"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/17/2018 at 13:39 • Filed to: AAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
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"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher)
04/17/2018 at 13:39 • Filed to: AAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | 10
| 6 |
In general I believe it’s true that teachers are underpaid overall. That’s not what this is about. I work in a pretty good district, I pull down a decent salary. I can support my family. I’m fine there.
Our special education aids, they are the ones who are tragically unpaid. It would be comical, if it didn’t have dire consequences. To give you an example, I accidentally saw the W2 of one of our aids a few months ago (she printed it on my printer, and forgot to go get it). This is a college-educated woman who works very hard at a largely thankless job. She works full time, and made $17k dollars last year. That’s a fucking travesty.
As a result we are constantly short of aids, because very few qualified people are willing to work for chicken feed. The school I work in has a large Hispanic population. Many of them are very recent transplants. I love those kids. They are some of the nicest, hardest working, best behaved kids you will ever meet. We don’t have a bilingual aid anymore, because the one we had took a better paying job. Can’t blame her for that, we were lucky to have her as long as we did. She’s been gone six months now, with no replacement. Kind of hard to teach a kid to draw CAD who doesn’t speak a word of English. I have four of them right now. The bilingual kids do their best to help, but they’re trying to learn this stuff too.
Between all the kids I have right now who don’t speak English, and just regular Special Ed kids who should have an aid, but don’t, I’m going insane. I have a sweet as can be kid in the same class as two of the Spanish speaking kids. A week and a half into the term, and I’m still trying to teach her how to read a ruler. That’s usually a 1-2 day thing. Three if a kid is really struggling. No aid. No help. No support. I feel like I’m fucking drowning right now.
But it’s not about me. My job isn’t in jeopardy. I can excuse them from as much work as I need to so they can pass. That’s not the point. How the fuck are these kids supposed to learn anything? It’s not fucking fair for them to just sit there confused as shit while I bounce from one fire to the next.
We’re in a contract year right now. I’d honestly take a 0% raise, if they’d give the money to the aids so we can get more and better aids, and retain them.
It’s lunchtime now. I’m going for a drive. I need to get out of the building before I lose my shit and start yelling at the other adults in the building.
Chariotoflove
> shop-teacher
04/17/2018 at 14:06 |
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This is true of special ed everywhere. Honestly, if our society wasn’t blessed with people who take these jobs because they care about kids, our public education system would crumble entirely instead of limping along on crutches, like it does in some districts.
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shop-teacher
> Chariotoflove
04/17/2018 at 14:15 |
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Oh, I know this isn’t unique to my district. It’s a huge problem.
LOREM IPSUM
> shop-teacher
04/17/2018 at 14:22 |
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Wait wait wait... They put kids who cannot speak any English at all into classes without a Spanish speaking faculty member? Talk about setting them up to fail. Excusing them from doing the work isn’t doing them or anyone else any favors, and it makes the diploma worth less than the paper it is printed on. This is an absolute travesty. These kids should be in an ESL class first, preferably one that is also teaching the standard curriculum, and once they are fluent then they should matriculate to the classroom with everyone else. Not only are these Spanish-speaking-only kids missing out, the rest of the class is as well because you now have to spend an inordinate amount of time covering things that would be otherwise easily taught.
I feel for you, and for your students.
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shop-teacher
> LOREM IPSUM
04/17/2018 at 15:47 |
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It’s called “mainstreaming.” They do it all the time. When I have a Spanish speaking aid, it works great. The kids learn English faster when they’re in normal classes as much as possible ... but we need an aid!
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LOREM IPSUM
> shop-teacher
04/17/2018 at 15:58 |
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Just shows how little I know about the topic. Hope things improve for youse!
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shop-teacher
> LOREM IPSUM
04/17/2018 at 16:18 |
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Thanks. It wasn’t done this way even 20 years ago, but it is the way of the world now.