This blog will mean a whole lot to teachers or former teachers, maybe even spouses of teachers or just those who are keeping track of where education is heading in the U.S.
So I start this blog with three words: I am tired! Now this blog will sound like a whole lot of bellyaching - and well ........ it is!
I have only been teaching for 17 years. I know teachers who are on their 25th or 30th or even 40th year of teaching. To be quite blunt - I don't know how! 17 years and I am burnt out, and I am TIRED!
This blog has two aspects - why I am tired, and how the joy of teaching has gone with the wind. (hehe, a little humor there.)
I'm tired and the joy is gone because: (ooohhh - there is the cause and effect I have been pounding into my students' pointy little heads for weeks!)
1. Getting absolutely no respect from the general public. This includes our new Superintendant of Education of the great State of Oklahoma. The lady who we call "Superindentist" because she is NOT a teacher, never has been, she is a dentist who had the money to start a charter school. She has become known in Washington D.C. because she has done so much damage to education in Ok that Washington D.C. refused to give Oklahoma money from Pres. Obama's Race to the Top. Now that is unacceptable.
2. The taunts and name calling and degrading of us by the State Board of Education of Oklahoma who went around the room and called us names, degraded us, said we were whiners, we were 47th in the nation, and told us to SHUT UP in front of TV stations and reporters. We are 47th IN FUNDING. Not in academic success. DUH! We are way at the top in that area.
3. The focus on testing, testing, testing and more testing. (more on that later - may have to get the fire extinguisher out for that).
4. The 10 - 12 hour days AT SCHOOL, and then hours more at home grading papers, making lesson plans, putting grades on line, etc. etc. etc. I added my hours up one year - I had more hours for a year than most executives of big companies. It averaged about 60 hours a week.
5. Parents who don't value education enough to get their kids to school. Pull your child out to dress up and entertain at a nursing home. Pull your child out while you go on a cruise for a week (and yes, this has happened over and over). Pull your child out so you can visit relatives in Guatmala for 6 weeks, or Mexico, or ...... Celebrate whatever day they can think up - birthdays, oreo cookie day, the sun is shining day, and on and on. Kid doesn't want to go to school so mommie or daddy say, well, just stay home today. Missing a state test because the parents go somewhere - which then reflects on the test scores! GRRRRR I have to stop - but you can see that the excuses go on and on and on.
6. Feeling like everything I teach or do in the classroom is under a microscope like a BUG! Walking on eggshells hoping I don't do something wrong and get written up, or have a parent go bonkers on me, and on and on. Always looking over my shoulder, making sure I am teaching according to the 50 or so rules handed to us by the state and district.
7. Having no input into many things - right now it is the supply list. One size does not fit all. My coteacher and I have fought that for years. Lots on the supply list we don't use - just costs parents money they don't have. We wind up buying the supplies we do need out of our own pockets. AND IT IS GETTING EXPENSIVE. AND we send the supplies we don't use back home. SAD!
8. No half day planning. We rarely get a day without students so we can just plan, or catch up on grading, or sort, clean and purge our "stuff". We used to. It was heaven to me. As soon as those kids walked out the door at noon, my partner and I began planning. We got lots of weeks planned, got papers copied, got grades done, and on and on. But because some teachers decided to skip that day and go shopping - they were reported by irate citizens, and now our planning days are history. So the sins of a few make all the rest of us suffer.
9. AND ABOVE ALL ELSE - having my entire year of teaching boil down to test grades. If they aren't high enough - God forbid - there is hell to pay - trust me on that one. If a student doesn't test well and gets a low score - blame the teacher. If a student gets so stressed, they freeze - the score will be our fault. If they haven't gotten a good night sleep because parents aren't parenting - low score - blame the teacher. You get the drift - because I could go on and on. It is by far, the most discouraging aspect of teaching. The stress of that has caused many teachers to become physically sick! It has caused students to HATE school. Come standardized test day I have seen students put their head down on their desk and sob. I've seen them throw up. I've seen them totally freeze - deer in the head lights look.
OK - I see that this blog will never, ever have an end. I want the joy back! I want to take 20 minutes or 10 minutes and let the kids explore what they are learning. I want to have time for more hands on learning. I want to throw away the 2 grades per week per subject required, and let kids actually learn and be assessed on what they learned. I want to say - you kids worked so hard for me today, lets take a break and play a game for 10 minutes. Or do a puzzle. Or have an extra recess. Or let them just draw. Nope!!!!! Gotta keep on pushing!
So saying - I LOVE teaching with my whole heart and soul. I chose to do this regardless of the long hours and low pay. I love hearing a student say, "Mrs. B., I love your class. It is so much fun and we learn so much more than in other grades."
BUT I am tired!
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