#teachnm

Teaching Claim, Support and Investigate- or CSI!! My grade level does a fantastic job of teaching claims and evidences and we launch our unit with a live and interactive “crime scene.” This year we set the stage with a list of information for students to read as well as clues. We told the students the teachers had treats for the students and when we got to school that morning we noticed some of the items were gone. Our principal was worried so she called the police and it was our job and the police officers job to gather evidence so we could make a claim and support it with evidence.

We set it up in an extra classroom and had one class at a time go into the room to list evidence. We had clues with math problems, emoji secret codes, random items from classrooms and a real police officer and crime scene unit (Thank god for involved parents!)

Today is Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s day ( I’m not sure what we are calling it these days..) either way, I’m very thankful that we get today off! And even as I type this, I’m silently laughing, because I know that in about an hour I’m going to go to school anyway.

I really don’t mind, because I have to get a couple things wrapped up before tomorrow and log some hours working with my mentee. I am slightly frustrated however, because I’m working with my mentee on something that they should be trained in with the school district.

She and I have had some really good discussions about the training program and I can see the errors and things that need to be improved upon. But I also hope she is able to see that these situations are reality. Teachers are constantly thrown new programs, requirements, etc. with little to no training. We have to figure it out- no wonder we are so tired!

Do other teachers have mentor programs? We offer them to “new to the district” employees as well as “new to the profession“ employees. I really feel it helps with retention and keeping people for more than one year.

The turn over in education is unreal sometimes. I’ve had four principals in six years, I’ve seen a staff completely change other then two people. And yet everyone continually asks- what can we do?!

The answer is simple in my eyes: fund schools, fund teachers, let us teach.

Teachers are burning out because they are tired. They are tired because they work, or should I say are only paid for 7.75 hours at school, then they tutor after school for an hour. Then they have a second job that usually takes up three to four nights a week. Then they log the additional 40+ hours at home grading, prepping, learning. And then the districts, government, parents, community, tell us what we need to do to improve, but yet offer nothing more on their end but criticism and blame.

Yeah- what more could we as a country do to #supportteachers ?