13 Things Your Child's Teacher Won't Tell You

[teacherforhi]

The problem with considering yourself a professional and having others treat you that way is that many teachers are members of labor unions. Professionals don't strike, imo.

Not in NC. There is no union and state employees are forbidden to strike. It's grounds for immediate termination. So do I get to be considered a professional?

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Not in NC. There is no union and state employees are forbidden to strike. It's grounds for immediate termination. So do I get to be considered a professional?

Well I do consider teachers professionals but when I was in High School (back in the stone age) the teachers weren't allowed to strike. Instead the refused to be at any after school clubs which meant we couldn't have them and they also refuse to write letters of reccomendation for college. We as students striked. We were even on the news. It wasn't fair to us as kids to be punished because they could not reach a contract agreement.

 

[Rora]

"If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long."

As a 3rd grade teacher, I can't tell you how many times people have said this to me. In college when people would ask me my major, I'd say "Elementary Education" and they would go "Aww, how sweet and cute!".

Sweet and cute? And I'd WISH I got to glue and color all day long.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

As a teacher this just makes me so discouraged. My parents used to drill it into our heads that we respect our teachers and that they were there to make us smarter and better people. Unfortunately, now many parents have the same mentality as is being shown here. We are their "servants" who have an easy job and are lucky to have such an easy schedule. We should move heaven and earth to stay late with their kids because their car broke down (You only work until 3:30 anyway!), we should not inform them of any behavior issues (That's your problem when they are at school!), and any academic struggles are our fault (They didn't have any problems until they had you for a teacher - guess they don't know that there are records that follow the kids and we actually talk to their previous teachers, even if they don't teach at our school anymore!). We should be lucky to have them berate us, belittle us, make increasingly crazy demands on us, and generally work with absolutely no positive feedback whatsoever.

I don't claim to change lives or make a kid into the person they will become but I do think I have some sort of impact in their lives! I work in a wealthy district and many parents do not know how to help their kids with homework and will email with questions or tell me they can't get their children to complete/understand the curriculum at home. I must know something to be able to teach these same 22 children all day and have them leave my grade level having met all standards! So I do feel I had some sort of impact and positive effect on them as people. Especially since in addition to academics I spend many hours on treating each other respectfully, being kind, solving problems within their peer groups, etc.

I do my job because I'm good at it and I love the kids but the disrespect and attitude from the adults will eventually drive me out of the profession. Which will be sad for me and the kids.....

But I don't think anyone is saying that kid's shouldn't respect their teachers. Not on this thread anyway. I've read horror stories about the stuff parents do and say. But that's not, to me at least, unlike other jobs. I'm stuck with my crazy customers until they decide to take their business elsewhere. And unfortunately, I have to do everything I can to ensure that they DON'T do that... no matter how many times I mutter under my breath, "there's another bank right down the road".

Having a debate with other adults about jobs is not the same thing as allowing your children to disrespect teachers. I guess my thing is... respect everyone. I wouldn't want my child to disrespect the garbageman either.

When I said that I wasn't who I am today because of teachers... I didn't mean that they had no impact on my life. But in that regard, so did my dentist and the pizza delivery guy. We all touch lives in different ways and I think all of those things are so important. That article made it seem like teachers think they are more important than those other people and that was my problem with it. I don't think all teachers feel that way... just as I don't think all construction workers or dog groomers feel that way about their jobs.

It makes me sad to see that many of the posters on this thread don't think much of what teachers do. I don't know about other teachers here, but I spend my day helping them grow as students and human beings. I spend more awake time with them during the week than their parents do. Teaching is a calling and a passion and I don't know anyone who went into it for the money. I am really glad that the majority of my parents see the importance of what I do each day. I make a difference in the life of their children, and I hope they will remember me like I remember several of my teachers to this day.

My job is not more or less important than your job. Don't look down on me because I get some time off during the summer(if we didn't,some of us would explode,LOL). Don't treat me like a God who can fix everything that is wrong with your child in one year(it didn't take one year for them to get that way). Treat me like a person who has a lot of knowledge in teaching young children skills they need to move on to first grade and beyond and be successful. I am your partner in helping your child become more proficient in academics and social skills.

I don't think anyone is putting down teacher's. I think we're all just trying to get across what you said yourself... one job is not more or less important than the other.

 

[MM27]

her mom is an idiot imo. I would have gone to the police and had their behinds in slings. What a shame. Is your VP a man?

I agree the mom is an idiot. I don't know what she was thinking, but my VP is a master manipulator and I think the mother fell into the trap. VP is a woman.

I used to do payroll for a school district and ANY additional hours were paid additional, separate pay. Wish that were the case in the private sector but unless one is a major screw up in the banking and finance field there are no bonus's offered anymore.

We don't get overtime. We have a contract that lists our job responsibilities which includes the number of prep periods we are entitled to per week. Here's an example of why I might get more money. My class had PE today. If the PE teacher was absent and they couldn't get a sub, I would cover the class. They either make up that missed prep sometime during the week by giving me coverage or they pay me for teaching an extra class. The pay is so small that it is totally not worth it. I would much rather have that time to get work done.
I am teaching on Saturdays for 4 weeks this month and I do get paid extra for that, because again it is not a part of my job description. These are extra jobs that are posted and have to be applied for.

In elementary schools we don't get paid extra for activities. I did the yearbook for several years. Used my own camera to take pictures (not class pictures but the candids), and all the work was done on my time. There is no stipend for that. I gave it up when I started grad school because I couldn't give it the time I needed to.

The above bolded part is what I have a problem with, like my job is to play play dough with your kids all day.

I played with Play Dough today Actually we used PlayDough to create models of the planets to show their relative size in a scaled version of the Solar System, but if you walked into my classroom at the end of the day you would have wondered. It looked like this big can from POP exploded