End of school year teacher rant...

[codeorama]

So, today is the last day of school.  Thank god.  In all the years I've taught, this was by far the most frustrating year.

Before I became a teacher where I am now, I taught at a school that has severe behavior problems and very low income students.  However, this year has been worse than any year I had at the other school.

 

Why?  

 

1. We have a new superintendent.  One of his directives has been to limit the student write ups because "it looks bad".  So, the discipline has been off the chain this year.  In 10 previous years, I averaged writing up 5 students or less.  Any other issues were easily handled by me within the class.  This year, I literally had: 106 write ups (for serious things like bullying, EXTREMELY inappropriate conduct and/or language, etc..), 48 times I had to have security remove a student or students.  I'm not the only one, other teachers are extremely upset as well.

 

2. Colin Kaepernick. While some may not agree or whatever, in the past, I've never had more than 1 student not stand for the pledge and honor the moment of silence.  I don't consider myself all that patriotic and I'm definitely not a republican.  This year, after the whole Kaepernick stuff, literally the tables turned, roughly 3/4ths of the class will not stand and talks during the moment of silence.  Most frequently, its by race.  White and Asian students stand, black and hispanic students do not.  Do I think being patriotic is necessity? NO, not at all, but its a discipline thing and in addition, while we may have issues here in the US, I try to make the students aware of what their situation could be in other places. There is no appreciation for our freedom.  Yes, not standing is a freedom, but there is a bigger connection IMO.  Again, I'm not happy about a lot of things going on  right now, but I'm extremely happy to be an American and realize how lucky I am.  It could be worse.

 

3. Lack of standards when it comes to parenting.  For many students, they just don't care. Their parents don't hold them to any standard what so ever.   In the past, I've had on average 1 student per class (6 out of 150) fail.  This year, I have almost 50 failing.  Not a single one is failing because they did poorly on a test or anything remotely like that.  They have zero's. They don't do anything.  Crazy sad.  I've documented this all year and I don't have anything to worry about as a teacher because they are failing all of their other classes too. But it really sucks.  Talking to friends that teach in other schools nearby, they are experiencing the same.  Of those 50 students, 10 had no chance. They never came to school and did no work.  30 could have passed had they completed a kindergarten level project meant to keep them busy for the last 3 weeks of school during SOL retakes.  10 more could have passed if they just showed up to take their exam.  Insane.  (note; I have called home and done everything humanly possible to get the parents to get the kids here... NOPE. I'm also a very laid back teacher, I allow students to make up work etc... they just refuse).  Part of it is a wake up call because they think that they are going to be pushed through.  Some really don't care at all, they are going to be drug dealers. You'd be shocked at how many talk about that openly.  They brag about how they can make more money than working a real job.

 

4. Poor student placement.  This is something that the school could easily fix and many of us have been speaking up.  In any 1 class, I've had 7-10 students that could be honors students, great kids, do everything they need to do.  But I also have 10 kids or so that are future criminals.  (Sorry, sounds harsh, but I wish I could upload videos of my classes to youtube to show you guys how bad it has been). I could easily handle 30 future jail kids in one class.  Its just hard and a waste to have such a wide range of ability in a class.  The great kids are missing out on a better education because I'm wasting so much time on basic discipline. 

 

 

HOWEVER:  as bad as its been, I've had more emails and notes from parents asking if I teach a subject that their kid can take next year. So many have expressed their thanks.  It has been extremely humbling.  

I had 12 Special Needs students that ONLY passed my class and SOL. 

I've had feedback that from nearly every TCR (sped placement) meeting, the kids always say my class is their favorite.

I've been invited to 2 parties (including a sleep over... yeah, seriously... parent even emailed and said it was legit after I told the FEMALE student that I was honored but was afraid it was inappropriate... LOL, understatement of the year.) Seriously, bizarro year... (The female student wanted to jam out rock and metal songs, I play guitar etc...)  

My end of year evaluation was outstanding.  

 

I really hope this year was an anomaly.  More and more teachers are quitting and going into other fields. I really love teaching. I don't expect that every student is going to be an amazing fully independent and driven kid.  I actually enjoy working with the kids that need help and struggle, but they have to at least care.  I'm finding that more and more do not care.  The effort is diminishing in many.  Even though the ones that don't care are rising, there are still a lot of great kids.  But it worries me, what's going to happen to all the others?

 

 

[dfitzo53]

Hang in there code.  It was a really hard year for us too.  Not as hard as yours sounds, but hard.

 

I could type up a long post, and maybe I will later, but I have to go back into school today (yesterday was our last day) to participate in the interview for a new teacher.  (Middle school social studies if you're interested...)

 

Just know that, one teacher to another, I get it.

[Rocky21]

Fight the good fight Code. 

 

It's the great kids that make up for the bad ones. 

[codeorama]

10 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

Hang in there code.  It was a really hard year for us too.  Not as hard as yours sounds, but hard.

 

I could type up a long post, and maybe I will later, but I have to go back into school today (yesterday was our last day) to participate in the interview for a new teacher.  (Middle school social studies if you're interested...)

 

Just know that, one teacher to another, I get it.

 

I teach Social Studies as well.. World History One.  What subject(s)?

3 minutes ago, Rocky21 said:

Fight the good fight Code. 

 

It's the great kids that make up for the bad ones. 

 

This is so true.

[Fight for ole DC]

I've been teaching for 16 years (high school) in a middle/upper middle class school. The problems you faced this year seem quite similar to the ones I've encountered. Luckily, this past year I had some of the best classes I've had in 16 years (unlike the previous year...the worst by far). I try to focus on the kids who are willing to learn and not let the knuckleheads ruin it for them. As you know, that is an enormous challenge. We will always need people to cook French fries .

 

A previous administrator friend once told me (during a very bad Principal's time at my school), "hang in there....teachers outlast administrations". Your superintendent and/or their methods will someday be replaced and you may resume doing what you do best. Thank goodness for all the breaks we have to recover and recuperate. Enjoy your summer and come back in the Fall ready to keep grinding.

 

Oh yea....HTTR

[codeorama]

9 minutes ago, Fight for ole DC said:

I've been teaching for 16 years (high school) in a middle/upper middle class school. The problems you faced this year seem quite similar to the ones I've encountered. Luckily, this past year I had some of the best classes I've had in 16 years (unlike the previous year...the worst by far). I try to focus on the kids who are willing to learn and not let the knuckleheads ruin it for them. As you know, that is an enormous challenge. We will always need people to cook French fries .

 

A previous administrator friend once told me (during a very bad Principal's time at my school), "hang in there....teachers outlast administrations". Your superintendent and/or their methods will someday be replaced and you may resume doing what you do best. Thank goodness for all the breaks we have to recover and recuperate. Enjoy your summer and come back in the Fall ready to keep grinding.

 

Oh yea....HTTR

 

Awesome insight and advice...!

Thanks

[bearrock]

At the end of the day, responsibility for parenting falls on the parents, not the government, not the school, and not the teachers.  Thanks for fighting the good fight Code.  Lord knows vast majority of teachers in this country are under-appreciated and under-supported.  For every knucklehead who doesn't appreciate your dedication, I'm sure there are many more who are extremely grateful, even if they don't always remember to show it.

[codeorama]

Just a nice update.  One of the things that I always do is call home for positive things.  I've done  a lot of that lately to thank the good kids parents. 

 

One girl, I had lots of trouble with first semester and she really changed second semester and became a model student.  I called and told her mom, her mom cried on the phone, said that she was so worried about her daughter but she thinks she was growing up.

 

Her daughter just came in a few minutes ago to thank me for calling her mom.  She said they hugged and cried and so on. 

[dfitzo53]

51 minutes ago, codeorama said:

Just a nice update.  One of the things that I always do is call home for positive things.  I've done  a lot of that lately to thank the good kids parents. 

 

One girl, I had lots of trouble with first semester and she really changed second semester and became a model student.  I called and told her mom, her mom cried on the phone, said that she was so worried about her daughter but she thinks she was growing up.

 

Her daughter just came in a few minutes ago to thank me for calling her mom.  She said they hugged and cried and so on. 

One of my students invited me to his Eagle Scout ceremony a couple weeks ago. We were chatting at the fellowship hour afterwards and he said, "You're the reason I want to be an engineer." (I teach math and sometimes science and tech.)

 

There's an episode of Band of Brothers titled "Why We Fight."

 

Code, this is Why We Teach. 

[codeorama]

13 minutes ago, dfitzo53 said:

One of my students invited me to his Eagle Scout ceremony a couple weeks ago. We were chatting at the fellowship hour afterwards and he said, "You're the reason I want to be an engineer." (I teach math and sometimes science and tech.)

 

There's an episode of Band of Brothers titled "Why We Fight."

 

Code, this is Why We Teach. 

Pretty awesome...!  I know you had to feel amazing.

[abdcskins]

**** Colin Kaepernick. That really bothers me.

[LadySkinsFan]

I think that Black and Latin students may not necessarily think that this country cares about them, so why should they show respect to a country that doesn't respect them? 

 

This has been going on for centuries. People of color, all women, all homosexuals are considered second class citizens, without deserving of full rights. Just take a good look at the Republican platform. They don't even want women to have bodily autonomy, some groups of men get to decide and have dominion over women. 

 

I don't say the pledge to the flag that was written specifically as a call for American nationalism and as a commercial enterprise. From Wikipedia:   The Bellamy "Pledge of Allegiance" was first published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and to sell flags to public schools.^[15] According to author Margarette S. Miller, this campaign was in line both with Upham's patriotic vision as well as with his commercial interest. According to Miller, Upham "would often say to his wife: 'Mary, if I can instill into the minds of our American youth a love for their country and the principles on which it was founded, and create in them an ambition to carry on with the ideals which the early founders wrote into The Constitution, I shall not have lived in vain.'"

 

Bellamy was a Christian Socialist. 

 

I'm glad I was born in the United States and not somewhere else, but females don't have the same rights as males, the fact that we don't have an Equal Rights Amendment and our bodily autonomy is constantly under attack, and we wouldn't have a Women's Liberation movement. If Blacks weren't under attack, we wouldn't have a Black Lives Matter movement. If homosexuals weren't under attack, there wouldn't be a Gay and Lesbian Liberation movement. We would all be equal.  But we aren't. Rich, white men are trying like hell to keep us divided so they can grab more of the nation's wealth for themselves and their families, and to hell with the rest of us. 

 

it's sickening frankly. 

 

So I see why students will protest pledging allegiance to a country that treats them as not full citizens.

[Busch1724]

I had a good year, most years are where I'm at. The main issue was dealing with language that was bigoted and ignorant. It allowed the opportunity to have meaningful conversations. Students often confuse what my personal beliefs are (which I don't share with them), facts, and fiction. I didn't have a parent call about displeasure with the conversations, but had a couple come into conferences to talk with me about it. They were understanding, which is nice. I think this past year may have been my last year teaching though, as I'm looking for a principal position. That'll lead to another host of issues. 

 

For the record, my principal said this was his worst year as far as teacher behavior went. 

[Warhead36]

I thought about going into teaching and even did some temp work as a sub right after I graduated college. I'm glad I didn't persue it, even as a sub it was hell I can't even imagine what you full time teachers go through. Props to you guys, teachers(along with nurses)are the unsung heroes of our society.

 

But I feel like discipline is an all time worst now among today's youth. Kids are more and more entitled and feel like they can do anything and parents nowadays are soft. My dad would beat my ass if I acted out the way some of these kids do.

[codeorama]

@LadySkinsFan couple of things regarding your reply... first, IF that's how they feel, I wonder how they would feel living in China, or Mexico or virtually anywhere else??  In Germany, half of my classes would never be permitted to attend high school. They would be pushed out into trades. In China, they'd be making my next Nike's in a sweatshop. (Please understand I'm not being hostile towards you at all, you bring up great points). The problem is that they don't appreciate what they have at all. They don't pay for lunch. They don't bring pencils or paper. They don't behave and we still try to help them. That sounds like a terrible place (sarcasm). 

 

Finally, I wish that they were making a political stand, but they are not. They are mostly lazy and don't want to stand. Now we can't make them because of Kaepernick. In the past, I made them stand  many of these kids are so lazy, they have to borrow materials and expect teachers to bring them to them. I refuse

 

@Warhead36

Too true. You probably would have made a great teacher and could have helped us make a difference 

[tshile]

I was a knucklehead. 

 

I turned out fine but am not really proud of what my teachers had to deal with.

 

Hope you have a better year next year. Your work is not appreciated enough.

 

Sorry.

 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

I was a teacher for 12 years. They should fire Devos and replace her with me. I have infinitely more field experience and a three pronged platform of reform that would have our schools at number one in the world in less than a year. Due to the combination of my past history and the radical progressiveness of these ideas, you might think I'm joking but I assure you, I am 100% serious.

 

1. Eugenics: Some people just shouldn't be parents. It's not hard at all to figure out who either. We should remove children from the homes of existing bad parents and chemically castrate or spay any children who have demonstrated that they will be bad parents in the future.

 

2. Separate, unequal schools: The little assholes who just don't want to be there are ruining schools for the kids who do. We'll take those losers and put them in some other setting. If they want to go back, they can get their **** together. If they don't, then there was never any hope for them in the first place.

 

3. Deer Tags: I'm not a hunter but my understanding is that you get a limited number of animals that you are allowed to shoot each year and the tags are somehow involved. Well, every teacher should get two. Just to prove I'm not d***ing around, i'm using one of them on the first day of school. After that, any time some kid starts getting out of line, I just pull out my remaining tag and shake it around a little in front of the kids face to say, "You see this? You want some of this?" Behavior problem solved.

[Busch1724]

Sacks...should have been grizzly bear tags...just saying.

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

2 minutes ago, Busch1724 said:

Sacks...should have been grizzly bear tags...just saying.

You wouldn't be sassing me if I had my tag.

[LD0506]

Yanno code, I read through this and genuinely sympathize but we still have to ask you to hang in there. A teacher's life is harder when they really care, but if you don't you really lose something of being a teacher.

 

I don't know if this will matter to you at all, but I am 40+ years out of HS now, but I can still think back and remember the teachers that really were teachers, cared, tried hard, honed their craft and molded their offerings to the students. Your legacy is in the lives you touch and change for the better, when decades from now some other old fart muses about this teacher he had once upon a time...........

[zoony]

9 hours ago, LadySkinsFan said:

I think that Black and Latin students may not necessarily think that this country cares about them, so why should they show respect to a country that doesn't respect them? 

 

 

 

Great message for our youth.  Suck in school and sit down for the pledge!  That will show the man that youre no chump!

 

Meanwhile, Asians and Jews absolutely crushing it in white America...  #WhiteysFault

[Gamebreaker]

11 minutes ago, zoony said:

 

Meanwhile, Asians and Jews absolutely crushing it in white America...  #WhiteysFault

 

Asians and Jews aren't being pulled over for being Asians and Jewish. Or ran up on and harassed by police for no reason. But sure, continue ignoring facts to further your false narrative. It's in style nowadays. 

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

24 minutes ago, zoony said:

Meanwhile, Asians and Jews absolutely crushing it in white America...  #WhiteysFault

The history of Asians and Jews in our country does not parallel that of blacks in any way. It's not "whitey's" fault but it's silly to dismiss the events, laws, policies, etc that have led to our current circumstances.

[zoony]

1 hour ago, Gamebreaker said:

 

Asians and Jews aren't being pulled over for being Asians and Jewish. Or ran up on and harassed by police for no reason. But sure, continue ignoring facts to further your false narrative. It's in style nowadays. 

 

The best ways to get back at those police assholes by studying hard and becoming a lawyer maybe.  

 

Naah.  Just sit down  keep it real

 

What are we teaching our kids?  Respect this great system and WIN, or disrespect it, whine **** and LOSE?  No need to answer

[Sacks 'n' Stuff]

3 minutes ago, zoony said:

The best ways to get back at those police assholes by studying hard and becoming a lawyer maybe.  

 

Naah.  Just sit down  keep it real

 

What are we teaching our kids?  Respect this great system and WIN, or disrespect it, whine **** and LOSE?  No need to answer

There's a lot more at play here than you are acknowledging.