demoralized in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Hey check this out guys it's not only admin trying to get teachers out of the profession, kids are instructing their peers on YouTube how to get you fired.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-your-teacher-fired-tutorial-2014-3

Second point teachers are not allowed to be nervous actors even when their bread and butter is on the line from a a**hole with a clipboard with an agenda of punative reviewing.

[Anonymous]

teacher.

many sick excuses on this thread by those who are "experts" - Where's your humility? your compassion? your willingness to help colleagues who may be facing other obstacles in their lives (sick partners and kids, ailing parents, etc)?

sad


What’s sad is your attitude. There are teachers who refuse to take advantage of EAP, FMLA, and other options to address their obstacles, but are ruining the educations of other people’s children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Not in elementary. We get observed once by the principal and once by the AP when it’s our evaluation year. Our evaluation is written up solely from those two observations. I’ve always had strong evaluations, but one year my principal observed me during a very stressful time for her personally due to a health issue. She “dinged” me for something and I disagreed with the “ding” considering we had learned the strategy in a PD that she had highly touted. We discussed it during our post observation meeting and I didn’t know how to respond at that time but I indicated that I was confused by the “ding” considering she supported the PD but she stuck to her guns.

When I saw it was included in my written evaluation I didn’t sign it and again approached her about it. This was a few weeks later and she admitted that she was in a bad mood that day and was unnecessarily harsh and would think about it more. She sent me a new copy without the “ding” a few days later which I signed. I’m glad I said something and didn’t just let her steamroll over me. I’m also glad she admitted that she was being unnecessarily harsh. But it could have ended up very differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Thank you for posting this!
I am a first year special education teacher and your post was a great reinforcement of the growth mindset.
Your post is going to be printed out and saved for recall when I need a reality check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Agreed! Though I'm a Staff Development Teacher and we are NOT evaluative.

Q for SDT - How long were you a teacher before you shifted?

I was one for 10 years before the shift, and then I shifted back into teacher b/c I felt guilty for having such a cushy role. I loved my principal and took on many admin duties no one wanted to touch, but that left little time to help teachers. Even in a school where SDT duties are "valued," there's no time to co-plan, co-teach, work with struggling teachers - both novice and experienced, etc. The job is a joke, and having been in your spot, I don't value your input. In many cases, teachers who struggle will rely on empathetic colleagues who give up planning periods to help with planning. Some (I'm in this category.) will spend a planning period in a class, working with some difficult kids in small groups. THAT'S support.

Even the BEST teachers end up with a difficult mix of kids in large classes of 30+. Yet we fail to acknowledge that. Instead we blame the teacher.

many sick excuses on this thread by those who are "experts" - Where's your humility? your compassion? your willingness to help colleagues who may be facing other obstacles in their lives (sick partners and kids, ailing parents, etc)?

sad

I think teachers who struggle will be more likely to seek help from their peers because it’s hard to take advice from someone who has been out of the classroom. It’s the same thing when we are asked to follow central office’s mandates. Those people haven’t been in an actual classroom in years. We are looking for practical, realistic advice that we can actually use—not some idealistic advice that only makes sense on paper, which is often the type of advice given by those who work outside the classroom. Also, in some schools SDTs are considered to be admin level and people worry that if they open up about their struggles then they will start to be followed closely by admin which will only compound the stress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Not in elementary. We get observed once by the principal and once by the AP when it’s our evaluation year. Our evaluation is written up solely from those two observations. I’ve always had strong evaluations, but one year my principal observed me during a very stressful time for her personally due to a health issue. She “dinged” me for something and I disagreed with the “ding” considering we had learned the strategy in a PD that she had highly touted. We discussed it during our post observation meeting and I didn’t know how to respond at that time but I indicated that I was confused by the “ding” considering she supported the PD but she stuck to her guns.

When I saw it was included in my written evaluation I didn’t sign it and again approached her about it. This was a few weeks later and she admitted that she was in a bad mood that day and was unnecessarily harsh and would think about it more. She sent me a new copy without the “ding” a few days later which I signed. I’m glad I said something and didn’t just let her steamroll over me. I’m also glad she admitted that she was being unnecessarily harsh. But it could have ended up very differently.

FYI: you can request additional observations. Doing something awesome this week, make a special invitation. However, I have periodically told my supervisors to come whenever they want and not just the few times required. If you are really doing excellent teaching the majority of the time, more observations will help rather than hurt you.

Another FYI: just because a strategy works in some circumstances and is touted by admin does not relieve you of the responsibility for taking the temperature of your classroom and recognizing it just won’t work. It’s better to explain that you don’t use strategy X because it requires two additional transitions and Larlo struggles with transitions. Or that you don’t do random calling sticks since Larla’s IEP states that she should be warned ahead of time which question she’ll be asked to answer verbally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Not in elementary. We get observed once by the principal and once by the AP when it’s our evaluation year. Our evaluation is written up solely from those two observations. I’ve always had strong evaluations, but one year my principal observed me during a very stressful time for her personally due to a health issue. She “dinged” me for something and I disagreed with the “ding” considering we had learned the strategy in a PD that she had highly touted. We discussed it during our post observation meeting and I didn’t know how to respond at that time but I indicated that I was confused by the “ding” considering she supported the PD but she stuck to her guns.

When I saw it was included in my written evaluation I didn’t sign it and again approached her about it. This was a few weeks later and she admitted that she was in a bad mood that day and was unnecessarily harsh and would think about it more. She sent me a new copy without the “ding” a few days later which I signed. I’m glad I said something and didn’t just let her steamroll over me. I’m also glad she admitted that she was being unnecessarily harsh. But it could have ended up very differently.

FYI: you can request additional observations. Doing something awesome this week, make a special invitation. However, I have periodically told my supervisors to come whenever they want and not just the few times required. If you are really doing excellent teaching the majority of the time, more observations will help rather than hurt you.

Another FYI: just because a strategy works in some circumstances and is touted by admin does not relieve you of the responsibility for taking the temperature of your classroom and recognizing it just won’t work. It’s better to explain that you don’t use strategy X because it requires two additional transitions and Larlo struggles with transitions. Or that you don’t do random calling sticks since Larla’s IEP states that she should be warned ahead of time which question she’ll be asked to answer verbally.

Are you aware of how condescending you come across?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Not in elementary. We get observed once by the principal and once by the AP when it’s our evaluation year. Our evaluation is written up solely from those two observations. I’ve always had strong evaluations, but one year my principal observed me during a very stressful time for her personally due to a health issue. She “dinged” me for something and I disagreed with the “ding” considering we had learned the strategy in a PD that she had highly touted. We discussed it during our post observation meeting and I didn’t know how to respond at that time but I indicated that I was confused by the “ding” considering she supported the PD but she stuck to her guns.

When I saw it was included in my written evaluation I didn’t sign it and again approached her about it. This was a few weeks later and she admitted that she was in a bad mood that day and was unnecessarily harsh and would think about it more. She sent me a new copy without the “ding” a few days later which I signed. I’m glad I said something and didn’t just let her steamroll over me. I’m also glad she admitted that she was being unnecessarily harsh. But it could have ended up very differently.

FYI: you can request additional observations. Doing something awesome this week, make a special invitation. However, I have periodically told my supervisors to come whenever they want and not just the few times required. If you are really doing excellent teaching the majority of the time, more observations will help rather than hurt you.

Another FYI: just because a strategy works in some circumstances and is touted by admin does not relieve you of the responsibility for taking the temperature of your classroom and recognizing it just won’t work. It’s better to explain that you don’t use strategy X because it requires two additional transitions and Larlo struggles with transitions. Or that you don’t do random calling sticks since Larla’s IEP states that she should be warned ahead of time which question she’ll be asked to answer verbally.

Are you aware of how condescending you come across?

Translation: I don’t want advice from other teachers. They are just my peers. Who do they think they are to suggest I teach differently?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can principals visit a class a few times a year and somehow decide who’s highly effective and who is ineffective? The so called star teachers in our school somehow get the best students year after years. There are also those popular teachers who give in to every whim of the students, but don’t actually do much teaching. In a toxic environment where harassment is allowed and certain teachers are being targeted for no special reason, it’s about playing the game for self preservation. So we take the Xanax and come to work.

That’s not how the process works.

Teachers are observed for evaluation throughout the year by the following:
Team leaders
Department heads
Administrators
Staff development teachers

Teachers are also informally observed by peers for walk throughs and other schoolwide initiatives. Usually related to the school improvement plan.

Teachers may be informally observed by visitors from other schools and central office.

In the past 30 days, I’ve had 7 visitors and it is not even my eval year. One came Friday afternoon before Winter Break. I suppose I could say that was unfair because the kids were so excited. Instead, I had planned ahead —without knowing I had a drop-in observation. My students created their own review board games the day before and were playing them loudly but completely engaged when our visitor came. They were eager to share their work and explain how it related to our unit.

When you have a bad observation, you should set a meeting to discuss it and come forearmed with what you will do differently in the future. Don’t just blame it all on the rotten kids you got or bad timing. Part of being a professional is reflecting and growing. It may sound silly, but acknowledging a need to adjust pacing or your seating chart can reassure an administrator that you are willing to make changes toward improvement. It is ridiculous to claim your teaching is fine when students, parents, and admin all disagree.

In the end though, you were hired to do quality teaching every day. Not just some of the time. To complain that your principal judged you on only three visits is like arguing that the cops pulled you over only on the three days a year that you drink and drive. They should just focus on all the days you were sober.

Not in elementary. We get observed once by the principal and once by the AP when it’s our evaluation year. Our evaluation is written up solely from those two observations. I’ve always had strong evaluations, but one year my principal observed me during a very stressful time for her personally due to a health issue. She “dinged” me for something and I disagreed with the “ding” considering we had learned the strategy in a PD that she had highly touted. We discussed it during our post observation meeting and I didn’t know how to respond at that time but I indicated that I was confused by the “ding” considering she supported the PD but she stuck to her guns.

When I saw it was included in my written evaluation I didn’t sign it and again approached her about it. This was a few weeks later and she admitted that she was in a bad mood that day and was unnecessarily harsh and would think about it more. She sent me a new copy without the “ding” a few days later which I signed. I’m glad I said something and didn’t just let her steamroll over me. I’m also glad she admitted that she was being unnecessarily harsh. But it could have ended up very differently.

FYI: you can request additional observations. Doing something awesome this week, make a special invitation. However, I have periodically told my supervisors to come whenever they want and not just the few times required. If you are really doing excellent teaching the majority of the time, more observations will help rather than hurt you.

Another FYI: just because a strategy works in some circumstances and is touted by admin does not relieve you of the responsibility for taking the temperature of your classroom and recognizing it just won’t work. It’s better to explain that you don’t use strategy X because it requires two additional transitions and Larlo struggles with transitions. Or that you don’t do random calling sticks since Larla’s IEP states that she should be warned ahead of time which question she’ll be asked to answer verbally.

Are you aware of how condescending you come across?

Translation: I don’t want advice from other teachers. They are just my peers. Who do they think they are to suggest I teach differently?!?

NP who is not a teacher and agree with PP that you come across as condescending. You may have good intentions, but need to work on how you deliver your message.

[Anonymous]

many sick excuses on this thread by those who are "experts" - Where's your humility? your compassion? your willingness to help colleagues who may be facing other obstacles in their lives (sick partners and kids, ailing parents, etc)?

sad

What’s sad is your attitude. There are teachers who refuse to take advantage of EAP, FMLA, and other options to address their obstacles, but are ruining the educations of other people’s children.

You don't get it.

Many teachers ARE in therapy, genius! teachers and nurses! want to know HOW I know this? b/c I am in therapy, as are many of my friends and colleagues

EAP is crap. FMLA leave is YOUR own, unless you receive time from the sick leave bank. Imagine using up leave for that. What happens when your own kid gets sick? Whose leave will you use?


Soon there will be NO ONE LEFT to teach. Few enter. And the new ones who do leave. Let's see how long the new sped teacher on this thread lasts. One of our brilliant student teachers - now five years in a teacher - just cut out in November! Another colleague, four years in, is in therapy trying to find an escape plan. Three left an upcounty middle school right before winter break.

We can't keep teachers, and we can't find enough to fill spots.

So stop blaming teachers. You're pathetic and a big part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

many sick excuses on this thread by those who are "experts" - Where's your humility? your compassion? your willingness to help colleagues who may be facing other obstacles in their lives (sick partners and kids, ailing parents, etc)?

sad

What’s sad is your attitude. There are teachers who refuse to take advantage of EAP, FMLA, and other options to address their obstacles, but are ruining the educations of other people’s children.

You don't get it.

Many teachers ARE in therapy, genius! teachers and nurses! want to know HOW I know this? b/c I am in therapy, as are many of my friends and colleagues

EAP is crap. FMLA leave is YOUR own, unless you receive time from the sick leave bank. Imagine using up leave for that. What happens when your own kid gets sick? Whose leave will you use?


Soon there will be NO ONE LEFT to teach. Few enter. And the new ones who do leave. Let's see how long the new sped teacher on this thread lasts. One of our brilliant student teachers - now five years in a teacher - just cut out in November! Another colleague, four years in, is in therapy trying to find an escape plan. Three left an upcounty middle school right before winter break.

We can't keep teachers, and we can't find enough to fill spots.

So stop blaming teachers. You're pathetic and a big part of the problem.

My principal announced that MCPS will be hiring hundreds if not thousands of new teachers for next year. It’s not because enough teachers are aging out and retiring. It’s because they can’t retain teachers due to the toxic culture.

[Anonymous]

If you don’t change, you won’t keep your job. Accept that and plan accordingly. There is no other option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

many sick excuses on this thread by those who are "experts" - Where's your humility? your compassion? your willingness to help colleagues who may be facing other obstacles in their lives (sick partners and kids, ailing parents, etc)?

sad

What’s sad is your attitude. There are teachers who refuse to take advantage of EAP, FMLA, and other options to address their obstacles, but are ruining the educations of other people’s children.

You don't get it.

Many teachers ARE in therapy, genius! teachers and nurses! want to know HOW I know this? b/c I am in therapy, as are many of my friends and colleagues

EAP is crap. FMLA leave is YOUR own, unless you receive time from the sick leave bank. Imagine using up leave for that. What happens when your own kid gets sick? Whose leave will you use?


Soon there will be NO ONE LEFT to teach. Few enter. And the new ones who do leave. Let's see how long the new sped teacher on this thread lasts. One of our brilliant student teachers - now five years in a teacher - just cut out in November! Another colleague, four years in, is in therapy trying to find an escape plan. Three left an upcounty middle school right before winter break.

We can't keep teachers, and we can't find enough to fill spots.

So stop blaming teachers. You're pathetic and a big part of the problem.

My principal announced that MCPS will be hiring hundreds if not thousands of new teachers for next year. It’s not because enough teachers are aging out and retiring. It’s because they can’t retain teachers due to the toxic culture.

absolutely!

toxic as hell

[Anonymous]

A good flush moves toxins out of the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A good flush moves toxins out of the system.

They're not flushing out the toxins. They're flushing out anyone who has another option. The only ones who will be left will be those who lack options.