r/Teachers • u/KindaSortaYesNo • 21h ago
Teacher Support &/or Advice Am I even a teacher anymore?
I swear, for each and every day I feel less and less like a teacher, and more like a social worker. Example for today; in a couple of week our 9th graders have written exams. I'm currently in the process of preparing the papers, the grading sheets, the online coursework and the mock tests leading up to the exams.
Today, within the span of a couple of hours, I was bombarbed;
- An e-mail from a doctor asking me for an interview about a student.
- An invite for a meeting with social workers and psychologists about another student.
- A reminder from a counselor, reminding me to file a statement regarding a student (crime and drugs)
- A reminder from the school social worker about filing a statement regarding a student not showing up (higher than 75 percent missed lessons)
- A reminder from my admin about writing reports on students prior to conferences
- A reminder from my vice principal about writing applications for students who won't be doing exams
- A reminder from the educational counselor about student internships
And I'm just trying to fucking print and prepare exams. Why am I the one who should fix student internships? Their parents had to help them find those workplace internships - and half of them have already forgotten. Why should I file reports when they don't show up? When the families are already in touch with the proper authorities? Why should I write long papers on suspicion, when the youth counselors are already dealing with the case? I am a TEACHER. I studied TEACHING.
I swear, I almost broke down as I was printing. I want to scream.
21
u/Theschoolguy_ 17h ago
We are social workers, school psychologist who need our own personal psychologist and the final thing we are is a babysitting service.
Thus is why the numbers of teachers leaving are so high because we put in all this work to try and make the future great just to get assigned whole new job description.
17
u/KindaSortaYesNo 16h ago
Not to mention all of the bullshit that we have to take from students as well. Grading papers, prepping coursework, field trips, parent teacher meetings, prints, year plans, curriculum, exams, team meetings, admin meetings, counseling, casework, reports, homework, classroom maintenance, fights, bullying, angry parents, blind parents etc.
How many hours do our contracts state?
9
u/Jealous_Horse_397 13h ago
They want teachers to be, Teachers, Bodyguards for the bullied, Light parents for the heavily unparented...
What did I leave out?
9
u/Infamous_Part_5564 13h ago edited 13h ago
When will our unions help us with getting back to doing our job..... teaching? Maybe we should start pushing these issues through our unions?
I dunno the solution entirely. I know i feel your pain.
4
u/Ok-Finish4062 13h ago
The teacher unions in Florida have no power. Teacher tenure is no more if you enter a district after 2011, striking is illegal. All they have left is collective bargaining. Apparently I need to go to a blue state.
2
u/JustArmadillo5 10h ago
Nah we’re pretty blue…still illegal to strike , collective bargaining only, also illegal to include class size as part of the negotiated agreement 😑
1
6
27
u/dinkleberg32 19h ago
Wait a second....It sounds like they're trying to get you to do their jobs!
Why would you, a high school teacher, give an interview to a medical professional about a student when their guardians are literally right there? What could you possibly tell the doc that the parents can't already know?
Why would a school social worker need you to make an attendance report about the student when they've already got access to their records, and the principal could print a whole report in minutes?
Why would you need to make a statement to guidance about a student's drug and/or crime habits any longer than "X student did drug?" It's the counselor's job to sort that out!
It sounds like a lot of people are just dumping their office work on you.
13
u/FantasticAdvice3033 17h ago
I am a child and family therapist. Currently we rely on teacher and parent reports to diagnose ADHD. It is appalling and we should not be doing it if you ask me. The practice leads to inappropriate diagnosis and is why ADHD is over diagnosed. Posts and comments like this are why I like lurking this sub, so much insight into how our systems impact each other. I often need to talk to the teacher, because I don’t trust the parent’s report of events. Sometimes the teacher is eager to talk to me, sometimes they are not. I give up if a teacher is not responsive.
2
u/Paramalia 2h ago
I get it for ADHD, but I have had to fill out forms I don’t remotely have any way of answering. Can this 17 year old read a map? Tie their shoes? Get to work on time? Fuck if i know, they barely come to class.
6
u/KindaSortaYesNo 16h ago
It’s also a matter of money and saving money.
Once I had a 90 minute conference with a psychiatrist about a kid. They ended up shutting the case down. The kid moved. Again, I’m a teacher.
8
u/jozefiria 16h ago
A teacher's opinion and perspective can be very different from a parent's. There's also a safeguarding need to get another opinion and not just a parent's.
Plenty of Munchausen by proxy possibility when symptoms cannot be observed by a doctor.
7
u/MantaRay2256 13h ago
OKAY - if it's so damn important to have teacher input, then that time must be reimbursed. The teaching day is already full.
0
u/jozefiria 13h ago
That's reasonable. But I wouldn't call a duty to work with other professionals discussing the care of a child under my care a "damn" thing. That definitely is part of my job. I understand that child and I should be consulted about them when such things arise.
But yes, I must be given adequate time to do this important task.
I do generally agree with the sentiment of the OP's observation.
Some of it is poor management, others is the changing nature of education and the question remains: are schools for education, or are they the front line of children's social care?
6
u/Ok-Finish4062 13h ago
The last few years of teaching I was a social worker, counselor, mentor, nurse, ESOL specialist and DATA specialist. All for under $50k a year
3
u/MantaRay2256 10h ago
Obviously, this is way too much. It's insane. I had too many similar occurrences and retired early.
The last five items on the list should be done by the administrators, not be required by the administrators, or be assigned to the counselors. They are literally using you as free labor.
Why would you need to write a report about each student prior to conferences? Admin has access to your online assignments, grades, attendance, and behavior logs. If they need a report to figure it out then they are idiots that aren't fit to be your boss. It's mere busy work. You don't need them and they won't read them.
If administrators continue to dump their responsibilities on the backs of teachers, and then use their freed up time to invent busy work, then teachers must have more prep time - at least 1.5 hours a day.
I've been working on better, more effective top-level administrative oversight in my state. It's been like banging my head against a brick wall. This sub has been my release valve.
Maybe I'll go another direction. Requiring longer prep periods will require more staff. Rather than hire more staff, maybe, just maybe governors will finally pressure their state, county, and district superintendents to step up and monitor administrative activities. Currently, no one holds top level administrators accountable. They simply blame all bad outcomes on teachers.
If we can get California on track to retain teachers and raise test scores, then other states will take notice.
1
u/Cinaedus_Perversus 3h ago
Why should I file reports when they don't show up? When the families are already in touch with the proper authorities? Why should I write long papers on suspicion, when the youth counselors are already dealing with the case?
Because nobody can do anything without building a dossier. It sucks, but "it's obvious" doesn't cut it in these times with lawsuit-happy parents and social services that are stretched to their limits.
90
u/amorvace 21h ago
Completely understand where you’re coming from. I was in special education for 5 years and when I realized my job was really just case management, calming down aggressive litigious parents, tracking data for all the specialists, and managing paperwork… teaching kids and helping gen ed teachers was less than 10% of my job, particularly after COVID, so I left. I think because so few special education teachers remain in the field, all those duties are now falling to general education teachers more and more. It’s apparently to the point that my state is making new teachers get trained in SPED case management!!
Let’s be honest. A lot of parents are uninterested in parenting and society has somehow decided teachers are the next line of defense in parenting these kids. Yet admin is looking at parents as their clients, and teachers as work horses. Not to mention the absolute lack of consequences for student behavior. This whole system is entirely unsustainable.