Category Archives: teacher

Teacher Burnout- Part Two

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I talked the other day about teacher burnout. Well it continues. Right now my big frustration is student behavior. I don’t think that people who haven’t been in a classroom for twenty years have any idea of what the students behave like today. Don’t get me wrong. I have plenty of great kids. I also have whole classes who are well-behaved. But I have other classes that I just dread going to. If only one in ten students is a class disruption, and you have forty kids in a class, that’s four class disruptions to deal with, usually at the same time. When this happens though, it sets off other students– the followers.

Teacher Burnout

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Boy. I am feeling the burnout right now.

Burnout
A teacher’s loss of idealism and enthusiasm for work (Matheny, Gfroerer, and Harris 2000).

“An extreme type of role-specific alienation with a focus on feelings of meaninglessness, especially as this applies to one’s ability to successfully reach students” (Wood, McCarthy 2000).

“Syndrome resulting from teachers’ inability to protect themselves against threats to their self esteem and well being” (Haberman)

Causes for Teacher Burnout

Burnout is the result of a long period of stress. Stress comes from the perception of a teacher that the resources available to deal with the stress are not adequate. In other words, the stressors (demands from the job) outweigh the resources available to deal with the demands. Example: “Teachers must face a classroom full of students every day, negotiate potentially stressful interactions with parents, administrators, counselors, and other teachers, contend with relatively low pay and shrinking school budgets, and ensure students meet increasingly strict standards of accountability.” (Wood, McCarthy 2000).

If I had my druthers last Friday, I would have quit. Since I don’t have that option, I spent the weekend mulling over how I could turn it around, and I’m working on that today. By the time you read this (since I’m writing a couple of weeks in advance) I should have things going the way I want them, or I’ll have exploded an aneurysm.

Calling on Parents

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The truth is that I have always hated talking on the phone. I do it as little as possible. My cell phone minutes usually run in the single digits each month. But part of my job as teacher is to call parents. Unfortunatley this has not helped cure me of my dislike for using the phone. Of the twenty or so parents I’ve called so far this year for help with unruly students, only one has been helpful. This is just the latest in a trend. It seems to get worse every year. Instead of trying to help me make the student accountable for their actions, 95% or parents (as judged from this sample) want to argue on their child’s behalf that inappropriate behavior is excusable. This is not only not helpful, it is doing a disservice to the child.

Computer Crashes Suck

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I suppose I have to say that I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been using a computer gradebook of one variety or another for fifteen years, and until today I’ve never had a problem. Unfortunately today I did have one. My gradebook file has been corrupted. The data from one class is gone, both in my original file and in the backup. My very wonderful Education Computing Strategist is online with the tech support people to see if we can unscramble the data. Barring that, well, I have the overall grades recorded on paper, just not the grades for individual assignments. I’ll still be able to assign grades. The sad thing is that most of my students don’t care what those grades will be.

Back to School

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Yesterday I, like many teachers around the country, came back to school after a brief rest period. In my case, it was very brief as I taught summer school for six weeks. The students won’t arrive until Monday, so three days to get everything set up and ready for them. So if you know a teacher, be nice to them this week, and the next few weeks too.

What is the City of Amathar Blog?

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As you can read in my bio, I have been a teacher for the past fourteen years. I’ve taught English and History and my current position is as a seventh grade U.S. History teacher. I just finished teaching two semesters of high school level U.S. History Summer School. I am also an aspiring novelist. So while you may expect postings about education and school and all kinds of other things that might impact the life of a forty eight year old male American, the main focus of this blog is my writing. I would of course, like to promote my writing. But just as importantly, I intend to focus on my struggle to get published. I am set for the long haul. I am going to write, I am going to submit my writing to publishers and agents, and I’m going to let you know what happens.