Reply to What happens if FCPS isn't staffed by the first day of school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What will happen is we will get a front raw seat to equity at its best. Now NOBODY will learn much of anything!

Since equity is the new priority and focus of FCPS, students will be the first ones to notice the shortcomings to this new approach, but the new equity soldiers at school will be so thrilled to convince them otherwise. The rest of the staff have already quit or moved somewhere else. As for the ones who decided to stay and teach under these circumstances without compromising their true calling as teachers, these are the true heroes! [/quote]

Nope not heroes and we know you don’t think that. Just people who still haven’t gotten to breaking point yet or have too many years in to walk away and risk retirement or want the schedule while we have kids at home. I don’t view it as a calling anymore, though I certainly did when I started. Now it’s just any other job - I’m good at it and[b] it makes me miserable.[/b] [/quote]

I'm sorry that teaching is making you miserable--is there anything that the parent community that wants to support teachers can do to make it less so?  I try to make sure my kids are respectful and prepared and I trust that teachers have the expertise to do their jobs. [/quote]

DP
I recently stopped teaching at least 3 years earlier than I planned. If you would have asked me maybe 5 or 6 years ago I wouldn’t have told you I’d be done now.

One of the main reasons for doing so was I had so many students who just wouldn’t or couldn’t listen. It was very frustrating that I couldn’t get through a whole group or small group lesson without constantly having to stop. Side conversations during whole group and off-task students while I was working with small groups were disruptive and their volume was so loud. Other than a student here or there I never had such difficulty maintaining instruction in my first 25+ years of teaching.

I had never been one to refer students to the office. It just was never necessary. During the two years prior to last there were a couple of instances that I felt needed immediate intervention from someone other than me. After getting my hand slapped and lectures about relationship building how I must have been negligent in some way for it to get to this point, I learned (was basically told) to avoid referring students to admin. With other support staff occupied with more frequent, serious things such as students running from class and evacuated classes due to the chair throwers, I dealt with the issues in my class basically on my own. Most parents were supportive but it still became too overwhelming.

Finally, the instructional expectations had changed quite a bit and there wasn’t nearly enough time to plan and implement everything that was expected. For most of my career I did work at home outside of the school day, but for a while that was enough that I felt successful and didn’t feel behind. 50 hours a week and I’d have work graded, planning done, communication completed. My last few years I’d try to keep it under 55 hours a week, but I felt I was falling short of expectations. I was not just behind, but way behind. I’d worry that someone would walk into my room and catch an off task student, critique me for still doing Morning Meeting when we should have been on to math sense making, or only getting through one small group math lesson when I should have completed two. It all became just too stressful.[/quote]

Well, thanks for the years you did put in. I get the sense you were a great teacher and it’s a shame FCPS lost you because you held yourself to high expectations that FCPS then made it impossible to meet without unreasonable sacrifices. [/quote]

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