Share What It's Like To Be a Public School Teacher

[tonysam]

NEA is preparing a book about the role of public school teachers in American education, emphasizing the contributions of teachers in moving the nation forward.


They REALLY don't want to know my story. I might as well save my keystrokes:

The National Education Association is engaged in an ambitious project to produce an important new book on the past, present, and future of the American teaching profession and currently seeks contributions from classroom teachers across the nation.

Surveys and statistical reports are often used to tell stories about America’s public school teachers, and the forthcoming book will make extensive use of these sources. But even the best surveys can shed light on only certain aspects of teachers’ experiences. The full breadth and depth of teachers’ lives—especially the demands, challenges, and expectations they encounter daily—is best represented through the voices of teachers themselves.

To capture the range of teacher voices across the country, NEA is seeking active and retired teachers to write short (no more than 1,000 words) vignettes illustrating the key challenges they face(d) daily as part of educating their students. The book’s editors are looking for teachers to draw on their personal experiences to craft anecdotes about their lives as teachers—involving their successes and setbacks, inside and outside of the classroom, and including both instructional and extra-curricular activities.

We invite you to submit your vignette by April 9, 2010. For more information on the book and instructions on how to submit vignettes, click the link below.

Theme 8 about "workplace conditions" I could give a 10,000-word essay about what I went through.


NEA link for those who would like for them to get an earful:

NEA

[Chipper Chat]

1. 1972 was my last "good" year as a teacher.

Teaching was fun back then. After that came the landslide of drug abuse, student disrepect for authority, and the era of time-consuming mandated teacher lesson plans + destructive curriculum changes. Schools weren't built like prisons. We had windows that you could throw open on nice days. And cafeterias with food made from scratch. You had no fear of putting your arms around a student or hugging them. If a student had a headache you could give them an aspirin. I could go on and on.

[AnneD]

2. I graduated in 73....

Went to Cy Fair outside of Houston. We were still country but growing. Kids smoked in the rest room
or smoked and dipped on the breeze way outside the auditorium. Kids still got pops (better than detention). We studied one play by Shakespeare every year in English class. Our cafeteria staff made the best breads and we had the best scratch lunches. I never asked for aspirin from my teachers because I carried my own. If you weren't interested in what was being taught in class, you could read an appropriate book. I respected all my teachers and learning was fun.....gee I miss that.

[tonysam]

3. It was SO much different back then before the politicians

and privatizers decided to ruin a once-great institution. Teachers were respected, if not highly paid, and yes, I believe they had fun teaching.

It was the best job in the world; now it's about the worst.

[AnneD]

4. It was not uncommon....

for students to come back and visit their teachers all the time. In fact my freshman English teacher visited me at my college dorm when she was in town. She helped me so much and I got the chance to tell her thanks before she left the state.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, they managed to destroy Nursing too.

[roguevalley]

6. agreed

[MichiganVote]

5. Teaching was about relationships, not test scores. Now we just get shot at.

Edited to add...in this society the public, the president, Arne Duncan and the politicians seem to think we deserve it.

[AwakeAtLast]

7. I teach 850 students a week

I do well to know a student's name, let alone form some kind of relationship with them.

[adnelson60087]

8. 850 a week?? How is that possible?

[AwakeAtLast]

9. Seven classes a day, 45 minute class periods

Last year it was 900 - 8 classes a day, 40 minute class periods.

[femmocrat]

10. I do too. I travel to four buildings.

I have about 750-800 elementary students and another 90 middle schoolers.

I have a crazy schedule.

[adnelson60087]

11. Damnation, I'm feeling much better about my 550 kids in 5, 45-min periods

I don't get why so many are out for our collective blood. Seriously, when did TEACHERS become the bad guys??

[femmocrat]

12. It's hard to take, isn't it?

With the cutbacks, we are all expected to do more and more work with less time and fewer resources. And the future looks bleak, IMO.
I have never seen morale so low.