Wow, Iceblink. Unfortunately, your story didn't do much to reaffirm my faith in the profession! There are some things that I am lucky to have, though. My dept. chair is a crazy witch, but the rest of the department (every single person) works fantastically well together. We share and co-plan units, finals, etc and are generally very supportive. A group of us took Sue out for a beer after school on Thursday, and encouraged her to be "sick" on Friday. We wrote all of her lesson plans and covered her classes. She really needed the day. As for the other situations, I'm not sure which would be worse, honestly. You know that you have that situation. We are told to enforce these policies, and depending on the whim of the parent or the administration, we're ripped apart for doing so. Also, the parents don't care about the kid. They care about the letter on his report card. He's a smart kid, but he's going nowhere until he learns some important life-lessons (I coached him this year). It's one of the three units that will be winging its way to you sometime in early June. I'm editing the performance-based unit now (I'm doing little revisions and integrating the sample lesson videos), and I'll be able to attack that with more verve after my seniors leave next week. You will be receiving a flash drive (that will need to be sent back, because I have two former colleagues in New Hampshire who also want these units) containing: Shakespearean Speeches Unit- A 3 week unit designed for 10th graders that teaches Shakespeare by analyzing individual speeches from 10 different plays by using targeted reading strategies, contemporary connections and instruction on Greek and Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes. Contemporary Literature Circles Unit- a 2 week unit designed for all grade levels and intended to pique their interest in contemporary literature. This is a "buffet style" curriculum guide, with multiple ways to teach it that can be selected by teacher preference, style, student ability, etc. Everything needed is included in the guide, and it is designed to be done as a department in order to create an atmosphere of reading in the entire school (the kids REALLY loved this one- there were some whiners, but the vast majority of the kids read their book and praised the activities). Performance-Based Shakespeare Unit- a 3-4 week unit designed for 12th graders that teaches Shakespeare by using performance techniques. The unit can be taught with one play, but can be expanded up to six (I taught all six at one time this year, and it was a blast. It did cause some logistics issues though that dragged the unit out longer than I intended). The unit includes lesson plans, student video demonstrations, all resources needed and materials for the following plays: King Lear, Richard III, The Tempest, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing.
A couple of years ago, my wife had to deal with the college equivalent of the blatant plagiarism followed up by parental threats. It sounds an awful lot like Jacen's colleague's experience. She received no support from the administration, which is largely why she started looking for a different job. This is one of the many drawbacks that occur when "students" become "customers."
All too often I've seen administrators who cave to parents' demands. They will throw teachers under the bus without a second thought. I don't understand this mentality at a public school -- I guess the fear is that parents will complain to higher-ups, as they did in Jacen's story. But this isn't a private enterprise. Why so much fear? I guess it all comes down to politics in the end. At my former school, there was a little first-grader who ran around kicking and punching teachers. He was 6 or 7, and was spending his second year in first grade. He once slammed a door in a teacher's face, literally. He even hit me once, and the squirrely little bastard ran away before I could grab him. After a while, the principal couldn't ignore the incident reports and complaints and write ups any longer, and she suspended the boy for a week. Well, the kid's mom showed up to the school, ranting and raving. The kid was placed right back into the classroom (not that he stayed there long; he was soon running around the halls wreaking havoc again). That's an extreme example, but it's emblematic. Just this year, I had a less dramatic example of the same attitude. My grade-level colleagues and I were feeling frustrated because students were abusing locker privileges -- hanging around near their lockers instead of moving on to class; arriving to class late; asking to go to their lockers during class time because they forgot needed materials, and on and on. So we agreed that we would give the children ample warning, but when we returned from spring break, there'd be no more lockers for 6th-graders. It would be easy to enforce, since the locks were distributed by the school. We informed the principal of this plan and he did not object. So on the last day before break, I collected all the locks and had the kids empty out their lockers. As soon as we came back from break, I was told to give the locks back. A parent had called in and complained. Now, that's a fairly minor inconvenience, but again it's a manifestation of the same attitude. In this case, the principal could not care less about undermining me and my whole grade team. He could not care less about eliminating the management issues which were arising from the use of lockers. But if a parent is unhappy, he not only cares, but acts swiftly and decisively.
*sigh* Is this any way to address your staff? BTW, this was sent today (Tuesday). I don't even know what "writing scores" is supposed to mean.
Does this kid not have a diagnosis or an IEP?Has anything been started for this process? I sympathise with the staff,but clearly this kid has problems. Wasn't it the principal's responsibility to notify the parents? I mean, somebody was supposed to notify the parents,right?
Teaching is a fantastic profession. I'm utterly thrilled that I chose it. We just bitch a lot b/c there's a lot to bitch about. On the same day that I received an unfair, harsh peer eval, I had a student tell me that she loved my class so much b/c I have taught her to think outside the box, to think critically, to challenge herself intellectually AND have a balanced life outside the classroom. Then I had a former student win a prestigious university honor based on her efforts in my class last semester. On one eval I was told by a student in a sophomore level class that my knowledge in the subject matter was atrocious, while in an advanced class chock full of some of the best students in the major they marveled at not only my knowledge of my field but parallel fields as well. And we get summers off.
Yup. When a parent makes a point to come back and tell you how well their child is doing because they were in your class, it is a pretty great feeling. When you see a former student at the Walmart and they run up and tell you how much they miss your class, that is a pretty cool feeling. And summers off ... that is a most excellent thing.
Ditto, that is, if I can even get a teaching job in 5ish years. (I figures I'll be done with grad school then and be settled wherever I decide to get my own place)
I just graduated (w/ bachelor) this month and have applied to every teaching opening near I-40 between Oklahoma City and Little Rock. Now that school is out I am starting to get a lot of replies. I guess the schools around here don't start thinking about next year until summer hits. As long as you get certified/licensed along the way, you shouldnt have too much trouble. There are a lot of people wanting to become teachers through the non-traditional route around here, but it is state law in Arkansas that a non-trad teacher cannot be offered a job if a licensed teacher has applied for the same position.
Of course the kid has problems. Of course the staff referred him for evaluation. The parent refused to have him evaluated. So, no IEP. No diagnoses. End of story. There is no-one to sympathize with in the story, except for the staff and, of course, the kid, who has almost no chance of living a productive, healthy, happy life. Clearly, nobody notified the parents.
Don't you think that would have been a good idea? Of course,if the principal notified them,he'd have had to stand behind the policy. So I guess what i'm saying is,I'm not surprised no parents were notified.
One thing I hear over and over again is that the school is only as good as the principal. I have seen both sides of this during my practicums and it seems quite true.
Shhhhh! I gave myself a couple of weeks off before getting back into it. However, I have decided what my next major project is going to be (poetic theory related). That's "work!"
Now well into my summer break, having ended my school year - and my one-year assignment - a couple weeks ago and then immediately taking a fantastic trip/head-clearer across the country. I'm left here trying quite hard to maintain any hope that a new job - hell, an interview, at least - comes up before the end of July. That's when my apt lease runs out, and for all intents and purposes I'll just pack up, slink back home, and go to work at Home Depot or something to pay off my bills. Or transition, briefly or permanently, out of the academic world, much as I like it and it liked me. I may not have any choice. So far I'm rolling snake eyes.
Almost every large city in America is begging for teachers. I would almost guarantee you that San Antonio and Houston would hire you in a second.
Well, I don't have any teaching certifications. All my teaching has been done at the college level (with a little bit of adult ESL thrown in there, years ago) and all things being equal, I'd like to keep it that way. I know myself well enough to state that I'd probably struggle teaching elementary/middle/high school. I don't think I'd enjoy it the way I enjoy teaching in a college classroom (I did some subbing when I came out of college and was living at home, so I've been in those settings a few times) and that might mean I couldn't devote myself to the work the way those students deserve. It just wouldn't work for anyone, is what I'm thinking. I'm also certain I'd never finish my dissertation if I went down that path, and that would grate on me.
My bad. I didnt realize you were talking about higher ed. I don't know of any professors who hold a teaching license, so that would make sense that you wouldn't either. I have a friend who is looking to move away from Fort Smith, and he has mentioned that the national job market for college history professors is brutal right now.
I know that the university I work at right now is about to add a Political Science degree, but they haven't began to hire new professors yet (and you don't want to live here anyway).
My impression is that the job market for tenure track and lecturer positions is extremely tight, and social science is as likely as any other area to suffer. The economy has hit higher ed, too, so there's not much expansion of departments. Schools with large endowments seem to be weathering the storm well enough, but there's not much growth. I'd talk to someone in a large Poli Sci dept about it to get a better idea than I'll ever be able to give you, though. Outside academia? If you combine your degree with international experience you might be competitive for foreign service and intelligence work, among other things.