Recruiting educators? - Page 2

Lightdemon · 07-08-08, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Layla_Z

Once you have signed a contract with a district you are stuck there for the school year, unless you want to pay a penalty. The district can assign you to any place they want. You may have signed on thinking you'd be teaching 3rd grade but there is a little clause in the contract that states they can move you.

Being a teacher I take great offense at the bottom 30% comment. I wasn't in that group and I have great respect for the intelligence of the teachers I work with. I do agree that teachers have a difficult job and that they have very little control over many aspects of that job. In many cases teachers, especially new ones, are put into no win situations. That's why the average new teacher only teaches for 5 years.

The actual statistic is: Half of all new teachers will quit before the end of thier 5th year of teaching.

Quite different from being "average." But I'm sure we all understood your point that many teachers do not stay in this career. I'm just being nit picky.

Most often what I hear nowadays is that CA is not lacking qualified teachers, as thier are many more people with credentials than there are actuals teachers. I think it's something like a 5:1 ratio (I'll probably have to look it up if you want that actual numbers). There are plenty of qualified teachers in our state, it's just not a lot of them can make that sacrifice.

Regarding assignments, one of my collegues was a theatre major and had a degree in English. He had planned to become a drama teacher of course. But to his dismay, and because he held an English degree, he was qualified to teach ESL and he had no choice but to accept the assignment because he signed the yearly contract.

jallman · 07-08-08, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightdemon

The actual statistic is: Half of all new teachers will quit before the end of thier 5th year of teaching.

Quite different from being "average." But I'm sure we all understood your point that many teachers do not stay in this career. I'm just being nit picky.

Most often what I hear nowadays is that CA is not lacking qualified teachers, as thier are many more people with credentials than there are actuals teachers. I think it's something like a 5:1 ratio (I'll probably have to look it up if you want that actual numbers). There are plenty of qualified teachers in our state, it's just not a lot of them can make that sacrifice.

Regarding assignments, one of my collegues was a theatre major and had a degree in English. He had planned to become a drama teacher of course. But to his dismay, and because he held an English degree, he was qualified to teach ESL and he had no choice but to accept the assignment because he signed the yearly contract.

I hold an English degree and had intended to teach. Until I found myself in the unfortunate circumstance of teaching.

UtahBill · 07-09-08, 07:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jallman

I hold an English degree and had intended to teach. Until I found myself in the unfortunate circumstance of teaching.

So, how long did you last? What grade level?
Some teens can be hard to put up with. One year, an 8th grade math teacher at my wife's school got run off by a particularly bad group of kids.
The teacher was male, and an officer in the Navy Reserve. He lasted half a year and quit. Next one up was a female with experience dealing with brats, and she managed to maintain discipline, but it took a while.

Lightdemon · 07-09-08, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UtahBill

So, how long did you last? What grade level?
Some teens can be hard to put up with. One year, an 8th grade math teacher at my wife's school got run off by a particularly bad group of kids.
The teacher was male, and an officer in the Navy Reserve. He lasted half a year and quit. Next one up was a female with experience dealing with brats, and she managed to maintain discipline, but it took a while.

While not trying to answer for Jallman, I've heard plenty of testemonials about how disillusioned former teachers were.

The number one reason why teachers quit, imo, is that they realize what teaching actually is. A teacher is not a disseminator of knowledge, nor are you the center of the class. You have little control of your class, and you cannot get into control by force. You also have parents who are unwilling to work with you, as well as parents you do not want to work with. You also have admin folks working against you sometimes depending on the board of education. Bureaucracy is also another huge factor in why teachers quit. Not a lot of people know the internal politics about education.

A lot of people go into teaching, thinking that they will inspire kids, thinking that they'll teach them something, and that something is actually what they studied (and most likely enjoy), that what thier doing will make them feel good at the end of the day. They realize that not all kids like school, or even take school serious. These teachers put in thier effort into thier class, and find out that it is not reciprocated by the students. And there are many other things that disencourage teachers to continue thier career because they cannot do what they thought they were going to do.

jallman · 07-09-08, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UtahBill

So, how long did you last? What grade level?
Some teens can be hard to put up with. One year, an 8th grade math teacher at my wife's school got run off by a particularly bad group of kids.
The teacher was male, and an officer in the Navy Reserve. He lasted half a year and quit. Next one up was a female with experience dealing with brats, and she managed to maintain discipline, but it took a while.

I only did my student teaching and decided that I wasn't about to consign myself to that life. I have been told since that I probably shouldn't have done my student teaching at the same school I attended. I taught 10th grade English (World literature).

I had no real problems with discipline. I kept a list of all of their parents' work phone numbers on a sheet by my desk. When one of them got out of line, I would hand the little bastard my cell phone and have them call their parent right then in front of the class and tell them what they were doing. When they said, "But I'm not doing anything", I would say "Fine. Then tell your mother that Mr. Allman made you call them because you're not doing anything."

Discipline was not an issue after the first couple of weeks.

UtahBill · 07-09-08, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jallman

I only did my student teaching and decided that I wasn't about to consign myself to that life. I have been told since that I probably shouldn't have done my student teaching at the same school I attended. I taught 10th grade English (World literature).

I had no real problems with discipline. I kept a list of all of their parents' work phone numbers on a sheet by my desk. When one of them got out of line, I would hand the little bastard my cell phone and have them call their parent right then in front of the class and tell them what they were doing. When they said, "But I'm not doing anything", I would say "Fine. Then tell your mother that Mr. Allman made you call them because you're not doing anything."

Discipline was not an issue after the first couple of weeks.

Great idea....either they were doing something they shouldn't or not doing something that they should..

I was short a few HS credits (24 was the min, and the max, you had to have all of them) and had to take the GED exam to get into the Navy, and got 90% average if I could have removed the literature score, which was 58. I always enjoyed reading, but once I got past the age of about 16, fiction became the least desired category for me....