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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ask to be switched. Every schools know who the problematic teachers are and what they teach. No school is going to pro-actively move your kid so ask to have the kid moved and give examples of why.[/quote]

This is one of the many reasons teachers burn out.

[b]When schools honor these switches, the good teachers end up with huge classes and the “bad” teachers have minuscule rosters.[/b]

So the good teachers are taking home twice the papers to grade. They have twice the students to manage and twice the parent emails to answer.

So the good teachers burn out at a fast pace, often feeling tons of resentment because they are doing twice the work for the same pay. [/quote]

And when they don’t honor these switches, a kid gets behind in math. The schools role is to educate students. Teachers could organize and advocate for the removal of low performing teachers if it’s adversely impacting their workplace, but for some reason I don’t see that effort…?[/quote]

A) how would you even know if they did that or not? It’s a personnel issue. Of course you don’t “see” it

B) it wouldn’t work. Teachers have contracts. I cannot advocate for my colleague to be fired. If they have done something egregious like improperly touching or communicating with a child I can report that and admin can follow up and the school board can investigate and fire. Even THAT takes forever. We don’t like dead weight anymore than you do but we have no power to tell the school board to violate someone’s contract and fire them because they aren’t as good at teaching as others. [/quote]

When I say “organize and advocate” I mean at the public level. Write letters as a group to the school board and ask for higher standards for teachers evaluations and metrics for success to be written into next years contract, ask your Union representatives (where applicable) to put in the contract negotiations that poor teachers lose union protection, whatever you want. But advocate for it in public with the power you have if it really does impact your working conditions and the dead weight really does bother you.

Because otherwise the point boils down to “I don’t want to do more because my colleague is bad at their job” which anyone in any job will tell you happens all the time— and is not the fault of the student.[/quote]

So you want the people who already do the most to pick up even more work? Where do you think these hours come from? Good teachers are already working around the clock for you.

And who will they find to replace the bad teachers? There’s a shortage out there, if you aren’t aware.

I understand that some parents demand teachers to sacrifice all, but at some point you need to understand that there’s very little left we can give you. [/quote]

I think a unionized workforce (where applicable) should be negotiating and advocating  to address issues in their workplace if indeed you are correct that deadweight teachers are a drag on other teachers and contributing to burnout AND that this is something that bothers teachers as much as parents.

Yes, given the choice between a teacher doing more and a student falling behind, I am not willing to suggest we punish students with problem teachers year after year.[/quote]

I give you 65-70 hours a week. I stay after to tutor, my students and the students of others. My own health suffers and my family suffers.

I’m sorry, I just can’t give you more than I already am. I can’t advocate for your child more than I already am. When it comes to his other teachers, that’s going to need to be your responsibility. I just can’t take more on.
 [/quote]

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