Lessons They Don't Want You To Know

Episode 10 is available again!

If you tried listening earlier this week and couldn't find it, it's back online.

Thank you for your patience—and thank you for supporting the podcast!

🎙️ Episode 10: The Initiative Graveyard is available now!

Why do so many education initiatives begin with great intentions but never seem to solve the underlying problem?

In this episode, we look beyond the buzzwords and ask one question that keeps coming up:

Where is Tier 3?

If you've ever wondered why teachers feel like they're constantly asked to implement the "next big thing," this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nNGXzDHtA6WLpTCwOcuVG?si=LayWcFHZQTW29_c2hhrkKQ

My latest episode! "Initiative Graveyard." Get it on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nNGXzDHtA6WLpTCwOcuVG?si=2_SIl8vWSOSx1UPp3f5k9Q

Every teacher who has ever considered leaving the profession should be asked this question: is it the students?

In nearly every case, the answer is no.

The students—exhausting, complex, demanding, wonderful students—are almost never the reason a teacher walks away. The reasons are bureaucratic overload. Administrative systems that feel designed to create work rather than support it. Parents who lead with accusations rather than partnership. Policies made without teacher input about teachers' realities. A culture of accountability that flows in only one direction.

The children in our classrooms are not the problem. They are, in fact, the reason so many teachers stay far longer than they perhaps should in conditions that are unsustainable. What would change if we made teachers' professional lives as much a priority as student outcomes? 💛

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Cg3VKQAQG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

😡 STUDENT BEHAVIOR HAS GOTTEN SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE AND EVERYONE IN CHARGE IS PRETENDING OTHERWISE

This is not a teacher perception problem.

This is not teachers being less resilient than they used to be.

This is not a generational complaint about kids today.

This is documented, measurable, widely reported, and being experienced by teachers across every grade level, every subject area, and every type of school in this country.

Students are refusing to do work at rates that were not normal five years ago.

Students are walking out of classrooms at rates that were not normal five years ago.

Students are speaking to adults in ways that would have had consequences five years ago and now result in a conversation about what the adult could have done differently to prevent the student from feeling the need to respond that way.

And teachers are being asked to manage all of it with fewer tools, less support, and more documentation requirements than ever before.

While also hitting every academic standard.

While also differentiating for every learning need.

While also maintaining a warm and productive classroom environment that the student who just refused to work and walked out will return to tomorrow as if nothing happened.

Because nothing did happen.

That is the problem.

Signed, Elle. A former teacher who got tired of being the only person in the building who was expected to have consequences for her actions.

More on this in an upcoming episode...

How can we expect the public to respect teachers when some of the people making educational decisions treat teachers as though their professional judgment has little value?

How long can any profession thrive when the people doing the work feel constantly second-guessed by the very people who are supposed to support them?

Teachers don’t need to be put on a pedestal. They don’t need special treatment. But they do need to be
trusted as professionals.

Respect for teachers doesn’t begin outside the school system, it begins within it.