Elementary Survey - January 2014

Compared to last year, how would you rate the time spent outside of your normal workday preparing for instruction and observation/evaluation

Rate your level of work-related stress

Comments:                                                                                                  

The administration seems to be pitting teachers against each other. I have heard this often especially with time. Have assessments made, don't ask teachers to make them, pacing guides, etc. Stop reinventing the wheel all the time. Let's master what works  and that fits our population over a period of time. This causes stress, constant change!! The State provides enough. Also provide structure. I feel teamwork has not been really promoted and supported. We are told to work together, but it has been the opposite.

I feel like with so many new mandates I'm not getting anything done completely. Also that my time to develop quality, appropriate and responsive lessons and interventions has disappeared.     

The teacher mandates are increasing. The amount of time I spend on work at home is growing and makes me unhappy. The paper work and assessing is too much. These are young kids who don't sit 21/2 hours to take a state test. We don't do this during our school day so why would I expect this anyway?  

Too many initiatives:  IB, slo, may expressions, map, otes, etc.

thinking of a career change... the amount of paperwork by both state and district combined has little to do with helping children succeed in the classroom.  This is not why I became a teacher.     

In the fifth grade last year we departmentalized. This year we are not departmentalized and teaching every subject in the fifth grade where the curriculum is so demanding is almost an impossible task. It is my strong opinion that last years fifth graders received a much more organized and effective education due to departmentalization and our OAA scores reflected that! Why do we get rid of things when they have proven to be successful?! 

I never cared if the principal was in or out of the building but this year when I know they are out I am less stressed!  Hmm.....  (Not a reflection on the principal, just a reflection on "walk-throughs".  

Last year the stress of the job was overwhelming.  Without the help and advice of the union, my doctor, a psychologist and a psychiatrist I would not be working this year.  Now I can recognize the stress indicators and cope with the stress, still recognizing that it is still very present and worrisome.         

I take work home almost every day.  I also very seldom take a lunch break, I need to work through lunch in order to be prepared to for my lessons.   

In addition to observation planning (pre-conference questions), responding to observations, TBT, and administering computer based tests with computer that don't connect to wireless I have a student who is very disruptive and taxes a lot of instructional time.     

The morale of our building is extremely low and thus the stress level is overly high across the board.     

Our school is working toward IB certification. We spend lots of time writing planners and there is an overload with the SLO, evaluation process and the need to write and follow IB. Something has to give and IB would make sense.     

I do not know how teachers who have children at home can do their job with all of the demands this year and be a good parent.  Evaluations, observations, TBT meetings and paper work. I am taking much more home this year and I can't seem to keep my head above water.  Teacher's comments are that they need to find another profession.  It is not about the students but how can the State of Ohio get you.       

We need time built in to our days to effectively plan for IB/STEM units as well.  TBTs are mandated as OIP work and not time is dedicated to other initiatives.         

I have a strong work ethic and take pride in my job and care a lot about my students.  However, I feel more and more that my job is more about testing and compliance paperwork than actual teaching.  All of this testing, 5 step process, IB etc etc etc is actually taking away from my students growth and education rather than enhancing it.  I am so overwhelmed with completing all the "extra" that I no longer have the time or desire to create engaging and enriching lessons for my students.  Despite my best efforts, I increasing feel like a mediocre teacher.  I'm working harder than ever beforfe and seeing less results...it's a defeating feeling.  

With the switch to IB, teachers are now working on Common Core and IB (which have opposites opinions on some things). 5th grade teachers are now teaching every subject with three OAA's to prepare for , including Science that seems to be a non factor subject grade until 5th grade (in many cases, not all). The only subject that we have a set curriculum for is Math. The other 3 subjects, I am making up as a I teach with many different resources. This is time consuming and very difficult especially when we are asked to do IB, OTES, SLOs, TBT, Second Step and everyday lessons on top of this.

I believe one of the most frustrating parts is that in every 'training' we have, we are never give work time (or enough) to actually begin to create and work on what we need to. We learn something and then by the time all the questions and confusion is sorted out- we have no time we begin working on what we actually need to get done, we are then forced to do at other times (which is taking away from time to plan meaningful and strong lessons) For example: IB training in the summer, SLO training in January.      

Trying to keep a "portfolio" of evidence for ETES is almost a full time job in and of itself.   Trying to keep up on the week to week assessments is almost an impossible job for one person. Teaching has become one of the most stressful jobs in the nation.

I feel that my relationships with the kids is suffering, and my teaching quality.

I recognize the necessity to be compliant with mandates but I believe some are doing so blindly.  We must thoughtfully consider the best way to instruct our child and how to comply with consideration to overall learning. 

Thank you.    

The OTES piece is very time-consuming. I am also disappointed to see that everyone seems to be getting the same ranking when there are clear differences in teaching ability.

Testing every three months F&P's  and Maps. along with IEP's, ETR"S, report cards, Progress reports, TBT's and assessments from TBT's , Then throw in interventions and data collection.         

 most stress from IEP writing demands     

OTES has added to my out of school work demands     

I am living on calming pills.  I feel as though I am playing catch up every day.

I have a total of 30 children with 6 distinct groups per day which is totally overwhelming.  I am not able to adequately plan and meet the needs of all my students which is my greatest concern.  We need more time and more help.  Then add in OTES, all the testing, SLO's and we are given a task which is impossible to complete.  

The expectations at this time are totally unreasonable.  

It's not the mandated assessments that are causing me stress and concern.  It is the other ways I need to spend my time in and out of the classroom.  Everything that is new this school year is challenging to manage and implement.  We have Second Step that is now the teacher's responsibility, IB units, the LLI program, OTES, eTPES, Math program, and the TBT process.  There is probably something that I am missing.  I can do it all, but I feel like none of it gets my full attention to implement well.           

There is extreme high stress in our jobs and it is not improving. There is not enough time in our day to complete everything and do it well.  I don't know about other people but I'm tired of working through lunch and at home!!!!  Stop the madness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      

I no longer have a social life, and I am seriously considering a career change.          

This year has been crazy. I can take responsibility for a new building and grade level, that would have been hard enough. But otes, maps, parcc, slo, infinite campus, changing tests calendars, I cant take it. I haven’t felt prepared to teach a day yet.     

This school year I have seen many specialists and it was suggested by each one that I consider a different career to alleviate the stress that is induced by my job.  Yes, quite a bit of the stress can be attributed to ODE but most of it is due to CHUH doing things in a retroactive fashion and not thinking about how the children are impacted.  This district acts like it cares about what is best for children but the ones who care are those who are literally stressed out...the classroom teacher.  We are stressed because gone are the days when we actually build relationships and get to know each child as a learner and human being since we feel compelled to meet so many deadlines and close achievement although we have too many initiatives in order to do anything successfully.  In my building alone, we are implementing a new math curriculum, trying to learn about IB while creating and implementing planners and teaching IB terminology, learning and administering new assessments such as MAP, learning and living through TBT Protocols, OTES, and SLO's when we should have been doing TBT Protocols almost a decade ago.  Not to mention we are expected to teach the core curriculum (Tier 1 of RtI), intervene on the core (Tier 1 of RtI still since ALL children have access to reteaching), intervene in areas where children come to us with holes and gaps (Tier 2 of RtI which is IMPOSSIBLE and UNREALISTIC for any classroom teacher to accomplish since Tier 2 means "in addition to the core"), determine all of the interventions without SAT support since that process has been placed solely on the laps of teachers, learn without proper instruction (like we would instruct children with the gradual release of responsibility) and implement all of these new tasks SUCCESSFULLY, and do so without any support.  The additional amount of paperwork that is expected is astronomical and unrealistic for elementary teachers to complete successfully within the scope of the school day or putting in at least 1 additional hour a day in the building.   

I noticed at the recent district SLO training that teachers had a disconnect between what tool they use to assess the SLOs and other benchmarks will impact their OTES evaluations.  I heard teacher remark that they would use SRI and SMI to establish and revisit baselines for SLO work.  That simply does not make sense when those assessments lack the stability needed to show student growth.  Some teachers are not grasping the big picture, and I have to wonder if that is because our PDs, in district, are not able to capture that for the teacher audience. (That is NOT to say that the presenters were not informed on their topics, because they were).       

The recent training session I completed from the State on the SLO was incredibly poor.  The methodology and match of work to grade level wasn't there.  The method of presentation was something I would have never done to my own class.          

While I have spent huge amounts of time preparing , this preparation is in no way enhancing my teaching.  In fact, the preparation , designed to show the principal the minutia of my thought process as I present a lesson, detracts from the time I can spend planning presentation/discovery that should happen while students are learning.  In order to plan for an observation I have no choice but to simplify the lesson.  Students are paying the price.

So much time is spent on district and state mandated assessments and data collection that really has very little to do with instructing students. I feel cheated out of valuable time to plan effective lessons that have real impact on student progress. TBT's are spent analyzing data and completing administrative demands when it would be much more beneficial to be collaborating and planning instruction for students. Although it is critical to have useful assessments to drive instruction, it is counter productive when assessments exceeds instruction, or is useless for the instruction process.  Then it becomes data to provide justification for someone's job.

Stressful because it is unclear what is expected.

With all of the new assessments and the OTES evaluation system I am spending much more of my weekends working on these items in lieu of grading papers.  What ultimately happens is that less papers get graded and more time is spent on items that are not directly related to the ongoing achievement of my students.     

The stress is having complete accountability without any authority. I am concerned with the loss of instructional time and planning time. If I am to be held solely accountable for student growth then I need to be able to teach and plan for teaching. Too much of my time is spent giving assessments, planning for assessments, creating the "right" posters and displays in my classroom for IB, going through what seems to be senseless paperwork for TBT, learning new standards, new programs (we change things every year). trying to figure out how to complete report cards that no longer align to the common core standards, debriefing with parents who are confused as to why we won't be teaching standards that show up on our outdated report cards, the list goes on and on. I missed over 3 weeks of ELA to administer the F&Ps last  trimester and another week to administer the Diagnostics.  Our instructional time with students is shrinking and yet our accountability grows. For example: this week I have a substitute during ELA to meet with someone to participate in "mock interviews" for IB. I need to be with my students and focused on student learning! Most of us are also taking coursework to meet the new requirements for the Third Grade Reading Guarantee (Reading Endorsement) as well. With the decrease in planning time and the increase of workload done at home in addition to coursework necessary, most teachers are working through every evening and weekend...I know I am. I feel that the CHUH administration is confused in general and that confusion filters down to the teachers. I don't know of one single teacher who is not trying to get out of teaching.        

I find myself planning, creating and buying more than in other years. I spend about 8 hrs on Saturday and Sunday preparing for the week. I spend about $100 a month on materials for the classroom because I was moved to a new grade and implementing common core in that new grade. I had very few materials. If I was in a position to leave the teaching profession I would. It is not the children but the demands that have been placed on me. I am treated less than a professional and feel like teachers are reprimanded when we try to stand up for ourselves. I feel unappreciated, underpaid and taken advantage of because I have a heart for children.    

I find it difficult to balance additional responsibilities (TBT, IB, OTES, ETPES, etc.) with the teaching/planning part of my day.       

Need more time.  Time.  Time.  Working through lunch every day.  OTES takes up more time.  Lack of working tech makes admin of MAP difficult.  Too many prof development.  BLT and TBT Training have been painful, boring and wasteful.  I wish we could get inspired and talk about engaging teaching.  And not how great Parma and Lakewood are doing with all their DATA discussions.

The amount of assessments combined with paperwork is significantly impacting time to prepare rigorous, relevant and creative lesson plans.  Furthermore, we spend more time trying to figure out how to fill out the 5 step process paper during TBT versus actually getting to speak about students and their work.  This is causing our conversations to digress rather than progress.  Utilizing data to direct instructional decisions is important but not at the expense of losing valuable collaboration and communication times with grade level team members.  This is causing an extremely high stress environment where professionals are not productive when they are working because they are so overwhelmed with tasks that are physically impossible to complete.      

This year is one of the most stressful work years of my 16 year career.           

Testing demands are the most stressful and time consuming. It takes away from real learning.        

I have been teaching for 13 years and this year is by far the hardest and most stressful. The amount of paper work, forms, assessments and procedures is overwhelming. Most of the things I am being required to do are not about my students and their education but rather about completing forms for a process for someone to review.         

I use the results of assessments to craft instruction and feel very comfortable with the data that is yielded by FP and SRI. While I am not opposed to change, the new MAP testing has not been as helpful to me since I have not been able to thoroughly investigate all its ramifications and how to effectively use the results. There have been  so many  new initiatives like, OTES, SLO, IB writing, and MAP,CCSS, and PARCC that it has taken away from instruction. 

Days out of classroom for PD are more work in preparing for subs.

BLT work seems forced. I don't feel like I get anytime in a normal day to plan. I would love a true planning time with my team.

Too much time filling out OTES forms and 5 step plans. Who has time to look at CC? I use to love being a teacher! I don't feel like I get to do it very much anymore. 

My entire evenings, weekends and breaks are consumed with work.  Their is no end to all the work!   

Here's how I feel, Please take something off the plate for every three things that are added!!!         

I feel like I have the paperwork demands of a corporate job on top of being a teacher. Time to prep the material and supplies for lessons is lost to meetings and paperwork. Planning and discussing is good, but when you have to meet to be ready for the meeting I feel like the meeting is a show for all the work we have already done outside of the meeting. We have a very powerful group of professional teachers, I just want to teach.

Nothing I want to put in writing. I would be happy to talk about it in a confidential conversation. I love my new assignment . I think OTES avery morning when I wake up.            

All of the numerous new initiatives on top of OTES are over-whelming. As an ELA teacher, I teach multiple grades and have been EXPECTED to attend the 8 TBTs per month (4 per grade level) even though only 4 are mandated contractually. The several new initiatives & all the testing have added extreme stress to an already stressful job. I work a 12-14 hour day Mon-Fri and work 8 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

High stress leads to lower productivity and low morale.  Each year more and more is being asked to accomplish with little to no time provided to complete what is being asked.  It is impossible to keep taking from an individual professionally with an expectation they also sacrifice themselves personally.  There is a clear divide amongst the people in the trenches and administration rather than a collaborative effort to improve relations in an effort to have high expectations and aspirations for our students.       

This is my first year in the district, so I am unable to compare to last year.       

Pressures to get my reading endorsement on top of the typical 12 hour day I work , coupled with the new OTES expectations have made for a beyond-stressful year.    

No other profession goes home with the burden of the workplace.  Teaching has consumed our lives.  Elementary teachers have so much on our plates, something must go in order for our students to have better learning opportunities.  CHUH has not been very organized in this year with PD and getting our teachers well prepared for OTES.  CHUH also needs to politely tell older teachers to retire because they are bogging down the TBT process and are little to no help in maintaining a successful team. 

IB planning is overwhelming and does not fit with common core!          

I feel like I spend more time assessing students than actually instructing them.  Many kindergarten assessments are given individually (there's no way around this).           

The amount of paper work is ridiculous. More and more is piled on for TBT, OTES, PLP, RIMPS, etc. without time to complete it.