Education / Teaching thread (1 Viewer)

[bonnjer]

I know we have several teachers or spouses of teachers here and I've been meaning to start a thread on education for a while now, so when I saw this article, I figured it was a good time to start discussing things.

Public education is facing a crisis of epic proportions

Test scores are down, and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying on the couches of social workers. Anger is rising. Patience is falling. For public schools, the numbers are all going in the wrong direction. Enrollment is down. Absenteeism is up. There...

www.yahoo.com

I've been teaching for 23 years now and I've seen things continue to head in one direction - testing. EVERYTHING is tied to testing. Diagnostic, benchmark, interim, end of course....tests, tests, tests. Of course, all of that testing isn't free. We're spending a fortune on testing fees, equipment to test with (because all testing has pretty much moved online), etc. School performance scores are based heavily on test scores. It's too much, especially in Covid times when you've got so many kids in and out of classes for a week or two at a time. But how do we stop it? I don't think there's a way. The lobbyists and politicians are the ones running this show and making all sorts of money off the education system.

Meanwhile, you've got teachers who are having to cover classes because nobody wants to sub these days or there just aren't enough subs to adequately cover everyone. Teachers are burning out in massive waves and college students aren't going into education in large enough numbers. Those who do may stick around for a little while, but they quickly discover they can't handle all of the BS.

There are just so many things wrong with our education system and it's the students who are suffering the consequences, whether they realize it or not. Sure, you're going to have those students who do well, no matter what. You're going to have those students who don't give two flips, no matter what. It's the in-between students who make up the largest portion and they're the ones getting the raw end of things.

As for me, I plan on going at least another 7 years to make it to 30 and then 3 years of in the DROP system. I may end up just sticking it out until my full 40 years are done. I don't know yet. I roll with the punches, but I've seen many people come and go in my years.

I know we have discussions about education here and there in various threads, but I wanted to have one that keeps education as the main focus. So, let's discuss.

 

[jrdbrn]

My wife is an educator. She hates it. She is trying to change schools before she loses her sanity.

 

[zeetes]

i feel teachers (police and firefighters a close second) get, and are, screwed. not sure how our teaching system will be able to right itself. not like y'all are living the good life with all that phat cash money.

children spend something like a 1/3 of their day with a teacher? if i left a child with someone that long, i'd expect the person to discipline without fear of repercussion by the parent and i would accept it as so.

"hi! i'm mother karen and this is father chad. we are co-parents of googly woogly smith. show my child they are brilliant, but don't correct behaviour, mistakes, or give homework."

As for me, I plan on going at least another 7 years to make it to 30 and then 3 years of in the DROP system.

are you in "teachers' retirement" system? i was just curious if drop works like it does for other civil service departments/agencies etc.

 

[bonnjer]

are you in "teachers' retirement" system? i was just curious if drop works like it does for other civil service departments/agencies etc.

Yep, Louisiana has the teacher retirement system that I pay into.

 

[SWJJ]

I left K-12 education in November after 5 years. Teachers are ridiculously under paid. I taught science and ran a STEAM lab. I left to go to work in courseware development in corporate education. Teachers are tasked with an ever increasing amount of expectations that have nothing to do with teaching, taking temps, cleaning surfaces, attending redundant unnecessary faculty meetings, unhelpful professional development, mandatory parental contact logs, ridiculous detailed written daily lesson plans.

The pandoras box in education has been opened.

There has been a MASIVE exodus of teachers, and a HUGE decline in the number of people taking Education as a Major in college.

We are going to have serious teacher shortages that is going to get worse and worse until we re-evaluate how we educate our children.

 

[jrdbrn]

I left K-12 education in November after 5 years. Teachers are ridiculously under paid. I taught science and ran a STEAM lab. I left to go to work in courseware development in corporate education. Teachers are tasked with an ever increasing amount of expectations that have nothing to do with teaching, taking temps, cleaning surfaces, attending redundant unnecessary faculty meetings, unhelpful professional development, mandatory parental contact logs, ridiculous detailed written daily lesson plans.

The pandoras box in education has been opened.

There has been a MASIVE exodus of teachers, and a HUGE decline in the number of people taking Education as a Major in college.

We are going to have serious teacher shortages that is going to get worse and worse until we re-evaluate how we educate our children.

By the time teachers are paid what they should be paid, inflation will be up 30% and they'll be making $50k starting salaries. LOL.

 

[efil4stnias]

I left K-12 education in November after 5 years. Teachers are ridiculously under paid. I taught science and ran a STEAM lab. I left to go to work in courseware development in corporate education. Teachers are tasked with an ever increasing amount of expectations that have nothing to do with teaching, taking temps, cleaning surfaces, attending redundant unnecessary faculty meetings, unhelpful professional development, mandatory parental contact logs, ridiculous detailed written daily lesson plans.

The pandoras box in education has been opened.

There has been a MASIVE exodus of teachers, and a HUGE decline in the number of people taking Education as a Major in college.

We are going to have serious teacher shortages that is going to get worse and worse until we re-evaluate how we educate our children.

a STEAM lab in k-12 school??? what kinda hippie, free-love is THAT???

( yes STEM i get it lol )

Im keeping eye on this thread- my oldest is entering SELU in the fall under their 4 Plus 1 ( Masters ) in education ( Wants to teach History ). And these posts ( seen across multiple threads ) are NOT making me feel good. But she WANTS to teach.

Ugh...i hope she marries well.

 

[Outbackjack]

Well, I think I'll be the other voice.

I am a principal of an public elementary school here in North Georgia......and I absolutely love my job.

Kids are absolutely fantastic.....and for the most part the teachers are very happy and we try hard to keep it that way. They are professionals and I try to be hands off on the inner workings of their classroom, but I know every kid by name (just over 1000).....and I'm just there to steer the ship in the right direction.....and I handle big issues to keep them off of the teachers. We are required to do our fair share of assessments, but that's part of the job. It is in no way killing education.

In our county, beginning teachers make 48,000K

Most in our building are between 10-20 years, and making 60-70K with a masters. It's not too shabby considering that's for 190 days of work.

As a principal with 30 years, I make a little over 100K working 210 days.

But more than anything, our kids are very well behaved, our families are very involved, and county is supportive, our teachers are dedicated and happy, its a good situation.

I am eligible to retire, but I stay very young in this job, and it's a happy place.

For those stressing in their jobs, I feel sorry for you. Life's too short to not like what you're doing for whatever reason.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

all props to classroom teachers - it's a broken system with very little idea of what it's even trying to do

after semi-retiring from fulltime performance it taught at university
katrina created the opportunity to start an artsy HS connected to the university where i was teaching
the selling point of the program was that the arts teachers were 'working artists' - and everyone was cool with that
well...occasionally there would be the grumblings from other faculty that the arts teachers did not have to do all the bull**** classroom teachers did, but it wasn't too bad

then about 4-5 years in admin really started a push to have arts teachers 'certified' by the state - the principal tried to explain how this would be a win win and it seemed like halfway through the meeting he realized how weak his pitch was
we would have had more busy work (which would have come out of instruction time)
student (artistic) output would have to be more quantifiable (he had no argument for how that could or even should happen)
we showed him how, if one of us retired, a kid out of grad school would have more institutional value than someone with 20 years in the field
etc etc

to his credit he let it go when the meeting crashed and burned - and we understood how 'one sized fits all' was valued by admins, but it really showed the crack in the educational foundation as a whole -- a certificate showing that someone had a semester of 'classroom management' had more value than any number of other more applicable, more important metrics

philosophically i would MUCH prefer teaching in public school again - practically, i don't see that happening without wholesale changes (the kind of changes that could/should have happened in response to Covid, but alas)

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Well, I think I'll be the other voice.

I am a principal of an public elementary school here in North Georgia......and I absolutely love my job.

Kids are absolutely fantastic.....and for the most part the teachers are very happy and we try hard to keep it that way. .

this is crucial
my first university job, my admin told us in very specific terms, 'i want to build a top program and i will act as your umbrella to keep as much of the administrative ****storm off of you and will let you know what you need to pay attention to'
that was invaluable

otoh, the HS i referred to in my previous post, started very high on expression and forward thinking then had a draconian shift around year 5 and the atmosphere just became oppressive and toxic

 

[gboudx]

>>Most in our building are between 10-20 years, and making 60-70K with a masters. It's not too shabby considering that's for 190 days of work.

Curious about this. Do those 190 days only constitute classroom instruction/school year?

I'm the spouse of a teacher. She stayed home with our boys for 17 years, then decided to start subbing, then decided to become a teacher. I mention this because she didn't take the usual path of starting out of college. She's had enough. We talked this past weekend about leaving education and going back to the corporate world. I told her to get out because I don't see it getting any better in this state. I discussed this already in another thread here. Today she has an after school meeting with 2 parents who want to discuss some of the "things" being taught in class. Part of curriculum is "Social Issues" where the focus is on empathy and advocacy for others. She has no control over the curriculum. The rest of what I have to say is probably for MAP.

 

[SWJJ]

But more than anything, our kids are very well behaved, our families are very involved, and county is supportive, our teachers are dedicated and happy, its a good situation.

I appreciate this acknowledgement. In my anecdotal experience teachers in "good school districts" seem to be happier and less burned out than teaches who have a high number of students with high ACE scores, or schools with low SPS scores, or schools that serve a community with a high level of poverty, or schools that serve violent communities.

It's been my long over-simplified position that the biggest problems in education is the problems in the community.

The problems in education are a direct result of the problems in our society.

 

[Outbackjack]

>>Most in our building are between 10-20 years, and making 60-70K with a masters. It's not too shabby considering that's for 190 days of work.

Curious about this. Do those 190 days only constitute classroom instruction/school year?

I'm the spouse of a teacher. She stayed home with our boys for 17 years, then decided to start subbing, then decided to become a teacher. I mention this because she didn't take the usual path of starting out of college. She's had enough. We talked this past weekend about leaving education and going back to the corporate world. I told her to get out because I don't see it getting any better in this state. I discussed this already in another thread here. Today she has an after school meeting with 2 parents who want to discuss some of the "things" being taught in class. Part of curriculum is "Social Issues" where the focus is on empathy and advocacy for others. She has no control over the curriculum. The rest of what I have to say is probably for MAP.

I hate to hear that about social issues causing problems.
As far as the days.....the children attend 180 days.....and the teachers work 7 extra days on the front end, and 3 on the back end for 190 total.

Not a bad gig.

 

[saintmdterps]

This is my wife’s 26th year in special Ed. She’s just hoping to make it to 30 and get out with her sanity.

Special Ed had never been an easy route but now with the increased emphasis on testing, it’s gotten ridiculous. These testing companies buy their way into the educational system and too often the tests themselves are flawed and don’t accurately measure what they should. Then there’s the whole “teaching to the test” that others have mentioned. Teachers many times now are handed a curriculum and not allowed to deviate from that curriculum.

Therapy sucks, education sucks. Time to punch out and sit on the beach eating, drinking, and ….

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

190 being included like teachers work half as much
avg working day/year 260
obviously more but not twice as much