Tuesday, April 30, 2013
"My Resume is Ready": Losing Good Teachers!
Not my words.
I live and breathe teaching. I really can't imagine doing anything else, well, except writing.
These words were spoken by a teacher friend of mine.
He sounded so down when he said it.:(
He is overwhelmed, as are we all.
The kids.
The parents.
The kids.
And then all the crap from above.
He put in four years so far, and doesn't know how many more he will do.
He said his first year was great.
Second year, not too bad.
But now...this is not what he thought teaching would be.
I don't think any of us did.
And because of this, we are losing a lot of teachers, a lot of good teachers.
Teachers who are willing to go all out for the kids, but aren't willing to deal with all the "new things" being flung at us from every direction.
We are suffocating under the weight of standardized testing, data collection, PLC's that are soon to be evaluated, (Who evaluates a PLC?), teacher evaluations tied to test scores, it's madness!
Some of us can bend and not break, and some of us can't. Some of us leave.
And it's sad.
Good teachers are leaving, young and old.
His resume is ready. I hope he doesn't have to use it.
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I hope not either...it breaks my heart to hear great teachers say "this isn't fun anymore" or note that they had a great lesson or unit planned, only to be told that they aren't allowed to implement it because it doesn't fit the vision of administration or the district as a whole--since when did non-teachers get to choose how we teach? I'm going into my 7th year and still love what I do, but only because of WHERE I get to do it. I took risks with my formal eval this week and got fabulous feedback--where I taught when I started never would have allowed the CONCEPT, much less the lesson, to be taught...
ReplyDeleteI wish every day that people, especially those who have somehow garnered the right to make decisions FOR us (note I say FOR and not WITH), will get a clue about what it is we do and allow us to DO it. No other profession is more micromanaged and it just absolutely infuriates me. Let me do what I am trained to do, what I continually work to improve for the benefit of my students, our kids. Just let me DO it without interference.
A teacher friend uses this statement with our kids when they want to do her job for her: Please trust me to do my job, and I am happy to trust you to do yours.
And that's the problem. We are being micromanaged. It's as if we can no longer make decisions about what happens in our classroom!
DeleteI am in exactly the same position although I have already made the decision to leave and am now looking at new career options. Teaching is definitely not what is used to be. My heart is no longer in it unfortunately :-(
ReplyDeleteI hope you find something you enjoy doing Kelly, Good luck!
DeleteLast year I was laid-off for the third time. I've spent the year looking for any non-teaching job. I can deal with the kids, parents, and even the "new things." What I can't deal with is working so hard for a year or two: learning a new system, new kids, new parents, new community, new people & administrators, prepping new courses & new texts. All that to be treated as disposable and let go.
ReplyDeleteBeen teaching for 24 years. And the other morning I woke up thinking...."this job is sucking the life out of me." not a good way to start the day
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting in 24 years. I don't think there's many of us left. :)
DeleteI retired for that reason. I loved teaching, but I had my magic 85 and I could retire so I did. I couldn't keep working 70 - 80 hours a week on teaching. I wanted to do something besides planning, marking, looking for ways to motivate kids, learn about integration, differentiation, behaviour probelems, special needs kids, Leader in Me. The list was endless and I had to give up. I miss teaching every day but I have time to look after my health and do things I enjoy doing. I would have taught until I was 65 if I just could have had less pressure.
ReplyDeletePeople don't realize teachers are leaving, not because of the demands of teaching, but because of all the other nonsense we are forced to do! Enjoy your retirement!
DeleteThis is interesting. In Canada or more specifically Ontario we have too many teachers. High school teachers are being cut, teachers colleges are slowing down the rate they churn out new teachers and some of the teachers have to wait up to 5years before landing a full time job.
ReplyDelete