Teachers

[Fear No Evil]

My wife teaches second grade. And considering that the school system is making serious cutbacks, they are sharing teaching assistants instead of having a dedicated assistant for each class.

She normally has around 20 - 23 kids, and she has to grade papers, plan lessons, keep "running records" for each of her kids charting their progress through the year, and bunch of other random stuff that I don't understand or just try to block out of my mind.

As for the classes, she has regular math/reading seminars. She also had two technology seminars this summer. One was training on using the new smartboards that were provided for the classrooms, and one was on iPads (don't ask me why they're giving these kids iPads to use :thumbsdown

Welcome to the real world. I've got way more projects/work than I used to. There are less people in my group, and I also need to keep training and keeping my skills current. Raises and such have been few and far between without changing jobs.

Tell the school district to stop spending money on smartboards and iPads.

 

[Dumac]

Not sure just somewhere in that area, I want to know what it's like, if it's actually how people say.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOpKv9D7rA

Well if you put stuff like that on your car, yeah, you might get beaten up...

If you keep to yourself, you'll be fine.

 

[DCal430]

The salary for teachers in either private or public schools are pretty much the same in Denmark I get around ~$75K/year including pension. ~$3.5K/month after taxes.

With pension contributions that the school does each month, most teachers here make more than that.

 

[NFS4]

Tell the school district to stop spending money on smartboards and iPads.

You're preaching to the choir

 

[HAL9000]

Well if you put stuff like that on your car, yeah, you might get beaten up...

If you keep to yourself, you'll be fine.

The reason I ask, is that I'm a bisexual atheist music hater who is against gun ownership.... So I'm interested to know how they'd react to me.

Also seriously would you get beaten up for saying "Man love rules OK?" or "Nascar Sucks"

 

[NFS4]

Most teachers here use scantrons for test. Takes 5 minutes to grade those.

Not in lower grades. How many kindergarten, first, or second grade classes do you see using scantrons.

Your knowledge of "what teachers do" seems pretty limited and biased.

 

[trmiv]

Man, we need to go have a beer together!

And I hear ya on the State Health Plan. The jacked up the rates last year. Luckily, my wife doesn't smoke and is not overweight, so she was able to keep the 80/20 instead of going to 70/30.
And agreed on the school supplies. My wife is always in Dollar Tree or Walmart or Target finding materials to use for class. She also goes to Stones over off Tryon Rd, but that place is a huge ripoff. Regardless, it's all out of pocket for us -- no reimbursement.

:thumbsup: Yea we need a club. Spouses of Overworked NC Teachers. SONCT

Yea, the State Health plan is pretty terrible. My wife used to teach in Wake County and had it before, and then went to a charter school in Morrisville that had its own health plan. Now she's back in Wake County and I was shocked how bad the insurance is.

We are frequent visitors of those places as well. I swear I can't get out of target during back-to-school without dropping at least $100 in notebooks, paper and stuff from the $1 section.

 

[Dumac]

The reason I ask, is that I'm a bisexual atheist music hater who is against gun ownership.... So I'm interested to know how they'd react to me.

Also seriously would you get beaten up for saying "Man love rules OK?" or "Nascar Sucks"

We'll, like I said, you just have to be careful who you tell that.

If you have those labels painted on your (or your car), then yeah, you'll get into trouble.

I'm an atheist as well, but I got through life fine by just not telling anybody.

Just act normal and you'll be fine, unless you normally run around shouting your sexual, religious, and political preferences/views.

 

[Dumac]

Not in lower grades. How many kindergarten, first, or second grade classes do you see using scantrons.

Your knowledge of "what teachers do" seems pretty limited and biased.

Lower grade work may not be on scantron, but the material is much easier.

How long does it take you to check that 2 + 2 = 4?

 

[rh71]

Also my wife is always doing something at home school related. Grading papers, lesson plans, answering student emails, answering parent emails, updating the grade book (online). It usually ends up me cooking dinner every night because she never has the time.

When we went to school, nothing was online. Doing much of this, for the convenience of the students/parents, is actually worse for the teacher. Are they obligated?

 

[NFS4]

:thumbsup: Yea we need a club. Spouses of Overworked NC Teachers. SONCT

Yea, the State Health plan is pretty terrible. My wife used to teach in Wake County and had it before, and then went to a charter school in Morrisville that had its own health plan. Now she's back in Wake County and I was shocked how bad the insurance is.

We are frequent visitors of those places as well. I swear I can't get out of target during back-to-school without dropping at least $100 in notebooks, paper and stuff from the $1 section.

Yeah, my wife was in Mecklenberg County while we were still dating (her first year of teaching) -- that school system was a diaster. Even with all its problems, Wake County is MUCH better.

 

[torpid]

Why would teachers still use scan-trons when there are now clickers and other hi-tech equivalents that will save a lot more time?

 

[NFS4]

Lower grade work may not be on scantron, but the material is much easier.

How long does it take you to check that 2 + 2 = 4?

LOL, if it only it was that simple

 

[HAL9000]

We'll, like I said, you just have to be careful who you tell that.

If you have those labels painted on your (or your car), then yeah, you'll get into trouble.

I'm an atheist as well, but I got through life fine by just not telling anybody.

Just act normal and you'll be fine, unless you normally run around shouting your sexual, religious, and political preferences/views.

I'm pretty open with all that stuff, that's why I wondered. I don't ever hide who I am or what I believe.

When they made that video, they did it as a joke, they thought they might get some weird looks and they could pretend that it was more scary than it was, they didn't really expect that, I saw an interview with Richard Hammond about it afterwards and they were so shocked about what happened, they really didn't expect people to be so backward like that, I mean it's one thing thinking that god exists etc, but actively trying to hurt others that don't think the same seems like insanity.

OK Thanks for explaining I just wasn't sure how much of the Top Gear thing to believe.

 

[DCal430]

Not in lower grades. How many kindergarten, first, or second grade classes do you see using scantrons.

Your knowledge of "what teachers do" seems pretty limited and biased.

No my knowledge isn't limited and biased. I wasn't doubting what the OP said was true for some teachers. But the claim you and he are making that it is true for all or most teacher isn't valid.

FYI elementary school teachers here only have around 5.5 hours of instruction time a day. They have 2.5 more hours to do before they reach 8 hours.

 

[Exterous]

My wife is always in Dollar Tree or Walmart or Target finding materials to use for class.

Mine too! She loves the $1 section at Target

Hang on so she needs regular maths/reading seminars to teach kids age 6?!

Why would a high school teacher be required to take a class geared to teaching reading comprehension to elemetary school children? (So glad we had to pay for it out of pocket too)

Your problem is that you are trying to understand the US K-12 educational system. Stop now or you will have a brain aneurysm

 

[HAL9000]

Mine too! She loves the $1 section at Target



Why would a high school teacher be required to take a class geared to teaching reading comprehension to elemetary school children? (So glad we had to pay for it out of pocket too)

Your problem is that you are trying to understand the US K-12 educational system. Stop now or you will have a brain anerysm

Dang it, I thought I had it covered, I googled "second grade" and it led me here:

In the United States, second grade (called grade 2 in metric system countries) is a year of primary education. Second grade is the second school year after kindergarten.

Now given that kindergarten is the age pre-primary school (i.e. 1-5) and the first year of primary school is 5, then i assumed I was right in asserting that "second grade" is age 6-7 or there abouts.

 

[DCal430]

Also most H.S teachers don't even grade HW anymore, atleast here they don't. They just grade test.

 

[Exterous]

Teachers are a bunch of whiners. They usually pay next to nothing for health insurance, they have taxpayer protected pensions which they pay very little for, and they are nearly impossible to fire. Compare that to any other non-government job. They usually pay much more for insurance, have no pension, and can get fired at any time.

I think part of the issue is that we really need to separate new teachers from old teachers. Old teachers are hard to fire. My wife has lost her job 3 of the least 4 years due to cutbacks. Older teacher benefitted from much better health care coverage. It appears that this year my wife will be moving to my health care because it is better/cheaper

Older teachers have had the benefit of pay raises in better years. If the proposed cut goes through this year my wife's salary will effectivley be the same as it was when she first started

Have to continue their education? Awww.. guess what. So does everyone else if they want to stay employed. Keep you skills current or you become less valuable.

It would be one thing if the required classes were relevant. When we are required to pay for my wife to take a class about teaching reading comprehension to 1st-6th graders when she teaches High School Math it enters the realm of the ridiculous

Welcome to the real world. I've got way more projects/work than I used to. There are less people in my group, and I also need to keep training and keeping my skills current. Raises and such have been few and far between without changing jobs.

For us it's not as much the added work for her as the destruction we see being heaped on the school system. In areas where we are already falling behind they are cutting teacher positions and increasing class sizes to 35+. Many of these children need individualized attention (in part because the parent now holds the responsibility for holding their child back. It is not uncommon for my wife to have Juniors in her Algebra II class that can't do 5x2) but there is no way they will get it in these large class sizes

Tell the school district to stop spending money on smartboards and iPads.

The school district would rather pay attention to the mindless mob as that is who elects them

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Most work less than 8hrs a day
They get paid very well when you consider the maount of time they do not work.
10-week Summer break
2-week Xmas break
1-week Spring break
1-week Winter/ski week break
Wed - Fri of Thanksgiving week
And then all the other 3-4 weekend they get holidays like Veterans day and such.


Lets talk about overworked: Most teachers use a very slightly tweaked lesson plan from the prior year. yes the first 2yrs of teaching are difficult as you have to create a lesson plan, after that is minor tweaks so little work is done on that.

Most teachers have teachers assistant in the form of students and lots of parents grading papers and volunteering in the classroom.

For the amount of work they do - they are very well paid.

 

[Powermoloch]

overworked and underpaid

 

[Exterous]

Most teachers have teachers assistant in the form of students and lots of parents grading papers and volunteering in the classroom.

Perhaps where you are. I can assure you there are very few who have teaching assistants around here. And parents grading papers/volunteering in the classroom??!! Hell - it's a rare day when a parent cares that their child has skipped the last 4 days of class

Your Utopia does sound nice though *Gazes wistfully into the distance*

 

[Wyndru]

NY teachers are WAY overpaid (at least in the district I work at). I know some teachers that make 110k, (keep in mind, a 9 month position) and when they retire at 30 years they make over 80k per year for the rest of their lives.

The teacher's union refused to take a pay freeze for 1 year, which would have saved 15 positions in my school alone, so basically many of our energetic young teachers who are making less got let go so the older 6-digit teachers could stick around and be miserable and un-accepting of change.

 

[DCal430]

Also the unions here have made it very clear lay off as many newer teachers as needed so they will get their yearly pay increase. Layoffs are always by seniority so older bad teachers stay, while good new ones are laid off. The unions here have refused any compromise for not getting their pay increase.

 

[Aikouka]

1) Why do you have to have a teaching license in America?!

At the college I went through, all teachers had to take education, psychology and a semester of student teaching. From what I can see, this is so they can be judged on how well they actually teach unlike how it seems college professors are hired for simply having a doctoral degree (or being in the process of getting one).

But I don't expect most of you here to understand that -- there is a huge anti-teacher sentiment on ATOT from what I've gathered from past posts.

My only gripes deal with the awful tenured teachers and the wealth of worthless material that is taught to kids. In regard to the worthless material (more at the high school level than elementary), I'd prefer to see subjects abbreviated to teach things that apply to us. Why did I need to learn about a worm's organs or photosynthesis in plants? All that gave me is the ability to make awful "learning by osmosis" jokes. :\

Slightly off topic but I really want to know, is the bible belt area actually similar to how Top Gear showed it a while ago? I was really interested in visiting there but I figured I might get beaten up...

In regards to Alabama, which was probably shown in the worst light on their Rent-a-Car special, what they showed is not far off. The thing you have to realize is that they showed a rural section in southern Alabama. If you stick with the larger cities (Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville -- largest in that order), then you'll be fine.