OT: Teachers of Boneyard...Back to School Time

[crazyUCfan23]

I used to work in a similar district to the one you describe. I got a job in a different district 3 years ago and it has been the greatest change for me. I have so much less stress and anxiety in my day to day life. The things people complain about at my current district just make me chuckle.

Getting into a new district is my plan!

 

[Greedo]

This is pretty normal everywhere. I'm not convinced it's even because of Covid at this point. I think we're just seeing the results of cultural shifts.

I agree with this. I personally see it as a cultural shift both from parents and schools. My last district was all about trauma informed education, which I think is awesome. But when the implementation of that is rewarding kids that misbehave by letting them hang out in the "meditation room" instead of class it just creates more behavior problems.

 

[crazyUCfan23]

I agree with this. I personally see it as a cultural shift both from parents and schools. My last district was all about trauma informed education, which I think is awesome. But when the implementation of that is rewarding kids that misbehave by letting them hang out in the "meditation room" instead of class it just creates more behavior problems.

I would tend to agree as well. Parents and schools have change, and while I think Covid has something to do with it, it isn't the answer or reason for everything. Kids have figured out what to say in order to get out of doing work/class. Due dates seemingly don't matter anymore, or at least in my district.

 

[husky429]

I agree with this. I personally see it as a cultural shift both from parents and schools. My last district was all about trauma informed education, which I think is awesome. But when the implementation of that is rewarding kids that misbehave by letting them hang out in the "meditation room" instead of class it just creates more behavior problems.

I have yet to see SRBI/PBIS/MTSS/etc. implemented well, in any district. That kind of work requires very small groups of kids and highly-individualized programming. The state is mandating all this and districts don't have the funding to implement it.

I mean, shoot, we have TWO sped teachers and 120 sped kids in one of my schools. Everyone else left for a bougie school in the burbs. Some kid that needs a behavior plan is far from a priority when we have such limited resources.

TikTok is also a plague.

 

[Jbirdp5]

I’m at a 6-8 middle school and the 8th grade in my school usually checks out sometime shortly after April break…..this year it was probably at the end of February…we are all riding it out and trying to make the best of it but it’s definitely one of the toughest years in terms of behavior we have had overall

 

[CL82]

Jordan Pond House is a beautiful spot. Didn’t eat there but the view was sweet

They had some kind of tea thing with blueberry muffins on the lawn that I remember being pleasant after hiking "the bubbles" which I believe are nearby.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Love Acadia NP. Enjoy!

Thanks. The company that we are using is great (we've used them before) and we've got some fun stuff lined up.

Our first morning, we'll be a scenic lobster boat and we're spending one afternoon whale watching...basically I'm excited for anything that requires just hanging out. We've got some scenic walks planned, but no major hikes since we've got some softies.

I'll stretch my comfort zone on a two hour bike ride on the carriage roads but will likely have to sit out ocean kayaking since my neck/traps still aren't 100%. We're also doing a ghost tour, which sounds cool. I thought we'd be on from breakfast to collecting phones at night, but my boss said we can organize breaks between us, so that helps, plus this long weekend will help a ton to get ready.

Sidenote, Acadia is nothing short of amazing. Was there this past September, the trails are beautiful, the views are as well, and Bar Harbor (if you’ll be near) is a great little town. I think we did the West Face Trail on Cadillac Mountain, which was very steep, but seasoned hikers should be fine.

Our hotel is just a mile from downtown Bar Harbor, so we’ll have some time to be in downtown.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I for one am glad school is out. Saves 15 minutes on days I do commute to work. Not just the busses not on the road but all the achool employees not being on the road as well.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

My son said this was the worst year for behavior and output. He teaches 6th (they were 3rd and 4th for remote learning). He's counting the days. Will be good to tell him it's not only him.

I teach middle school math and lead the department at a private school.

Our output is good in terms of test scores but grit, problem solving and more “is this going to be on the test?” mentality. It’s like kids want to be spoon fed more and more kids are attention seekers than usual. More doubting even if they have the tools to succeed.

Across all schools, it seems like there’s a common theme: schools need to do more with less staffing. Adding to that, due to a schedule change, I have 17% less teaching time, so it’s been a tricky experiment adjusting scope and sequence without sacrificing content.

I’ve also made clear to my new head that the schedule I have this year (3 days straight from 7:45 to 12:40) a recipe for burnout. She saw it as “it’s great, you’re on then you’re off”. I feel it as “sprint and then crash without the energy do anything the rest of the day”. Two “lunch meetings” have been awful too. HR alert.

TikTok is also a plague.

I can live with TikTok, but Snapchat is the source of like 90% behavior/social/emotional issues at our school. Just kids saying awful and explicit stuff about each other and families, but they’d never say it in person. So, like, all this attention is put on issues from time spent on phones outside of school.

 

[nadavtheman]

I am a quasi-admin right now. I do discipline and classroom management coaching. I also moonlight as a SPED and reading teacher because so many of them quit we needs folks to run PPTs and give reading tests to the low kids. I have been very busy, but it doesn't always feel like it because I'm constantly doing different things.

Getting yelled at by parents claiming they'll sue me after suspending their kids is always fun, though. Lol. One parent claimed I violated free speech because the kid was fighting in the cafe and got OSS!

I am pretty good at mentally separating work/home, something most teachers seem to struggle with. The biggest challenge for me was taking 8 credits a semester on top of a new job... poor decision.

You'll love Acadia. Go to Jordan Pond House if you can swing it!

Get the popovers at Jordan Pond House. Jam and butter. You won't be disappointed. And make sure you do the Beehive trail.

 

[husky99]

I have yet to see SRBI/PBIS/MTSS/etc. implemented well, in any district. That kind of work requires very small groups of kids and highly-individualized programming. The state is mandating all this and districts don't have the funding to implement it.

I mean, shoot, we have TWO sped teachers and 120 sped kids in one of my schools. Everyone else left for a bougie school in the burbs. Some kid that needs a behavior plan is far from a priority when we have such limited resources.

TikTok is also a plague.

Those ratios are horrific..
Schools have changed. And what has not changed is the idea kids will push the boundaries. Problem is that boundaries are grey and so kids will keep pushing until they find the limit.

 

[husky429]

Those ratios are horrific..
Schools have changed. And what has not changed is the idea kids will push the boundaries. Problem is that boundaries are grey and so kids will keep pushing until they find the limit.

Yes, they are. We are supposed to have 6 SPED teachers but 4 quit and we can't find a single replacement. 0 applicants. The two teachets we have are in PPTs and Manifestations at least 3-4 hours a day. I don't think I've seen them in a classroom since mid-April.

 

[Travelman6]

This has been a very hard year. I teach Years 7, 8, and 9 but it feels more like teaching Years 3, 4, and 5. They are so incredibly immature and lack any kind of agency. I came into one of my classes a few weeks ago and found a Year 7 student sitting under the desk. I asked him politely to go to his seat and he responded "goo goo gaga". So some aren't even year 3 level yet in some/many respects. I get that covid set these kids back. But to this extent? It can't be just the lockdown, something else is going on. I have taught Years 7 and 8 pre-covid, for several years, and they were light years ahead of my current 7-9 socially, emotionally, academically, and in their maturity. I really fear for these kids unless they do a ton of growing up and rapidly, preferably over the summer. They don't have the same fundamental life skills and tools I had when I was in Years 7-9, and again, my 7s and 8s had just a few years ago. However, there are a few students in each grade, maybe 1/3rd, that look on with almost as much horror and bewilderment as I do when watching what some of their classmates do. So some of them have been progressing as expected. Even just watching what they do with their free time, they play like little children, with almost no sense of direction, no point, like they are loose cannons, running amuck.

For whatever reason Years 10, 11, and 12 are around what is expected, by and large. (I teach them too).

 

[M.S.G.]

I agree with much of what has been said here, however, through all of that I think this is one of the best years of my career. I got out of an urban district with a myriad of problems after the year started and found my "forever home" in a small but stable district with an equal commute.

Things went further off the rails after I left my former district, making the local news after a gun incident didn't even prompt a lockdown from administration, can't even make this stuff up..

I am seeing the lack of maturity for sure, 10th graders act like 9th graders, 9th like 8th and so forth. I'm not sure where this will turn around after COVID, or if it even will. I will say that I've always been a pretty easy grader, my philosophy has been if a kid is likely not going to college and does "some" work, I'm going to bump a 47 to a 60 after making them sweat a little bit. Maybe I'm part of the problem instead of the solution because after COVID these kids just feel like they can't fail.

That being said, someone earlier mentioned students not taking agency, and I think that's the bigger issue. The academic apathy I see is startling, but where I see it is in the middle. I have a 10th grade Honors course that is potentially the strongest group I've ever had, and I have a 10th grade co-taught class that's mostly IEP students and they have flourished since I took over. The biggest concern is that middle group, they could absolutely care less about anything that takes more than a day to complete. Our largest grade in Q4 was a research paper and I had to literally beg and plead with kids to turn something in. Then, I would get absolute sludge. As if I didn't explain profusely - along with including "How to" resources how the paper needed to be formatted, how their arguments should be made and so forth. Many of these kids couldn't be bothered to attempt to do it right. Perhaps I'm old school and a stickler, but I mean, if a kid isn't going to college that's all fine and good, but turning in research papers not in Times New Roman 12" is just lazy to me.

Behavior plays along in conjunction with this as well. The problem in this case is administration. The states have made it more and more difficult to suspend kids. We don't even have an in school suspension program, perhaps that's due to lack of bodies but who knows. Many teachers either ignore behaviors, or don't bother writing kids up because nothing is going to happen or change. That leads to a kid coming back to your class 20 minutes after you threw them out with a grin on their face because they know they won. Granted, we had an absent principal who was finally fired in March and an interim leading the way since.

I still love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else, but the way teachers are treated by their own districts, parents, and the public still disgusts me. Remember that 2 month stretch when COVID started when we were hailed as heroes by everyone? That is looooooooooooooooooooooooong gone and we're back to lazy whiners who "get the whole summer off".

Keep fighting the good fight folks, our "whole summer off" is right around the corner..

 

[crazyUCfan23]

I agree with much of what has been said here, however, through all of that I think this is one of the best years of my career. I got out of an urban district with a myriad of problems after the year started and found my "forever home" in a small but stable district with an equal commute.

Things went further off the rails after I left my former district, making the local news after a gun incident didn't even prompt a lockdown from administration, can't even make this stuff up..

I am seeing the lack of maturity for sure, 10th graders act like 9th graders, 9th like 8th and so forth. I'm not sure where this will turn around after COVID, or if it even will. I will say that I've always been a pretty easy grader, my philosophy has been if a kid is likely not going to college and does "some" work, I'm going to bump a 47 to a 60 after making them sweat a little bit. Maybe I'm part of the problem instead of the solution because after COVID these kids just feel like they can't fail.

That being said, someone earlier mentioned students not taking agency, and I think that's the bigger issue. The academic apathy I see is startling, but where I see it is in the middle. I have a 10th grade Honors course that is potentially the strongest group I've ever had, and I have a 10th grade co-taught class that's mostly IEP students and they have flourished since I took over. The biggest concern is that middle group, they could absolutely care less about anything that takes more than a day to complete. Our largest grade in Q4 was a research paper and I had to literally beg and plead with kids to turn something in. Then, I would get absolute sludge. As if I didn't explain profusely - along with including "How to" resources how the paper needed to be formatted, how their arguments should be made and so forth. Many of these kids couldn't be bothered to attempt to do it right. Perhaps I'm old school and a stickler, but I mean, if a kid isn't going to college that's all fine and good, but turning in research papers not in Times New Roman 12" is just lazy to me.

Behavior plays along in conjunction with this as well. The problem in this case is administration. The states have made it more and more difficult to suspend kids. We don't even have an in school suspension program, perhaps that's due to lack of bodies but who knows. Many teachers either ignore behaviors, or don't bother writing kids up because nothing is going to happen or change. That leads to a kid coming back to your class 20 minutes after you threw them out with a grin on their face because they know they won. Granted, we had an absent principal who was finally fired in March and an interim leading the way since.

I still love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else, but the way teachers are treated by their own districts, parents, and the public still disgusts me. Remember that 2 month stretch when COVID started when we were hailed as heroes by everyone? That is looooooooooooooooooooooooong gone and we're back to lazy whiners who "get the whole summer off".

Keep fighting the good fight folks, our "whole summer off" is right around the corner..

Well put!

 

[Kemba Time]

As a non-teacher lurking in this thread (my parents were both educators), I just want to offer all of you a huge thank you for all you do.

20+ years since I finished high school, there are two influences from my childhood that have meant the most to where I am today: My parents and my teachers.

For all the crap you all put up with, I hope you can appreciate how much what you do positively impacts the students who you get through to each year.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I still love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else, but the way teachers are treated by their own districts, parents, and the public still disgusts me.

This is it in a nutshell.

Public education is not valued, despite the foundational roll it plays in making things work. I don't know how to get through to most people, but I never, ever sit by and let anyone talk crap about public education without getting an earfull. I have no patience for idiots who practice such intelligence limiting propositions.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

We just had a meeting with the students that were going on the Acadia trip and we shared that there will be "blackout hours" with their phones.

It turned into a combination of an intervention/mutiny.

Also, I’ve heard whispers that “No fun teachers” are going aka teachers who act like middle schoolers, want to be friends with the kids and have awful classroom management.

 

[husky429]

We just had a meeting with the students that were going on the Acadia trip and we shared that there will be "blackout hours" with their phones.

It turned into a combination of an intervention/mutiny.

Phones in schools is fascinating, and honestly I think a lot of the problems are a small % of teachers' fault. My school is 100% no phones. We have almost no problems because kids know their parents have to pick it up if they use it in class. The follow through from admin on this issue--unlike most--is always there. It's a culture thing... a couple bad teachers or one admin with no spine ruins it.

My two last districts had similar policies, but there were a few (usually younger) teachers who wanted to be the kids' friend and would allow the phones... and it completely derailed any progress we made. Inconsistent follow through on discipline by which admin happened to pick up the discipline referral didn't help either.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

We just had a meeting with the students that were going on the Acadia trip and we shared that there will be "blackout hours" with their phones.

It turned into a combination of an intervention/mutiny.

The phone issue is big these days. One of the hockey coaches for a middle school team down here in PA told the kids ‘no cell phones in the locker room’ and you would have thought he told them they each have to cut off one of their body parts. Not sure who’s worse, the parents or the kids.

Last week there was an incident with some of the other 4th graders in my son’s class. Apparently there is a chat that you can sign your kids up for similar to text message or Facebook messenger. I must have missed the email about it or something bc I never signed my kid up for it and probably wouldn’t have anyway. Well last Friday night, I was sitting with the treasurer of the PTA having dinner with her family and she starts getting phone calls. Apparently a boy in one of the other 4th grade classes took a video of his ‘privates’ and sent it to 25 other students, 17 were girls (one was the treasurer’s daughter).

My wife and I agreed that in a few years when my son comes asking for a cell phone, he’s getting a flip phone or a Zach Morris/Gordon Gekko satellite phone…

 

[husky429]

Behavior plays along in conjunction with this as well. The problem in this case is administration. The states have made it more and more difficult to suspend kids. We don't even have an in school suspension program, perhaps that's due to lack of bodies but who knows. Many teachers either ignore behaviors, or don't bother writing kids up because nothing is going to happen or change. That leads to a kid coming back to your class 20 minutes after you threw them out with a grin on their face because they know they won. Granted, we had an absent principal who was finally fired in March and an interim leading the way since.

Are you in CT? If so, schools are required to have an ISS program. It doesn't need to be in the building, but it is mandated to exist. ISS should be replacing a lot of what used to be OSS.

 

[temery]

Always thought that calling parents at work when students were out of line got the best results.Parents and students hatted it.

True, but the only message you can leave is to call (your name) at (your school's number).

 

[Chin Diesel]

We just had a meeting with the students that were going on the Acadia trip and we shared that there will be "blackout hours" with their phones.

It turned into a combination of an intervention/mutiny.

Also, I’ve heard whispers that “No fun teachers” are going aka teachers who act like middle schoolers, want to be friends with the kids and have awful classroom management.

Phones in schools is fascinating, and honestly I think a lot of the problems are a small % of teachers' fault. My school is 100% no phones. We have almost no problems because kids know their parents have to pick it up if they use it in class. The follow through from admin on this issue--unlike most--is always there. It's a culture thing... a couple bad teachers or one admin with no spine ruins it.

My two last districts had similar policies, but there were a few (usually younger) teachers who wanted to be the kids' friend and would allow the phones... and it completely derailed any progress we made. Inconsistent follow through on discipline by which admin happened to pick up the discipline referral didn't help either.

The phone issue is big these days. One of the hockey coaches for a middle school team down here in PA told the kids ‘no cell phones in the locker room’ and you would have thought he told them they each have to cut off one of their body parts. Not sure who’s worse, the parents or the kids.

Last week there was an incident with some of the other 4th graders in my son’s class. Apparently there is a chat that you can sign your kids up for similar to text message or Facebook messenger. I must have missed the email about it or something bc I never signed my kid up for it and probably wouldn’t have anyway. Well last Friday night, I was sitting with the treasurer of the PTA having dinner with her family and she starts getting phone calls. Apparently a boy in one of the other 4th grade classes took a video of his ‘privates’ and sent it to 25 other students, 17 were girls (one was the treasurer’s daughter).

My wife and I agreed that in a few years when my son comes asking for a cell phone, he’s getting a flip phone or a Zach Morris/Gordon Gekko satellite phone…

Part of me thinks the younger teachers used cell phones and mobile devices when they were in HS and college and for them it's just another tool to find information, much like going to a book shelf and grabbing an encyclopedia was for those of us who are older. They're not aghast at the thought of a student pulling out a phone to look up information. For schools that don't have universal computer access, it's a way for almost every student to have a level playing field. Problem is managing that and figuring out how to allow them to search for information and not just use the phone for chats, messages, tik tok, etc.

Regardless technology in the classroom is going one-way and that is towards more of it. Both my kids are out of HS and they had laptops that were hooked up to the school's wifi from day 1 as freshmen. They were expected to know how to use them as a tool for research, doing assignments and turning in assignments. Granted school districts across the country aren't evenly funded but expect the technology to keep moving forward.

 

[lange10]

I've been volun-told that due to shifting numbers in the district I'm moving from 5th to 6th next year. Any teachers on here make the jump from elementary to middle? How have you liked it?

My current principal is making the move, too, which eases my nerves for the transition. In seven years in the education world I've worked with as many principals and she is outstanding.

 

[husky99]

Phones in schools is fascinating, and honestly I think a lot of the problems are a small % of teachers' fault. My school is 100% no phones. We have almost no problems because kids know their parents have to pick it up if they use it in class. The follow through from admin on this issue--unlike most--is always there. It's a culture thing... a couple bad teachers or one admin with no spine ruins it.

My two last districts had similar policies, but there were a few (usually younger) teachers who wanted to be the kids' friend and would allow the phones... and it completely derailed any progress we made. Inconsistent follow through on discipline by which admin happened to pick up the discipline referral didn't help either.

Need to be a Unified front with phones and just about anything.. need all teachers and administration supporting the rule.
Takes one young teacher to crack the wall... i have been that teacher and it hurts the collective