Teachers: how do you feel about the new school year

As a guy who is happily married to a teacher.. Two things...
1. Don't marry a teacher!
2. Yahoo, the best time of year for me.. Now she has to get outta bed before me again!

I think that getting rid of tenure is a good thing and that basing raises, at least in part, on performance is a great idea.

So, if I discover a technique that gets amazing results in my class, what incentive do I have to share it with my fellow teachers if it means they could beat me out of my raise? Instead, I'll keep it to myself and make sure my performance is great and theirs is not, and make sure I get my raise.

That would be fine if we were talking about a manufacturing plant, and I discovered a way to increase my productivity. But we're talking about a school. What happens to the children in my fellow teachers' classrooms? They get educated just a little bit less because I was worried about my raise and making sure my performance outshines my coworkers.

Good thinking, there!

Riiight. Because teachers generally collaberate on everything, right? And it would be up to administrators to see which teachers are the most effective and determine why that is. Also, you are basing this on the premise that another person's success will inhibit another's, which is only partially true even when using the Bell Curve model. Oh, and ignoring that removing tenure and having merit based performance reviews would help weed out the ineffective teachers from the industry.

Way to examine only the surface of an issue.

This is what's called a Professional Learning Community and it is a system my school has been working towards for several years now. We have a built in collaborative team planning period each day where we are expected to develop curriculum, build assessments, and track data for our individual students and the course as a whole. I personally head the team that I work with.

So far in the last two weeks (only one week of actual class time) we have; reformatted and written entirely new question banks aligned with the learning objectives we would like to see our students master over the first six weeks, implemented a six weeks pre-testing system, designed a six weeks over view along with a student data tracking system where students will analyze their own pre-test data to determine which objectives they will need to concentrate on throughout the first six weeks, and are finalizing the formatting on an activity menu system where students will select differentiated objective specific activities to complete as supplemental assignments outside of regular class time and once completed will access an online assessment where they will be tested for mastery of the objective.

The majority of this work is done outside of the classroom, but by working collaboratively we are able to break the work up so that it's a little easier to handle. I can tell you that after several years of having to teach this class by myself, I would not have been able to accomplish even a portion of this trying to do this on my own. I am a trained expert in the field in which I teach, and chose to go in to teaching for the impact I could have on students, but I only had so much time in the day, and writing and designing curriculum is HARD, differentiating that curriculum for the large variety of student learning styles is even HARDER. But this system only works because we are encouraged by our school to work collaboratively, and we have been trained (over the summer, during all that *time off* we got) in how to implement PLC's efficiently.

Oh, and I work in a Title One school that's known throughout the district as "the bad school" because we have all the problem kids. B.S. my students are awesome (as long as you have a LICK of common sense, they can smell an idiot a mile off). This sort of system has been used to turn around some of the worst performing schools in the US (and yes I have the peer reviewed studies to back up that claim ), but it requires FUNDING to get that extra planning time, and to pay for the training time, and real support from the school to implement it properly. It does include regular assessment, what it doesn't do is pit teachers against each other, it encourages them to work together as a team.

As a guy who is happily married to a teacher.. Two things...
1. Don't marry a teacher!
2. Yahoo, the best time of year for me.. Now she has to get outta bed before me again!

Why should people marry teachers?

Because, as my husband would happily tell you, he gets thoroughly ignored during the school year. :laugh:

ETA: If I didn't know better I'd swear that quote WAS my husband!

I think that getting rid of tenure is a good thing and that basing raises, at least in part, on performance is a great idea.

I take it you are not a teacher? I teach High School Math in the UK and, yes, teachers teach. They work long hours in (often) difficult circumstances for very little support from members of the public who have no idea what being a teacher entails. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Do you have any idea what I do entails?

Obviously I have no idea what you do, but I bet whatever it is is not a job which people think they have a right to constantly belittle. I don't know what it's like in the US, but teachers in England seem to be subject to abuse from kids, the parents, and the general public. You should read some of the comments on articles about things like teacher strikes.

I know we get great holidays, and I'm grateful for that with kids of my own. As a part timer now, I don't have as big a workload (although obviously half the pay lol) but when I was full time I spent around 8 hours every Sunday doing planning and stuff, and that's not including work I did in the week on too of school hours. So in a 7 week term, I'd already effectively worked 7 extra days, so I think I really deserved my week long half term break! This is why I opted to go part time after my first child, as I kind of wanted to see him occasionally!

I've never known anyone else in any job taking work home either. My previous job was for an international bank. We weren't allowed to take things home as it was all confidential. My parents never brought work home, my husband doesn't, my brother and his wife don't, none of my friends do (unless they're a teacher). My MIL used to sometimes do work at home, but she had a high up position, and her salary reflected that! She could also work from home if she chose, and have more flexible hours.

i know what you mean about nerves about going back to school. I still get them five ish years in always feeling i haven't done enough.

It will be hard work starting your first year make time for working out make your se;f stop

my sanity rules are

1) we have meetings till 6pm mondays so i make monday a rest day
2) make yourself stop there will always be something you could have done
3)schedual in work outs... i always go after work to unwind and let my mind relax find then when i come back to prep for the next day and do admin i can focus on what is important.
4)Watch your steps i don't walk to work but i hit 15k steps a day most says while working. helps you get the 70/30 balance up and cut the teacher talk time if you know you shouldn't be stood still for too long

*ignoring the same old teacher bashing/defending debate*

This is going to be my first full year as a teacher and I'm a little nervous and a lot sad that the summer is coming to an end. I'm also concerned about how I will find time to work out as much during the school year as I did during the summer. Does anyone have any advice on how to calm my nerves and how to find time to work out? Now I work out two hours a day 5 days a week.

Good luck in your first few days of teaching. 2 weeks in you'll feel like you've always been in the classroom.
Advice to calm your nerves? Is there any preparation you can be doing ahead of time? I always feel calmer when I feel in control. So for me this last week I got my notes out, had a look at my seating plan, reorganised said seating plan 3 times, and settled on my original seating plan I made up before I broke up for the Summer... but it made me feel better.
How to find the time to work out? This will be tough there is no use denying it, as a newly qualified teacher you will probably be frazzled. Not just from the time/physical aspect, but from how emotionally draining it can be. For me, I've joined a gym close to my school so I can go there straight away, then get home and settle down for the night's planning/preparation/marking etc. Don't be hard on yourself though. It will all come with time.

I teach college.
I have summers off (unless I need extra money) and six hours of class time per week.



For the record, I was looking forward to starting the year anew. I like teaching.

I think that getting rid of tenure is a good thing and that basing raises, at least in part, on performance is a great idea.

The problem is that measuring performance for teachers, without creating perverse incentives, is very hard. I can't think of any good method.

I am also curious as to why these people who think teaching is so easy, don't train to be teachers themselves?

Nobody said it was easy. People just pointed out that it is just as time consuming and sometimes frustrating as any other career.

Exactly