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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our principal is wonderful but he has a boss too and can't just cancel everything because we are stressed.  [b]The hardest part right now is the student behavior. [/b] My friends think I'm joking when I tell them what elementary kids are doing in classes with no repercussions. We have kids cussing out their teachers, running at full speed around the building, climbing on top of cabinets and just punching the crap out of each other for no reason. These aren't even students with services. These are kids who have experienced a tremendous amount of trauma during COVID and lack any self-regulation strategies. To my admin's credit, they do come when we call them but [b]they can't really do anything[/b]. Nobody has been suspended this year because that's a big no-no in schools these days as we don't want to "perpetuate the school to prison pipeline". Parents are either unresponsive or at a loss too. Since I know DCUM is crawling with advocates, YES we are trying to collect data and do FBAs, etc. but this used to be one or two kids a year in the entire building. Not a few in each class across the building.  We aren't even fully staffed anymore due to resignations.  It would be great to wave a magic wand and have staff appear but no such luck. We've been approved for critical staffing to provide 1:1 support for one student but nobody is applying for the position.  So right now, all non-classroom staff can't do their jobs because they are either covering lunch/recess, subbing for classes (there aren't subs), helping deal with behavior issues, or serving as the 1:1
I'm so sick of it.  We can't get through lessons when a few kids in each class are just occupying 99% of our time and energy. I feel terrible for our kids who desperately want and need to learn. It doesn't help that we're trying to pretend that the pandemic didn't happen and we're still  trying to teach grade-level content to students who lost so much time. 
MCPS is losing a lot of staff.  Higher ups in central are catching on that the grass IS greener in other districts.  [/quote]

This! My sister is an elementary school administrator and is beyond frustrated to the point she might leave the profession.  She is seeing similar behaviors in her school and her hands are tied. She's had parents ask at a PTA meeting about behavior and she knows she has to make things appear smoother than they are in the building.  School admin are basically told to make the place look good and stay out of the news.

School staff have a front row seat to societal issues that are bubbling up and will soon be all of our problems. Our children need more social emotional supports and most importantly,  accountability. They know that there are no consequences in school aside from a twenty minute visit to the office. My sister said so many kids will just tell you exactly what you want to hear but go right back to class and continue to disrupt the learning environment. I stopped teaching ten years ago but if kids pulled a fraction of the stuff they're pulling now they would have been suspended.  There wasn't on-going disruption of classrooms because a few kids can't manage themselves.  How long are we going to let learning be disrupted for the majority of students all because a few can't get it together.[/quote]

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