Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
On top of which...what standards do you use to decide Merit???? I've yet to see a good benchmark because no matter what you use, you still have no control over the effort of the students....
You can't. Teaching is highly subjective. Your students change year to year so you cannot measure anything.
Teachers are subject to the whims of administrators and states that change curriculum and expect immediate, measurable improvements.
The one place I worked that actually did do merit raises (not a public school district) did them according to individual improvement plans. It was actually quite similar to how student progress is measured on an IEP - attainable and measurable goals for improvement were established, individualized to a specific person. You had a supervisor assess you based on multiple observations within different contexts over the first few months of a given review cycle, and then met with you to discuss the evaluation of those observations. Together, you put together a personal improvement plan for areas that needed work, or next steps for further growth and development if there were no red flag areas. The action plan always included factors you could personally affect, not things over which you had no control. Then, after a set period of time, you were evaluated on how those mutually agreed-upon benchmarks were reached or not, and raises were implemented accordingly. You got feedback along the way if stuff wasn't happening like it should. It was a pretty labor-intensive method and obviously not without flaw (when you have people are measured against themselves for improvement, versus against a single standard, you will always have people who cry favoritism/that somebody else's benchmarks were easier than theirs because a supervisor liked them more, people who got better raises were said to have an easier supervisor doing the evaluating, etc.), but it was pretty thorough and actually did have a decent track record in resulting in improvement and decent staff retention.
Then we had some administration turnover, the practice was suspended, a much less thorough and highly arbitrary evaluation procedure took its place, and quality and morale all drastically plummeted, in short order. We had almost 100% staff turnover in just over a year. It's remarkable how one person in one position can so dramatically change the landscape of a workplace so quickly.
You can't. Teaching is highly subjective. Your students change year to year so you cannot measure anything.
Teachers are subject to the whims of administrators and states that change curriculum and expect immediate, measurable improvements.
This is the problem. Unlike industry, we do not control the quality of our incoming raw materials. In fact, we often don't know they have defects until it's too late. Apparently, this year I have 9th graders who don't know what squares and square roots are so the lab on proving the distance formula didn't go so well. In years past my student have known this. Now I have to add teaching it before the lab or drop the lab.
I am rather shocked-especially about the comment from the piano player.... I have one friend who teaches. She said (about 5 years ago), that the beginning salary for teachers was about $48,000. A very nice salary!
And yes, that $48,000 per year gives her two months off in the summer. Every time the kids have vacations she does also. There are many little vacations throughout the school year. She does not work weekends. The days are short-about 7am to 3:30pm, with lunch.
Her children are able to receive some sort of college assist if they go to a particular college(s).
The majority of nurses would be thrilled to have that deal!
Starting salary is about $23.00/hr in San Antonio, if you can find a job-although the country says there is a shortage of nurses, the nurses have not found that city yet...
At about $45,000/year, working at least 12 1/2 hour shifts, working at least every other weekend(required-sometimes 3 weekends per month), no 'vacations' such as 2 weeks off at Christmas, a week off in the spring, two months off in the summer, two days at Thanksgiving, many legal holidays off. And if there is a raise, it is traditionally 2-3%. Much of the time nurses have to clock out at the end of 12 1/2 hours and then start their nurses notes because the hospital refuses to pay 'over-time'. The staff is so thinly stretched that they just do not have time to do chart-work during the shift. Yes, we can work more days, usually, but that then makes us work more 12 1/2 hour shifts more. But I love/loved working in fast pace of ICU, ER, Labor/Delivery.
Also, there is a very real risk in today's hospitals of becoming hurt-nurses are number 2 in statistics of back disease related to being on your feet 12 hours a day and heavy lifting. Nosocomial disease is rapidly increasing. Serious diseases.
Then you complain about having to say "no" to your kids to a vacation! You already have had so much more time than the majority than most people in both time and money! You truly sound like a spoiled snot.
I am ashamed that you are whining about your job! And you should be too. Sounds like your appreciation for what you DO have needs you to be more appreciative.
Another round of spoiled "I deserve it" attitude that is learned from parents...
Sorry-wake up and appreciate that you have a very good job!
I'm sure nursing has its own problems. This is not a thread about proving that teaching is the only profession with problems, so I don't see why you are posting this here. Nursing might suck too, but that's another forum. I'm sure there are a lot of bad professions - but this thread is about teaching.
Your friend's job experience is unusual, if it's true. I don't know any teacher that leaves school at the same time as the kids. In fact, I remember teachers reduced to tears because they could not be excused from any of the many many evening obligations, including taking required classes (minimum once a week in my school, for about 2 hours), committee meetings, community events (all teachers were required to "volunteer" at all 4 of our "festivals" throughout the year), and a bunch of other trainings and "volunteer" things that we had to do outside of contract hours. Parents of small children had it hardest - they had to arrange and pay for childcare every day until about 6pm, and then at least once a week much later. Some kids in our school whose parents were teachers were actually struggling because of the lack of support at home - the teacher didn't have time to help her own child. While working there I suffered from panic attacks, insomnia, and repeat miscarriages. The average teacher works in the field only 5 years. 5 years. It's unsustainable. I wonder if there is any other profession where people can't hack it more than 5 years?
You can't. Teaching is highly subjective. Your students change year to year so you cannot measure anything.
Teachers are subject to the whims of administrators and states that change curriculum and expect immediate, measurable improvements.
Yes, and they expect us to produce them only while using the exact teaching methods that they require. They tell us what to teach, how to teach it, and more. In my school we even had to memorize lines to say to students - things like, if a student does X, you should say Y (and we'd have to memorize these little pieces of script and were expected to be heard using them throughout the day, both for behavior and academics). We were like those cashiers who make phony scripted conversation at the register. We were so micromanaged, and in addition so bullied by administrators, that we went through our days fearfully trying to keep up the appearance of these perfect teaching robots, doing everything we were *supposed* to do, even when we knew it wasn't the right thing, because we were afraid of getting into trouble for not following the program. We were supposed to be as close to robots as a human could get, with no control over anything, and yet we were also supposed to take the blame if what we did didn't work.
I'm sure nursing has its own problems. This is not a thread about proving that teaching is the only profession with problems, so I don't see why you are posting this here. Nursing might suck too, but that's another forum. I'm sure there are a lot of bad professions - but this thread is about teaching.
Your friend's job experience is unusual, if it's true. I don't know any teacher that leaves school at the same time as the kids. In fact, I remember teachers reduced to tears because they could not be excused from any of the many many evening obligations, including taking required classes (minimum once a week in my school, for about 2 hours), committee meetings, community events (all teachers were required to "volunteer" at all 4 of our "festivals" throughout theyear), and a bunch of other trainings and "volunteer" things that we had to do outside of contract hours. Parents of small children had it hardest - they had to arrange and pay for childcare every day until about 6pm, and then at least once a week much later. Some kids in our school whose parents were teachers were actually struggling because of the lack of support at home - the teacher didn't have time to help her own child. While working there I suffered from panic attacks, insomnia, and repeat miscarriages. The average teacher works in the field only 5 years. 5 years. It's unsustainable. I wonder if there is any other profession where people can't hack it more than 5 years?
The administrators at my old elementary school would actually have the audacity to call it "volunteering your time". Even though they kept a list and "required" it of all staff members unless you had a doctor
s excuse or some other extremely valid reason (BTW. My mother was having surgery and was given a 50/50 chance of surviving surgery---that was NOT considered a valid reason not to "volunteer" to work the winter festival. I needed to drive 250 miles at night after the festival ended at 8 PM to see my mother before she went into the surgery at 6 AM the next morning). Each teacher was required to "volunteer" to work two hours each at both the fall and the spring evening book fair. And to "volunteer" to run a game, help with food, or supervise for a two hour shift at the evening Family Fall Festival, evening Family Holiday Celebration, evening Hawaiian or Spring Family Celebration and the Saturday Family Fun Run and Festival. And don't forget "volunteering" for your two hour shift during Family Math nights once a month. Of course that is in addition to the contract requirement of attending evening School Open House for four hours in September and four hours for evening conferences in the fall and the spring.
This is my 21st year teaching in my building and I must say my administrators have always been very good about not requiring us to come in early or stay late. My wife has experienced the same in her building. We do have Back To School Night a couple of weeks after school starts and that is an hour, usually 5 pm- 6 pm. They always provide us with a dinner such as pizza or subs and salads on that night. We are also asked to participate in one curriculum night a year and attend one PTA meeting. Again, they buy dinner. Other than that, I can't think of any other times I've been asked to be in school outside of the 7.5 hour day. That's not to say I'm not there longer. I'm usually there between 8 and 9 hours, but it's by choice. There is always a Monday in December that they allow us to leave at 12:30, but I don't because it's planning time I actually get to use at my discretion. The past few years the district has also allowed principals to assign one teacher "workday" at the end of a quarter as an alternate work location day. I do take advantage of that.
The administrators at my old elementary school would actually have the audacity to call it "volunteering your time". Even though they kept a list and "required" it of all staff members unless you had a doctor
s excuse or some other extremely valid reason (BTW. My mother was having surgery and was given a 50/50 chance of surviving surgery---that was NOT considered a valid reason not to "volunteer" to work the winter festival. I needed to drive 250 miles at night after the festival ended at 8 PM to see my mother before she went into the surgery at 6 AM the next morning). Each teacher was required to "volunteer" to work two hours each at both the fall and the spring evening book fair. And to "volunteer" to run a game, help with food, or supervise for a two hour shift at the evening Family Fall Festival, evening Family Holiday Celebration, evening Hawaiian or Spring Family Celebration and the Saturday Family Fun Run and Festival. And don't forget "volunteering" for your two hour shift during Family Math nights once a month. Of course that is in addition to the contract requirement of attending evening School Open House for four hours in September and four hours for evening conferences in the fall and the spring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tgbwc
This is my 21st year teaching in my building and I must say my administrators have always been very good about not requiring us to come in early or stay late. My wifehas experienced the same in her building. We do have Back To School Night a couple of weeks after school starts and that is an hour, usually 5 pm- 6 pm. They always provide us with a dinner such as pizza or subs and salads on that night. We are also asked to participate in one curriculum night a year and attend one PTA meeting. Again, they buy dinner. Other than that, I can't think of any other times I've been asked to be in school outside of the 7.5 hour day. That's not to say I'm not there longer. I'm usually there between 8 and 9 hours, but it's by choice. There is always a Monday in December that they allow us to leave at 12:30, but I don't because it's planning time I actually get to use at my discretion. The past few years the district has also allowed principals to assign one teacher "workday" at the end of a quarter as an alternate work location day. I do take advantage of that.
Wow, that is absolutely amazing! Do you work in a public school? Or some type of charter school? Is it a high school? A Military or International School? Do you get to ride your pet unicorns home? (obviously I'm quite skeptical, your comments are so different than any public school that I am aware of in my area).
At my last school the hiring principal was great and we were not forced to work beyond our contract hours except two games duties, one activity duty, open house and once a month 20 minute faculty meetings. I voluntarily stayed for a number of things such as science Olympiad, academic team, and the science fair, but it was my choice. The principal we got the last year I was there was totally different. He wanted weekly 1-2 hour faculty meetings, 4 game duties, all faculty at all activities, weekly content PLC meetings, and after school hours parent/teacher conferences. He also said everyone had to sponsor at least one after school club or activity. Had I not moved, I would not have continued working under him regardless. He sucked the joy out of teaching and had no respect for his teacher's off contract hours.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
