Teaching Rant

[musicpoetry]

I am posting this rant because I was reminded of my own frustrations after reading the 'Teachers are Underpaid?' thread in another section. I didn't reply there because it doesn't belong there; I am talking about my teaching experiences and how I don't know what to do sometimes.

 

I am a first year teacher and I don't feel underpaid; I feel underappreciated.

 

I didn't go into teaching for the money and benefits, although my paycheck has helped my family get by (my parent's income is not enough for the whole household). I can't teach because I have bad classroom management and the kids are all over the place. I started teaching in the middle of October and things are slightly improving, but since I can't manage them it's all on me. It doesn't matter that the students are emotionally disturbed, or that they curse me out, or just call out irrelevant things. It's my fault for "allowing" them to misbehave. I do not want this to be the reason I am a bad teacher.

 

It's also my fault for teaching two classes that are all English Language Learners and not being able to raise their reading levels. I do not have and ESL license so I have no idea how to handle this. I have a word wall, I scaffold all my handouts differently to cater to different students, but it doesn't to make a difference. I use the SMART Board in ways that appeal to visual learners such as showing them pictures or videos that might help students better understand a concept. I stay after school to help students make up work they missed or to re-teach something they didn't understand. I bought workbooks for certain students who asked for them since the school wouldn't provide. I spend the time to tweak each lesson for each class so it meets the needs of each class. But noting happens because they don't understand me. Oh and since they've been here for over a year they need to take the ELA (standardized test for English). What else am I supposed to do?

 

The kids who misbehave:

 

Scenario 1: They yell at me because I took away their electronic and have no right to do so. Once I take that away, they won't pay attention. If I raise my voice they say, "Don't yell at me!" or "What the fuck? I'm doing my work!" Yes I have put up the instructions, but they can't do their work properly if they don't understand those instructions. If I am asking the class to do a group activity wait for my signal to start instead of "doing your work" which is them socializing.

 

Scenario 2: "Ms. ______ isn't strong enough to to restrain us. Let's fight!" Yay for me. I call security and they yell at me because "It was just a joke!". Of course if I yell it's a problem.

 

Scenario 4: While I am in the middle of teaching an AP walks in and says, "Ms. _____, you are not allowed to remove students from the class." "He was preventing the class from completing their assignment." "I'm sorry. He has nowhere to go and you would be responsible if something happened to him." "So I should just let him disturb the class?" "We can talk about that later." Well thanks. We never talked about it.

 

Scenario 5: The the kids who will apologize profusely for being so disrespectful only to do the same thing the next day.

 

All of these things leave me puzzled. I can go on and on about administration too, but I'll stop here.

 

 

 

If you actually read through all of this thank you.

[Legion]

Music, I don't know if you teach in America, but I've come to suspect that generally speaking we currently have what is basically an ego problem in the U.S.

 

It seems to me that our images of ourselves, is wildly out of allignment with who we actually are.

[musicpoetry]

Hi Legion,

 

I do teach in America. I agree that we do have an ego problem here. Teachers, students, administrators…everyone

 

If you were referring to me as a person with an ego problem and you saw this in my post please point it out as I obviously can't see it for myself. I want to try to change that if I can.

[Legion]

Music, I didn't detect unrealistic ego in your post. The only thing which seemed to veer somewhat near it was the fact that you feel underappreciated.

 

From the specifics of your post, it seems to me that you have a basis for this claim. But then I've also felt underappreciated.

 

I don't know what to advise. I really don't. I can feel your frustration (mild anger, ego derived) and yet it seems you are reasonably frustrated.

 

What sense does it make to fight ego with ego? I'm at a loss.

[Zephie]

Hi Music, I just finished my MA in Education and decided not to teach precisely because of things you've mentioned above; also teachers have to do far too much outside of their work day. I don't know if this will help but Dave's ESL Cafe has some really good resources for working with ELL's. I'd love to offer some advice as far as what I know but since I lack the experience I'd simply be parroting back what you've already heard. I'm sorry things suck in your classroom and I hope things get better.

[Positivist]

Music, I agree with you 100%. I have friends who are teachers and they work not only all day with the products of poor parenting, but also try desperately to teach them. Teachers also work many hours outside of class time. My dad used to be a teacher, but after a few years he quit because (1) he was spending all of his time on other peoples' kids learning and not his own kids, and (2) the janitor actually made more per hour than he did as a teacher. My dad moved on to another line of work altogether.

 

Teachers ARE under-appreciated. Woe betide the person who slags teachers in my presence. I work with adults, and I see what happens when kids are left behind. My latest theory is that if we increase the size of our classrooms, there must be a concomitant increase in the size of our prisons, because the kids that are left behind in readings and writing are the ones that end up in jail. Education is the root of all kinds of societal and individual good. We must cast off ignorance.

 

I raise the glass to teachers!

[Legion]

I won't raise my glass for teachers as a group. Some of them are horrid. I will raise my glass for Music though. She seems determined to complete a noble task which has been made near impossible for her.

 

Chin up Music. May you end your days as a teacher knowing that you inspired and educated.

[older]

Music:

 

The first year is always the toughest. If you decide to stay, you'll find it gets easier as you gain experience. Although I started teaching in a very different atmosphere at a community college, I shudder to think of my first year and how terrible I was. But when I retired after 30 years, I had letters from former students who thanked me for making a difference in their lives. Therein lies the reward.

[musicpoetry]

Thank you all for your replies.

 

Legion,

Thanks for your input and your kind words. You are right about some teachers being horrid. There are also some great ones out there. These were the teachers that inspired me.

 

Zephie,

 

Thanks for the ESL resource. I will check it out.

 

I think you should at least give teaching a try. I didn't give you much background info on my school. This is a school that the gov't chose to close by the end of this year (I'm in NYC) The principal left and now we have a temporary principal. Even so, the rest of the administration is always breathing down your back. We constantly have visitors observing us and everyone is always stressed out.

 

Although there are very few of them and getting a job at these schools is nearly impossible there are good public schools where the administration is not constantly on your back and you have the freedom to teach what you want. I experienced this during student teaching. I taught in a bad neighborhood; I was also cursed out by students in that school but they eventually got their act together…the difference was that if the students did not want to be there they wouldn't come (this was a high school and right now I'm in a middle school). The atmosphere was different because students and teachers were given a chance to connect during advisory periods. This is a school where I wouldn't mind spending extra time helping my students…I remember I would go in on Saturdays even after my student teaching hours were over and I was not receiving any credit for it; I just wanted to be there. If I could get a job there I'd be happy even with all of the stresses that come with teaching.

 

Btw,

I like your Saraswati picture.

 

 

Positivist,

 

Thank you for your encouragement. I still struggle using the quote feature so I'm just copying and pasting what you wrote.

 

"Education is the root of all kinds of societal and individual good. We must cast off ignorance." I love this. Can I use this as my signature? I don't know if that's the right word? The phrase that goes at the bottom of your posts?

 

I feel like this is the biggest reason I decided to go into teaching in the first place. I want my students to be able to think for themselves. Although this has been a challenge because of all the rules and 'non-creativeness', I will find a way in which students will be able to form an opinion of their own without being shutdown.

[musicpoetry]

Thank you, older.

 

"But when I retired after 30 years, I had letters from former students who thanked me for making a difference in their lives. Therein lies the reward."

 

That would definitely make me successful as a teacher. Even now, although I feel like I have no clue what I'm doing, when a student says something like "you inspire me to learn" it feels great. That was the one time this student said something nice to me and I want to hold on to that.

[Positivist]

"Education is the root of all kinds of societal and individual good. We must cast off ignorance." I love this. Can I use this as my signature?

Go for it! :-)

I presume you've seen this.

Beautiful.

[RankStranger]

I can't really comment on the teaching itself. But I do know that your experience is common of just about anybody who is fresh out of school and starting in a new career. You feel lost, you feel like you have no idea what you're doing... you may even feel like an imposter- like you have no business doing that job.

 

I went through this with my first career- and became really good- I mean exceptionally good- at my job within a few years. My wife's experience was much the same when she went into psychology- she struggled at first, probably for a year. But now, 3-4 years after starting her new career, she's the BOSS. I'm going through the same thing again with my second career. It sucks ass feeling like you don't know what you're doing- but I've been here before, and I know how this shit works.

 

The key is to keep at it. Bear with it, solve each problem as it comes, and make sure you learn from each obstacle and each mistake. Next time you encounter it, you'll know what to do- and you can build off that. Eventually it will become second-nature to you.

[musicpoetry]

I can't really comment on the teaching itself. But I do know that your experience is common of just about anybody who is fresh out of school and starting in a new career. You feel lost, you feel like you have no idea what you're doing... you may even feel like an imposter- like you have no business doing that job.

 

I went through this with my first career- and became really good- I mean exceptionally good- at my job within a few years. My wife's experience was much the same when she went into psychology- she struggled at first, probably for a year. But now, 3-4 years after starting her new career, she's the BOSS. I'm going through the same thing again with my second career. It sucks ass feeling like you don't know what you're doing- but I've been here before, and I know how this shit works.

 

The key is to keep at it. Bear with it, solve each problem as it comes, and make sure you learn from each obstacle and each mistake. Next time you encounter it, you'll know what to do- and you can build off that. Eventually it will become second-nature to you.

 

Thank you, Rank Stranger. I do hope that as I gain more experience things will get easier.

 

"Education is the root of all kinds of societal and individual good. We must cast off ignorance." I love this. Can I use this as my signature?

Go for it! :-)

I presume you've seen this.

Beautiful.

 

Yes I have! I love this video. Taylor Mali is awesome.

[Guest wester]

For ESL you can think about 2 things:

 

1. Comprehensible Input -- If kids don't understand English, you need to make it easier for them by physically demonstrating the words. If you say "eye", point to your eye. If you say "swim", make the swimming motion, 'throw", throw a ball at them.

Flash cards kind of work like this too.

 

2. Total Physical Response -- have them all stand up and then you go through a bunch of words or concepts and make them do body motions to match the word or concept. If kids experience words with various senses, they'll integrate them better. Do writing, listening, reading and speaking --- smelling and touching if you can work those in...

 

For reading, you can do phonics. I started with 3 letter words, made big cards - one with the first letter and one with the last two letters. I put up the first card and said "B" then the next two "AT" and then say it together "BAT". Next I would get the first letter of various students names and write them on the board and put the card with the last two letter combinations next to the letters for their names. Then I would repeat the process with the new combinations - CAT (kuh-at --->Cat) FAT (fuh-at --->Fat)

and do it even if it was not a word WAT (wuh-at-->Wat) ZAT (zuh-at-->Zat). Make the kids repeat your pronunciation.

I did this at the beginning of each day and did it over and it over and over until the kids could do it in their sleep.

This is how I learned to read from watching Sesame Street back in the 70s.

 

Classroom management is an art. Sometimes it helps to establish the class as a social group where everyone is welcome, friendly, respectful and feels at home. (It may sound korny, but you have no idea how many kids don't experience anything like this ever in their lives). Get to know the kids and talk with them. Really talk with them. If they feel you are their friend, they will be more likely to work with you and do what you ask. Be funny, tell jokes, tell stories, keep the atmosphere light and non-coercive and be patient.

 

You should clear up exactly, precisely and in detail what you can and cannot do with the administration (vile and inconsiderate as they may be) so that it doesn't come back to bite you. Cover your butt. Contact parents too if it is kosher and tell them what is up with the kid. Get their help. Be respectful and considerate. However, this doesn't always work so you will have to play it all by ear.

Don't contact parents who willfully stab people in the back.

 

Ask other teachers for advice. Teaching is an art. Some are artists, others artisans and some just took the Ed classes in college cuz they didn't like Chemistry. You will find your chops through experience. One word: Patience.

 

That said, you will likely not receive much help or understanding or sympathy from admin, parents, your friends, your family or society in general. My experience is that America is a continent sized mental ward that hates its teachers with a vicious passion.

 

So, Good Luck and be careful out there.

 

 

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