Comments on: No respect or money for teachers in real life or on big screen

By: P3

P3 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:58:34 +0000

There is actually a parent group recently formed in Rockdale to help youth “make it through” what this system has become. We hear of more kids targeted to fail than help to succeed out here. What a tragedy if this is true. I believe the contact to express interest is parents.promoting.progress@inbox.com – study groups, group tutoring, parent collaboration, and advocacy.

By: Mega

Mega — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:17:52 +0000

The Other Side is dead on point. The sorries have GOT you when they’ve got your child in their care.Teaching has become the #1 fall back profession. Most do not want to be there, complain the span of their careers, provide friendship entertainment to their student favorites and live to sit another day–suffocating the interest out of potentially successful students.
The stupidest of teachers seem to be in Rockdale County. I wish every school sought & made use on the last-day-of-school parent evals. Wonder if it help, though, since usually stupid principals carry the system’s dump of the teacher load.

By: HSteacher

HSteacher — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:20:24 +0000

Maureen, thank you for posting this article.
Carla, I completely agree.
I am in my fifth year teaching high school social studies and it is emotionally exhausting to say the least. The money isn’t great, but people don’t go into teaching for the money. My issues come when my professional expertise is undermine by ridiculous expectations for my classroom, and administrators that expect you to “just do it” when they pile on unreasonable demands.
I always said I wanted to teach in a way that I would want my children to be taught, but unfortunately, a lot of people making decisions in schools do not care at all. If they did, they wouldn’t overload teachers with meetings over stupid stuff so we have no time, or energy, to plan engaging lessons, or collaborate with other teachers.
We are underappreciated, and underpaid, but there are small, local level things that can be done to create better working conditions. A little appreciation and support goes a LONG way.

By: Carla

Carla — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:28:40 +0000

If you don’t teach, you really don’t understand.

By: majii

majii — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:35:18 +0000

I retired at the end of May of this year after teaching high school social studies for 33 years, and I saw a lot of changes take place in education. One of the major changes involved taking control of the curriculum from the teachers and local BOEs and placing it in the hands of the states and the national government. In my opinion when this happened, things began going downhill at a more accelerated rate. When I began teaching in the 1970s, I had the power to assess my students, determine what each one needed and move from that point forward. My students were happier, more productive, and enjoyed learning. As time passed QCC was implemented followed by NCLB. Instead of curriculum being decided at the local level and in the classroom, the government (lawmakers) would develop it and pass it down to the counties. I don’t think that legislators realized that it may have been a good idea to get teachers involved in every step of the process. Everyone seems to think he/she can do what a teacher does. The field of education is one of the only professions I know of in which lawmakers who are not educators plan what the person charged with doing the job will do on a daily basis. Added to this are the ongoing required professional learning courses on differentiated instruction, collaborative planning, focus groups, meetings on data driven instruction, leadership team meetings until 5:30-or later, school keys, etc and anything else the local board decides is “necessary’” to improve student achievement.

By: SoGATeacher

SoGATeacher — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:34:20 +0000

The problem with education? One word: Administrators.

“Try this method.” “If you’ll just post your standards and a student learning map.” “Give the students graphic organizers.” “You should use ‘authentic evaluations.’” “Oo-o-oo, collaborative planning and “think, pair, share” is the answer.” “Switch to a standards based evaluation”

With Georgia 48th or 49th in the nation, here’s a thought…let teachers give it a try. Administrivia is killing teachers and yes, driving them from the profession.

By: Outsider

Outsider — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:41:26 +0000

As an outsider and a parent of adult children I think most people are missing the point. There are good and bad teachers in education as in anything else(just look at the article in AJC this morning about the fight between 2 female teachers over a male teacher in front of the children screaming 4 letter words in a Georgia school district)Perhaps better controls of who is hired as a teacher may help to improve the “atmosphere of learning” in Georgia’s school district. Sure teachers are notoriously underpaid in most states and it takes a truly dedicated person to remain in education and still be effective in teaching our children. So, instead of posting what’s going on in the schools thats bad, why don’t we concentrate on what we can do to fix the problems. Example, how do you motivate children?…Take an interest in what things excite them and help them stay motivated by incorporating these interests in your interaction with them. (Of course I am talking about moral, self esteem building, mind challenging, talent building interests) Since teachers spend the majority of time with our children this could be very beneficial. I realize also that there are behavorial problems with some children and these problems not only surface during school but also at home. So parents, face the fact that you child may have a problem and get them some help and work with the teachers. As far as the issue of ladder climbing teachers in the system is concerned, perhaps changing the rules for climbing the ladder would solve that problem so that no one with a bad attitude would suceed. Just as the children see these kinds of attitudes, so do teachers and administrators, making those that make decisions about promotions aware of problem teachers with attitudes without fear of retaliation may help in this area. This is the first time I have ever blogged but I felt that the conversation was getting away from the real issue and that is working on “solutions”..So thank you all you hard working committed teachers. You are doing the right thing so keep doing it. It’s not always about money, (although it helps)..we have a generation of children in need of you so keep doing what you do best, love and educate our brilliant next generation of children.

By: Educator

Educator — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:15:20 +0000

Mitch planning time at the beginning of the year is NOT a waste of time as you suggest. It is time that teachers use to prepare for the students. We prepare classrooms, analyze data from the previous year so that we can make good academic decisions, make committee assignments etc. Actually as an elementary teacher I go in the week BEFORE planning begins because there is sooo much to do! Your references to no layoffs is far from true there were many in our county this year. Just because you are obviously out of touch and don’t know about them doesn’t make it true! Those layoffs caused class size increases which affect individual student interaction, more discipline issues etc., and still dealing with lack of parental involvement for many, and others who choose not to recognize very real issues when teachers point them out.

By: Philosopher

Philosopher — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:22:33 +0000

“As the working conditions, nurse/ patient ratios and inadequate pay continues, the number of nurses unwilling to tolerate it decreases”..ooops- I did mean to say INCREASES!

By: Philosopher

Philosopher — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:25:04 +0000

As the working conditions, nurse/ patient ratios and inadequate pay continues, the number of nurses unwilling to tolerate it decreases. The numbers of people attending nursing schools have dwindled, there are not enough teachers even for those who want to become nurses. The hospitals have too few nurses and nurses are abdicating in droves…Even if we had an unexpected miracle in which 50,000 persons wanted to become nuses overnight, we could not catch up for many,many years… the future for healthcare is very scary for those of us who will need good nursing care in the future. And so it will be with education. Our society so has its priorities screwed up that we will indeed face a bleak future…for even if we wise up and compensate bright people enough to stay in education or nursing, we won’t be able to catch up until too late for a lot of folks. But… we continue to pay millions and millons a year for people to play ball…go figure!