Education / Teaching thread (1 Viewer)

[gboudx]

Today she has an after school meeting with 2 parents who want to discuss some of the "things" being taught in class.

The parents didn’t show up. Didn’t message they would miss either. As of right now, nothing from either of them. Complete waste of her time, and no respect for her time.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

The parents didn’t show up. Didn’t message they would miss either. As of right now, nothing from either of them. Complete waste of her time, and no respect for her time.

They probably haven’t finished coloring Maus yet

 

[The Tooth]

I was a High School educator for 4 years, took a break, started a restaurant than a software company, then went back into teaching Middle School for 5 years. I lasted till December this year, inflation has eaten away my 52K salary on our single income family. My students every year were worse and worse behaviorally and the disregard for teacher safety from administration (false accusations, inappropriate COVID response, believing parents and students first) became even more so. We had students targeting male teachers that they didn’t like (two resigned) and I saw the writing on the wall that any student I disciplined could make a false accusation against me. I put in my two weeks notice and I started the new year at my new position as a Video Game producer and am now making more money remotely. I don’t miss a second from teaching. A job that you receive no bathroom breaks, no lunch breaks and barely any planning time made me burned out and paranoid. I also felt a huge disconnect from those in the classroom and those who are not. Unfortunately, a lot of school board policies are decided by the ones who are not in the classroom.

 

[zeetes]

I was a High School educator for 4 years, took a break, started a restaurant than a software company, then went back into teaching Middle School for 5 years. I lasted till December this year, inflation has eaten away my 52K salary on our single income family. My students every year were worse and worse behaviorally and the disregard for teacher safety from administration (false accusations, inappropriate COVID response, believing parents and students first) became even more so. We had students targeting male teachers that they didn’t like (two resigned) and I saw the writing on the wall that any student I disciplined could make a false accusation against me. I put in my two weeks notice and I started the new year at my new position as a Video Game producer and am now making more money remotely. I don’t miss a second from teaching. A job that you receive no bathroom breaks, no lunch breaks and barely any planning time made me burned out and paranoid. I also felt a huge disconnect from those in the classroom and those who are not. Unfortunately, a lot of school board policies are decided by the ones who are not in the classroom.

damn. that seems similar to a friend of mine (well, the leaving and doing things other than teaching, then returning). that is tough.

 

[bonnjer]

Unfortunately, a lot of school board policies are decided by the ones who are not in the classroom...

...and never have been.

 

[SWJJ]

Teachers Work a Shocking Amount of Overtime Hours and It's All Unpaid

One of the common misconceptions most people have is that if school is not in session, teachers aren’t working. That couldn't further from the truth.

www.boredteachers.com

 

[Tapxe]

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.

It's going to get worse.

More than half of teachers are looking for the exits, a poll says

A new poll from the nation's largest teachers union finds burnout is widespread, and more educators say they're thinking about leaving.

www.npr.org

 

[Sun Wukong]

It's going to get worse.

More than half of teachers are looking for the exits, a poll says

A new poll from the nation's largest teachers union finds burnout is widespread, and more educators say they're thinking about leaving.

www.npr.org

I'm in that number. I can't do this anymore. Going into public education was the worst decision I ever made. The pay is abusive, the workload is insane, the stress level is nightmarish. It was bad before covid, but these two years have been absolute hell on Earth. It has turned me into a mess of anxiety and depression. I have no quality of life.

 

[Goatman Saint]

My 25th year. I can say I have it as good as teaching is going to go. My grade level splits up planning and other than checking student work quickly I don’t really grade in class or homework.

I also learned a long time ago, when I'm there I'm on, and busy. The average teachers screw off/wasted time drives me nuts. But just try to get me to do anything after my day ends. Not going to happen. (Except report cards and planning which I do while drinking in my air conditioned house listening to school inappropriate music.)

But this year I just can’t do too much more. My admin has taken a very difficult environment and turned it into a place no one wants to be. I dunno how much more I can take honestly

 

[Swamprat]

Update:

On her way home tonight, my wife stopped at HEB to pick up supper. While there she met up with a former elem teacher colleague who had moved to another school maybe 3yrs ago. During the discussion the lady told my wife that after 20yrs she’s had enough. She still loves to teach but all the other things they have to deal with have become too much. She’s leaving the profession and going work for her son in his business… In fact, she’s not sure she’ll make it through the end of the school year…

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I'm in that number. I can't do this anymore. Going into public education was the worst decision I ever made. The pay is abusive, the workload is insane, the stress level is nightmarish. It was bad before covid, but these two years have been absolute hell on Earth. It has turned me into a mess of anxiety and depression. I have no quality of life.

I was wondering when we’d hear from you and I have to say I was not surprised by this and it sounds like you’re done done
That’s probably a good thing - the clarity if nothing else
Any idea what next?

 

[Sun Wukong]

I was wondering when we’d hear from you and I have to say I was not surprised by this and it sounds like you’re done done
That’s probably a good thing - the clarity if nothing else
Any idea what next?

Not really, and that is definitely concern. Most of my adult life after grad school has been geared towards education in some form or fashion.

I might have an offer to teach at another school next year. I'm mulling it over to see if a change of scenery would help. My current school has a lot of problems at every single level, and I do wonder if I should see if a less soul sapping scenario may help. I figure if it doesn't, well, my overall plans are delayed by a few more months. Whatever those plans may be. But at this point I do think most of my problems are institutional rather than location specific.

 

[bonnjer]

Update:

On her way home tonight, my wife stopped at HEB to pick up supper. While there she met up with a former elem teacher colleague who had moved to another school maybe 3yrs ago. During the discussion the lady told my wife that after 20yrs she’s had enough. She still loves to teach but all the other things they have to deal with have become too much. She’s leaving the profession and going work for her son in his business… In fact, she’s not sure she’ll make it through the end of the school year…

People should find it VERY disturbing that so many teachers who have been in it for so long are dropping out at the rate they are. You can understand when a teacher who has a couple years in decides that it's just not for them. When a teacher who has been around for 20 years says she can't make it through the school year, there's a problem. For some reason, we just don't seem too worried about it, though.

 

[gboudx]

People should find it VERY disturbing that so many teachers who have been in it for so long are dropping out at the rate they are. You can understand when a teacher who has a couple years in decides that it's just not for them. When a teacher who has been around for 20 years says she can't make it through the school year, there's a problem. For some reason, we just don't seem too worried about it, though.

In the DFW area, there are forecasts that there will be a mass exodus of teachers come May. Now what does that mean actually? Leaving 1 school to go to another in the same district? Leaving for a new district? Or completely leaving education? At last count(and maybe I'm not up-to-date), 9 superintendents have resigned recently. The Dallas ISD super is leaving to run for mayor of Dallas, but others have resigned due to the strain and the politics that have encroached into the environment. I guess we'll see come May if the forecasts are true or not. It could be a major problem though.

 

[Swamprat]

In the DFW area, there are forecasts that there will be a mass exodus of teachers come May. Now what does that mean actually? Leaving 1 school to go to another in the same district? Leaving for a new district? Or completely leaving education? At last count(and maybe I'm not up-to-date), 9 superintendents have resigned recently. The Dallas ISD super is leaving to run for mayor of Dallas, but others have resigned due to the strain and the politics that have encroached into the environment. I guess we'll see come May if the forecasts are true or not. It could be a major problem though.

Down closer to H-town my wife will be moving schools after this school year ends, possibly to another district... which we're centralized between the two and it's a very short <10min commute. Primary reasons are to be closer to home and get into a (hopefully) better managed school situation. From what I'm hearing, there are other teachers planning on leaving the school and it's probably split as to whether they are going to another school our out of education entirely. My wife has the summer to figure things out and who knows, if a non-education position turned up, she just might take it. If this did come to pass, I will say this, our kids/families/friends would be shocked. She is the quintessential elem teacher, she loves those kids like they're her own and there is nothing more important to her than having those kiddos progress to achieve their potential....And often, she's the Momma those kids don't have.

The school districts were already veering towards an industrialized teaching process that more/less forgets about the fundamentals of kids and learning... And then Covid came along and blew up any semblance of process, the new habit became 'chaos'... and muscle memory for this will linger for years.

The immediate issue are teachers.... I too am wondering just what the exodus will look like..

The longer-term possible issue are the kids... The last time these 4th graders had a 'normal' year was 1st grade. They don't know what our expected 'normal' looks like.