I didn't intend to insult young teachers with this post and humbly apologize to those who took it the wrong way. I know there are many fine, hard working good young people out there and my problem is not with them but with the way they have been put on pedestals and are being lauded as the best thing that ever happened to education. My problem is with the way older teachers are being treated by the system.A young teacher was offended by the post and pointed out that many of the new teachers work 10 - 12 hour days perfecting lessons and helping students. When I first started I got lots of help from the senior teachers in my department. I was even given lesson plans to use and although I worked hard, I didn't need to put in those kinds of hours. This young teacher won't have those experienced teachers to get help from. And, like I said, they won't be appreciated for the work they do. They will be replaced as easily as I was.
1 comment:
I think your post was meant to be a warning--be careful of what is offered--especially money if it means giving up rights.
Even as a senior teacher, I stayed until 6 most days just to catch up on paperwork. Maybe teaching one subject is different than teaching all of them. On top of that I to go through every journal entry and comment on each page as well as keep track of book logs. I also have to keep conference notes for reading and writing on every child on a weekly basis. This all because of the new mandates. Even something as simple as a bulletin board became a time-consuming task because comments had to be made on every piece (on a post it!!) and an explanation of the bulletin board--Standards, procedures, rubrics, etc. also had to be posted. Every library book had to be leveled and color coded. Need I go on.
I was a pretty good teacher before these mandates and never had the kind of paperwork teachers have today. Most of it is to make the principal look good. Now teachers are being subjected to 8 observations a year. Even though the union hasn't agreed to it, principals are still doing it.
I also had a senior teacher mentor me. But times were different. The workload was different. I still worked hard, but came home after school and still had energy to do other things.
Just saying that new teachers today have an entirely different job than when I started. This was a major reason I retired.
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