#educachums

SOLUTION TO THE TEACHER SHORTAGE: Make the students have a more positive experience in school. And who does that responsibility fall on? Yup, you. The teacher.

Whaaaat? Really @newsday?

They completely missed the mark with why teachers (especially STEM, Sped, and ENL) are leaving and potential teachers aren’t coming in. And it’s very simple:

1️⃣Give teachers a decent wage that’s based on the hours they actually work as opposed to time spent in the classroom only. We are one of the only professions that doesn’t get overtime for staying late. That needs to change.

2️⃣(And this might be an unpopular opinion)... Get rid of Common Core. Stop enacting shitty roll-outs to new standards before they’ve been tested and teachers don’t have time to get proper training to what a good lesson with those standards looks like.

3️⃣Stop attacking our unions. Stop messing with our retirement. Stop trying to make it more difficult for us to love our jobs.

4️⃣ Decrease the politics in education. Why do we need to worry about the state of public education (OUR JOBS) every four years?

5️⃣Stop treating new teachers like shit. What is the turnover rate looking like these days (especially in those rural, inner city, and poverty stricken areas)? Yeah, there’s more teachers needed, but how about we try to also KEEP the ones we have?

6️⃣And probably the most important (in my opinion)- MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE AGAIN. I was just talking to my friends about this. We all know it sucks that students don’t feel safe in their learning environment. But what about the people who come to work every day wondering if today might be their last?

I. Did. Not. Sign. Up. For. This.

Stop acting like the teacher shortage is because teachers are going into the wrong grade levels. Start looking at how to make teaching an enticing career choice.

I read it and was like, “oh, this makes sense” but didn’t feel too inspired because I thought a lot of it was things I do anyway. But I’ve actively been making an effort to use the tools in conversation, and I’m finding them very effective. One student who I just wasn’t connecting with gave me a smile for the first time. Another student is very disruptive and rebellious, and has a major attitude towards her peers, but with these tools in mind I was able to listen rather than just telling her to stop, and she was honest and open with me about where it comes from and why it is. (It turns out that at her school, she’s physically smaller than most people, and she compensates for it with the big attitude so others don’t mess with her.)

Reblog if you are too.

I have too many coworkers looking at me like I have 2 heads when I say I need to recharge.