@ 20 days a month = 9 months. The rest are holidays... 2 months in the summer + xmas holidays and March break = another month. Not bad. Teachers have nothing to complain. I doubt nurses get that much paid free time.
Those are actual IN THE CLASSROOM days. Most schools REQUIRE teachers to obtain (mostly in the summer) at least four to six weeks of specialized instruction. Often at their own expense. As a science teacher and coach, I probably work at least 50 hours a week for most of the year doing my job. The only prolonged time I get off is most of June when coaches are forbidden from having any contact with players (theoretically, schools have now found a way around this).
I'd like to say I'm surprised by the level of ignorance regarding education today, but I'm not. Most people seem to blend their own childhood experiences with the political horse poop picked up from the media. We tend to see education, like so many other things, in terms of vague generalizations and stereotypes. For the most part, those who don't work in the profession really don't offer much of an argument about education. Based on the comments so far, I'd say the understanding of what education is or even should be is about 30 years behind the curve. One example comment was about computers. Most kids today grew up using computers and probably know more about them than the adults in the building. It's not necessary to have a computer class. Another example is math. Basic math is still taught, but there is no need for kids to learn how to do it in their heads. It's done with the laptops and iPads the schools give them. Most kids start algebra in middle school and continue it through high school. They do pretty good at it, but for most of them it's not a skill that they need. A third example is the History and Social Studies classes in High School. It's all names and dates--little more than a binge and purge style of learning with the single purpose of passing the final exams. If a teacher tries to encourage students the think critically about those courses, he/she is far too often the target of some politically motivated backlash. The comment was made that it's all about the testing, and that, more than any other comment, is the most accurate. If in-depth knowledge and critical thinking activities are curtailed or even forbidden, what really is the purpose of education?
How could I forget about the constant violence and abuse in the schools... my own children suffered through it!!!! A big "Thank You" to this courageous teacher! So, what will change after her speech? Will it even make a dent in the current make-up of the system? I wonder how many parents send their kids to private schools just for that reason... the violence and abuse from other students?
Licensure is not a one time deal, but an on-going thing that requires a number of credits in specific areas as directed by each state. As you say, that most often comes from our own pocket, as do so many supplies and other expenses. Many schools require teachers to take on other after-school jobs such as bus driving, coaching, mentoring, club advising, and help with sporting events. It makes for a long day, and tasks like grading papers, maintaining parent contacts, and other administrative tasks have to be done at home.
Well, the problem is that teachers are being pressured to produce better kids, at the same time, their authority over the kids has weakened. Can't have both at the same time. I don't think there is an easy solution. The problem is the breakdown of civil society, and teachers are seeing it first.
They aren't making $60k a year. Yes, their per hour pay is equivalent to that, but simply speaking, they don't have that extra $15k a year, and it's almost impossible to get a summer job that can make up the difference between the $45k a year they are making, and the $60k a year that their college friends end up making.
Please show me a k-12 curriculum with the above crap. K-12 they are teaching the Three Rs, basic economics, American and World history and science.
Tenure protection is the only chance the experienced good teachers have against the bureaucrats. An untenured teacher has to obey the school board's foolish whims and teach per the bureaucrats. A tenured teacher can teach the way they can best teach.
If your job (and raises) relied on your products passing QA tests, wouldn't you be busy making sure your products passed the QA tests? It's just common sense.
Teachers don't get any paid free time. They are paid for 190 days a year of work (180 days with the kids, and ten days pre/planning and inservice. If a teacher, for instance, starts teaching the second semester, they only get paid for part of the summer. Their summer pay comes from working during the year. They have no paid holidays per se.
Elementary school teachers in Connecticut have a salary range of $48,400 to $104,300. That’s an average of $76,850 (?). Not bad for a bachelors degree with about 16 weeks vacation per year.
Of course kids need to know how to do math in their heads. It's a basic skill, and simply speaking, it saves time. It takes much longer to punch in 2x3 in a calculator than to simply know 2x3=6. Algebra is a needed skill. Not so much as a direct skill, but as a building blocks to skills. Roughly speaking, it's an exercise of the mind. An analogy is a football player. Playing football doesn't require doing pushups or situps, but pushups or situps help to produced good football players. Algebra helps to produce good thinkers in a similar way--as calisthenics for the brain.
What will change? Probably nothing. If we expect the school to change this, we are woefully out of touch with society today. Teachers are not allowed to touch students, not allowed to cuss around students, or do much of anything to stop this. The school districts have behavioral plans, and usually state plans as well, that outline behavior and responses. But in the end, the districts and the states will not follow up on those plans because expelling students or taking legal action is a negative mark on the education system. When behaviors like those described by the teacher in the video are essentially tolerated, students quickly learn that there are no restrictions on their behavior. Administrators toss it back on the teachers saying teachers are not keep student interest in class, therefore students misbehave. This is not a problem of bored kids or bad teaching, this is a social problem. I have had students who were obviously selling drugs in the school and who were receiving money and drugs from parents who would bring a fast-food lunch to those students. I reported it and was told to mind my own business. I've been hit several times by kids, and cussed out on a regular basis. I asked about assault charges when a colleague was assaulted, and was told "we don't operate that way." I've called parents about all of these things and been cussed out by many of those parents who thought I needed to mind my own business. We aren't allowed to take phones from kids when they use them in class. A colleague was fired for using a signal blocker to stop kids from Goggling answers on a chemistry test. I've had to go to the county jail to give final exams, I've had kids who belong to gangs, have been involved in murders, and one who died from an over dose of drugs given to her as a present from her parents. This is not a problem of whiny teachers who should have chosen other careers, it's a serious problem with a society that refuses to hold kids accountable for their actions, and refuses to acknowledge the depth of the problem.
That's faulty math. Most teachers are making in the low range. The high range is for teachers with 20+ years experience with a doctorate. The low range is teachers with a bachelor's degree. Also, you mean 14 weeks of unpaid vacation a year. They work 190 days a year, which is 38 weeks. That's 14 weeks. They are not getting paid for those 14 weeks. They are living off of the wages that they made during the other 38 weeks (although this is done automatically by the districts). When a teacher only works for the second half of the school year, they only get pay during half the summer (or get half of their normal monthly pay). If you think it's such a good thing. Teach yourself. I taught for 8 years. You'd have to pay me $100k to go back to the classroom today.
Yup, kids steal and destroy a lot of teacher's supplies, that the teacher often pays for from their own pockets.
Agreed. But what's happening is that the "football players" are doing the pushups and not playing ball. I'm not saying we shouldn't teach algebra, I'm saying we're not teaching in ways that students would think to apply it. It's all about memorizing the functions needed for the calculator.
Private schools aren't utopian. My wife has worked 20+ years in education. The only time I ever bought her pepper spray for her own protection was at a private school. There were some crazy teachers and parents there.
Breakdown of society - breakdown of the family unit. More than half the children have only one parent at home and every other weekend they have to spend with the other half in a different location. How stressful and unsettling is that? Add another or two significant persons into the mix and the child is ready to run amok!
Where I'm at, teachers receive only ten checks a year. You have to put some into a savings account for summer.
Oh, wow! That seems most unusual. But, of course. well to do parents with crazy kids might feel their offspring gets more attention in a private setting. Since their kids are effed up, they are also problematic.
Bingo. Teaching is harder now because with crazy kids, you’re almost guaranteed crazy Parents. And with all the divorce and single parents homes it’s a recipe for disaster. Combined with entitled kids from all walks of life and Parents who think they can do no wrong, it’s rough. Growing up, parents seemed to take the teachers side when they heard their kid screwed up. Now they sue.
Well, I know this is not a popular thing, but if Common Core were implemented correctly (which it hasn't been), critical thinking would be at the forefront of learning in classrooms. It was an attempt to do so, but it was implemented by people trying to sell mediocre products (textbooks) rather than by the teachers. Also, they are playing ball, just not until college.
