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Get a teaching certificate and join the gravy train. It's easy. Anyone can do it. You just said so.
Whether "anyone" can do it is another question, but not "anyone" can get through the front door. Just FYI, but I did head down that path when I got out of the service (Troops to Teachers). What I ran into was in spite of the talk, what the schools really only wanted were brand new graduates of teacher ed programs; they didn't want to talk to guys like me. I had bills to pay and mouths to feed, so went down a different career path.
Point being, there are a lot of highly qualified folks out there who could and would make good teachers if there wasn't such a "closed-shop like" mentality in school systems.
I have worked in a lot of districts in a lot of states. As you know, I currently sub in the district just south of you, also in the NOVA area. These densely populated area districts, with their mostly above upper-middle class, highly educated populations that must compete with each other for teachers, are unusually supportive of their teachers. Among other things they are protective of planning periods in a way I have never seen or heard of in other places in the country. They have an unusually large number of parent volunteers and fundraising support. Virginia also has more flexible, realistic re-certification requirements than most states. I can honestly say as far as current working environments go, there may not be a better place to teach. Compared to elsewhere, from what I have seen there are basically two negatives: highly ambitious parents, some of whom can morph into major PITAs, and low pay for the extremely high cost-of-living in the area.
After writing that I stayed until 7p.m. tonight to work on reading data spreadsheets with a teammate. That's because or individual and team SMARTR goals are due soon. It's not a regular occurance.
Trust me. I get it. My parents taught in other parts of VA, as well as a northern state. My brother has worked in a few different SW VA districts. It's different from place to place, of course. I didn't mean to paint a super rosey picture, but I'm not going to get all up in arms over somebody saying I don't work for ten weeks in the summer. It's true. Of course I'm not under contract, but it's a fact that I'm off. I have a 194 day contract. It is what it is. I do agree that one of the biggest negatives in this area is pay:cost of living. I know that's why some young teachers leave and would guess it's also why we still have I filled positions.
I'm never going to be able to convince some people of the work that goes into each day. I can't explain to someone who doesn't do it how much prep and practice goes into planning and implementing lessons for two classes of fourth graders that total 57 students. How many people think of the elementary classroom as a "baby sitting gig" where all of the students are assigned the same busy work, instead of a classroom in which a wide range of levels are being reached through small group guided reading lessons, math and reading workshops, and enrichment/remediation periods? I can only try to explain that it takes hours over days to complete standards based progress reports or that at the beginning of the year I spend hours delegating individual students to various teachers for their math, science, strings and language grades and creating data groupings.
Most often the grass is going to be greener. Heck, people within education do it (e.g. high school vs. elementary, classroom vs. p.e.). Why would I expect to convince otherwise those outside of education?
After writing that I stayed until 7p.m. tonight to work on reading data spreadsheets with a teammate. That's because or individual and team SMARTR goals are due soon. It's not a regular occurance.
Trust me. I get it. My parents taught in other parts of VA, as well as a northern state. My brother has worked in a few different SW VA districts. It's different from place to place, of course. I didn't mean to paint a super rosey picture, but I'm not going to get all up in arms over somebody saying I don't work for ten weeks in the summer. It's true. Of course I'm not under contract, but it's a fact that I'm off. I have a 194 day contract. It is what it is. I do agree that one of the biggest negatives in this area is pay:cost of living. I know that's why some young teachers leave and would guess it's also why we still have I filled positions.
I'm never going to be able to convince some people of the work that goes into each day. I can't explain to someone who doesn't do it how much prep and practice goes into planning and implementing lessons for two classes of fourth graders that total 57 students. How many people think of the elementary classroom as a "baby sitting gig" where all of the students are assigned the same busy work, instead of a classroom in which a wide range of levels are being reached through small group guided reading lessons, math and reading workshops, and enrichment/remediation periods? I can only try to explain that it takes hours over days to complete standards based progress reports or that at the beginning of the year I spend hours delegating individual students to various teachers for their math, science, strings and language grades and creating data groupings.
Most often the grass is going to be greener. Heck, people within education do it (e.g. high school vs. elementary, classroom vs. p.e.). Why would I expect to convince otherwise those outside of education?
Very true, and a good point.
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Anyone remember this scene from "The Breakfast Club"?
"You took a teaching position because you thought it'd be fun. Thought you could have summer vacations off, and then you found out it was actually work, and that bummed you out."
I've found subbing to be much easier though. Now that I'm getting daily work, I'm rejecting all special education and intervention assignments simply because I generally dislike paraprofessionals. I've never felt more unneeded than when I'm in a room trying to help but pushed away because hired babysitters without degrees know it all.
I've found subbing to be much easier though. Now that I'm getting daily work, I'm rejecting all special education and intervention assignments simply because I generally dislike paraprofessionals. I've never felt more unneeded than when I'm in a room trying to help but pushed away because hired babysitters without degrees know it all.
Maybe, it's because you have such a condescending attitude towards paraprofessionals that you are being pushed away. They are not babysitters and many do have degrees. Even if they do not have degrees, they have practical experience, perhaps more years of that than you. They know the students better than a per diem sub, know the class culture, know what the regular teacher would want and how the classroom is run. From your other posts, it seems that it is you who acts as if you know it all and have a closed minded attitude.
The point is subs aren't even needed for special education, so I'm done with it. I have experience too with special needs students, so I don't tolerate them treating me like my job is just to sit there and do nothing.
I'm kind of tired of working as other people's intervention aides. When I'm the only teacher in the classroom, my job is to make sure the teacher's check list is complete. How I choose to do it is up to me.
The point is subs aren't even needed for special education, so I'm done with it. I have experience too with special needs students, so I don't tolerate them treating me like my job is just to sit there and do nothing.
I'm kind of tired of working as other people's intervention aides. When I'm the only teacher in the classroom, my job is to make sure the teacher's check list is complete. How I choose to do it is up to me.
No, it is not up to you. It is up to the teacher and school policy how to implement the teacher's checklist.
Many special ed classes have a specified student to adult ratio. This is why a sub is necessary if the teacher OR the para is absent. An extra pair of hands and eyes are needed. The students are going to be more comfortable with the para who knows them well but of course, a sub could be a viable educational contributor that day. The para will know the students and have access to the students' IEPs, something that a sub will not have read. The para also receives special in-service training. Many states require paraprofessionals to have their own paraprofessional license, maybe not as extensive as a certified teacher, but they are not the way that you describe them, as ignorant high school graduates. In my area, only fully certified teachers with master degrees get hired as teacher assistants.
No, it is not up to you. It is up to the teacher and school policy how to implement the teacher's checklist.
Many special ed classes have a specified student to adult ratio. This is why a sub is necessary if the teacher OR the para is absent. An extra pair of hands and eyes are needed. The students are going to be more comfortable with the para who knows them well but of course, a sub could be a viable educational contributor that day. The para will know the students and have access to the students' IEPs, something that a sub will not have read. The para also receives special in-service training. Many states require paraprofessionals to have their own paraprofessional license, maybe not as extensive as a certified teacher, but they are not the way that you describe them, as ignorant high school graduates. In my area, only fully certified teachers with master degrees get hired as teacher assistants.
And in my area it's GED,clean criminal check and a para cert. Requirements vary widely.
Then again, para pay in my area is only about $17K a year.
The teachers typically don't leave any instructions on how to carry out their lessons. It's as if most teachers never actually did any real lesson planning before. I do it the way I want mostly because teachers don't typically care what happens when they are gone. If thru did, they'd leave some real instructions and not some chicken scratch on a piece of paper.
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