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I'm sure a majority of teachers are very hardworking and I do appreciate the teachers in our school district who care and actually teach. I just wish the others would do the same.
That IS a problem, highway29south. While many teachers do care and are hard working, the ones who don't and aren't make it very difficult for students/parents.
I've been teaching 20+ years and understand teaching is a full-time+ job, even in the summer. I've worked at least 3 days every week - summer school, curriculum work, etc. But my beef IS with teachers who don't care. My district is constantly providing quality prof dev to improve classroom instruction. Our test scores are good, not great, good.
At every single one of my prof dev this summer, I heard teachers complaining "I just wish they'd let me close my door and teach my kids and quit intruding into my classroom or telling me what I'm supposed to teach." Excuse me, but are we to have no accountability? One of these teachers spends an entire quarter on penguins because she loves the unit, says the kids have a blast and she's been doing it for years and isn't about to change. No, she didn't have time to teach kids how to write the entire alphabet incursive....only to M. Huh? She said she was going to tell them she would teach the curriculum agreed upon by all 3rd grade teachers, but in reality she would teach what she wanted....that they didn't need to know what she did in her classroom.
As a teacher, my door is always open to anyone who wants to come in and I don't feel threatened by my district providing information on new ways to teach effectively and telling me the standards my students should be accountable by the time they graduate. This probably isn't coincidence, but most of these teachers have been in teaching 30+ years and never worked in business/industry.
I don't have an issue with teachers in general, but I do with the school districts where I live. I have three kids in school, one in elementary, and two in middle. I almost dread the kids starting school because that is when my problems start. Not with my kids, but with the teachers and school district.
One, the teachers here make 90,000 a year. Not all of them, but a large portion do. They drive very fancy cars and some spend class time bragging about their cars to the students. Not appropriate.
Two, one of my daughters teachers took off three months at the beginning of last year to go golfing. Yeah, golfing. As a result of him missing so much class time and the kids having various substitutes who didn't know the lesson well, most of the class got a bad grade for the first semester. Lovely.
Three, my kids have come home to tell me that teachers answer their cell phones during class, call people and hold long conversations, and look up lacy bras on the internet during class. One called her boyfriend all the time while she was supposed to be giving a test. Nice.
Four, teachers who decide, for some crazy reason they do not like your child. My one daughter tends to be shy and heaven forbid she gets into a classroom with a teacher who prefers only outgoing students. Not that big of a deal, but it takes a toll on my daughter's self esteem to be ignored or spoken to like she is a nobody. By the way, she is a staight A student and never gets into trouble.
These are just some examples of things we deal with in sending our kids to our school district. Good luck asking the administation to help out, they care even less than some of the teachers.
Now I understand it's a tough job. And I do think teachers deserve a good salary. But 90,000 seems excessive.
I work in social service as does my husband. We both have Master's Degrees and have several years of experience. Neither one of us come close to that kind of salary. My husband works three jobs and combined makes less than some of my kids teachers who work only one job and don't even have a Master's degree.
And I do understand the difficulty of teaching. My husband teaches at the college level part time and it's no picnic. But that is no excuse for the behavior we deal with in our school district. I'm sure a majority of teachers are very hardworking and I do appreciate the teachers in our school district who care and actually teach. I just wish the others would do the same.
Whoa, report that school to the state. How did that teacher get time off to go golfing? I've never been in any district that offered such leave. If I were you, I would move to a less expensive district where things are not all about materialism.
Whoa, report that school to the state. How did that teacher get time off to go golfing? I've never been in any district that offered such leave. If I were you, I would move to a less expensive district where things are not all about materialism.
Most PA school systems have a paid sabbatical year for teachers for "travel and further education". It used to be available every 7 years for a teacher. They are typically paid at 1/2 salary.
Btw, highwaysouth29, average teacher salaries in Pittsburgh (your zip on your profile) is not anywhere near $90,000 per year. Admittedly, this list is a few years old, but still, it is doubtful if the average is now 30% more than it was in 2007.
Most PA school systems have a paid sabbatical year for teachers for "travel and further education". It used to be available every 7 years for a teacher. They are typically paid at 1/2 salary.
However, any of these paid sabbaticals in schools I worked at had to actually show some educational benefit. You *might* be able to get away with golfing part of the time, but you would need to be doing something to further your teaching of your subject as well. Of course, maybe this is a PE teacher?
I looked up the leaves of absence forms on the Pittsburgh school board website:
Leaves of Absence
The following leaves of absence are processed by the Human Resources Department of the Pittsburgh Public School District. Please select any of the links below for more detailed information on the process for submitting these types of requests :
Leave of Absence for Restoration of Health or Maternity
Leave of Absence for Education
Sabbatical Leave of Absence for Restoration of Health (for Professional Employees only)
Sabbatical Leave of Absence for Professional Development (for Professional Employees only)
If you are returning from a leave of absence, please refer to the Reassignment from Leave section of our website for more detailed information.
However, any of these paid sabbaticals in schools I worked at had to actually show some educational benefit.
Do teachers have to prove (either before or after the fact) that the sabbatical has educational benefit? I'm just wondering if this teacher claimed they were taking the sabbatical for a certain reason, but really ended up golfing... I would think rules for a sabbatical like that would be fairly stringent, but perhaps not. Of course, it might have been an English or Lit teacher who went to study writers from Ireland or Scotland and took in some golf at the same time. We also have teachers who have built up that much time off from teaching for 20 or 30 plus years and not taking vacation time during those years. In the year they are going to retire, they sometimes burn off some of that time by taking every other Friday off or something like that. They would not take that much time off all at once. I can't imagine taking so much time off away from my kids. I freaked out when I had to take 3 days off in a row to go to my husband's grandmother's rosary and funeral.
I wonder why the school wouldn't have utilized a long-term substitute for that situation. Again, not knowing much about that type of sabbatical, I can't imagine that the sabbatical could have been decided upon at the last minute. They should have had time to prepare and gotten a decent sub in place.
Just change that to classrooms of 30+ and you have my life. 22 students per classroom would be a dream job... The higher the number of students in the class, the higher the number of disruptive students in the class and the harder it is to stay on task.
1. Parents/others outside of the profession who have never set foot in a classroom seem to think that they know your job and can tell you how to do your job
2. People have no concept of how physically and mentally tiring it is to create interesting abd engaging lesson plans, align them with state standards AND keep a classroom of 22 children interested and under control while carrying out said lesson plan. All it takes is one misbehaving, disruptive child to ruin the learning for all the other children.
3. People seem to forget that the workday for teachers does not end at 3 or 4 o'clock. We take our work home--what with grading papers and creating more lesson plans
4. People have no concept, once again, of what being in the classroom is like. I was incredulous when the school district I was in this past year required training for those in special ed to learn how to restrain a child without getting themselves or the child injured. Sort of like--combat training. I've seen kids throw chairs and other objects at teachers--then the parents march up to the school after theyv'e been called on it claiming that 'Little Johnny can do no wrong'.
There's more...but I'll let others chime in...
All these concepts could be applied to any profession, and people not understanding how things run and what the reality is (and yet they are still willing to legislate about it) makes me livid about health care reform.
You don't want a bunch of ignorant idiots who DON'T KNOW telling you how to do your job?
Well, neither do I.
For the record, teachers are a precious resource...we should all respect teachers.
I do not think people believe teaching is an easy job. It is very diffucult at times while you are at work. My wife is a teacher and I know the work is not easy. The reason people think it is a cush job is simply the amount of time that teachers are off. Almost 2 weeks at Christmas, 1 week at easter, many long weekends and of course being off mid June through mid August. Also because of a powerful teachers union teachers are almost untouchable, you hardly ever hear of them being fired. Call in sick, show up late there is little they can do to you unless it literally goes on for years. Now think about the rest of us, most jobs at best offer 3 weeks of vacation time, union jobs are almost non existant now so if your boss doesnt like you they will fire you on a whim. Many jobs available today offer much less pay than stable teaching jobs, even if you have the education a teacher does. If you are a teacher try to think about why people consider teaching a cush job and put yourself in thier position, those people may be making half of what you are and working thier tails off 51 weeks a year for some tyrant that threatens to fire them all the time. Accept that the benefits and pay do in fact make it a cush job, and be thankfull you have it. Hardly anyone would suggest the work itself is easy, most teachers I know are dedicated and hardworking. They just make more money and have more time off than everyone else.
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Just change that to classrooms of 30+ and you have my life. 22 students per classroom would be a dream job... The higher the number of students in the class, the higher the number of disruptive students in the class and the harder it is to stay on task.
