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I wish, as a teacher, I could have told parents that the "teacher" in their child's classroom was really a long term sub, and basically was hired off the street. So many classrooms have long term subs now, because districts don't want to hire teachers, and give them the pay and benefits. But, that was not my call.
So, parents, ask your child's teacher....are you a long term sub? If so, request a meeting, and have your child moved to a classroom with a real teacher.
Well, what do you think they should have to do? Be a fully qualified teacher? Why would someone want to complete the same qualifications as a teacher, but settle for being a sub?
Maybe it's different in other areas, but There's certainly not a shortage of unemployed teachers in my region.
This is an outdated article but it's still relevant today.
The first school district discussed in the artcile is in a county nearby. It had 2,000 applications on hand and gets 50 new applicants per day.
This is typical for districts in my region.
Here's why:
Quote:
Many applicants are drawn to the state's public schools by the promise of higher pay and better benefits than in most other states.
Quote:
The primary reason for Pennsylvania's glut of teacher candidates is the number of colleges and universities that offer teaching degrees, according to Doyle, Pitcock and others. Pennsylvania is home to more than 90 of the 1,280 colleges and universities nationwide that offer teaching majors, Pitcock said.
"Pennsylvania produces a large number of teacher candidates," Doyle said. "We have a lot of institutions for education, and that creates an overabundance of candidates. Typically, Western Pennsylvanians do not want to leave; they want to stay here, their family's here."
Yikes! Well hasn't this thread turned nasty. Here are my 5 cents...
1) Most teachers are not earning $100K or even $50K. Sure some do, but most are earning under 50.
2) I am reminded of the reasons I left pediatric nursing and my sister is no longer a high school teacher when reading through this thread. Pretty sad.
3) There are good teachers and bad. I had a few bad ones, my kids have had some mediocre ones, but most were good to great. I certainly wouldn't do it.
4) Being an advocate for one's child does not mean being aggressive or belittling teachers. Good grief, gotta love a whole bunch of armchair experts.
5) Education does not equal what happens in the classroom, that is just a component. After school activities, sport, cultural pursuits, family activities, hobbies are all a part of education.
6) Reading material not on on the AR or Lexile recommendations are still going to be beneficial, and heck, may even be fun. Asterix, Tintin, the series by Stephen and Lucy Hawking, the Sunday Comics, National Geographic, all fun reading which will inspire children to read more.
I don' t think they need to have a degree in education, but I think they need to take some type of certification class of some kind. A person with a degree in some liberal arts classes to me, is really not qualified to be teaching kids over the age of 5.... I also don't think they (subs) should be so free willing to say that it is easy money and that they only do it because the hours are perfect for them. I think there should be some genuine interest in teaching the kids....
This doesn't just happen with subs. Aren't you aware that many people chose teaching as a career for those very reasons?
Yikes! Well hasn't this thread turned nasty. Here are my 5 cents...
1) Most teachers are not earning $100K or even $50K. Sure some do, but most are earning under 50.
2) I am reminded of the reasons I left pediatric nursing and my sister is no longer a high school teacher when reading through this thread. Pretty sad.
3) There are good teachers and bad. I had a few bad ones, my kids have had some mediocre ones, but most were good to great. I certainly wouldn't do it.
4) Being an advocate for one's child does not mean being aggressive or belittling teachers. Good grief, gotta love a whole bunch of armchair experts.
5) Education does not equal what happens in the classroom, that is just a component. After school activities, sport, cultural pursuits, family activities, hobbies are all a part of education.
6) Reading material not on on the AR or Lexile recommendations are still going to be beneficial, and heck, may even be fun. Asterix, Tintin, the series by Stephen and Lucy Hawking, the Sunday Comics, National Geographic, all fun reading which will inspire children to read more.
PA requires subs to be certificated teachers. MD is the warm body, breathing, high school diploma holding state for sub qualifications.
Subbing is tough. Today is History tomorrow is Math and the day after is PE. It's hard to match a sub with a subject so the wise teacher leaves work that the students can pretty much do on their own.
Subbing is babysitting, really, and no sub gets a living wage doing it, and most states (if not all) don't offer benefits.
We have several retirees who are regular subs at my school, including a couple retired teachers. They mostly do it to keep busy and not get hooked on daytime TV.
Someone mentioned long term subs being used as a cost saving measure. Maybe, but likely not. Some subjects are incredibly hard to fill due to a lack of candidates, especially if the vacancy occurs after about Aug. 1.
Where do you live, NYMD67? In my state, substitutes have the exact same education and certifications as full time teachers. Emergency certification is possible but a school district has to apply for that. Since there are plenty of properly educated and certified unemployed teachers in my state, there would be no reason for a school district to seek emergency certification for a substitute.
You are in PA, right Hopes? I was thinking the same thing. All the subs I know are certified, college educated, bachelor degree holding professionals.
I find myself to be a very hands on type of parent when it comes to education. But I've never thought to select books for my children based on Lexile scores or anything like that. The idea honestly never occurred to me.
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