TankTop
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1,871
Posts: 4,836
Location: On the couch...
Jun 28, 2014 1:52:46 GMT
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Post by TankTop on Jan 26, 2022 0:23:49 GMT
I am hosting a student teacher this semester for our state’s leading teacher prep universities.
Due to the pandemic, which hit the spring of her sophomore year, she was not able to teach or observe in classrooms until the fall semester of her senior year. She has literally taught 5 lessons in her entire life.
She is so honest and eager to learn. She came to me on the first day admitting how scared and unprepared she felt. We have taken it so slow. She has taken on parts of learning blocks instead of a whole subject. We are building slowly.
She is doing great! She has a passion and the “it” factor.
With teachers leaving the field, and new teachers unprepared, the next few years will be quiet interesting.
I want her to feel so supported. I want her to leave me feeling prepared and confident. I want to help her all I can, but I fear it will not be enough for some of the new teachers.
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 0:31:04 GMT
One of my favorite principals ever just retired. He's been posting some about his experiences on FB now that he doesn't have to watch what he says so much.
Something I hadn't realized is that, at least here in Houston, the vast majority of applicants are alternative cert. or TFA people. Meaning they have abbreviated training and no student teaching at all. What the heck are we doing here? Those folks are supposed to be our emergency backup plan, not the backbone of our teaching staff.
Perhaps it's the district in which I teach to some degree - lots of young teachers shy away from the urban, Title 1 environment - but it was not like that when I started. At all.
IMO teaching should be more like medicine, where you finish your training and then you're supervised as an "intern" - paid, of course - for a year or more before you get a classroom of your own. Of course, that would require funding we don't have. But that's what should happen. Literally everything I know about anything came from other teachers, not my classroom training.
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peaname
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,390 
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Post by peaname on Jan 26, 2022 1:07:18 GMT
Nurses too, there are nurses graduating from school who were literally locked out of hospitals and taught via zoom. They’ll have a steep learning curve after they get hired especially considering the burnt out, post traumatic stressed existing staff will have little give when they need mentors. Probably similar with teachers I know you have not had an easy time either.
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TankTop
Pearl Clutcher
Refupea #1,871
Posts: 4,836
Location: On the couch...
Jun 28, 2014 1:52:46 GMT
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Post by TankTop on Jan 26, 2022 1:08:16 GMT
We are all screwed.
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tincin
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,382
Jul 25, 2014 4:55:32 GMT
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Post by tincin on Jan 26, 2022 1:11:19 GMT
MI just passed a law that any school employee can substitute teach. Yes, sanitation, bus drivera, cafeteria workers are all able to sub now. Let’s hear it for a quality education in MI folks!
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Post by Scrapper100 on Jan 26, 2022 1:12:04 GMT
Wasn’t there already a shortage of teachers? I know here many took early retirement in 2020.
I feel bad for the kids and the teachers that aren’t as prepared as they should be.
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Post by voltagain on Jan 26, 2022 1:14:45 GMT
I am hosting a student teacher this semester for our state’s leading teacher prep universities. Due to the pandemic, which hit the spring of her sophomore year, she was not able to teach or observe in classrooms until the fall semester of her senior year. She has literally taught 5 lessons in her entire life. She is so honest and eager to learn. She came to me on the first day admitting how scared and unprepared she felt. We have taken it so slow. She has taken on parts of learning blocks instead of a whole subject. We are building slowly. She is doing great! She has a passion and the “it” factor. With teachers leaving the field, and new teachers unprepared, the next few years will be quiet interesting. I want her to feel so supported. I want her to leave me feeling prepared and confident. I want to help her all I can, but I fear it will not be enough for some of the new teachers. One of the universities near me has ended their k-12 education program completely. Other universities are having very low enrollment. So many teachers have retired or left teaching that the governor approved for state employees to "fill in". This is NOT good for student's education! I did find out these employees do have to do a background check at their own expense and they can only be away from their regular state job 2 days a week. I can't even express my thoughts on this! k-12 deserve better than this! |
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Post by mollycoddle on Jan 26, 2022 1:16:04 GMT
One of my favorite principals ever just retired. He's been posting some about his experiences on FB now that he doesn't have to watch what he says so much. Something I hadn't realized is that, at least here in Houston, the vast majority of applicants are alternative cert. or TFA people. Meaning they have abbreviated training and no student teaching at all. What the heck are we doing here? Those folks are supposed to be our emergency backup plan, not the backbone of our teaching staff. Perhaps it's the district in which I teach to some degree - lots of young teachers shy away from the urban, Title 1 environment - but it was not like that when I started. At all. IMO teaching should be more like medicine, where you finish your training and then you're supervised as an "intern" - paid, of course - for a year or more before you get a classroom of your own. Of course, that would require funding we don't have. But that's what should happen. Literally everything I know about anything came from other teachers, not my classroom training.  No student teaching? Abbreviated training? That sounds bad. Really bad. |
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Post by mollycoddle on Jan 26, 2022 1:17:38 GMT
MI just passed a law that any school employee can substitute teach. Yes, sanitation, bus drivera, cafeteria workers are all able to sub now. Let’s hear it for a quality education in MI folks! Oh boy. Teaching is such a minefield these days. Who will help them? I already know the answer. |
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Post by ntsf on Jan 26, 2022 1:22:22 GMT
I shudder to think of kids on ieps with teachers with no training or support staff or national guard personnel.. seems a lawsuit waiting to happen...
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 1:23:38 GMT
One of my favorite principals ever just retired. He's been posting some about his experiences on FB now that he doesn't have to watch what he says so much. Something I hadn't realized is that, at least here in Houston, the vast majority of applicants are alternative cert. or TFA people. Meaning they have abbreviated training and no student teaching at all. What the heck are we doing here? Those folks are supposed to be our emergency backup plan, not the backbone of our teaching staff. Perhaps it's the district in which I teach to some degree - lots of young teachers shy away from the urban, Title 1 environment - but it was not like that when I started. At all. IMO teaching should be more like medicine, where you finish your training and then you're supervised as an "intern" - paid, of course - for a year or more before you get a classroom of your own. Of course, that would require funding we don't have. But that's what should happen. Literally everything I know about anything came from other teachers, not my classroom training.  No student teaching? Abbreviated training? That sounds bad. Really bad. It's been going on for years, particularly in Title 1 schools. That's what Teach for America is all about. Alternative certification programs are a big deal here in Texas and have frequently been used for critical need positions like math and science. More recently for special ed and bilingual. Charter schools have always used a high proportion of alternative cert. and TFA people. Now it's happening everywhere. It's insane. I'm not going to say that there are no excellent teachers coming out of alternative certification programs. I've seen several. But far more often, these folks have no idea what they signed up for and can't get out fast enough. Especially these last two years. |
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 1:24:51 GMT
I shudder to think of kids on ieps with teachers with no training or support staff or national guard personnel.. seems a lawsuit waiting to happen... Yep. Or what will more likely happen is that all the kids with IEPs will be put in classes with the few trained teachers remaining - causing them to bail as well. It's too much. |
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Post by mollycoddle on Jan 26, 2022 1:36:17 GMT
No student teaching? Abbreviated training? That sounds bad. Really bad. It's been going on for years, particularly in Title 1 schools. That's what Teach for America is all about. Alternative certification programs are a big deal here in Texas and have frequently been used for critical need positions like math and science. More recently for special ed and bilingual. Charter schools have always used a high proportion of alternative cert. and TFA people. Now it's happening everywhere. It's insane. I'm not going to say that there are no excellent teachers coming out of alternative certification programs. I've seen several. But far more often, these folks have no idea what they signed up for and can't get out fast enough. Especially these last two years. With all of the demands on teachers, I cannot imagine how hard that would be. |
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Post by scrapmaven on Jan 26, 2022 1:46:50 GMT
Ds is student teaching in a title 1 high school this year. They break it into 2 semesters. The first semester he observed, eventually teaching a lesson once per week or so. This semester he is teaching 2 classes full time and observing the other classes. My son has wanted to be a teacher since he was a little boy. That he still feels that same passion after his experiences this year says so much. Then again, he has a really great CT and that might have a lot to do w/ds's experience as a student teacher. I wonder how many of the students in his teaching cohort will still be teaching 5 years from now? Now more than ever being a teacher or a nurse is at it's most challenging and I have high regards for both professions.
TankTop, on behalf of the moms of student teachers, thank you for being an awesome CT. |
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Post by annaintx on Jan 26, 2022 1:53:39 GMT
I used to work in a teacher preparation program at a large university in south Texas. I lost my job in July 2020, with COVID they decided we weren't needed but it was really an excuse to get rid of us. Which is bad, we were the only liaison between faculty/staff and the schools/teachers.
There are many, many, many brand new teachers who haven't taught lessons, have only watched Zoom classes, haven't been in classrooms but a handful of times.
The teaching crisis is about to get worse in my opinion. They are all so unprepared.
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Post by minjoy on Jan 26, 2022 2:59:38 GMT
My dd is in her third year and won’t student teach until her forth year. I think she observes some first semester and student teaches second, but I could be wrong.
At her university if you major in education you have to have second major. She was told because so many teachers leave the profession very early.
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 3:10:22 GMT
My dd is in her third year and won’t student teach until her forth year. I think she observes some first semester and student teaches second, but I could be wrong. At her university if you major in education you have to have second major. She was told because so many teachers leave the profession very early. Wow, really? That's ... amazingly forward thinking. But also disturbing. My youngest just dropped the education part of her music ed. major. It's just music performance (viola) now. She wasn't super gung-ho about teaching anyway, and I couldn't in good conscience encourage her to continue down that path. I might start encouraging a second major for her except that the first one already takes so much time. |
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Post by iteach3rdgrade on Jan 26, 2022 3:13:00 GMT
Can you imagine what the medical field will be like in 20-30 years as we age and need more care? I wonder what the previous trends have shown. Hopefully something between now and then improves.
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Post by bc2ca on Jan 26, 2022 3:29:15 GMT
One of the universities near me has ended their k-12 education program completely. Other universities are having very low enrollment. I was reading about this trend last week.  |
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seaexplore
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,844
Apr 25, 2015 23:57:30 GMT
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Post by seaexplore on Jan 26, 2022 3:52:25 GMT
I had a student teacher first trimester this year. All his classes were on zoom. He taught a week in my MATH class, one period a day. He commented “teacher tired is tough” lol. He’s in for a very rude awakening. I tried to explain that teaching is hard and you feel unvalued. He’s still hell bent on teaching. I’m scared for him.
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,684
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Jan 26, 2022 11:24:22 GMT
MI just passed a law that any school employee can substitute teach. Yes, sanitation, bus drivera, cafeteria workers are all able to sub now. Let’s hear it for a quality education in MI folks! I get why people are concerned by this and I guess in some schools it could be be misused but working in a Michigan school I don’t see my principal using support staff like you think. Because we’re struggling to get subs we keep having to postpone data meetings, testing, IEP meetings etc. While it hasn’t happened yet I could see a scenario where we might have, say a cafeteria worker, stay an hour after their usual shift to cover a classroom while a teacher has a meeting. The kids already know and respect the cafeteria worker, she already knows all the kids names, the teacher will have a lesson planned. It sounds like an equal or better scenario than a brand new sub who has an associates degree (the current sub requirement). |
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Post by Basket1lady on Jan 26, 2022 12:32:57 GMT
Nurses too, there are nurses graduating from school who were literally locked out of hospitals and taught via zoom. They’ll have a steep learning curve after they get hired especially considering the burnt out, post traumatic stressed existing staff will have little give when they need mentors. Probably similar with teachers I know you have not had an easy time either. And PTs. And doctors. And a host of other professions. DD is in a grad program for her doctorate of physical therapy and is supposed to have anatomy this semester. Well, they still have it, but without the cadaver lab. So it’s worksheets and online resources and pointing to a student and saying, this is where this muscle is. Here is your liver. She had anatomy her senior year without even that. It was 100% online and the class was a month long because they were doing block scheduling to minimize the number of people a student came into contact with. The pandemic will have ripple effects for the next decade or more, far beyond supply chain and COVID testing issues. |
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Post by janet on Jan 26, 2022 15:25:04 GMT
My son is in his 4th year of college as an education major - he's contemplating taking a gap year next year so he's not student teaching in these circumstances. Of course, that will totally screw his scholarship and financial aid, but that's how bad it's getting. And he's in Iowa (go Hawks) so it's even worse there than here in Illinois.
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 15:28:18 GMT
My son is in his 4th year of college as an education major - he's contemplating taking a gap year next year so he's not student teaching in these circumstances. Of course, that will totally screw his scholarship and financial aid, but that's how bad it's getting. And he's in Iowa (go Hawks) so it's even worse there than here in Illinois. Would strongly encourage him to wait so he can have a normal student teaching experience. As a parent, I’d do what I could to help financially to allow that to happen. |
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johnnysmom
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,684
Jun 25, 2014 21:16:33 GMT
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Post by johnnysmom on Jan 26, 2022 16:38:33 GMT
My son is in his 4th year of college as an education major - he's contemplating taking a gap year next year so he's not student teaching in these circumstances. Of course, that will totally screw his scholarship and financial aid, but that's how bad it's getting. And he's in Iowa (go Hawks) so it's even worse there than here in Illinois. I don’t know what the requirements are there but could he sub for a year? He’s probably be able to work almost full time and possibly even a foot in the door when looking for a permanent job after his student teaching is done (or at least know which buildings he won’t want to work at). |
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 16:41:21 GMT
My son is in his 4th year of college as an education major - he's contemplating taking a gap year next year so he's not student teaching in these circumstances. Of course, that will totally screw his scholarship and financial aid, but that's how bad it's getting. And he's in Iowa (go Hawks) so it's even worse there than here in Illinois. I don’t know what the requirements are there but could he sub for a year? He’s probably be able to work almost full time and possibly even a foot in the door when looking for a permanent job after his student teaching is done (or at least know which buildings he won’t want to work at). I know you mean well, but if he intends to go into education, subbing during a pandemic will not be encouraging. There’s a reason we have such a hard time finding subs. |
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Post by epeanymous on Jan 26, 2022 16:41:59 GMT
No student teaching? Abbreviated training? That sounds bad. Really bad. It's been going on for years, particularly in Title 1 schools. That's what Teach for America is all about. Alternative certification programs are a big deal here in Texas and have frequently been used for critical need positions like math and science. More recently for special ed and bilingual. Charter schools have always used a high proportion of alternative cert. and TFA people. Now it's happening everywhere. It's insane. I'm not going to say that there are no excellent teachers coming out of alternative certification programs. I've seen several. But far more often, these folks have no idea what they signed up for and can't get out fast enough. Especially these last two years. Certainly it does not help that a lot of TFA folks end up going to policy or law school and shaping public policy around schooling (ask me about all of my TFA classmates!) |
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Post by Merge on Jan 26, 2022 16:45:18 GMT
It's been going on for years, particularly in Title 1 schools. That's what Teach for America is all about. Alternative certification programs are a big deal here in Texas and have frequently been used for critical need positions like math and science. More recently for special ed and bilingual. Charter schools have always used a high proportion of alternative cert. and TFA people. Now it's happening everywhere. It's insane. I'm not going to say that there are no excellent teachers coming out of alternative certification programs. I've seen several. But far more often, these folks have no idea what they signed up for and can't get out fast enough. Especially these last two years. Certainly it does not help that a lot of TFA folks end up going to policy or law school and shaping public policy around schooling (ask me about all of my TFA classmates!) Yeah, I’m not a big fan. |
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Post by leannec on Jan 26, 2022 18:26:54 GMT
Here in Canada all teachers and subs are required to have degrees in Education ... period. To get hired these days you also need a second degree. There is no sub coverage by support staff or parents - ever. I teach grade 7 in person ... My oldest dd is in her 5th year of a dual degree program ... finished her Sociology degree and now working on her Education degree ... she has begun her practicums ... I worry that the job will stress her out as much as it does me but she is determined to teach.  |
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Post by mrsscrapdiva on Jan 26, 2022 18:27:52 GMT
At our charter school, we lost 3 teachers this month at the end of the mid year semester. One retired, one took a job a public school and one left due to health issues non-covid related. Over the past 6 years, at least 14 teachers have left after a year or two of teaching.
The pros and cons with educators certified from other fields is yes, very knowledgeable, a lot of shared experience from the real world in a specific field like engineering,finance etc but they don't stay teaching. They move on to other careers, more money and they are free to just move on because there is no contract. Many have moved to other states or gone back into the field they came from (not teaching). This is what we have personally experienced in our school.
The future of what is really going to happen in schools is so frightening. The dedicated, hard working teachers are burnt out, they are pushed the max. They are paying more and more for subs in our public school, but consistency with teaching is key. They are not getting consistent teaching with a rotating door of subs. It definitely makes the future uncertain.
ETA: As far as I know, no long term (or even short term) contracts at the Charter school for anyone. Almost seems like "at will" employment. No union either.
Our city public school teachers have a contract, a union and a pension.
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