Reply to Teacher trainee?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Teacher trainee?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's our area's way of "fully staffing" schools with folks who have no training. [/quote]
1. One wonders why we have to come up with creative ways to fill teacher vacancies - could be that teachers have to deal with the condescension, disrespect, and know-it-all attitude of parents in "our area" - cause-effect of the need to "fully staff" our schools. 
[b]2. "The folks who have no training" are carefully vetted by FCPS - they are long term subs, IAs, parents who have put their children through the system and have volunteered during that time, professionals transitioning for various reasons, including those looking for something meaningful to do with their time and, maybe, give back to their community...until they find out why there are those vacancies in the first place, and run for the exits! [/b]
3. Like the draft or jury duty, our country should introduce mandated teaching service in a public school for all of us to learn to respect our diligent, hardworking, sincere educators, entrusted with molding the foundation of the future of our country.[/quote]

NP.  The bolded perfectly describes my short-lived experience as a sub with FCPS.  I had considered a career switch for some time and thought I might enjoy teaching.  SO GLAD I decided to try subbing before going to all the time, trouble, and expense of becoming a teacher trainee and acquiring licensure, etc.  What a hellish experience.

I took on an elementary school long-term sub role and regretted it within days.  There was zero training, and I was expected to take on ALL of the responsibilities of a teacher - to include lesson planning, grading, parent/teacher conferences, classroom management (of a very unruly and poorly behaved class), etc.  The few kids who actually wanted to be there were a delight, but the rest made it their mission to be as disruptive and disrespectful as possible.  When I asked for help from admin, I literally got a shrug.

Needless to say, I absolutely ran for the exits after about a month there.  Never again - but at least, now I know.[/quote]

You proved my point that it is only once you are in a classroom juggling all the many duties of a homeroom teacher all day everyday, that one realizes the true worth of a teacher.

[b]If a teacher's salary were to be doubled, society would begin to respect the amazing people who are entrusted with the foundation years of our children's future.[/b]

Instead, armchair critics heap insults on teachers and talk about how they have to reteach their kids - my foot! Put yourself in a teacher's shoes - teach 20-30 clones of your own all day, for a week - and you'll kiss the ground on which a teacher walks. #RespectTeachers
#MandateTeacherDuty[/quote]

I really don't think the bolded is true. There are lots of high salary people that society doesn't respect.[/quote]

Let me rephrase that: there aren't any other professions where you literally entrust your life to someone and the person is so underpaid and disrespected. Teachers are the pilots and surgeons of the classroom - in fact, they are also psychologists, scientists, mathematicians, journalists, historians, resident parent, commander-in-chief, all rolled in one. Yet the pay doesn't reflect the skill required to run the ship safely and smoothly everyday - this thread is a testament - hence the teacher exodus.

At the least, [b]before/after contract hours parent conferences[/b] should be paid sessions.🤯Parents want to meet teachers before/after a teacher's full-day job, yet teachers don't get paid for that time. A teacher's time should be billable, like a lawyer's/therapist's, then there'll be a tidal shift in how society treats a teacher.👍[/quote]

Don’t schedule conferences before/after your hours. I don’t.[/quote]

Thank you for the reassurance. I didn't think it was an option in FCPS. Parents say, "I work fulltime!" and I have to bite my tongue to say, "Mine is a fulltime spa day!"[/quote]

We are a two teacher family. It’s definitely an option. Schedule conferences or phone calls  during planning when you don’t have CT meetings or on TW days. On occasion I’ll meet for 15 minutes or so right after the students leave.

Do you get many requests for conferences? [/quote]
Not from many parents, but there are always those 1-2 overbearing ones who think they own you. Lady year, I had two sets who couldn't get enough of me and one even told me her husband is a busy doctor and cannot make it during school hours! Lol I wanted to say, "No problem, teachers are on call 24/7, too, only we don't get paid beyond contract hours."

This year I have a parent who informed me she's "a working mom" and I almost said, "Wow, we have so much in common!"[/quote]

You sound like an idiot. Doctors cannot just leave their patients in the middle of the day to come talk about how Johnny needs to get more organized. Schedule a zoom with them instead. But don’t expect a busy doctor to make school hours. [/quote]

Case in point! Professional arrogance that puts teachers low on the pecking order, with a bonus side of abusive language.

Fortunately, the doc told his wife he'd schedule our conference around his appointments. Def. doesn't engender the character trait you ascribed to me👍🤩[/quote]

A doctor is way more important than a teacher and it is harder for them to schedule leave. They also have much higher education, harder training and are paid accordingly. No Radford grads! No one can substitute for them. Meanwhile, the IA or even the lunch lady at school can babysit your class while they read silently. You’re comparing apples to oranges. [/quote]

You completely missed the point - each job plays its role in society - and you prove the lack of respect for a teacher by saying a doctor is way more important than a teacher. The doctor was taught by teachers!

Disrespect for the teaching profession is partly because it's not paid adequately for the skill it requires to manage 20-30 young learners everyday. Teaching multidisciplinary subjects and maintaining order and discipline, while resolving daily social-emotional issues - most of which relate to managing parents, the unpaid part of the teaching profession - is unrecognized because people like you think students can just be made to sit silently and read to themselves all day.

[b]Since you say it's as easy as SSR, and a lunch lady can fill in, #TeacherDuty should be made a mandatory requirement for parents - it will teach them to respect their child's teacher overnight, compensate for the low pay, and allow teachers to use the time to make their doctors' appointments![/b]☺️[/quote]

+100
A week of mandatory teaching for all parents and admin staff.  With no aides.  This definitely needs to be implemented.[/quote]

They do not allow people who don’t work for FCPS to do this for liability purposes. But if a teacher needs to leave class suddenly, they absolutely can utilize another FCPS school employee within the building or the class is divided into a few different existing classes. They do not allow just anyone to take over the class - they need a background check at a minimum and need be in the system as a sub. But you knew that. [/quote]

You proved our point that most parents wouldn't "pass the test" to fill in for teachers - just like most teachers cannot fill in for doctors. If our system paid teachers better it would earn their role the commensurate respect, just like we do doctors and lawyers. At a minimum, teachers' overtime work (esp interminable parent conferences, which are more therapy sessions for the parents) should be made billable.[/quote]

+100
It seems the PP is worried that she might actually be called upon to teach a mandatory week.  Exactly the person who needs to be thrown into a classroom with no help and no training.[/quote]

I love how you think, whoever you are! Also, teachers have to reinvent themselves every other year, when reassignments force them around grade levels, where there's the most need - so there's additional training, PD, lesson plans, dealing with varied personality types on different teams. A teacher is a rocket scientist, ace mathematician, grammarian, historian, literacy specialist, and expert psychologist, all in one human being.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics