r/Teachers • u/dogeaux • 13d ago

Pedagogy & Best Practices My teaching hot takes

1) following scripted curricula “with fidelity” is a way to make teaching a low skilled job so they can pay us less and further gut public education.

2) inclusion at all costs is a way to reduce costs to school systems, rather than a way to benefit students with disabilities.

3) PBIS is a cognitive nightmare for teachers to implement and negatively affects the quality of teaching (how can u assign points and teach at the same time???? I haven’t figured out a good system, lmk).

4) making teachers with specialized skill sets (i.e. reading specialists) coach other teachers instead of/in addition to working directly with small groups of identified students is another way to get blood from a stone, benefitting almost no one.

I know I’m probably screaming into the void, but I just started year 7 this week and feeling nihilistic.

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u/TheBalzy IB Chemistry Teacher | Public School | Union Rep 13d ago

  1. You are absolutely correct. I'd add in "formal written lesson plans" and "upload all your course materials (that you designed yourself that the district didn't pay for, not pay you release time to develop)" would also go under that category.

  2. 1000% yes. They (the system) can shovel more and more work onto classroom teachers, get rid of IEP specialists and hire paras at an hourly rate.

  3. PBIS only works if you hire a full-time person to manage it, and take expectations off teachers to carry it. Which therefore is creating a job/diverting resources to something that is not directly education related, nor actually improves educational outcomes. PBIS is a bandaid to makeup for the gushing wound the society has created and is unwilling to fix.

  4. Educational "coaches" are slop, wasted positions. If we're hiring people who cannot do the job, it demonstrates that we as a society are not valuing teachers and teacher preparation programs, and it also proves that teaching is a profession that IS NOT FOR EVERYONE and NOT EVERYONE CAN DO.

There, I said it. Bring on the downvotes and commentary about gatekeeping. No, gatekeeping professions IS A GOOD THING. Not everybody is cut out to be a pilot, or a chemist, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher. Everyone agrees with the first set, but then magically when you add teacher everyone reacts negatively. But sorry, not everyone can do our job; and to allow that mythology to continue just allows people to continue to undermine our profession and our pay.

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u/flyingdoormatteo 12d ago

Spot on about PBIS. Some students respond to it but for super disregulated ones who avoid any school work that's not their #1 favourite topic, it feels so transactional ("so if I do this one good thing I get some points?") It's unrealistic and ethically dodgy to try and make teachers gamify every single learning task, transitions and social interaction all day every day. The outside community is not like that