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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (154786)	1/22/2011 10:18:41 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543200

I understand the problem. And I sympathize. I also agree with Elroy that you can't have critical thinking if you don't have basic skills- except in the most unusual savant. So I'm torn. Education, imo, has no easy answers. It's all hard work. Teachers need to work hard, and students need to work hard. My job has gotten immeasurably harder now that the trimester system and enlarged class sizes have given me over 140 students a trimester (and they all change 3 times a year). I spend almost every night grading a lot of papers. Luckily, I have options since I have multiple credentials, and I think I'll be moving to elementary school soon, as my master teacher tells me there is a retirement at his school, and he'd like me to join the faculty. I'm lucky that I have a very good reputation, and am in demand. But if teachers like me leave, because (imo) the work load is almost impossible, I don't know what will be left. I refuse to compromise the rigor of my classes, because my students need to write. I just can't teach at a lower level, even though I know others are, and the person who replaces me probably will. I don't know what the answer is. I do know, when I had my freshman classes capped at 20, and my sophomore classes capped at 30, it was a lot easier to assign at least 1 essay a week, and one major essay per month. Now I am having a very hard time grading all that work- with my freshman class at 36, and my sophomores at 37. I feel very lucky that I have no serious behavior problems this trimester. I have some rambunctious boys, but they mean me no harm. A couple of times I've hired English grad students to help me grade essays. But I don't get paid for that. Some of the English teachers have simply begun to assign fewer essays, which does a disservice to our students. But I completely understand why they are easing off.