TheApple

teachers should NOT be responsible for society's little brats who have parents with NO parenting skills..., there is far too many education dollars being spent on "behavior disorder" brats when for, OVERWHELMINGLY, most of them a good swat or two would "cure" their "BD".

I consider teaching as a noble profession. With our teachers, we can't be somebody today. Our success is the result of all their hard work. School administrator must do something for the welfare of all teachers. They must get more benefits than anybody else.

Jack Courtney

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: An Additional/Alternate List of "7 Biggest
Challenges Teachers Face."

Federal Secretary of Education, Which I Hope We Live Long Enough to See One Whom Actually Was a Classroom Teacher. To not talk of Optimal Curricular Institutions (though they make great sound bites), but to realistically compare and strive for an Education That Will Match Future Required Employment Skills.
“Arnie D.” Needs To Look At The Department of Labor’s Job Growth Statistics, Before He Continues with His Big Bad Wolf Impersonation!

States Secretary of Education, to follow Nation Standards of Curriculum (no not the new National Standards) but to implement the Use of NCTM, NSF, NCTE and NCSS, et…al, rather than turning them into their States Concept of a “Good Education,” generally know as “Dumbing Down,” so their Stats Look Better.

Congress, who Only Offers Lip Service, so They Appear to be Concerned, so it Improves Their Reelection Chances.

Principals who were in the Classroom only long enough to get their Administrative Credential.

Constant Curricular Mandates/Changes, without Proper/Complete Funding and Inservicing.

Districts whom Allow Bad Behaviors by Not Enforcing their State’s Education Code!

Stop Training Teachers as Journeyman For District Needs and Return to the Study of Comprehensive Instruction & Techniques, thereby, Returning It To the Status of Professional Educator.

Like Cynthia, I thought I was "on track". Then suddenly my observations became negative and I was told that I probably wouldn't be rehired. I was told that I didn't collaborate well with my peers, didn't respect the parents and had multiple complaints (which I was not allowed to see). I was removed as director of the school play and a parent replaced me. Then I was also told that if I resigned the negative observations would stop. I resigned but the abuse continued until I threatened legal action.

Ditto "schoolcrusader" And hopefully, school districts, our state and our federal government will wake the heck up-behavioral problems are the number one problem that I see. And if we don't start getting the support we need, the point was already made-it is not fair to hold us accountable for the students not achieving.
I will premise this with the fact that I used to have a fantastic administrative team who were visible and genuinely cared. I'm not in that environment anymore (having been pink-slipped due to economic cutbacks in the school district)
I'd like to share just one example from my classroom today- I tried to teach Science( 45 min., 29 students) Some students actually wanted to learn and asked for some help on a few things. However, I couldn't give them that help because let's see...there needed to be a special ed. co-teacher in the classroom to deal with the two emotionally disturbed students who have major anger issues and were yelling out and being totally disruptive, several students were just lazy(intelligent but didn't want to do the work)-One propped his feet up on the desk and smacked gum, another decided to go over and bother the other students who were actually trying to work, one student decided to lock the other students out because they were tardy-she just made up the rule on her own... And one student shared with me she's 2 weeks late(7th grader)-so I reported that directly to the counselor and my other team members. So, I never got to teach the students who really wanted to learn-there's something very wrong with that picture...now, I will say there is hope for humanity-I had 2 smaller classes of Pre-AP Science of 12 and 15 and actual teaching and learning took place. I know as teachers we are trying our best(almost all of us) We don't get the kuddos near enough-so today I would like to say congratulations fellow teachers to all of us for showing up and doing our best!

Boy, if this isn't yet another data point for why comprehensive social skills education is needed. Consistently teachers rank problems with students that are ill-behaved, unruly, and unfocused as their #1 problem. Yet, ask a school about why they don't have an effective program in place and they'll say "we can't afford it" or "we don't have time."

Well, it's already costing teachers precious teaching time to have students that are disruptive and unprepared to learn. It costs EVERYONE in the school system from lack of achievement, to loss of productive learning time, to bullying and other anti-social behavior and more.

It's not fair to hold teachers accountable for student achievement when so many of the kids come to school unprepared to succeed in a classroom setting. It's not that "we can't afford it"...it's obvious we can't afford NOT do something about it.

- Corinne Gregory
www.socialsmarts.com

I agree with the article that behavioral problems outweight anything related to presenting content or curriculum demands.