#teacher shortage

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Quebec's school year started on a familiar note: thousands of teaching spots were unfilled, and the provincial government had to defend itself for its failure to solve the problem. But as politicians continue to point to immigration — a common justification for the province's ills — as the main culprit, education experts say newcomers are not the underlying cause of the widespread teacher shortages. "There has been a significant increase in the number of children who need a teacher because of the explosion in the number of immigrants," Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters last week, despite also mentioning working conditions and salaries as other reasons the education system is lacking personnel.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[187days]

Bonus Day

The leadership team decided to meet one last time before the school year starts, so I went into work this morning. The Principal started the meeting with welcomes, and thanks, and then gave an update on the situation we're in because of the teacher shortage: having to cancel some courses or offer them online-only, having to increase enrollment in other courses... It's a tough situation to be in, and it's going to be challenging for all of us. But he's an optimistic guy, so he also expressed hope that we'll be able to hire teachers in the future, and then he went over the things we've got going for us: new courses, new supplies and technology, various awesome events and opportunities.

He also asked what we're looking forward to, and I obviously said, "Teaching APGOV during this election season!" Cue much banter about divisiveness and bounty money.

I should note that this was the first meeting our new Dean 2 was at, so that was her introduction to me.

We took one final look at the policies we'd drafted to present to the staff, made our last revisions, and adjourned. I had another meeting scheduled in the afternoon, so I spent the time I had in between getting my classroom set up. That afternoon meeting was a curriculum work meeting with Mr. I and our two new hires, Mr. X and Ms. B, who are all teaching American Studies. I helped them revise the unit calendar, and get started on detailed planning for the first unit, then I had to head to a dentist appointment.

It all starts for real on Monday!

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Apparently, on twitter, there are some people still unaware of the massive teacher shortage in England and Wales. It does affect some subjects and some geographic areas more than others, so let’s talk about it and the impact on kids and the impact on wider society.

And you can see here, teacher recruitment in 2022 was down on every measure: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census

Teacher retention is also in a dire state- according to the DfE, nearly 20% of new teachers quit within just 2 years, whilst nearly half leave within 10 years. Meanwhile, NEU surveys show 44% of all teachers are considering leaving the profession in the next 5 years- see here: https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/state-education-profession

These surveys also show more and more schools having unfilled vacancies for teaching or support staff.

What does this actually mean in practice in the classroom?

In 2019, pre-pandemic, I was looking for a new science teaching job. I went to a few interviews, and found a job relatively easily, but all of the interviews I went to had a good field of applicants, and it didn’t seem like vacancies were going unfilled.

Last year, I worked in a school who had a vacancy for a science teacher. We advertised throughout the year, and it took 2 terms to find a suitable applicant. I left my job at that school, and got a new one on the first interview I went to (this is not because I’m amazing, I was the best of a bad bunch, as it were). My job, unfortunately, was not filled for September. Colleagues teaching maths and MFL (among others) also left at the same time and their jobs weren’t filled. Another vacancy was filled with an ECT who would be moving to the area but she couldn’t take up the post due to not being able to find anywhere to rent!

There will be areas of the country where teachers read this, and think actually, it doesn’t look so bad!

I know schools in my county and in the city where I used to work who now have no qualified physics teachers in the school. I know schools making timetable adjustments to ensure all students get time with a qualified science or maths teacher. I know of PE, English, History teachers teaching science or maths. I know of schools where I’d estimate 10% of the workforce is long term supply (who, btw, can just walk out one day and not come back). I know trainees being offered jobs in November of their training year for the following September.

Out of curiosity I keep an eye on teacher vacancies in my county- I’m seeing the same ones being advertised over and over since September. There’s currently over 20 vacancies being advertised for “as soon as possible” starts.

And certainly forget about finding maternity cover for a lot of subjects- teachers have no need to take temporary contracts at the moment!

So, what does this look like for the kids?

It means they get a string of supply teachers, who may change week on week. It means not being taught by subject specialists. It means if their teacher leaves part way through the year (and teachers do) there is almost no chance of that teacher being replaced, and no spare capacity to juggle. Schools try their best to “protect” exam classes, but it doesn’t always happen.

These kids get poorer quality lessons, often little marking/feedback, and run the risk of missing bits of the exam syllabus. Often, they don’t get to do practical work in relevant subjects, or the practical work they do will be more limited. HoDs are stressed sorting cover, and their own classes get neglected. Teachers go off sick with stress, and the class gets a few weeks of cover (or maybe more if things are really bad).

It also means that kids go without form tutors- that first point of pastoral contact- and they might end up feeling like there’s no-one they can go to if they have a problem at school. (I know some kids feel like this anyway, but not having a form tutor or regular teachers can make things feel worse).

In primary schools, it can look like classes being covered by unqualfied TAs. I don’t want to criticise TAs at all, they are amazing BUT they do not have the training a teacher has, and they are paid much less, so usually won’t do planning or marking in the same way- which I don’t think ends up being great for the kids.

Ultimately, teacher shortages are at their very worst in subjects like science and maths, although they are also bad in MFL, Geography and increasingly English. I am not one of those STEM > everything people, but we do need engineers, doctors, HCPs, biomedical scientists, chemists, environmental scientists, and so on. These are the people who build our infrastructure, take care of us when we are ill and develop new treatments, and ultimately make our lives better. If we don’t have good education in these areas, it is a major problem for the country.

Anyway, this is a very long post to say “things are crap in schools right now, and this is why teachers are striking”.

[trayzen-the-infinite]

Ultimately the reason why I don’t support the writers strike is just because the whole thing feels greedy and self entitled and I mean on both ends, yeah Hollywood won’t give writers more money and would gladly let them starve but also those writers really don’t need that money. Do you realize how much Hollywood writers make? It’s more than I could make in a lifetime, more than most of you could make. The issues with streaming services should be addressed but that’s only one of the very small, barely a handful of issues. Sure the CEO gets paid much higher margins and yes we should talk about that as well, no one needs that much money. The Writers could easily live off of what they make extremely comfortably but the ones saying they can’t are saying it because they want to live beyond their means. In short the rich want to be richer. It’s rich elites fighting rich elites because both of them want to get richer at everyone else’s expense.

Meanwhile Teachers in America are quitting in droves. We’re in a shortage of teachers because many are quitting because of politicians and activists keep insisting on interfering with classes, the government refuses to pay them a living wage and schools aren’t being properly funded. Some states are already resorting to hiring students training to become teachers and paying their tuition to become qualified teachers while doing the job of qualified teachers. WE’RE HIRING UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS WHO HAVEN’T EVEN GRADUATED THEMSELVES TO TEACHER OUR CHILDREN!! In short being a teacher in America isn’t worth it because it means living in poverty while having political activists and politicians breathing down your neck. They should be the ones striking and they’re the ones that should be supported. Yet everyone is whining and complaining about entitled writers who haven’t produced a single good product in years and contribute nothing to society.

[troythecatfish]

[archipelagoofliterarynonsense]

Teacher here in america? So was I. Until I got burned out and essentially joined the teacher exodus. Wanna be super pissed off about the position you are already pissed off about?

In this video mr.luke states that in australia not only do they make about 50k starting out, all supplies are provided AND he doesnt even work all 5 days, a sub comes in one day a week to give him an extra day off. (He says that costs about 20% less in pay) but also that what all the other teachers are paid is public knowledge.

We are heading full force into a teacher shortage crisis (most argue we are already there)

I'll say it plain- children are OUR FUTURE. The fact that we dont invest in the people leading them into that future while also straight face expecting them to be a human shield is appalling.

[spedresources4all]

"Don't Send That Email!"

“Don’t Send That Email” is a meditation I wrote for myself, yet I imagine it could help others.  When I’m at work, I’m locked into a fast and efficient pace that makes it easy for my emotions to take the lead in decision making.  I can’t count how many times I knew I should wait to send an email but my emotional state was in the driver’s seat.  My hope is that by spending five minutes…

[oh-dear-so-queer]

To the average punter, the core of the story was 'homophobic Christians sack good teacher just because she's gay' – and this amidst a drastic, Australia-wide teacher shortage. By now you hopefully understand that I see this as a simplistic take that serves neither the Christians whose aim is to over God despite the cost, nor the LGBTQIA+ advocates who seek to redress the imbalance of power and fear of change that keep queer people on the outside. I can sympathise with Christians' frustration at having a caricature of their faith ridiculed by the masses just as I feel upset when Christians mischaracterise LGBTQIA+ people as licentious and broken.

"In/Out: A Scandalous Story of Falling Into Love and Out of the Church" - Steph Lentz

[wausaupilot]

Wisconsin continues to struggle with retaining teachers, according to DPI report

Wisconsin public schools are dealing with an ongoing teacher retention problem with almost 40% of teachers leaving within their first six years in the field, according to a new report by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).

by Baylor Spears, Wisconsin Examiner April 11, 2024 Wisconsin public schools are dealing with an ongoing teacher retention problem with almost 40% of teachers leaving within their first six years in the field, according to a new report by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). DPI Superintendent Jill Underly and public school advocates said at a press conference Thursday that inadequate…

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

So, lights on or lights off in your local secondary school?

[halflingcaravan]

Fucking geniuses…

Fact: There is a very large and widespread shortage of teachers in NSW Australia. There are a number of schools with >10% and some as many as 40% of their positions formally empty and filled with temp teachers **in some cases but certainly not all**

Fact: The Teachers Union got an increase in wages for teachers which barely addresses inflation and certainly did nothing to address the many many other problems within schools that could be addressed with some basic funding. As well as doing nothing about the increasing pointless admin foisted upon teachers in the last 10 years.

Fact: Previous governments pushed many budget decisions onto school principals through a policy called “local schools local decisions” which basically means that the central admin can fuck up a school budget but the principal of the school gets to carry the can of blame because they’re choosing what gets funding.

Fact: The government of this state, during a shortage of teachers, when people are also leaving teaching at a higher than usual rate and getting new teachers is proving much harder than before… has cut the budget for schools in this fair state by around 1.5%.

[stillchugging-captisjuice]

Parents need to know what's going on inside schools so they can get their children OUT!

While I cannot speak for all schools I can tell you what’s going on at the one I work in.

The school is down 2 science teachers and have been since September, no one is applying for the job.

Several members of staff have been off with mental health issues for months due to how stressful everything is.

Two head of departments have handed in their resignations

Two maths teachers have handed their resignations in

3 Teaching assistants have quit

Loads of teachers have their resignations ready to be turned in but are reluctant to leave because they care about the kids.

SEN students aren’t getting their allocated 1-1 support hours due to a shortage of Teaching assistants

The science department can’t afford to do certain practicals

The art department can’t afford new equipment

Only certain classrooms can afford to be heated

Some children who aren’t registered Pupil premium are going hungry and some kind members of staff are buying their lunches for them out of their own pocket.

There’s a shortage of note books

The chairs keep breaking and there’s not enough money to replace them. ( students swinging on chairs over time breaks the back legs)

There’s no glue, the glue that’s left is kept inside offices or teachers desks

There’s no spare stationary, loads of teachers are buying stationary for kids out of their own pockets.

Kids behaviour is getting worse, teachers are battling tik tok and other forms of media for their attention and it’s exhausting.

Kids are starting to think rules don’t apply to them and refuse to come to lessons and are verbally abusive to each other and staff members

There’s been an increase in schools in my area of kids getting into fights and disrupting lessons

The school I work in isn’t even a ‘bad’ school, it’s one of the most applied to in the area which gets the some of the best GCSEs results in the county.

A lot of people are acting like only the “troubled schools” are being affected and it’s not. Every school is struggling which is why Teachers and support staff are protesting.

How can anyone run a school without the budget or the staff, the strikes aren’t affecting your kid’s education, the government is.

[digitalmagus]

Considering all the programs and such for nurses and other various fields why do we not yet have a state or fed sponsored program to get teachers through college when we're actively in the middle of a teacher shortage?

If there is one I'd love to know about it because it's looking dismal from over here otherwise.

Do the idiots in congress forget, or don't care likely, THAT THE PEOPLE BEING TAUGHT NOW WILL IN THEIR SEATS IN A FEW DECADES????

[spedresources4all]

5 Minute Lunch Meditations for Teachers

I am a big believer in the power of meditation but establishing a consistent practice is often stymied by adulting.  More impossible than the practice of “emptying my mind” for more than three seconds is finding the time to even attempt the aforementioned challenge. That being said, I realized recently that my mindset, which seems to be teetering toward burnout, needed a refresh.  Photo by MART…

[writing-n-memes]

I’ve decided to become a teacher and I looked up teaching tips and such on tiktok and it’s just making me depressed. It’s mostly either bad students making teachers quit or bad teachers needing to be fired. There’s a reason for the shortage and it’s not just about the pay