If you have a High School diploma and a training class you can be hired as a Teacher now in Oklahoma.

[Ahall]

I see a lot of comments about a lack of good teachers.

When I was a kid, we had the some of the toughest teacher qualifications in the nation.
The regional university in the town I grew up in had a strong school of education and it was a good job.


Today, pay has not kept up with inflation and the schools of education are closing for lack of enrolment. Most people don't want the job.


How do you attract good people when the perception is:

The pay is not attractive.
Funding for classroom supplies is poor.
The work environment is tough.
The profession is not respected.

Rather than address the issues and bring in what any other state in the union considers a qualified candidate, our legislature continues to lower the requirements hoping a warm body will fill the gaps.

This trend has been going on for years.
I am disturbed by how far it has gone.
I am concerned that it will go further.
I don't see how watering down the professional requirements addresses the underlying issues.

 

[Osage1978]

Let me give some opinions on this money topic I always hear brought up

I'll use a school similar to size as the one I work at close to my district that im familiar with

Superintendent makes $120k if he coaches like this one as well he'll make closer to 150k 600 student district

A social studies teacher I know 30 years in makes $80k by being a football coach and athletic admin.
Teaches 6 classes, coaches & gets a 1 hour planning period plus his 30 minute lunch

First year principal is making $60k in a building with 150 students, 10 teachers & 4 para professionals to help carry the load.

This is for 9 months work not 12. That's pretty good pay for the work load of 7 hours a day 9 months a year many positions have assistants in the room. I've never seen teachers actually have to buy supplies, I have seen them buy stuff they wanted but not have to stuff.

Throwing more money at teachers I don't think is going to change a single thing. What they need is people who teach because it's their calling and they care deeply. Sadly I know many who took the positions because there's no labor involved, it's cozy inside, it's 9 months of work & a pud job besides the discipline problem that most schools are battling.

Lastly our teachers are not complaining about money at my school but they all get behind the union because who doesn't want more money & if the union isn't fighting for more money constantly then people might not see the value in them, they keep this narrative going

 

[SlugSlinger]

Society is screwed!

We have things like this teaching. Probably highly “educated”.

Then you have the other extreme with the uneducated teaching.

 

[Preacherman]

There is a big difference between "may" and "can" teach.

 

[KOPBET]

I indied has an HS deploma and a traning class in asalt weppons. Kin I teech two?

 

[retrieverman]

Let me give some opinions on this money topic I always hear brought up

I'll use a school similar to size as the one I work at close to my district that im familiar with

Superintendent makes $120k if he coaches like this one as well he'll make closer to 150k 600 student district

A social studies teacher I know 30 years in makes $80k by being a football coach and athletic admin.
Teaches 6 classes, coaches & gets a 1 hour planning period plus his 30 minute lunch

First year principal is making $60k in a building with 150 students, 10 teachers & 4 para professionals to help carry the load.

This is for 9 months work not 12. That's pretty good pay for the work load of 7 hours a day 9 months a year many positions have assistants in the room. I've never seen teachers actually have to buy supplies, I have seen them buy stuff they wanted but not have to stuff.

Throwing more money at teachers I don't think is going to change a single thing. What they need is people who teach because it's their calling and they care deeply. Sadly I know many who took the positions because there's no labor involved, it's cozy inside, it's 9 months of work & a pud job besides the discipline problem that most schools are battling.

Lastly our teachers are not complaining about money at my school but they all get behind the union because who doesn't want more money & if the union isn't fighting for more money constantly then people might not see the value in them, they keep this narrative going

I can’t speak for where you work, but around here, a teacher may be on a 9 month contract and have 7 hour “work day” but the majority I know work a heck of a lot more than what they’re paid for.

 

[HillsideDesolate]

Society is screwed!

We have things like this teaching. Probably highly “educated”.

View attachment 331565

Then you have the other extreme with the uneducated teaching.

Looks like Seattle Public Schools.

 

[Osage1978]

I can’t speak for where you work, but around here, a teacher may be on a 9 month contract and have 7 hour “work day” but the majority I know work a heck of a lot more than what they’re paid for.

I can't speak for Texas or even Oklahoma schools outside my area but here there's no staying late grading papers really, 99% of everything is done on Chromebooks & automatically graded, lesson plans come from online sources and teachers here in my area receive stipends for extra duties which they never mention when discussing pay.

But maybe I'm biased, coming from the oilfield into a school has given me a negative opinion on the topic perhaps

 

[XYZ]

I’m not defending anything. But I’d challenge all of you to go teach in middle school a full year.
Nope not for me. Hormonal festivals.

 

[HillsideDesolate]

I’m not defending anything. But I’d challenge all of you to go teach in middle school a full year.
Nope not for me. Hormonal festivals.

In middle school we had a teacher who who dipped and constantly drank pepsi. He had 2 cans, one he was drinking and one for spit. We use to switch them when he went out of the room.


Looking back on things I did in school maybe I shouldn't be a teacher, for God certainly has a sense of humor when it comes to revenge.