Episode 17: I Quit!: Teacher Burnout
featuring Jared and Kari Wall

SHOW DATE: January 25, 2019

SUMMARY: In this episode, we discuss an interesting article we came across that analyzes teacher resignation letters and share our thoughts on what is happening in the education system and our experiences.

This episode is unscripted, so we do not have a whole lot of show notes. We just wanted to have an honest conversation about how we feel and our thoughts.

SHOW NOTES:
News and Notes:
Welcome back to Wall Ed Tech. This is our first podcast of the year. We apologize for taking so long to get a new podcast out, but we’ve been a bit overwhelmed and busy.
Here is the link to our Flipgrid: https://flipgrid.com/b0eab2bd. Feel free to share with us some of your thoughts on this podcast and/or ideas for something you want us to discuss.

Technology Tools & Trends
Technology Tools:
Tools: CheckMark has updates (Jared), Grammarly has a Chrome extension, and Tab Resize for automatically splitting your Chrome screen.

Question:
We have been feeling teacher burnout! We are struggling with desire, stress, and motivation to get our jobs done. We want what is best for our students and still do the work, but the struggle has been real!
Jared ran across an article that really hit it’s mark with us both. The article is called “Teachers Go Public with Their Resignation Letters” by Brenda Iasevoli. Here is the link to the full article: https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2017/04/why_do_teachers_quit_their_res.html?cmp=SOC-EDIT-LI
This article addresses issues as to why teachers are leaving the profession...and it has nothing to do with pay or student behaviors.
The article states, “Teachers are leaving largely because oppressive policies and practices are affecting their working conditions and beliefs about themselves and education.”
Teachers have had enough, causing walkouts. “Scripted lessons, an oppressive testing culture, and a punitive evaluation system are the main reasons teachers are heading for the exits.”
Evaluations:
Evaluations are enough for some teachers. They are very subjective (even with a rubric) and are not for every content area. These rubrics do not even take into account skills-based courses.
Evaluations do not account for how far a teacher has brought students and it’s only a snapshot for that particular class. Each class is different. Why should a teacher be held accountable and reflect a score based on whether or not a student asked a meaningful question? How should the teacher be expected to produce in students a desire to know more about the content?
Scripted Lessons or Curricular Mandates from Administration
Standardized Tests
Micromanagement
DATA DRIVEN MADNESS: Because technology makes tracking data easier, even more demand is being placed on the teacher and one more chore is added to their list.
Students are just numbers and represent a point value….this is NOT why I became a teacher.
A 40-year veteran cites many reasons for his exit, not the least of which is what he sees as an overreliance on "data-driven education" that "seeks only conformity, standardization, testing, and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core


Next on Wall to Wall Podcast: We will discuss ….who knows?! We will decide based on how we feel.