Submitted by Michelle Tamburini (not verified) on January 16, 2008 - 21:21.
We've all heard the common complaints of teachers: too little pay for too much work, parents now siding with their kids rather than the teachers simply to get their children good grades so that they are eligible for sports, or whatever incentives they may place on their children. Grades seem to be everything,but too few are willing to work for them. Yes, WORK. Our so-called bar of excellence has now fallen so low and too many of us seem to simply have accepted this as the way it just IS these days. Phooey. I cannot lower my bar any further and live with myself. As a result, because I'm a stickler for details like spelling and punctuation in my Spanish classes, students are either dropping at semester because they assumed Spanish was an arts and crafts class and can't cut the mustard. I fear losing more students who may not enroll in Spanish II next fall because they know it will be real work!
I live in and teach in a rural area of Kansas. We are experiencing a teacher shortage as a crisis according to our governor, Kathleen Sibelius as she stated in and NPR interview just this morning. She is promising more money set aside for teacher salaries and to students to lure them into teaching. I hope she makes some headway but I'm not holding my breath.
Teachers are truly not considered professionals. We should be, just like the physicians, attorneys, business executives are. Who taught THEM? Until society begins to value teachers and view us and pay us as professional people we teachers WILL keep settling for what is offered us on our district's pay scale. I am amazed that there hasn't been a teacher revolt in this country, and that is a sad commentary in and of itself. If our elected officials could support this more funding idea I believe that BIG things may happen.
First, teachers can no longer lie awake at night worrying about teaching until they can no longer draw a breath. Our lives would be more comfortable and secure. Second, if we could garner more respect from the top down, we would feel better about what we do and would then most likely put more take more pride and put forth more effort and energy into our teaching. This can only trickle down to the students and all will benefit.
I average 12-hr. days at school and there is still never enough time to do the kind of job I want to do. I love being in education, but in a few more years, as I enter my 50's, I am not going to be able to continue to expend the amount of energy and time into teaching necessary to do the job well. I feel the toll on my body and mind NOW.
This year I have begun to get calls for translation work from the private business sector as well as from a variety of community services that are in need of someone to translate. What has surprised me is that these people are seeking ME out rather than my hitting the pavement to move into a much better salary with less accute demand of my time and energy all day long. I'm considering this in the not too distant future.
I could earm almost 3X more per hour doing these jobs than I ccurrently earn in the classroom, teaching. And I enjoy this work! You see where I'm going here. I may have to leave education in order to secure my financial future when I retire, or so that I CAN retire before I'm too old to enjoy the many things in life that I want to do before I die.
I don't have the answers except to once again say that teachers deserve societal respect as professionals and thus receive similar, higher salaries...much higher. Life is expensive and even more so on a teacher's salary.
Teacher acquisition, retention, pay and our place in society
Submitted by Michelle Tamburini (not verified) on January 16, 2008 - 21:21.
We've all heard the common complaints of teachers: too little pay for too much work, parents now siding with their kids rather than the teachers simply to get their children good grades so that they are eligible for sports, or whatever incentives they may place on their children. Grades seem to be everything,but too few are willing to work for them. Yes, WORK. Our so-called bar of excellence has now fallen so low and too many of us seem to simply have accepted this as the way it just IS these days. Phooey. I cannot lower my bar any further and live with myself. As a result, because I'm a stickler for details like spelling and punctuation in my Spanish classes, students are either dropping at semester because they assumed Spanish was an arts and crafts class and can't cut the mustard. I fear losing more students who may not enroll in Spanish II next fall because they know it will be real work!
I live in and teach in a rural area of Kansas. We are experiencing a teacher shortage as a crisis according to our governor, Kathleen Sibelius as she stated in and NPR interview just this morning. She is promising more money set aside for teacher salaries and to students to lure them into teaching. I hope she makes some headway but I'm not holding my breath.
Teachers are truly not considered professionals. We should be, just like the physicians, attorneys, business executives are. Who taught THEM? Until society begins to value teachers and view us and pay us as professional people we teachers WILL keep settling for what is offered us on our district's pay scale. I am amazed that there hasn't been a teacher revolt in this country, and that is a sad commentary in and of itself. If our elected officials could support this more funding idea I believe that BIG things may happen.
First, teachers can no longer lie awake at night worrying about teaching until they can no longer draw a breath. Our lives would be more comfortable and secure. Second, if we could garner more respect from the top down, we would feel better about what we do and would then most likely put more take more pride and put forth more effort and energy into our teaching. This can only trickle down to the students and all will benefit.
I average 12-hr. days at school and there is still never enough time to do the kind of job I want to do. I love being in education, but in a few more years, as I enter my 50's, I am not going to be able to continue to expend the amount of energy and time into teaching necessary to do the job well. I feel the toll on my body and mind NOW.
This year I have begun to get calls for translation work from the private business sector as well as from a variety of community services that are in need of someone to translate. What has surprised me is that these people are seeking ME out rather than my hitting the pavement to move into a much better salary with less accute demand of my time and energy all day long. I'm considering this in the not too distant future.
I could earm almost 3X more per hour doing these jobs than I ccurrently earn in the classroom, teaching. And I enjoy this work! You see where I'm going here. I may have to leave education in order to secure my financial future when I retire, or so that I CAN retire before I'm too old to enjoy the many things in life that I want to do before I die.
I don't have the answers except to once again say that teachers deserve societal respect as professionals and thus receive similar, higher salaries...much higher. Life is expensive and even more so on a teacher's salary.
Let's stop griping and DO something!
Michelle Tamburini,
USD 361, south central Kansas