In my early years of teaching, I didn't always know what to say when students told me they didn't have time to do their homework (other than something like, "You must have had some time between 4:00 and 9:00!). There were all kinds of reasons - they had sports practice or a lesson, or they had to go to their brother's or sister's game/practice/event of some kind; or their parents took them shopping or out to eat. At that time I had one child (who was 2 when I started teaching), so I didn't have the experience from a parent's point of view of making sure I was getting my kids to their activities, getting done all the house-related things, and also making sure they were getting their homework done. This made it a little difficult for me to relate to the students' situations, but I tried to help them think about how much time they did have to do their work. Being involved in activities definitely reduces time for schoolwork, but it doesn't mean t...
Support from good administration.
ReplyDeleteTrue! Thanks for responding!
DeleteGreat question! And I had two thoughts that came to mind...resources and support.
ReplyDeleteWhen I refer to resources I am including everything from curriculum materials to people! My School system has not purchased any new math or language arts programs for us in many years and we need something new, updated and that works. The last math program they purchased turned out to be a total lemon. They have also taken our people away or limited our people. We used to have a full time nurse, counselor, etc... no more of that! We only have a few Teacher Assistants and we have never had a math or reading specialist.
As for the support, I used to feel good as a teacher. Now I feel awful. Everything is our fault. When I had an autistic child in my class, I was given no training and no support and was blamed for everything that went wrong with her. I am now testing all the time and given more paperwork and no time to complete it.
Those were my first thoughts to what a teacher needs.
I know exactly how you feel. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts!
DeleteMore time.
ReplyDeleteYes! Thanks for responding!
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