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do graduates from top college programs as well as those with high IQs who cherish a real challenge truly want to deal with *raising* american teenagers? that's right, raising, not educating. i remember loaning a pencil to a high school student during a period last week so he could take a test. when the bell rang, he told me he doesn't have the pencil and never got one. what am i to do? argue with a 5 year old? this is routine with the teens of america. from now on, i say i don't have supplies and i am not your parent, and am just an instructor. "get your own." they learned not to bother me anymore.
oh, the starting pay for teaching jobs is also very low and it only rises a very small amount with time and additional college credits earned.
so, 10% of my job is actual instruction time. the rest of the time is grading papers, creating lesson plans, dealing with parents who ignore or block my phone calls, babysitting johnny or jane, and putting on a show for administration because if you challenge them, you are always wrong.
most jobs like a welder or a bank teller probably have at least 75% of the time invested into the actual labor of welding and processing deposits. the rest would probably be checking over the money brought in, filing some paperwork, etc. just like a welder spending some time at home depot to pickup materials or negotiating contracts etc.
teaching takes the cake for not actually being teaching though. sometimes i just want to record myself and just play the video while i babysit the class and give johnny and jane participation grades because this generation knows only that - that it's special somehow and needs to be coddled. and given a participation diploma, a participation trophy, and one day, a participation paycheck JUST LIKE THE 99% basement kiddies asked for (well they asked for free college tuition first) two years ago.
hi! i am a typical american teenager/college student! look at me! and gimme gimme gimme!
The majority of my job is paperwork, data collection and analysis, meetings, and meetings about meetings that are going to happen, and sometimes meetings about meetings about meetings. I'm currently not getting time to plan, so I do that on my own time. Eventually, the tiny percentage of my day that is allowed to be spent actually instructing will no longer be enough for the work to remain fulfilling. Nobody gets into teaching because they love documentation and meeting about/discussing documentation. Honestly, I would even relish the time to "babysit." I would much prefer being with students to being in rooms full of adults hashing out paperwork on students.
The great thing about teaching being my third career, having two pensions, being hyper-competent, and being 61 is that I simply don't do most of the non teaching things. About all I do is teach. And I teach well.
I do not see how or even why a younger person would put up with any of it.
While classroom time is becoming less teaching and more everything else, I too find myself frustrated. I want to work with kids to help them grow, but so many today have no interest, or have parents who aren't interested in education. I have been teaching for 20 years and the thing that keeps me going is those kids who do care and do try and do appreciate my efforts. I limit my contact with adults to as little as possible. i use email for communication with parents and administration and only reply to theirs if I must. It seems pretty sad that our children are in this position, but I can't abandon those who do want to learn. I can only hope that the 10% teaching I am able to do makes a difference in the life of at least one child.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AtheroscleroticPlaque
do graduates from top college programs as well as those with high IQs who cherish a real challenge truly want to deal with *raising* american teenagers? that's right, raising, not educating. i remember loaning a pencil to a high school student during a period last week so he could take a test. when the bell rang, he told me he doesn't have the pencil and never got one. what am i to do? argue with a 5 year old? this is routine with the teens of america. from now on, i say i don't have supplies and i am not your parent, and am just an instructor. "get your own." they learned not to bother me anymore.
oh, the starting pay for teaching jobs is also very low and it only rises a very small amount with time and additional college credits earned.
so, 10% of my job is actual instruction time. the rest of the time is grading papers, creating lesson plans, dealing with parents who ignore or block my phone calls, babysitting johnny or jane, and putting on a show for administration because if you challenge them, you are always wrong.
most jobs like a welder or a bank teller probably have at least 75% of the time invested into the actual labor of welding and processing deposits. the rest would probably be checking over the money brought in, filing some paperwork, etc. just like a welder spending some time at home depot to pickup materials or negotiating contracts etc.
teaching takes the cake for not actually being teaching though. sometimes i just want to record myself and just play the video while i babysit the class and give johnny and jane participation grades because this generation knows only that - that it's special somehow and needs to be coddled. and given a participation diploma, a participation trophy, and one day, a participation paycheck JUST LIKE THE 99% basement kiddies asked for (well they asked for free college tuition first) two years ago.
hi! i am a typical american teenager/college student! look at me! and gimme gimme gimme!
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I limit my contact with adults to as little as possible. i use email for communication with parents and administration and only reply to theirs if I must.
Good on you. This is the only way to survive.
We use Engrade, have every parent sign a form stating they have 24x7 access to grades. Anyone whining about not being informed, I just say ENGRADE. I have very little communications, other than engrade/email.
It's certainly gotten this way over the past decade. Top-down micromanagement by administrators and bureacrats, coupled with unwise legislation at state levels have made "teaching to the test" almost mandatory. And "the test" is a minimum standards instrument that really tests only the below average students. So that's where all the emphasis is placed these days.
most jobs like a welder or a bank teller probably have at least 75% of the time invested into the actual labor of welding and processing deposits...
...except that there will probably be no bank teller jobs in less than 10 years. It seems that there will always be a need for teachers. (But I agree with the rest of your post. )
It's certainly gotten this way over the past decade. Top-down micromanagement by administrators and bureacrats, coupled with unwise legislation at state levels have made "teaching to the test" almost mandatory. And "the test" is a minimum standards instrument that really tests only the below average students. So that's where all the emphasis is placed these days.
This and the public outcry about school taxes, blaming pension costs on the teachers (and not the administration who didn't save for the rainy day), the micromanagement from administrators who have been out of the classroom for 10 years or more (or in some cases were never day to day classroom teachers, but some other "support" personnel), the entitlement attitude of parents/students, the options to move between failing charter schools, home schooling, school of choice~and then change your mind and go back to your home school, all at the expense of the home school district, the mandated testing, teach to the test curriculum, the increased time spent in monitoring, plotting, scoring, planning, preparing the setting for learning....need I go on?
When I started teaching, teacher stood in front of classroom, students came prepared with books, pens/pencils, notebooks and the ability to to sit, listen, ask questions, follow verbal instructions, contribute to class discussion and take notes/quizzes and tests without graphic organizers, scaffolding, computers, calculators. They could do this 5 or 6 times a day for up to 45 minutes each time. Parents were supportive, administrators were proactive and kid focused, schools were the pride of the community.
Did I love the ride? Absolutely~Did I do it for the money? You have to be kidding me~I started teaching with a Master's degree and had to work summers, nights and weekends at a second job just to afford the clothes I was expected to wear for teaching. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to be able to retire while I still had a good run going.
Would I do it again? Yes~in a heartbeat. I wouldn't be as idealistic going in, but I would definitely be up for the challenge.
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Teaching is 10% teaching, 90% everything else.
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