Metro is short 100 teachers.
Cheatham County is short 5 teachers.
Rutherford County is short 24 teachers.
Wilson County is short 53 teachers.
Sumner County is short 34 teachers.
If you look at the websites for those counties you will see that the majority of those positions are in elementary schools. Teachers don’t get paid enough money, that is for sure, but it is not the primary reason there is a teacher shortage. The primary reason is that teachers are not respected the way they should be. In my opinion, it is worse for elementary teachers and that’s seems to be in line with the numbers in terms of the teacher shortage. Below is ONE example of the lack of respect that is given to teachers… specifically elementary teachers.
At the end of every school year, teachers pack up their rooms. I mean pack them up! They have to clear the room in order for the floors to be waxed. If a teacher is lucky enough to have a closet, that is helpful because they can cram a lot of stuff in there; however, if there is no closet, they have to pack it up in boxes, bins, and storage crates. Everything goes into the hallways. If you have ever seen a school at the end of the year, there is a small path through the hallway with desks, boxes, lamps, carpets, and more stacked high on each side.
Once the floors are all waxed, clean, and shiny, everything has to get moved back into the classroom! My experience has typically been that the teacher does most of the work in the packing up and clearing out of the room; however, the custodians generally put things back into the room. So, when a teacher returns to set up the room, they walk into a room of stuff stacked up here, there, and everywhere. Nothing against the custodians… they are fabulous, but they are doing every classroom in the building, so they don’t know where everything goes, nor do they have the time to figure it out!
Now comes the work… the teacher returns and begins the process of getting the room ready for students! First comes the unpacking, the organizing, the moving of furniture, and the decorating. Oh, and by the way this is typically done in the summer, the hot summer (at least in TN, it’s hot!), and there is no air conditioning. That’s right, the teachers come to set up their rooms in the summer with no air conditioning. This process takes time. Most teachers work for hours at time over the course of several days and weeks to complete the set up of their room. This is all done before they know who their students are or even before they know how many students they might have! As they set up their rooms, they are factoring in curriculum needs, small groups, group work, individual work, calming areas, carpet time, and so much more.
As all the room setup is happening, there is also the act of studying the curriculum, planning lessons, creating assessments, and internalizing standards. So, as a teacher, if I am hired to teach 2nd grade, that, of course, is where my focus will be. I will be studying 2nd grade curriculum, 2nd grade standards, working with the 2nd grade team…. you get the idea. Teachers work throughout the summer to prepare for the upcoming school year. In addition to all the work I’ve already described, they also are required to attend professional learning sessions that cover a variety of topics. Sometimes there is a choice as to what to attend, but often, it is a requirement put forth from the district. Sometimes the sessions are great, but sometimes they are a waste of time. All of this leads up to the week before school that is filled with meetings, reviewing class lists, reviewing IEPs, preparing supplies, etc. This is when teachers sit through meetings reviewing the teacher handbook, the student handbook, reviewing the process of lockdowns, and identifying where the safe corner is in the room. Let’s, of course, not forget the meetings with the nurse reviewing the use of epi-pens, allergic reactions, bloodborn pathogens, and whatever new laws might have passed regarding working with students. Finally, we can’t forget the overview of how to make DCS referrals and how, as a teacher, you can be taken to jail if you don’t make a referral (regardless of the fact that DCS does nothing when you do make a referral). Needless to say, there is a lot of preparation that goes into preparing for a new school year.
Now, imagine after all that, your principal comes to you during week one of school and tells you that you are going to have to change grade levels. Instead of teaching the grade level that you spent the summer preparing for, you are going to need to move to a kindergarten class or maybe 5th grade. Technically, you are certified for these grade levels, even though, they may not be your preference… even though you have done nothing to prepare for those grade levels. Or better yet, imagine you have left the classroom and returned to school to get a specialist degree… maybe you are a reading specialist or behavior specialist or an EL teacher, and your principal comes to you during week one and tells you that you are going to have to cover a classroom while someone is one maternity leave or because no teacher has been hired for the classroom yet. Or, what if you’ve put in all that work, and you’re told not only that you have to move your classroom, change your grade, but that you have to go to a completely different school? How would that make YOU feel? Do we do this in other professions, to other professionals? This scenario happens to teachers, specifically elementary teachers, every single school year.
Some recent articles about the teacher shortage:
https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/middle-tn-teacher-shortage/amp
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