MCPS Parents -- What would you tell teachers if you could?

[Anonymous]

It is so true that every job has positives and negatives. One of the positives of teaching is that it is hard to get fired. But there is a teaching shortage, at least in some grade levels and subjects. There is something causing this shortage in those fields. If all we say is that it could be worse somewhere else, then we will never figure out how to improve the situation.

Here is a question: If the teaching conditions are so bad (in some subjects / grade levels) that there is a teaching shortage, what does that mean for the student learning conditions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have it hard and I really appreciate all they do and don’t envy them. But not everything is sunshine and rainbows in other jobs. I use to tell friends the part of my day that saved my sanity was my 50min drive home where I could exist in complete silence between my corporate job and walking into Mom/Wife mode when I got home(and occasionally work would try to interrupt that).

I had to do real reflection on creating boundaries and determining what was most important on any given day. As they say, when you retire/die your inbox will still be full.

Yep. All jobs have upsides and downsides.

I worked for the feds and had some cool experiences, but they also psychologically tortured me. It took me about 2 years to recover from it, and in some ways I’m still not over it. What they did to me gave me nightmares and resulted in me going on anxiety meds.

You left your abusive job. That’s what many of us are now doing within education. The turnover is HUGE. 3/4 my department has quit in the past 3 years, and the replacements aren’t lasting more than a year. Those of us who have soldiered on are all looking for an out, even those who stand to lose a ton by giving up pensions.

When teachers say it’s bad, please believe us. We often hear “everybody has it bad,” but we know that’s not true. We all have former colleagues telling us how great their new positions are. We all have husbands and wives who work less and make a lot more.

If you once had it bad, then perhaps you can sympathize with the modern teacher.

Maybe we need to lose more teachers before mcps will do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers should tell parents to make sure your kid does their work and punish themnif they come in and regularly harass their teacher. If your teacher gives you the grade you deserve don't try to get them fired by complaining to admin that the big bad teacher gave my child a grade lower than an A and try to passively aggressively ruin a teachers career because you don't know how to parent and you entitled kid doesn't know how to take feedback. Teachers need support not parents fighting them and humiliating them with admin backing infrin of oversized classes.

Parents need communication from teachers so we know what is going on, and what assignments there are and the due dates.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem asking a teacher for information about what is being taught in class/my child's performance/behavior, requesting that they adhere to policies designed for my child's benefit, or praising their efforts. Responses vary, there, but none of these fall under the "if you could" subject of this thread.

To that, instead, I'd say to them as a group that we're not going to be getting any relief from the under-funding/under-staffing until we get forthright and detailed info/anecdotes about classroom difficulties/shortcomings and how they directly impact our children's welfare. Not here on DCUM, but in direct-to-parent comms.

It's not what admin would want, and it probably would cause short-term pain, but it's too hard to make such big changes without larger numbers of county residents expressing specific dissatisfactions, and that won't happen without candor.