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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/america-has-a-teacher-shortage-and-a-new-study-says-its-getting-worse/2016/09/14/d5de1cee-79e8-11e6-beac-57a4a412e93a_story.html

Washington Post article claims there's been a dramatic decrease in new teachers entering the profession:

"Enrollment in teacher-preparation programs dropped from 691,000 in 2009 to 451,000 in 2014, a 35 percent decline, according to the study, “A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand and Shortages in the U.S.”"

It also claims nearly 2/3 of teachers leave before retirement age.

If teaching is supposed to be [b]such a cushy job[/b], "summers off, home by 3", and so well paid with great benefits ... why aren't people rushing to become teachers?

[/quote]

Low pay, low respect, a lot of demands from administration and parents, not enough support for the kids who need it.[/quote]

And being expected to perform miracles and being blamed at the local, state and federal level when said miracles are not performed. Being told that progress isn't enough, there must be proficiency. Never mind that a student who came to you 3 years below grade level made 2 years of progress in one year. It's still not good enough. And if you had cared more and had worked harder, you could have gotten her to make the 3 years of progress needed to score proficient on the standardized test.  But that didn't happen so you're not an effective educator. [/quote]
L
Yep. Taught in FCPS last year and enjoy reading on here. Teaching elsewhere my second year. It’s my last year teaching bc the stress of unreal!!

Had AAP 4th last year and still needed to differentiate as a few kids I wondered why/how they were in AAP because they really, really struggled. Others needed to learn the standards we were to teach, so they were right where they should be. And others were taking classes or doing extra things at home with parents and were super far ahead of the standards in different ways... Most couldn’t write to save their lives but because the school used Lucy Calkins so I think that’s why explicit instruction in writing wasn’t really happening and clearly never had, except for my students who did writing classes outside of school. They could write beautifully and told me they were never really taught how to write a paragraph in school. Where I subbed in another state the first graders were expected to be able to write a paragraph so it drove me nuts! But I tried teaching some mechanics and was told not to, and as a first year they checked on me a lot so I basically stopped except I’d tell kids things about mechanics when we conferenced on to one so if anyone walked in I wasn’t being a “bad” teacher teaching kids how to actually write.

This year my fourth graders are reading from a kindergarten level to a fifth grade one. Yes, one kid reads at a K level. They aren’t autistic or an ELL, I’ve been told they’re severely disabled in writing but I don’t really understand. I’m not special ed or a reading specialist. Another student’s mom wanted a fifth grade math book because her kid was in a catholic school last year so she’s getting bored but I was told I can’t send one home. So I have over 20 kids ranging from a K level to a 5th grade level. And they’re all online. Half my class has an IEP or 504 with long lists of accommodations I’m supposed to remember. I hope my hair doesn’t fall out this year.

After graduating I started to get horrible stress because finding a teaching job where I’d lived my whole life is highly competitive. South Shore of Massachusetts. I graduated from one of the best public high schools. Subbed and student taught in surrounding towns. They hire people they know (extreme nepotism) or applicants with many years in their own classroom. I don’t have the patience to teach in places like I have for many more years just to get in around the area I call home. I’m commuting an hour right now (yes for all virtual they make us go there. They have one virtual teacher for each grade level and it’s a one year only position so I’ll need to job hunt come June, but I didn’t want to move back to the DC area. There are 5 teachers teaching online from one room. Their kids’ voices come through their headphones but we can hear each other the whole time and parents have emailed me saying they can hear other teachers in the background but there wasn’t much done when I shared this info.).

Last year my dentist could tell I’d been stressed. I spent two summers applying to teach near home and subbed for a measly $75/day. I felt like a loser. I started grad school to teach at 25 so I felt too old to be paid so badly but I thought I’d really like teaching since I enjoyed student teaching a lot and didn’t mind subbing minus the horrible pay and zero benefits. I got a mouth guard to wear at night. My stomach had had major distress and my boyfriend, a therapist, had told me it must be stress, but I took a celiac test wondering if that could be it and it was negative. It probably is stress. I think I’m slowly killing myself because I really do care about the kids and there’s so many of them with such varying needs. And admin and other higher ups expecting you to magically do it all, when they clearly left classroom teaching because they know it’s not possible. And parents who are often lovely, but many who are very demanding and expecting me to treat their child like the only one in class.

I’m enrolled to earn a certificate in HR by June and take the aPHR. I’ll have to restart but it’s not like entry level HR pays as low as $12k a year like subbing. I enjoy helping people and have a few friends in HR. It can also be stressful like all jobs, but teaching truly is an impossible job. None of my HR friends being work home although I’m sure in some places people do but they’re at least likely paid a lot if they are. I’m just only one person and there’s only so much I can do and I can’t teach to multiple levels in one reading block and in one math block. I just can’t. I’m sure some people have strategies that are impossible that I could try. My physical and mental health really has declined since graduating from grad school. I wish I never went and wish someone warned me about how bad it is, but when I subbed before going to grad school it didn’t seem to bad. So either I was in a rare good school or the teachers didn’t want to scare me. I wish they’d warned me though.

I wouldn’t recommend this career to anyone either unless they can handle extreme stress without it effecting their well-being. I’m trying my best but I’m afraid I’m going to like lose all my hair this year and that’s not a fun thought at all. I’d give notice and find an office job now if the economy wasn’t so horrible. [/quote]

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