too many demands

[overwhelmed]

I am so overwhelmed right now. We have just been told that we need to have the standards and strands that we are teaching for each subject of the day posted at all times. The students need to be able to reference them at any time, to show they know what they are learning. I have no room for them, nor do I have the time to write them up, hang them up and change them when necessary. I do write and tell the students the objective of each lesson in their terms, but told this is not enough. How do the powers that be expect elementary students to reference frameworks? I would love to know if other districts are required to do this? I work in MA and we are designated an underperforming district. Are all districts in MA required to do this? Or just the ones with low MCAS scores? I just wish they would let us teach!

 

[RedSoxGirl]

I am in NH and ...

I feel the SAME way!! DAILY!! This is my tenth year teaching, and for the last 4 years, I have seriously questioned leaving the profession and never looking back. NOW -- the Praxis II. This profession gets NO respect whatsoever. Other than the kids, this is THE MOST thankless job imaginable!

 

[ellen]

I'm in GA, and my school has to post the standards too. We just changed to performence based standards, and so we had to identify the essential question for each strand. A lot of folks just post the essential questions. Some folks have them on sentence strips, and just use the broad standard (ex. the children will respond to various types of literature). THe lesson we've learned is to find something that works for you- and that will be easy for you! Some teachers wrote all of them out over the summer, and change them when needed. I hope you find something that works

Could you use technolgy to put it up somehow?

 

[i hear ya]

thankless job

Yes... it is overwhelming. I'm in VA and my team mate and I are overwhelmed also. We don't have to post strands, but it seems like they are always coming up with something new that we just HAVE to do. I was sent to a workshop on Latin a couple of weeks ago. What a waste of time!!! The presenters sounded like Valley Girls and couldn't have been more than 22. None of us speak Latin or know much about it.. how the heck are we supposed to teach it? And what subject matter should we give up in order to teach it? They take away more and more instructional time and yet we are somehow supposed have a certain amount of each subject taught per day. How can we do that when we have sometimes two specials on the same day and another block of time taken up with mandatory "practice" tests for the SOL's later in the year? STUPID STUPID STUPID. Plus, they take 90 minutes of instructional time for chorus and band every week.

My team mate was just observed on Halloween day (see my post "Unfair?") and one of the things wrong with her lesson was that she didn't have a schedule posted on the board for the day. At no time was she ever told that she needed to do this. How can they indicate it as a negative if she was never told to do it? I do it, but thats just me... nobody told me I had to. I just find that it helps ME organize. There are certainly other teachers that don't have their schedules posted.

The administration doesn't even have the brains to have the custodians set the clocks for the teachers after the time change, or even have a reminder announcement about it. Can you imagine pregnant women, older men and ladies, overweight men and ladies climbing up on chairs to set their clocks? How about substitutes?

I have been teaching for 8 years (public schools for the last 2) and I have to admit, private school is easier on the sanity, even though the pay is less. I think its worth the money. I may just go back to private some day. Or maybe get out of teaching altogether. I honestly don't know how much more I can take. I have two small children and I am missing their childhood because I work until 6 every night, then come home and do work for online classes I just HAVE to take... because if I don't, my job is on the line. ARRRGH!

The parents don't respect us, the administration doesn't respect us... the community (including my Mother in Law) thinks we have the easiest jobs.... start and 9 and leave at 3, right with summers off! HAAA! Contrary to popular belief, folks, teaching is a REAL job and its a heck of a lot harder than you'd think! Its physically and emotionally draining. How many people can say that about their desk jobs where the punch buttons all day (like my husband).

 

[Newbie]

Dumb Rule

I know of many districts that require objectives and standards to be posted in the room. That's really difficult and takes up tons of room if you're a self-contained teacher! Plus, how many students do you think really pay attention to those? I had teachers who posted their objectives, and I always thought it was stupid...I didn't care, nor did I really think about them. I work in a private school, and it's not required, but if it was, I don't know where I'd put them! I teach 4th, and I have several objectives/standards that I cover each day.

 

[Ms. K]

I'm so sorry that you are feeling overwhelmed. Could you put the standards in plastic page protectors and put them in a binder that the kids could access anytime they want to? That way it would be available but not take up a lot of room.

 

[Mrs. G]

We do too!

We have to post ours too! We can make it very simple though, like the topic we are teaching for each subject. FL had a huge conference with administrators this summer. I think they are trying to get all schools "on the same page." There into this big "classroom walk through" kick right now to make sure we have certain things in our rooms and the focus wall is one of them!

Just let us teach!!!!

 

[Kteach2]

We post standards also

About 3 years ago, our district gave us large posters with the Essential Standards for Language Arts and Math. We have to post them where they can be accessed by students and the teacher. Since they are laminated, they want us to write on them when we teach each standard. Our district also does these "walk throughs" to see that we have these up. Having knowledge of the standards is already a part of our job. Why can't they just let us teach?? People start to feel overwhelmed because they keep piling new requirements on teachers every year!! Enough already! Just let us do our jobs! Treat us like the professionals you hired, not like the children we teach!!!

 

[Bob]

This Is Scary

More and more is piled onto teachers. Less and less time is given to teachers. More and more students are learning less and less.

 

[Mindfull]

And Less Does not Equal More

I don't have to have the standards posted but they have to be on my lesson plan. I do have to post the 10 Essential elements of Success ( a Grant thing) which takes up half of my only bulletin board. I also have to post the chart that goes with these elements and use post it notes daily to show that our class is following these elements. I also have to post the explanation for each essential element. Grant two demands that I post the strategies for reading and decoding in a place where the kids can have access to them. I teach 1st grade. they can't read them. Then I must post a continuing number line showing the days we are in school. I have to use a class calendar and wheather chart along with ones, tens and hundreds cups with straws to match the number line. I also have to have a growing word wall and the writing strategies for our district. I have things posted up to the ceiling. I can't even put anything up that I like. Dibles is a is a pain as they show the video of how teacher's are alone in a room testing their children but in reality we must fight for behavior while testing our children in chaos. What's the point. I don't teach any more. I test and babysit. Our last grant is reading first and I hate it. I never do anything right according to our state rep who just drops by for visits at the worst moments. thank goodness my principal tells me I am doing a great job. The state rep wrote me up in a report because I had the student desks turned backwards and their name tags were upside down. this was a temporary measure for classroom management. The day she wrote me up was the day they would get their desks back minus crayons, scissors, glue sticks and extra pencils. I was wrote up because I used tongue depressors to dismiss students from circle time. What does that have to do with reading. I cried all the way home and if not for finances I would have resigned. As I said if my principal was not on my side I would quit anyways. Sorry just needed to get it off my back. Thanks. Many of us are overwhelmed. Most days we don't get a planning time because our specials teachers don't show up. Our school is rough to say the least.