[nobe-l] Teaching

[Kayla James]

That does sound a little sad, but I still want to work with children somehow.

On 3/19/16, nmpbrat--- via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> For whatever its worth, you are not alone in how you feel about education
> and teaching today.  Teaching isn't what it once was...not even back when I
> started teaching 14 years ago.  The expectations and demands on teachers is
> overwhelming and it is driving many, even those who have won awards for
> "Teacher of the Year" and such, out of the profession.  Teaching seems to be
> more about data and numbers than it does about the students.  My students
> are not a number....and their life experiences, traits, learning styles,
> abilities, personalities, etc. cannot be measured in numbers.  The people
> who are making the laws, regulations, expectations, etc. of the teaching
> profession have not spent the time in the classroom (if at all) to have any
> idea of the challenges we face in today's classrooms.  I've heard many a
> colleague say "I didn't go to school to be a data analyst or clerical
> professional....I went to school to be a teacher" or "If I didn't have a
> family to take care of, I'd leave the teaching profession because teaching
> isn't what it once was".  It's sad...but true.  Burn out in the field of
> teaching in today's world is real.  It seems as though no matter how hard
> you work or the number of hours you put in, it never seems to be good
> enough.
> Although I have contemplated the idea of leaving the profession, my love for
> teaching has still outweighed those thoughts.  There are moments and
> victories with my students that I hold on to that remind me of why I chose
> to enter the profession to begin with.  I just continue to hope that the
> pendulum swings back the other direction while I'm still teaching and those
> making the decisions come to realize that things are not always measurable
> when dealing with living, breathing human beings.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: adrijana prokopenko via NOBE-L <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>
> To: nobe-l <nobe-l at nfbnet.org>; Professionals in Blindness Education
> Division List <pibe-division at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: adrijana prokopenko <adrijana.prokopenko at gmail.com>
> Sent: Sat, Mar 19, 2016 9:51 am
> Subject: [nobe-l] Teaching
>
> Hi all,
>
>  I am a teacher of English in Macedonia and I think I am getting to
> feel that I am constantly caught up in paperwork, so much so that I no
> longer feel as a teacher any more. Every year the ministry of
> education comes up with all kinds of projects, so that we have more
> paperwork to do and besides the annual programs, daily lesson plans,
> students individual plans, a portfolio for each one, daily notices of
> how each one is doing, weekly reports and grades sent out to class
> teachers and parents, we now have something like ecology planning and
> information technology planning no matter what subject we teach. We
> need to incorporate this into our lesson plans as well and on top of
> all, we need to do reports that headmasters and psychologists were
> helping out with, that have to do with counting lessons and putting
> more and more of all this online, which is another trouble because
> their system and website are not working well for sighted people, let
> alone for blind people. Since this is a state school, we are not
> allowed too much flexibility and can't participate in choosing what
> and when we teach. The textbooks are constantly changing, so I keep
> brailling each again and again as it comes out and feel that each one
> is less suitable for my students.  In addition to this, we get more
> and more students with other learning difficulties and facce with
> shortages of braillers, so I often find myself brailling for each
> students all that I need to let them have for each class twice, so
> that they have a copy and home and not lose it or misplace it and a
> copy they need to use in class. All this is draining me too much,
> because I am getting to feel that I also do other peoples work and I
> am getting to feel less joy when teaching, because now besides
> teachers, we need to do other things, which is not bad, but when
> considering that teachers are no longer being protected by schools or
> through the government, it is just very easy for totally blind
> teachers to get into all kinds of trouble that they never dreamed of.
> Many students bring their cel phones and other devices to school, not
> letting them go during the lessons as well and it makes the whole
> thing very disruptive and teaching is becoming impossible to do while
> all this is going on and when teachers feel they can no longer manage
> things much in a way they think they know how. Our school's policy is:
> "Just teach and get away with it" because we got less and less
> students and we may be closed one day" and parents and students know
> this, so some just relax and keep giving more trouble. I was never a
> quitter, but am getting to wonder if others experience the same and if
> there are other similar jobs to this that are as fulfilling, but not
> so stressful to manage and not so much grade related? I love working
> with children, but am getting to feel that all this is now for nothing
> and it is a terrible feeling.
>
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