"Revolving Door" Teachers

As an aspiring teacher, the conditions of the work environment in education are of great concern to myself and my peers. We often hear that there are no jobs, or to get a job the key is to get a masters in special education, or the key is to not get a masters until you start teaching because as a new teacher, getting hired with a masters costs more money. We're told to tutor, or to not. To substitute, but only in the district we want to teach in, if we can get our substitute license. We are often given hours of advice on what to do or not to do at an interview, what to wear, who to have as a reference, what our GPA and Praxis scores must be... It can send any aspiring professional's head spinning.

As there is a great deal of concern about how to get a job, we can often forget to worry about what it will be like once inside a classroom. We all have the image of the classroom we want to teach in, or at least I do. An affluent or blue ribbon school with computers, smart boards, and other various technology. We hope to co-teach or team-teach, have time to help our students after school, and have great support from our supervisors.  For my peers who desire to teach in urban districts, they look forward to the companionship with their future peers and the action of making a difference for students who deserve a wonderful education, no matter where they live.

Unfortunately, it appears that these dreams are becoming just dreams. According to the article "Why They Leave" from the National Education Association, more and more teachers are feeling dissatisfied with where they work. This feeling of discontentment is causing  the national turnover rate for all teachers to be 17%, and "in urban school districts specifically, the number jumps to 20 percent." Even more upsetting, 1/3 of "of all new teachers leave after three years, and 46 percent are gone within five years."  I'll be joining the workforce as a new teacher, hopefully if I can find a position, within a year and these numbers are extremely imtimidating.

The article goes on to site standardized testing scores/No Child Left Behind standards,  a lack of support, a lack of discipline from students, low pay, low funding in schools, and low respect from administration combined with the general attitude of society that teachers are unintelligent as reasons for leaving. One of my family members that is a teacher has been telling me for years that she often spends money out of her own pocket to get her students supplies, or be able to teach her lessons. Another family friend who teaches in a target district in South Jersey has told me that the students don't care about their education, and neither do their parents; the administration in his district does little to nothing to support their teachers, including in matters of disciplining students There is the national assumption that "those who cannot do, teach." Meaning, those who cannot be artists, actors, writings, scientists, mathematicians or published historians turn to teaching as a way to make money. I remember the panic in my high school when Governor Christie began to slash funding for schools, as well as the depictions of the struggles within the Teachers' Union about pay cuts, pay freezes and benefits.

Overall, the teaching climate has become more than rocky, and it only takes a few minutes to search Google and find all of these very frightening statistics. So, for those of us who feel that teaching is what we are supposed to do - those who feel that the moment when a student "gets it" or the "light bulb goes off" are worth the struggle, how do we begin to deal with all of these pressures stacking up against teachers? The main idea I can produce is to make friends with staff and peers in the school. For days that are difficult and disorganized, I would imagine that leaning on other teachers would be a necessity. For days that are wonderful and cohesive, sharing the experience with another teacher could be extremely beneficial. Further, as a unit, teachers can start to change their work environments, if we work together. There will be difficulties in all jobs, but leaning on each other may be best.

Let me know what you're thinking by leaving a comment! I'd love to hear other ideas about our situations as aspiring teachers!