By Sammy Ginsberg
Below you’ll find my complete list of solutions that I wish had existed or been in place to prevent me from burning out. I am going to use this as the starting point for the nonprofit that I am going to create the implement these solutions so that one day I can return to teaching for LAUSD.
Problem: Teaching 9th Honors ELA, 12th Honors ELA as part of the full-inclusion academy with co-teachers mandated to implement EGI/Mastery AND ELD 1 and 2 in a double block, thus responsible for creating 4 hours of lesson plans every day with almost no support from ELA or ELD department or administrators,
As a first year teacher with an at will contract working to clear my credential and get permanent status, I did not have any power to improve my situation. Thus, I chose to focus on what was in my control, prioritize my self-care and do what I needed to do to get to the end of the day. And I did.
This situation, however, could have been greatly improved or prevented by:
- My induction mentor had advocated for me and spoken to the admin or my UTLA rep about the four preps that I had to do.
- My co-teacher had a clear guide on what are divided responsibilities were and who in the department I could talk to about challenges and supports to make sure our relationship was healthy for both of us.
- The ELA department could have had grade-level teams that met regularly that used a similar curriculum, texts, and grading rubrics that I could have used immediately in my classes and had people using the same materials that I could have asked questions and supported me.
- The Head of ELA/ELD and the administrator for ELA and ELD could have realized that having a brand new teacher with no support system at the school be the only teacher responsible for the International Newcomers in the entire 3,000 person school would be excruciatingly isolating and would harm both the teacher and the students as well as having a co-teacher because co-teachers are meant to only give feedback and make modifications but they need lesson plans and instructions which can take two to three years to develop and I was forced to do that from day one.
- Provide Group Therapy to teachers in Los Angeles that meets in person and weekly to help teachers build their support network, especially if they aren’t able to build it at their own school sites.
- Provide a list of housing resources and places to rent a room specifically for teachers in LA to help them meet community and a support network that understands their lifestyle.
- If all meetings are on Zoom, need to create intentional spaces for relationship building and mentorship.
- A new teacher group should meet the needs of its new teachers, and if people stop going it is because their needs are not being met, and you need to ask them why they are not coming any more and what they need to fix that instead of just saying they are busy or lazy or are just doing fine and don’t need the extra support or extra money, especially we are literally paid to attend the meeting.
- The school district should provide better training for mentors in the induction program to teach them emotional support and venting skills, as well as to have them better advocate for the new teacher in the administration departments since as a new teacher with at will employment, you are essentially powerless as well as unaware of how the system works and can easily be taken advantage of, as well as create a cohort program across the district by discipline
Problem: Same fucking problem as year one
Some ways I tried to solve the problem and did:
- Just go to the Principal, who cares about protocol and structure when people are not respecting your problem and making you seem weak, incompetent and selfish. I wish I had gone to him sooner instead of trying to work and being ignored and not supported by my administrators.
- Hope is very important
- Colleagues are really important and powerful in supporting us, and relationship building routines need to be invested in and put in place for the school system and a school to function and have a healthy, quality professional learning community, especially teachers of different ranges of experiences and backgrounds.
- Validation is powerful
- We need to do some analysis at how other schools organize their ELA and ELD departments to more equitably divide the workload between teachers and better serve our students.
- ELD students have specific learning needs and need teachers who are aware and have the tools, resources, and support to do so- especially less preps in order to have more time for calling home, building relationships, classroom management and cross-collaboration to support students across the whole day in all their classes, not just in their block
- Grad school is still not lesson planning, grade-level, and departmental collaboration. That is the responsibility of your school site. Grad school just gives you more ideas and credible research to back up your ideas when trying to do them at your school sites if your admin question you, and you meet other people who are passionate about what you are passionate about and can learn from each other’s experiences!
Solutions
- If a teacher is in a masters program, try to give them one or two preps or no new preps, especially if it is in education and they are doing research that will benefit your students and your schools reputation
- encourage and support her to present a teacher PD to her ELA or ELD department
- Respond to your teachers emails, especially if they are asking to meet and talk about the school’s vision and goals and how they want to be more of a leader in the school
- If a new teacher shows up to the leadership meetings and then stops coming, admin should directly message them to find out why they stopped coming and encourage them to come back
- Co-teaching takes more time and is harder than teaching alone. Managing multiple co-teaching relationships is very challenging, don’t give new teachers coteachers unless there is a solid curriculum in place from the department
- The ELD Coordinator should also be an ELD teacher or should at least have taught the exact levels and curriculums so they can actually support and coach, not just enforce testing procedures
- The ELD program needs to be evaluated as it is not the same as ELA, and requires teachers across departments to collaborate, similar to a magnet – in order to truly support students in being successful in a traditional American high school.
Solutions:
- If a teacher transfers in the middle of the year, immediately set them up in the new teacher meetings and invest in time to build the team and build trust between colleagues
- This can be done by organizing team lunches, team happy hours, a team off-site, reviewing cultural norms and classroom management expectations, and setting/reviewing priorities as a department/program
- When a teacher tells you what they need to be successful and why they are transferring, listen to them and give them what they need. Don’t belittle them or question if they belong at your school or in the teaching profession
- Emotional safety for the teacher is equally important to that of the student.
- Teachers are part of a classroom management system. To be truly effective, all teachers and administrators need to be working together to implement cultural norms and best practice for resolving conflict and behaviors that create a hostile or toxic environment that threaten both students and educations psychological needs for confidence, choice, and belonging
- Shaming and criticizing and writing them up without providing solutions, support, or resources only makes teachers feel threatened and stops them from trusting you or wanting to work with you, collaborating and learning together or receiving more feedback from you
- School sites have a hierarchical structure. Be aware of your power, and use it to build people up, not tear people down.
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