Martha MacCallum (pissed-off) about Public School Teacher Shortage

Who in there right mind would teach school in Memphis Public Schools?

This.

EBR has shortages right now and a lot of it is because the school system sucks. If someone has offers from Zachary, Central, Ascension, Livingston, or West Feliciana, they are highly unlikely to take a job with EBR or stay in that system unless they have a plum position.

People don’t sign up with EBR and go “I want to teach at Glen Oaks!”

quote:

---

Let them teach and have their backs.

---

This is the true problem. I know a teacher that just up and quit because she had lost the support of administration in dealing with problem kids.

quote:

---

Maybe the schools should try to micromanage their teachers less.

---

Perhaps the teachers are unqualified to be teaching and they need the guidance. Several large cities are facing teacher shortages....and many of them shouldn't be in teaching roles to begin with. But they are in fact warm bodies which is terrible.

quote:

---

Shelby County Schools reports over 200 teacher vacancies at start of school year Samantha WestChalkbeat Tennessee September 14, 2021

---

LINK

quote:

---

We are just days away from the start of the new school year ... and shelby county schools needs to fill hundreds of teaching positions. District officials say... as of monday ... 257 teachers are needed.

---

That’s from 2019.
LINK

quote:

---

she had lost the support of administration in dealing with problem kids.

---

What do you think Administration can do about it?

Hint: the Department of Education has tied public schools’ hands in dealing with problem kids.

quote:

---

Behavior that threatens a proper learning environment needs immediate attention. Like everybody else these days, teachers are paralyzed and walking on eggshells. Inmates are running the asylum.

---

You are 100% correct.

quote:

---

Tell me more about micromanagement. What does it involve?

---

It is sad that teachers have really no say in the curriculum and how it should be taught. They are provided with lesson plans from the county, which comes from the national level and are instructed on how to teach it.

There really isn't any freedom for teachers to go outside the box on instruction. When I was a teacher I use to develop games for learning. Around the time of the Super Bowl we had our own in class Super Bowl teams. I would put down tape for yard lines, we selected teams, and there were questions that would value out at 5 yards, 10 yards, etc. The students loved it, they learned the material because they wanted to win the game, and we actually had a winning team and a losing team. There is no way teachers could do something like that today!

Now they teach to the test and the results of the test are all that matter, not whether the students actually learned the material.

quote:

---

It is sad that teachers have really no say in the curriculum and how it should be taught.

---

No, it’s not. That’s like saying it’s sad that nurses have really no say in writing hospital protocols. Teachers are front-line employees. They’re not really qualified to write curriculum on an individual basis.

And curriculum should be pretty standardized across a grade level.

quote:

---

teach to the test

---

How would you propose we assess student learning?

So no answer. Got it.