Reviews for Teachers?

[kootenayguy9]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm told graduates of teacher colleges in Ontario can't find any jobs there.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/21...rio-are-scarce

http://www.macleans.ca/work/jobs/two...ull-time-work/

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/03...en-job-market/

The Ontario College of Teachers found the 2012 graduating class reported an unemployed rate of 38 per cent with another 34 per cent underemployed.

Since 2006, first-year graduates securing full employment has dropped from 70 per cent to 28 per cent in 2013.

We just had a sub in our school that got a MASTERS degree in Education and couldn't even get on the sub list in Toronto.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by troutman

I'm told graduates of teacher colleges in Ontario can't find any jobs there.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/21...rio-are-scarce

http://www.macleans.ca/work/jobs/two...ull-time-work/

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2014/03...en-job-market/

The Ontario College of Teachers found the 2012 graduating class reported an unemployed rate of 38 per cent with another 34 per cent underemployed.

Since 2006, first-year graduates securing full employment has dropped from 70 per cent to 28 per cent in 2013.

That's not really here or there though, a lot of places don't have room for new applicants. And really, that probably has more to do with the unusual population dynamics we have right now more than anything. Aging population, less young people (and I'm guessing, less kids)

[Montana Moe]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Lastly, there are so many other jobs that are just like this. IE you work only at certain times but have balanced yearly pay. Why do teachers get singled out? Why doesn't anyone complain that firefighters get paid when they aren't fighting fires?

Oh, they're out there, I assure you. Any time there is a public safety mill levy, firefighter contract negotiation, etc. they're loud and clear.

Those lazy firefighters that get paid to sleep are a conversation for another thread.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Sliver

What's that supposed to mean? I have a degree, FYI, although I don't see how my level of education has anything to do with the topic.

I was just poking fun at you because I feel your reasoning is insane. I agree, your level of education has nothing to do with the topic. I certainly don't think you're stupid, but I think your opinion on this matter is.

There are tons of topics I don't understand at the professional level (climate change, immunology, plumbing etc.), which is why when it comes time to form my opinions I try to listen to the people who are professionals in those fields and spend a considerable amount of time in them.

That's why I don't understand people who have opinions like yours don't question them when confronted with others who either are teachers, or spend their lives with teachers. Your claim that understanding the job of teaching because you spent 12 years in school doesn't give you unique insight, it merely puts you at the baseline of understanding that we all have (assuming we've all graduated).

I'm not really interested in further debate, so I'll let you have the last word (have at 'er, unleash hell!). I've been down this road with you in previous threads and neither of us are changing minds.

[bomber317]

Touchy subject to be sure.

My wife is a High School teacher in CBE. Currently running to almost a decade without a permanent contract.

We have had many discussions regarding performance analysis for teachers. It is a difficult task to objectify results in a profession that has a lot of variables involved. I did attempt to think of a solution and it is beyond me.

I do think there issues from the Top down and issues with the Union. My wife has worked with great teachers and also a couple of exceptional bad ones. Bad meaning, they do not even know their own subject matter. How do we get re-mediate those teachers? or do we get rid of them?

And the base of all of this, the Money.

I believe she is extremely fortunate to make the money that she is making even without a permanent contract. Widespread annual raises without performance metrics or training goals. But I digress....

That being said, class sizes are quite large in the core subjects. I believe the CBE is inefficient at the top with the salaries they are paid. They made many mistakes that have cost them financially (just compare to the Catholic School Board). They put money in areas that could go to the core subjects but do not. Art Centered learning and alternative learning such as Robert Thirsk high school. The school she teaches at has class sizes of 8 to 10 in some option classes, while the core subject are hitting 40 students. At a previous school she taught at, there are 5 versions of Science 10!

10
10 AP
10 ACL
14
10 K&E

I believe if they re-focus on the core subjects and pare down the alternative streams, that will free up money for better training, mentoring of teachers to raise the average standards of all teachers. Give the admin staff more to work with and start on quality of teaching instead of quantity.

[rd_aaron]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Meh, the double-barrel lottery win of being a teacher is made up of the insane amount of time off, but also of the life-long sweet-as-pie, guaranteed pension until the day you die. I realized how awesome teaching was too late for it to be worth it to go back...I'm 37 now so would need two years in school to get my teaching degree, which would mean I'd retire with my pension at like 65. Hopefully with my current job I retire sooner than that, so I'm going to stay the course.

Phew! I was worried there for a second that there was a chance you might teach my future kids.

[rd_aaron]

My wife is a teacher, so just a few comments on some things that have come up in this thread:

- Attrition is fairly high in the first 5 years for teachers. A big part of it is because it's so bloody difficult lately to get a permanent job (next year will be year 5 for my wife, but there's a chance she might get a continuous contract this year). Every year around this time is stressful as we don't know if she'll have a job in September or not. This year (year 4) was the first year she had a class from the first day of school til the last. Previous to this, it was Mat leaves, short term contracts, and subbing. Some people just get frustrated and go back to school/find a different job because they can't find something secure. And no, it's not the same as other professionals switching companies. It's switching careers.

- Time put in is always more than the classroom time. My wife drops me off at work at 7:30 and she's in her room by 7:45. Classes don't start til 9. Usually she picks me up around 5, meaning she worked til about 4:45. I can't remember how long the lunch break is, but half the time she's supervising the kids so she still puts in a solid 8 hours or so.

- Around report card time, she's usually working 3-4 hours per night on report cards. She currently has about 45 kids, so that's a lot of report cards, especially since the report card comments are pretty thorough, not like the "Good Job" I got growing up. In addition, she's required to write a weekly newsletter to send home to parents along with folders containing the kids' work they did that week.

- From what I can tell, teaching elementary is more work than high school. The youngest kids aren't capable of much if you don't provide them with a plan/support. The older kids are more capable of working independently. In addition, teaching is no longer just providing worksheets and assignments. If that's all it was, we could put a robot at the front of the class to hand out and mark assignments. Education now is more about personalized learning. Before, they would follow the curriculim precisely and if a handful of students didn't get the lesson, the teacher moved on and those who didn't get it fell behind. I think now it's more about teaching a lesson in more than one way as kids learn in different ways.

- There's quite a few challenges and extra work involved with things like IPPs, extra-curricular activities (yes, in elementary too), ESL (85% of my wife's school is ESL), etc.

- For the record, my wife was supportive of the review process. She's been reviewed lots in the last 4 years so it wouldn't be a big change for her. Because it's so hard to remove bad teachers, she didn't think it would get bad teachers out of the system, but she thought it would force bad teachers to put more effort in.

[troutman]

Public school board unveils new grading system for kindergarten to Grade 9 students
Some parents worry plan won’t properly prepare kids for high school

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/ca...753/story.html

The Calgary Board of Education now plans to implement a four-point numerical marking system this fall for K-9 students, as well as issue two report cards (with teacher comments) each school year, and schedule three teacher-parent conversations. High school students will not see any changes to how they are graded.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by TurdFerguson

My wife is a public teacher (so i have a slanted view I'm sure) and honestly, I have no idea how the hell she does it. The public system and administration is a joke, riddled with authority stripping and incompetence promoting procedures and limitations. As with most strongly unionized professions, there seems to be a materiel amount of "legacy teachers" that, frankly, are not good at there job any more, no longer evolve as a professional and basically mail it in year-over-year (to be clear there are terrible teachers regardless of experience). My wife was working with a "team member" that was teaching a curriculum that was 6 years old! honestly, WTF. I'd love to see a system that helps to curb this. That said, teaching also has a ridiculous attrition rate in the first 5 years...making the standards higher, or more time consuming will surely only increase this. Combine that with the general feeling amongst teachers that there are not enough resources, class sizes are way to big and overall expectations for "after-hours work" are too high and I expect the union to push back pretty hard on this, despite the well placed intent.

This is exactly my concern. I am 100% in favor of certification maintenance every 5 years in order to root out bad or lazy tenured teachers.

Kids only get one chance to be educated.

[Tiger]

the best way to improve teaching is spend the money on better teachers... This would mean evaluating them, but it also means paying the good ones more. There is probably a better return in paying (good) teachers more money than trying to spend tons of money in getting more teachers to reduce class sizes.