From the Inside Looking Out

This year has made me notice the desperate times we have in the eduction world. I am experiencing first hand how important it is that we figure out a way to support new teachers. The education world already has a bad rap. We don’t get paid enough. It’s a demanding job that just seems to be piling more on teachers. We deal with challenging kids.  And yet people are still going to school to become teachers. So why is it that when these teachers finally make it to their first classroom we throw them in there like we are feeding them to a pack of wild dogs?? If we had some sort of support system in place for EVERY new teacher (not just the ones who show they need it), I bet the retention rate of new teachers would soar. This support system can’t be after school sessions that they can attend, because let’s be honest we are all exhausted at the end of the day. It can’t be extra professional development that takes them out of the classroom because the classroom is where the...

Lately we’ve been seeing all over the place about how teachers work hard for little pay. Well I have another example of this for you... This past week we took 85 fifth graders on an overnight field trip to Camp Schmidt. Now this is a field trip sponsored by the county to an environmental center so it is absolutely free for the students which is amazing! Side note... I taught in Virginia for 3 years before moving to Maryland. When I first started working with 5th grade in another county I heard about these overnight field trips that I’m assuming all counties in Maryland take. At first the teacher in me was like wait, we take students on a field trip overnight? We have to make them go to bed and then we ourselves have to try and sleep? And we have to make sure we get all of these kids back in one piece after 30 hours?! Clearly I had never had an experience with this growing up or in my 3 years teaching. But I digress. This was my 4th experience and honestly if I ever stop te...