expectations had changed quite a bit and there wasn’t nearly enough time to plan and implement everything that was expected. For most of my career I did work at home outside of the school day, but for a while that was enough that I felt successful and didn’t feel behind. 50 hours a week and I’d have work graded, planning done, communication completed. My last few years I’d try to keep it under 55 hours a week, but I felt I was falling short of expectations. I was not just behind, but way behind. I’d worry that someone would walk into my room and catch an off task student, critique me for still doing Morning Meeting when we should have been on to math sense making, or only getting through one small group math lesson when I should have completed two. It all became just too stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes!

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and it makes me miserable.

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so? I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs.

DP
I recently stopped teaching at least 3 years earlier than I planned. If you would have asked me maybe 5 or 6 years ago I wouldn’t have told you I’d be done now.

One of the main reasons for doing so was I had so many students who just wouldn’t or couldn’t listen. It was very frustrating that I couldn’t get through a whole group or small group lesson without constantly having to stop. Side conversations during whole group and off-task students while I was working with small groups were disruptive and their volume was so loud. Other than a student here or there I never had such difficulty maintaining instruction in my first 25+ years of teaching.

I had never been one to refer students to the office. It just was never necessary. During the two years prior to last there were a couple of instances that I felt needed immediate intervention from someone other than me. After getting my hand slapped and lectures about relationship building how I must have been negligent in some way for it to get to this point, I learned (was basically told) to avoid referring students to admin. With other support staff occupied with more frequent, serious things such as students running from class and evacuated classes due to the chair throwers, I dealt with the issues in my class basically on my own. Most parents were supportive but it still became too overwhelming.

Finally, the instructional expectations had changed quite a bit and there wasn’t nearly enough time to plan and implement everything that was expected. For most of my career I did work at home outside of the school day, but for a while that was enough that I felt successful and didn’t feel behind. 50 hours a week and I’d have work graded, planning done, communication completed. My last few years I’d try to keep it under 55 hours a week, but I felt I was falling short of expectations. I was not just behind, but way behind. I’d worry that someone would walk into my room and catch an off task student, critique me for still doing Morning Meeting when we should have been on to math sense making, or only getting through one small group math lesson when I should have completed two. It all became just too stressful.

Well, thanks for the years you did put in. I get the sense you were a great teacher and it’s a shame FCPS lost you because you held yourself to high expectations that FCPS then made it impossible to meet without unreasonable sacrifices.

[Anonymous]

What could FCPS do differently to make teachers stay? Or to recruit qualified teachers? Lastly - what is a qualified teacher? Would you rather a teacher fresh out of school? Or a career switcher on a provisional license?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What could FCPS do differently to make teachers stay? Or to recruit qualified teachers? Lastly - what is a qualified teacher? Would you rather a teacher fresh out of school? Or a career switcher on a provisional license?

There is a lot FCPS and schools can do.

Stop micromanaging the daily schedule.
Shorter instructional blocks for better focusing
Make all TWD unencumbered and optional work from home.
Make all PD virtual.
Pay teachers for anything extra they do beyond being a teacher for the school.
Have a daycare for each school pyramid for teacher’s kids that is low cost.
Actual maternity leave.
Job sharing (more part time options)
Pay salary that matches cost of living
Actually discipline kids.

I can keep going…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What could FCPS do differently to make teachers stay? Or to recruit qualified teachers? Lastly - what is a qualified teacher? Would you rather a teacher fresh out of school? Or a career switcher on a provisional license?

There is a lot FCPS and schools can do.

Stop micromanaging the daily schedule.
Shorter instructional blocks for better focusing
Make all TWD unencumbered and optional work from home.
Make all PD virtual.
Pay teachers for anything extra they do beyond being a teacher for the school.
Have a daycare for each school pyramid for teacher’s kids that is low cost.
Actual maternity leave.
Job sharing (more part time options)
Pay salary that matches cost of living
Actually discipline kids.

I can keep going…

Good list. I bolded what probably would have kept me there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What could FCPS do differently to make teachers stay? Or to recruit qualified teachers? Lastly - what is a qualified teacher? Would you rather a teacher fresh out of school? Or a career switcher on a provisional license?

There is a lot FCPS and schools can do.

Stop micromanaging the daily schedule.
Shorter instructional blocks for better focusing
Make all TWD unencumbered and optional work from home.
Make all PD virtual.
Pay teachers for anything extra they do beyond being a teacher for the school.
Have a daycare for each school pyramid for teacher’s kids that is low cost.
Actual maternity leave.
Job sharing (more part time options)
Pay salary that matches cost of living
Actually discipline kids.

I can keep going…

F-Yeah! Block schedule is a detriment to learning and behavior.