Education Reform Thread

[Athas]

Someone said do it?

[archibaldcrane]

do it. be a hypocrite. DO IT. MAKE BANK. DO IT.

^

[Gredival]

But how will she be qualified to be ED Sec if she doesn't stay in the classroom the entire time?

[Ksandra]

Zero desire to do that. And actually I have twice as much teaching experience as he does. Which is crazy to think. As for those saying do it, teaching was my calling in life. That’s a hard thing to give up.

[Gredival]

And actually I have twice as much teaching experience as he does. Which is crazy to think.

Except we all concluded that it's completely irrelevant to being an administrator, which is reinforced by the fact you are saying that that admin work isn't what you actually want to do lol

[NotGreyheim]

Boss asked me to take the test to become an admin. Before anyone shouts hypocrite, I haven’t said yes, and I am leaning towards no. I only have 6 years experience, min requirement in CA is 5. I am torn because I came in the field to teach, not admin, but at my school I already do a lot of admin work already. I am usually pulled out of the classroom a couple times a month to write reports for the school, and I am on like all the committees. This may actually make me work less hours for more money. My mom also reminded me of how many people we know who went fro teacher to admin back to teaching, so if I do it, it doesn’t mean I can’t go back.

But really, I feel like I don’t have enough teaching experience and I would really miss the kid-mentor interaction. My husband is encouraging me to do it as that is good college fund money for the kids, even if I only do admin for 2-3. Idk guys, idk.

Friday night I got a panic email from a student about dealing with biology class (tech issues accessing the programs). Got on zoom with her and her mom, helped her out with having a great talk with the two of them. I would miss that kind of interaction so much.

I’m hitting some ex students up on Instagram to give an outside perspective since they’ve had me as a teacher. Not going to go off their advice only, but I am trying to get feedback from many difference sources as I think on it.

I have no experience in education or administration, so I don't know how valuable (if at all) my opinion will be. It's based solely on the above.

If you're already doing admin work, it sounds like the only major difference is that you won't be teaching classes. I get and respect the concern about being able to help your students, but there's nothing that says you can't do that as an admin. Possibly even more so. And it's not like you have to shut them out or anything. You can still be there for them in a direct capacity as well. It just won't be in a classroom.

Either way, I'm sure whatever you end up choosing will be what's best for you in the end. Good luck!

[NotGreyheim]

Shit, I mean...

BETRAY MORALS, ACQUIRE CURRENCY

[kuronosan]

Boss asked me to take the test to become an admin. Before anyone shouts hypocrite, I haven’t said yes, and I am leaning towards no. I only have 6 years experience, min requirement in CA is 5. I am torn because I came in the field to teach, not admin, but at my school I already do a lot of admin work already. I am usually pulled out of the classroom a couple times a month to write reports for the school, and I am on like all the committees. This may actually make me work less hours for more money. My mom also reminded me of how many people we know who went fro teacher to admin back to teaching, so if I do it, it doesn’t mean I can’t go back.

But really, I feel like I don’t have enough teaching experience and I would really miss the kid-mentor interaction. My husband is encouraging me to do it as that is good college fund money for the kids, even if I only do admin for 2-3. Idk guys, idk.

Friday night I got a panic email from a student about dealing with biology class (tech issues accessing the programs). Got on zoom with her and her mom, helped her out with having a great talk with the two of them. I would miss that kind of interaction so much.

I’m hitting some ex students up on Instagram to give an outside perspective since they’ve had me as a teacher. Not going to go off their advice only, but I am trying to get feedback from many difference sources as I think on it.

Why would anyone call you a hypocrite? I've never gleamed from your posting anything short of how much teaching kids means to you.

Sometimes that's a lot more important. You'll do what's right for you in the end, so consider your options and best of luck.

[arus2001]

Take the test, pass it, negotiate taking an admin position if you can have one class per day. It's not unusual for teachers, especially in private schools, to have multiple roles. If they won't budge, just keep what you're doing, then.

[Salodin]

Feel like you think admin are evil contrarians to teachers lol. Their are good ones and bad ones just like teachers. Go become one and do all the changes you wish admin would do, or see it from the other side of the aisle and see why things are done the way they are.

Plus make more money so you can get the inground pool FUCK YES

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Gredival]

Their are good ones and bad ones just like teachers. Go become one and do all the changes you wish admin would do, or see it from the other side of the aisle and see why things are done the way they are.

This is why I am an establishment neolib despite being all about that stupid grassroots activism shit when I was younger. The way things are isn't arbitrary. Forces move us towards an equilibrium and understanding what those forces are and how they work is key.

[Ayn]

I can't speak to it at the K-12 level, but at the higher ed level I can say echo a number of the points Bane makes, as well as the fact that it's rather eye opening and gives a better sense of how things function (or, in some cases, don't function).

I am also not sure if they have retreat rights? I.E. if being an admin doesn't work out, you can go back to your old teaching position.

[kuronosan]

The point I was making was that there's nothing hypocritical about her going into an administrative position if she's passionate about doing something positive for kids.

I called her out before because the point was going into administration before you hit some certain benchmark doesn't mean you don't cut it as a teacher.

Ksandra is very obviously qualified.

[Ksandra]

because in this very thread she was talking about how teachers only move to admin if theyre bad teachers. It was more nuanced than that, of course, but that was the gist.

To just be clear for those who may come into the convo late, I do not think teachers only move to admin if they are bad. I do think if someone went from teaching to admin ASAP the chances are pretty high it was because they were bad and/or they didn't care about teaching to begin with. Plus, I wouldn't call a person who was fast teacher-to-admin track as a "teacher" when touting their credentials as in the case of Biden claiming he was going to get a teacher for SoE which the convo was about. (And again, nothing wrong with him finding an admin. But there are plenty of admin out there who taught for at least 10 years. This guy wouldn't have even been allowed to be an admin in CA because he only did 3.)

For the real hypocritical part about me, I also think that the majority of successful admins were ones who taught for at least 10 years, and I am only on year 6. And yes, I have witness a very clear difference between a year 6 teacher and a year 10 teacher. Teaching tends (stress "tends" before people think I am saying 100%) to follow this pattern:

1-2 years: building your year-long curriculum/classroom management
3-5 years: honing your curriculum/classroom management into something really solid
6-10: coasting with your curriculum/management as you improve on everything else it takes to be a solid teacher (organization, reports, handling parents, assisting coworkers and now new teachers, helping solidify whole-department decisions and direction, etc.)
10 +: Got a very solid handle on what you have created and just change as times change.

There are obviously some fluctuations in the years, but I have just seen so many teachers basically grow at this pace. I don't consider myself ahead of the game either.

Funny enough, those who gave me examples of good admins, were (no shock) people who taught for about 10 years or more first. And it's because by that point they basically had a good handle on all the aspects of teaching before trying to turn around and lead other teachers in a boss-capacity. They had been in it long enough to really remember what it's like being a teacher, and actually has some answers and strategies to teaching because they went through it themselves. And again, to stress, I have never ever presented the idea that this is 100% the case. But I know myself, and worry that I am not magically going to be the few that did manage to do it faster.


With all that being said, I do honestly really appreciate the thoughtful responses. I contacted here, family, friends, ex-students and got a bunch of feedback. Overwhelmingly the majority was saying to do it with that idea that I could always go back to the classroom if it doesn't work out. So I am going to call my boss on Monday and say I'll take a shot at it. As it stands, I really want to push the idea that I still teach 1 class, no matter what that class is. Only to help me stay fresh as a teacher in case I want to go back, and to constantly remind myself what it's like.

We'll see how it works out in the end. lol

[Byrthnoth]

Good luck!

[Ayn]

I absolutely agree with the 'if you can, teach one class'.

I know of one admin that tries to do that at least once per year. While not perfect, there's a noticeable difference in how they approach classroom related issues versus the ones that don't.

[Byrthnoth]

We had an AP biology teacher, history teacher, and a psychology teacher that doubled as admins. They all sucked at teaching and were super weird.

The biology one made me make a double helix out of construction paper during detention because I got caught playing cards with another student while he made us watch Finding Nemo for the second time that year.

The history teacher was a hardcore Republican, so he gave me a D on my midterm paper (30% of my overall grade) because I wrote it about how the Cuban embargo was stupid, not achieving any of its stated goals, and was counterproductive (~2004). He made me rewrite it about how acktually embargo gud to bring my paper grade up to a C+. What I learned from this was to write my final paper on how the post-WWII reconstruction of Japan was amazing and MacArthur was cool and not at all crazy.

The psychology teacher just wanted us to memorize outdated theories/trivia and regurgitate them. I got my lowest grade in that class of all of high school because it was entirely unstructured memorization and I could not bring myself to care about defunct theories. It was basically an intro to psychology class from 1980.

I don't think that administrators are necessarily bad teachers, but when your heart is no longer in the classroom please do quit.

[kuronosan]

Good luck Ksan.

[6souls]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1358203095482855430

[Athas]

Oh yeah, Mormons are pretty racist, huh?