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| Voices from the classroom: US teachers discuss their biggest challenges – live | Voices from the classroom: US teachers discuss their biggest challenges – live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Shannon Ergun, is a single mother and teaches ESL at a public school in Tacoma, WA with previous experience in Turkey and Poland. | |
| For her, teaching her students of different abilities in one classroom can be a challenge. | |
| “I currently have 178 ESL students on my caseload. State law says I must provide each of these students services. However, I would have to have 35-36 students in each class to do that. I have a range of students from those who have no proficiency in English to those fluent in English who simply haven’t passed the state ESL exam. I have students who arrived in the US in the last few days to those who were born and raised here. To meet their needs I cannot simply put 35+ kids in a classroom. I need to be able to target my instruction so I have to be able to assign students to classes based on their proficiency and their age in some cases. No one is served if students are simply dropped in whatever class fits the rest of their schedule and then I’m expected to work miracles. | |
| “Because of the challenges above I am active in my union. I have helped to organize rallies and protests related to high-stakes standardized testing, educator salaries, and lack of professional respect. I work directly with legislators and other local officials to improve the working conditions of our educators because that in turn improves the learning conditions of our students. My activism has often made me a target of district administrators and I have been reassigned to a new school, not told my teaching assignment until two weeks into the school year, and even told I would be assigned in multiple schools and multiple levels where I have no experience”. | |
| As part of our teacher takeover, we’re inviting all teachers and educators to add personal stories and ideas to this manifesto for change. Submit ideas, anecdotes and thoughts via our form here. | |
| We’ll compile your comments into a final manifesto next week – and the Guardian will hand-deliver it to Betsy DeVos, the education secretary. | |
| Anna Burr, in Phoenix, AZ, said she struggles with debt – | Anna Burr, in Phoenix, AZ, said she struggles with debt – |
| “As a teacher, I was told I would love my job so the salary wouldn’t matter. That was true until this year. I’m $100k in student loan debt (the promise of more pay after obtaining a masters enticed me). I make $2,400 a month and half of that goes to rent alone. I’m drowning. I have 40 students in my class and some don’t even have their own desk. I used to be the cool teacher now I’m the mean teacher. They made me hate my dream, I thought I’d love this career forever now I just want to make enough where I don’t stress at night. My students come to school hungry and leave worried on the weekends. I have been apart of the Red for Ed movement here in Arizona but I feel like I can never do enough.” | “As a teacher, I was told I would love my job so the salary wouldn’t matter. That was true until this year. I’m $100k in student loan debt (the promise of more pay after obtaining a masters enticed me). I make $2,400 a month and half of that goes to rent alone. I’m drowning. I have 40 students in my class and some don’t even have their own desk. I used to be the cool teacher now I’m the mean teacher. They made me hate my dream, I thought I’d love this career forever now I just want to make enough where I don’t stress at night. My students come to school hungry and leave worried on the weekends. I have been apart of the Red for Ed movement here in Arizona but I feel like I can never do enough.” |
| One reader who responded to our callout is pre-K teacher Andrew Berg, from Boston. | One reader who responded to our callout is pre-K teacher Andrew Berg, from Boston. |
| Though his school is well-resourced, teachers are increasingly finding themselves doing things that are not typically expected of them: | Though his school is well-resourced, teachers are increasingly finding themselves doing things that are not typically expected of them: |
| “Nationally, there are serious problems around school funding because so much of this is derived from local (municipal) taxes. There is often an inverse correlation between a district’s needs and its ability to raise revenue. | “Nationally, there are serious problems around school funding because so much of this is derived from local (municipal) taxes. There is often an inverse correlation between a district’s needs and its ability to raise revenue. |
| “Feeding children, for example, is not the same as teaching, but since hungry children do not learn well, we have to do this. | “Feeding children, for example, is not the same as teaching, but since hungry children do not learn well, we have to do this. |
| “Providing clothing, helping families find housing or navigate child protection services, assessing and dealing with the effects of trauma are not, properly speaking, teaching, but we do these things because they are necessary precursors. These things have to be done before learning can happen. All this makes education much more expensive, and less efficient as instructional time is redirected. This is a societal problem. As a nation, we have decided not to deal with the problems caused by social inequality, and much of this has come down on schools.” | “Providing clothing, helping families find housing or navigate child protection services, assessing and dealing with the effects of trauma are not, properly speaking, teaching, but we do these things because they are necessary precursors. These things have to be done before learning can happen. All this makes education much more expensive, and less efficient as instructional time is redirected. This is a societal problem. As a nation, we have decided not to deal with the problems caused by social inequality, and much of this has come down on schools.” |
| September marks the start of the new school year for many US public schools. It’s a difficult time for teachers who are returning to overcrowded classrooms, decrepit buildings, precious few supplies and out-of-date textbooks. | September marks the start of the new school year for many US public schools. It’s a difficult time for teachers who are returning to overcrowded classrooms, decrepit buildings, precious few supplies and out-of-date textbooks. |
| This week we’ll tell teachers’ stories in a special series called the Guardian US teacher takeover. We’ve been working closely with a team of teachers from across the country who are serving as our guest editors Sept. 5-7 to highlight falling teacher pay, underfunded schools, and a new wave of activism. | This week we’ll tell teachers’ stories in a special series called the Guardian US teacher takeover. We’ve been working closely with a team of teachers from across the country who are serving as our guest editors Sept. 5-7 to highlight falling teacher pay, underfunded schools, and a new wave of activism. |
| In this live blog we’ll share the stories from teachers reading the project, and those who responded to our callout last week. If you’d like to share your experiences and join the conversation you can do so via the secure form below, and we’ll post it here, with your permission. | In this live blog we’ll share the stories from teachers reading the project, and those who responded to our callout last week. If you’d like to share your experiences and join the conversation you can do so via the secure form below, and we’ll post it here, with your permission. |
| Let us know if you’d like to add your submission to our Teachers’ wishlist – a manifesto outlining the basic conditions that teachers need in order to address the crisis in schools. We’ll update the document with your contributions – and the Guardian will deliver the final version to US secretary of education Betsy DeVos. | Let us know if you’d like to add your submission to our Teachers’ wishlist – a manifesto outlining the basic conditions that teachers need in order to address the crisis in schools. We’ll update the document with your contributions – and the Guardian will deliver the final version to US secretary of education Betsy DeVos. |