The elementary teachers with whom I work are passionate hard working people who conduct their jobs with great enthusiasm and energy. It takes an enormous amount of energy to spend the day in a room filled with young children, keeping their minds engaged, moving them from one area to another and from one topic to another. Each day we hit the ground running, moving forward in order to do OUR very best to help our children be the very best they can be. In my entire teaching career, I have never seen so many amazing people in this profession so unhappy, overwhelmed, and down and out about being in education. I have heard so many stories throughout the county of people looking for different jobs or just leaving education for a new career path. I have also heard many voices of those who would like to find a new career but must continue teaching. We continue to be passionate about working with children and watching them learn, but we are struggling to meet all that is demanded of us.
Did you know that a few of the things we do every day are:
Take attendance, collect lunch money, check student agendas
a whole group reading lesson and work with at least three small guided reading groups
work with several word study groups,
incorporate vocabulary lessons
teach writing lessons
do hands on math lessons
teach science lessons and conduct hands on lab experiences,
teach social studies lessons
incorporate technology and keyboarding into our instruction across the curriculum
help our students one on one and in small groups in all subject areas
target students at risk with reading and math probes
review homework and class work
walk our students to and from lunch and special
supervise and provide structured activities to students at recess
read to students orally
help with Band-Aids and write nurses slips while taking care of child who is not feeling well
provide accommodations and interventions for students according to their individual needs
collect anecdotal notes and student progress data that is utilized to modify weekly lesson plan as needed, on a day- to -day basis, to assure students’ mastery
implement effective classroom management and discipline strategies, including individual behavior plans that are required for some students
AND provide parent communication via classroom website, classroom newsletter, notes, e-mail, phone calls, and/or face to face conferences?
Do you have any idea how much planning it takes to prepare for each day? We spend hours outside of our contract time in order to be prepared for each day. Our planning time is often encumbered with meetings, parent phone calls, reading and/or responding to e-mails, or prepping for engaging lessons that include technology and hands-on experiences.
As you can see, we do not have time during our days to plan lessons, prepare report cards and interims, grade papers, create our own assessments, write responses to students’ work, write newsletters, complete our data collection reports, and update our binders for Standard 7. We do all these things outside of our contract hours. The amount of “the outside the contract hours” increases every year, and every year, we try to do all that is expected of us without much complaining. We want to be the best we can be as well. Well, we have hit our peak. We are running out of time, our noncontract time, to get all that is needed to be done completed. We are asked to do more every year. Every meeting we have requires one more thing to be added to our day, our work load. We hear, “It’s just one more little item to do.” All those items have added up to complete overload. We go to work early, stay late, and spend entire weekends working. Our personal lives our suffering as well as our own well-being.
You will notice that in the following information that was collected from elementary teachers, not one person mentioned the fact that we have not received a salary increase for many years and that our cost of living has increased as our paychecks have decreased. I find it very interesting that so many other issues have taken priority over the fact that we are valued less in a very thriving community.
Demands on our Time / contributing to our increased stress levels:
Reading and math plans are very time intensive with difficulties navigating online resources and pulling various materials to meet all of the curriculum needs.
Teachers would like to have had more input into calendar, including how bank days and make-up days for snow are being addressed.
The Standard 7 expectations are overwhelming and very time intensive.
Report Cards- Many elementary teachers are unhappy with the grading system and feel that it is not a motivational tool for student achievement. It takes an unbelievable amount of time to grade papers and complete report cards using this format. Some papers get up to four grades, and there are 44 cells to complete per report card for each student.
Too many assessments with time devoted to administering them takes away from instructional time.
Substantially less paraprofessional support means less student support.
Professional development and recertification points must be completed on our own time.
Meetings infringe on time - instructional, planning, after school, before school, during our work days.
Posting all of our objectives, preparing websites to use with lessons, making copies, grading papers, etc.
We are running out of time!
The following survey results reflect teacher working conditions/expectations/compensation you can look at questions and the results:
The Survey questions: ***This survey is designed to gather information in regards to teacher working conditions/expectations/compensation in an effort to help provide specific data for our Stafford County School Board and Stafford County Board of Supervisors***
Reviewing your financial situation in the past 5 years, approximately how much did the VALUE of your salary change as the cost of living increased?
no change 14%
decreased less than $1000 20%
decreased between $2000-$3500 43%
decreased more than $ 3500 23%
2)Looking at the current school year, in comparison to years past, how many fewer hours weekly are students in your class receiving SCPS staff instructional support beyond the classroom teacher?
Less than 5 hours a week 43%
5-10 hours a week 40%
10-15 hours a week 11%
More than 15 hours a week 6%
3)Total hours per week beyond contract requirements that you continue doing schoolwork at school/home?
Less than 5 0%
5-10 11%
10-20 29%
20-25 60%
4) How many hours beyond the school day have you spent this 2nd nine weeks on report card data, input, comments… (SPED: IEP’s, reports, data)
5-10 6%
10-15 9%
15-20 31%
20-25 54%
5)Amount of hours your students have spent this year being assessed (weekly work, CSA, MWM, PALS, report card, probes, writing prompts…) as of February 2013:
30-50 46%
50-75 14%
75-100 26%
100 or more 14%
We have been in school approximately 450 core instructional total hours as of 2/1/13
6)Reflect upon your own physical and mental health as it impacted your attendance this year. Would you say your number of sick days used…
6)Reflect upon your own physical and mental health as it impacted your attendance this year. Would you say your number of sick days used…
Decreased 6%
Stayed the same 37%
Increased by 2-4 days 40%
Increased by 5 or more days 17%
7) In implementing Standard 7 as SCPS mandated, do you feel the impact on the quality of student instruction in all subjects you are teaching:
Improved and the data was helpful to student learning 0%
Somewhat helpful, but the amount of time spent testing outweighed the benefits
of the data 37%
Negatively impacted the amount and quality of direct teaching time in 63%
classrooms due to excessive paperwork and testing demands 0%
8) In an effort to be consistent across SCPS, the demand for every teacher in every classroom to be on the exact same page at the exact same time from our Central Office seems to be the goal. How is this impacting instruction and student learning in your classroom?
Positively, especially beneficial with transfer students 0%
Helpful in making sure all content is covered, but challenging when 3%
differentiating instruction
Somewhat frustrating as differentiation due to student needs may require more
time and skill reinforcement 29%
Very frustrating professionally as differentiation requires teachers to utilize a range of strategies, materials, and resources to help students be successful. 69%
The highlights of the survey indicate the following:
66% of the teachers have in the past 5 years felt that the VALUE of their salary decreased between $2000-$3500 or decreased more than $ 3500 as the cost of living increased.
40% of teachers felt that students were receiving 5-10 fewer hours a week of staff instructional support beyond the classroom teacher.
60% of teachers said they continue to work between 20-25 hours per week beyond contract requirements at school or at home.
85% of the teachers said they spent between 15-25 hours beyond the school day the 2nd nine weeks working on report card data (input, comments, SPED: IEP’s, reports, data).
A total of 86% of the teachers reported that their students have spent from 30 to 100 hours this year being assessed (weekly work, CSA, MWM, PALS, report card, probes, writing prompts…) as of February 2013.
40% of the teachers felt that their number of sick days increased by 2-4 days this year due to physical and mental health concerns.
63% felt that in implementing Standard 7 as SCPS mandated, negatively impacted the amount and quality of direct teaching time in all subjects.
Due to an effort to be consistent across SCPS, with the demand for every teacher in every classroom to be on the exact same page at the exact same time from our Central Office,
69% of the teachers feel very frustrated professionally as differentiation requires teachers to utilize a range of strategies, materials, and resources to help students be successful.
When we are in our classrooms, we are working with our students. Our students are the most important part of our jobs. We teach because we care about our children.
Written by Pamela Wolford with the voices of many Stafford County teachers represented.
I am a resident of Stafford County. My husband and I are both teachers in Stafford County. My son graduated from Stafford County Schools, in fact he is the reason we chose to live and work in this area. We wanted him to attend school here.
