OT: - Teachers of Boneyard...Back to School Time | Page 6 | The Boneyard

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

Travelman32 said:
So everyone, what resources do you love using? Especially ones that make your job easier.

I will provide a few, some paid, some free, and some kind of half and half.

Achieve3000
IXL
Khan Academy
Twinkl
Kahoot
Quizizz
Quizlet
Prezi
Schoology
GoFormative
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Brainpop.com
horrible histories videos

british museum sites:

www.mesopotamia.co.uk

Middle East and Asia

School sessions and resources for ages 7–11 (KS2).
www.mesopotamia.co.uk www.mesopotamia.co.uk
www.ancientegypt.co.uk

Ancient Egypt

School sessions and resources for ages 7–11 (KS2).
www.ancientegypt.co.uk www.ancientegypt.co.uk
www.ancientgreece.co.uk

Ancient Greece

School sessions and resources for ages 7–11 (KS2).
www.ancientgreece.co.uk www.ancientgreece.co.uk
 
Travelman32 said:
So is the teacher subreddit (r/Teachers) just overblown and only attracting a small subset of angry, disgruntled and/or very tired teachers, or is it, in any way, representing how teachers in the US feel? Man, it is just horror story after horror story over there.
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Reddit skews young. What, 50% of new teachers quit in 3 years? I always just envision it as a venting space primarily. Nothing productive goes on in that sub.
 
husky429 said:
What, 50% of new teachers quit in 3 years?
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That's the reason the Massachusetts teacher retirement fund does so well. Those teachers who quit after a few years can take their contributions out, but get very little interest.

Their money works for the fund, they leave and never draw a pension.

When I started teaching in the 80s the first couple pages of the seniority list had teachers who had been in district for 35 years or more. When I retired the first page had people with 20 years. I was 53 and the 2nd oldest in my building.
 
temery said:
That's the reason the Massachusetts teacher retirement fund does so well. Those teachers who quit after a few years can take their contributions out, but get very little interest.

Their money works for the fund, they leave and never draw a pension.

When I started teaching in the 80s the first couple pages of the seniority list had teachers who had been in district for 35 years. When I retired the first page had people with 20 years. I was 53 and the 2nd oldest in my building.
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In Indiana it is very similar. I am in my 15th year of teaching and there are many new teachers every year at my High school with 1800 kids. I live where the RVs are manufactured and dozens of teachers quit and start working for the factory because they can make more money and it has overtime. I have thought about it.

The old governor back in 2012 really screwed over teachers by not really allowing any difference between a Masters and a Bachelors. I should be earning $10k+ more per year if those new rules were not put in place. I am currently at $55,000 with 15 years and a MS degree plus additional teaching of Dual Credit classes.
 
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temery said:
That's the reason the Massachusetts teacher retirement fund does so well. Those teachers who quit after a few years can take their contributions out, but get very little interest.

Their money works for the fund, they leave and never draw a pension.

When I started teaching in the 80s the first couple pages of the seniority list had teachers who had been in district for 35 years or more. When I retired the first page had people with 20 years. I was 53 and the 2nd oldest in my building.
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From what I understand, CTs system relies on the same effect.

Also, can we talk about the VULTURES that are Equitable "financial analysts"??? These folks are all over new teachera in my building like gravy on potatoes selling crappy overpriced mutual funds.
 
Minicoop69 said:
I should be earning $10k+ more per year if those new rules were not put in place. I am currently at $55,000 with 15 years and a MS degree plus additional teaching of Dual Credit classes.
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And we wonder why our education system sucks and the best and brightest college grads aren't thinking of teaching for a millisecond.
 
husky429 said:
From what I understand, CTs system relies on the same effect.

Also, can we talk about the VULTURES that are Equitable "financial analysts"??? These folks are all over new teachera in my building like gravy on potatoes selling crappy overpriced mutual funds.
Expand ...

I had a principal who set up annuity salesman to pitch at teachers' meetings. She then tried to require each teacher to sit with the salesman during one prep time over the next three days.
 
temery said:
I had a principal who set up annuity salesman to pitch at teachers' meetings. She then tried to require each teacher to sit with the salesman during one prep time over the next three days.
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I would imagine that principal got hit with a grievance so hard it turned her head sideways lol.

One of my subtle ways of subverting the man is to throw out all the Northwest Mutual, Equitable etc. business cards that got left in the office. I'm a petty guy.
 
husky429 said:
I would imagine that principal got hit with a grievance so hard it turned her head sideways lol.

One of my subtle ways of subverting the man is to throw out all the Northwest Mutual, Equitable etc. business cards that got left in the office. I'm a petty guy.
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The principal wasn't in school the day of the teachers' meeting. Most teachers walked out of the presentation.
 
temery said:
The principal wasn't in school the day of the teachers' meeting. Most teachers walked out of the presentation.
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As they should have. Good for them.

What really grinds my gears is these folks market themselves as "the retirement guy for the district" or something. When the Equitable advisor walked into my classroom unannounced one day after school my first year teaching, I really thought he was the 403b guy for the district, and that I had no other option. It's how they present their services and it's super misleading. I've got no problem with fee-based financial advisors even if I don't use one. I've got serious beef with guys that take advantage of naive, overworked teachers.

I'm lucky that I only invested with them for a year before I ended up taking control of finances myself. It takes months of calls and ridiculous fees to close their accounts. One of my coworkers had something like 30,000 in an account with them and it cost 1000$ in fees to close the account!
 
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husky429 said:
As they should have. Good for them.

What really grinds my gears is these folks market themselves as "the retirement guy for the district" or something. When the Equitable advisor walked into my classroom unannounced one day after school my first year teaching, I really thought he was the 403b guy for the district, and that I had no other option. It's how they present their services and it's super misleading. I've got no problem with fee-based financial advisors even if I don't use one. I've got serious beef with guys that take advantage of naive, overworked teachers.

I'm lucky that I only invested with them for a year before I ended up taking control of finances myself. It takes months of calls and ridiculous fees to close their accounts. One of my coworkers had something like 30,000 in an account with them and it cost 1000$ in fees to close the account!
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'My grandmother and her sisters were born in 1908, 1909, and 1910. Their father was loaded, but lost a bundle in the '29 stock market crash.

He made another bundle in the '30s and bought an annuity for each of his daughters. My grandmother died in her 80s, one sister in her 90s, and another at 101.

Outside of those who sell annuities, they are the only three people I've known who benefited from an annuity.

Im sure others have made out well, but there's a reason companies make money selling annuities.
 
husky429 said:
As they should have. Good for them.

What really grinds my gears is these folks market themselves as "the retirement guy for the district" or something. When the Equitable advisor walked into my classroom unannounced one day after school my first year teaching, I really thought he was the 403b guy for the district, and that I had no other option. It's how they present their services and it's super misleading. I've got no problem with fee-based financial advisors even if I don't use one. I've got serious beef with guys that take advantage of naive, overworked teachers.

I'm lucky that I only invested with them for a year before I ended up taking control of finances myself. It takes months of calls and ridiculous fees to close their accounts. One of my coworkers had something like 30,000 in an account with them and it cost 1000$ in fees to close the account!
Expand ...

What do you do instead? I got caught by the same trap my first year teaching. Thought the guy was the financial advisor for the district. I stayed in that district for 3 years, and now that 403b is just sitting there.
 
Travelman32 said:
So is the teacher subreddit (r/Teachers) just overblown and only attracting a small subset of angry, disgruntled and/or very tired teachers, or is it, in any way, representing how teachers in the US feel? Man, it is just horror story after horror story over there.
Expand ...

If you pay attention, a lot of the teachers in that subreddit that are complaining teach in places like Florida where it genuinely is miserable to be a teacher. I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to that. In most places in the northeast being a teacher isn't a half bad profession. I worked in the private sector before becoming a teacher and I never want to go back to working for a company.
 
Greedo said:
If you pay attention, a lot of the teachers in that subreddit that are complaining teach in places like Florida where it genuinely is miserable to be a teacher. I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to that. In most places in the northeast being a teacher isn't a half bad profession. I worked in the private sector before becoming a teacher and I never want to go back to working for a company.
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I think it also matters that you teach where education is valued. Most conservative states education isn't valued near as high and thus teachers get the short end of the stick. Certain districts in Indiana aren't bad to be in, but they have much more money than most because of their tax base of the houses are higher.
 
Greedo said:
If you pay attention, a lot of the teachers in that subreddit that are complaining teach in places like Florida where it genuinely is miserable to be a teacher. I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to that. In most places in the northeast being a teacher isn't a half bad profession. I worked in the private sector before becoming a teacher and I never want to go back to working for a company.
Expand ...
I worked in insurance. Teaching is in a number of ways much harder and more time consuming, and in others ways much better for me. The work (for me) feels more rewarding, and while there's a lot of work, the summers and regular schedule is worth it.
 
Travelman32 said:
So is the teacher subreddit (r/Teachers) just overblown and only attracting a small subset of angry, disgruntled and/or very tired teachers, or is it, in any way, representing how teachers in the US feel? Man, it is just horror story after horror story over there.
Expand ...
I only use Reddit to find streams of games, but I would assume that thread would feature a solid proportion of teachers that would complain regardless of the situation.

FWIW, my older sister who teaches in a large, well-funded Fairfield County public high school has had a pretty normal year. No complaints/stresses that are worse than normal.

I teach in a private school in the same area and there's a lot of catch up. What can we do to make this year the best? That type of mentality. Unfortunately, not everyone is a capable and independent doer, so my wife and I are succumbing to the Competency Curse.

Lots of talk of retention and more time of my day spent on stuff that isn't teaching. We have a new head of middle school, who I really like, but we have a soft head of school who caters to the board's wants. He's well into retirement age, so I'm rooting for him to step down at the end of the year so we can get some real leadership.

Most of the what I do more this year is all good stuff: still coaching and now took on the lead for our competition math team, so that gives me a solid stipend. However, adding it all up (my department head stipend is pathetic), my best guess is that I'd get paid still less than 10k (up to 30k for some of the high paying districts) of the the median salary of systems in my area, so I'll go through the process again this year of selectively looking for public middle school math jobs. Being at my school for 13 years (and the only school I've worked for post student teaching) there's definitely a hard precipice feeling of avoiding change.

Better pay in the short-term, better financially stability long-term and the idea of just teaching sounds lovely. Working at a school that fights to thrive financially amongst a competitive private school market is draining and while I am currently the department head at my school, I kinda got that role by default (other people left) and would have no problem no longer having a leadership role in a department.
 
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Greedo said:
What do you do instead? I got caught by the same trap my first year teaching. Thought the guy was the financial advisor for the district. I stayed in that district for 3 years, and now that 403b is just sitting there.
Expand ...

Obviously we have the TRB in CT, so that's the bulk of my retirement plans. The extra saving is more for my wife since she just recently started saving for retirement. We'll have the house paid off by then, so we'll probably be fine without me saving too (I'll be in the 75% bracket on TRB), but I figure extra money never killed anyone, and I can certainly afford to save right now with no kids around.

I max out my HSA and invest it as a retirement vehicle, and max out a Roth IRA. Last year that was, what, 10,000$? I just put all the money in VTI/VXUS and call it a day. I'm sure I'll need to hire someone to help me out when it comes time to start shifting allocation towards bonds in my 40s and 50s, but I'm only 30 and pretty willing to absorb a huge hit to the markets if needed. I just don't look at my accounts more than once or twice a year, so I forget about it.

If you happen to be in Equitable right now, it can usually be worth it despite the fees. When I did the math for myself and the two coworkers I've helped wiggle out of their clutches, the expense ratios they were costing were more than taking the money and putting it elsewhere, so I took the hit and moved it to where my other accounts are.
 
Minicoop69 said:
I think it also matters that you teach where education is valued. Most conservative states education isn't valued near as high and thus teachers get the short end of the stick. Certain districts in Indiana aren't bad to be in, but they have much more money than most because of their tax base of the houses are higher.
Expand ...

Conservative places are weird. Research shows that people generally love their local schools, but have a negative view of education in general. The school board crazies will always be out there, but the vast majority of parents like their teachers and schools. But when it comes time to vote for state funding and things like that... schools end up underfunded with underqualified teachers.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
I only use Reddit to find streams of games, but I would assume that thread would feature a solid proportion of teachers that would complain regardless of the situation.

FWIW, my older sister who teaches in a large, well-funded Fairfield County public high school has had a pretty normal year. No complaints/stresses that are worse than normal.

I teach in a private school in the same area and there's a lot of catch up. What can we do to make this year the best? That type of mentality. Unfortunately, not everyone is a capable and independent doer, so my wife and I are succumbing to the Competency Curse.

Lots of talk of retention and more time of my day spent on stuff that isn't teaching. We have a new head of middle school, who I really like, but we have a soft head of school who caters to the board's wants. He's well into retirement age, so I'm rooting for him to step down at the end of the year so we can get some real leadership.

Most of the what I do more this year is all good stuff: still coaching and now took on the lead for our competition math team, so that gives me a solid stipend. However, adding it all up (my department head stipend is pathetic), my best guess is that I'd get paid still less than 10k (up to 30k for some of the high paying districts) of the the median salary of systems in my area, so I'll go through the process again this year of selectively looking for public middle school math jobs. Being at my school for 13 years (and the only school I've worked for post student teaching) there's definitely a hard precipice feeling of avoiding change.

Better pay in the short-term, better financially stability long-term and the idea of just teaching sounds lovely. Working at a school that fights to thrive financially amongst a competitive private school market is draining and while I am currently the department head at my school, I kinda got that role by default (other people left) and would have no problem no longer having a leadership role in a department.
Expand ...
Good luck.
 
Hey Adrien! said:
the idea of just teaching sounds lovely.
Expand ...

Suspicious Monkey GIF by MOODMAN
 
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Hey Adrien! said:
I only use Reddit to find streams of games, but I would assume that thread would feature a solid proportion of teachers that would complain regardless of the situation.

FWIW, my older sister who teaches in a large, well-funded Fairfield County public high school has had a pretty normal year. No complaints/stresses that are worse than normal.

I teach in a private school in the same area and there's a lot of catch up. What can we do to make this year the best? That type of mentality. Unfortunately, not everyone is a capable and independent doer, so my wife and I are succumbing to the Competency Curse.

Lots of talk of retention and more time of my day spent on stuff that isn't teaching. We have a new head of middle school, who I really like, but we have a soft head of school who caters to the board's wants. He's well into retirement age, so I'm rooting for him to step down at the end of the year so we can get some real leadership.

Most of the what I do more this year is all good stuff: still coaching and now took on the lead for our competition math team, so that gives me a solid stipend. However, adding it all up (my department head stipend is pathetic), my best guess is that I'd get paid still less than 10k (up to 30k for some of the high paying districts) of the the median salary of systems in my area, so I'll go through the process again this year of selectively looking for public middle school math jobs. Being at my school for 13 years (and the only school I've worked for post student teaching) there's definitely a hard precipice feeling of avoiding change.

Better pay in the short-term, better financially stability long-term and the idea of just teaching sounds lovely. Working at a school that fights to thrive financially amongst a competitive private school market is draining and while I am currently the department head at my school, I kinda got that role by default (other people left) and would have no problem no longer having a leadership role in a department.
Expand ...
If you’re going to go now might be the time as places are having trouble keeping teachers. In a few years someone with so much experience might not be as desirable if districts aren’t hurting for teachers anymore.
 
husky429 said:
And we wonder why our education system sucks and the best and brightest college grads aren't thinking of teaching for a millisecond.
Expand ...

Honestly, I don't see most teaching positions needing the best and brightest. I worked with a dozen or so Ivy League grads and they were among the worst teachers I've come across.

Two of the best teachers I had were at a vocational school. Neither graduated high school. They were former military and were SeaBees in WWII and Korea.

Elementary teachers, especially at the younger grades, take a special kind of person, not an advanced degree.

I have two master Master's Degrees and a CAGS. I learned next to nothing in the Master's and CAGS in education.

My student teaching advisor had never been in a classroom. I had one teacher for several classes. He had a PhD, but never worked with kids outside a college setting.

Massachusetts requires continuing education, and my district paid 2/3rds of tuition, and thousands more for each degree. That's the only reason most teachers I worked with got advanced degrees.
 
The trend that I see (and have been a victim of) in Connecticut and Massachusetts is that districts are so tight with their purse strings, for a variety of reasons - not getting as much from the State or the fed as they had normally gotten in past years, or decades.

Rather than hiring the most qualified person, they choose a 23 year old right out of college because they can start them at bottom step and hopefully provide them the on the job training and mentoring to make it work. To comment on a post above, I think that these advanced degrees and certification programs are mostly bogus. I think you either have it or you don't, grad school isn't going to improve that. I've worked with so many talented people, men and women who were leagues more bright than I yet they can't handle a classroom full of kids no matter the level.

I changed schools after 2 months this year, went to a school that I was a finalist at over the summer - who chose a cheaper option over me. As it turned out, another teacher had left after the first day of school and they immediately started moving money around to try and get me there. Took almost 2 months for them to get it straight, but it happened. He's a REALLY good kid, but I hear his classes everyday, the way the kids talk to him because he's younger is not okay with me, the noise and the chaos is tough to hear. Whereas, I was warned that I was walking into a tough set of classes - and they've been angels. Sure one tough class gives me a run for my money but I have 15 years of experience and patience to work off of to keep it under control.

Long story short, the trend of hiring 23 year olds over veterans because districts can't manage paying teachers 30k more is embarrassing. We're talking 30k not 100. I'm just glad I was able to get to my utopia before I cost too much, I thank my lucky stars every day.
 
M.S.G. said:
The trend that I see (and have been a victim of) in Connecticut and Massachusetts is that districts are so tight with their purse strings, for a variety of reasons - not getting as much from the State or the fed as they had normally gotten in past years, or decades.

Rather than hiring the most qualified person, they choose a 23 year old right out of college because they can start them at bottom step and hopefully provide them the on the job training and mentoring to make it work. To comment on a post above, I think that these advanced degrees and certification programs are mostly bogus. I think you either have it or you don't, grad school isn't going to improve that. I've worked with so many talented people, men and women who were leagues more bright than I yet they can't handle a classroom full of kids no matter the level.

I changed schools after 2 months this year, went to a school that I was a finalist at over the summer - who chose a cheaper option over me. As it turned out, another teacher had left after the first day of school and they immediately started moving money around to try and get me there. Took almost 2 months for them to get it straight, but it happened. He's a REALLY good kid, but I hear his classes everyday, the way the kids talk to him because he's younger is not okay with me, the noise and the chaos is tough to hear. Whereas, I was warned that I was walking into a tough set of classes - and they've been angels. Sure one tough class gives me a run for my money but I have 15 years of experience and patience to work off of to keep it under control.

Long story short, the trend of hiring 23 year olds over veterans because districts can't manage paying teachers 30k more is embarrassing. We're talking 30k not 100. I'm just glad I was able to get to my utopia before I cost too much, I thank my lucky stars every day.
Expand ...

My district is probably unique in that we're hiring those 23-year-olds at step 6 so it makes it harder for them to leave the district. Our turnover is terrible even still. Shoot, I got hired at 6th-year top step with a 10k stipend and I've taught for 10 years and don't have a sixth-year. I'm not a teacher technically--I'm in a quasi-admin role, but until I get my 092, I'm on the teacher contract. And if I decide to go back to the classroom, they still have to pay me top step.

IMO this is how more districts should do it. You want a good teacher? Fork over the cash. Problem, of course, is that cushy districts have no problem finding people. I'd be taking a 50k pay decrease if I went to Glastonbury or something.
 
temery said:
Honestly, I don't see most teaching positions needing the best and brightest. I worked with a dozen or so Ivy League grads and they were among the worst teachers I've come across.

Two of the best teachers I had were at a vocational school. Neither graduated high school. They were former military and were SeaBees in WWII and Korea.

Elementary teachers, especially at the younger grades, take a special kind of person, not an advanced degree.

I have two master Master's Degrees and a CAGS. I learned next to nothing in the Master's and CAGS in education.

My student teaching advisor had never been in a classroom. I had one teacher for several classes. He had a PhD, but never worked with kids outside a college setting.

Massachusetts requires continuing education, and my district paid 2/3rds of tuition, and thousands more for each degree. That's the only reason most teachers I worked with got advanced degrees.
Expand ...

I don't disagree with you at all. My master's, 6th-year, and CAGS are all in leadership/admin stuff, so I don't really have much personal context on a master's degree strictly for teaching. I wrote a paper on this a year-ish ago though, and the evidence is pretty clear that a Master's doesn't really make for a better teacher--at least in improving test scores. I couldn't find any data on graduation rates, attendance or anything like that. Education is notoriously difficult to accurately measure.

I'd probably be reluctant to do away with the requirements though. Generally speaking I am not in favor of lowering the barrier of entry to teaching. If nothing else, teachers are going make make less money if we only require bachelor's degrees. That's a huge bargaining chip for BOEs.

I see a lot of folks talk about wanting to get rid of requirements like the Praxis test, and I'm definitely not in favor of that. I'm not sure if MA has praxis or not... there's a content test, and a general kind of SAT-style test you have to pass. I don't like the cost of the tests, but as a barrier to entry, I think it's fine. I'm working with a teacher now who we have in as a long-term sub because she's tried to pass the test 4x and can't. Thinking about my own future kids... I don't want them taught at any grade level by someone who doesn't have a basic understanding of math and reading at what probably amounts to a 9th-grade level. The tests aren't hard at all--I think I got a single question wrong on my content test, and I'm not the brightest bulb on the bush by any means.

And fwiw, I don't think you give elementary teaching enough credit for how technical it is. Yeah, it takes a special kind of person too, but reading instruction at the elementary level is DIFFICULT.

you're right about professors... college professors who have spent little or no time in schools were useless to me in undergrad. My program now is for the principalship, but the difference in what I learn in classes taught by folks who have only worked in academia vs. those who are working in schools or have a lot of experience working in schools is notable. There's something important about just getting real, pragmatic advice that academia can't really give you. @Dream Jobbed 2.0 --I would be curious to hear your thoughts on that!
 
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