Heavey Teacher Workloads

However, a teacher’s workload can become so overwhelming that he or she may leave the career after the first year. The size of the classroom, the behavior of challenging students, the requirements of standardized test, the piles of paper, lesson planning and presentation, multiple assessment routines, and the demands of the administration can all lead new teachers to excessive burnout.

Excessive burnout can lead to massive teacher shortages. Lack of effective teachers is an urgent problem in many school districts across America. Out of desperation, many districts come up with programs that accelerate the training and licensing process for new teachers. But the problem of demanding workloads still won’t go away, regardless of the number of remedial projects initiated to bring new teachers into a district.

The problem of being overwhelmed is widespread. According to a recent survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, nearly three quarters of talented teachers have thought about changing their careers.

Heavy teacher workloads are mainly the fault of administration. Pushing teachers to meet the requirements of standardized test, close the achievement gap and to seize the competitive edge in educational recognition are enforced by the higher administrative educational officials. Teachers must work hard under pressure to meet expectations.

Standardized test

Teachers can become exhausted when they are pressured to teach in order to satisfy the requirements of the standardized test. This type of teaching takes away creativity and limits the introduction of more significant material that could meet the needs of particular students. In addition, studies show that the state standardized test is not sufficient enough to evaluate the skills of most minorities. The test is designed more specifically for more privilege students rather than students in more oppressive school environments.

Achievement Gap

Extending schools hours, more tests, specialty schools and several other programs, including “”No Child Left Behind Act” have failed to close the achievement gap. Minority students, particularly African American and Hispanic students are still struggling to reach the academic milestones that white students have achieved. New approaches to closing the achievement gap have not narrowed the educational divide between the two groups of students.

The Competitive Edge

When administration pushes for the competitive edge in order to win students and parents to the district, these activities can result in teachers struggling with heavy workloads. The priority is coverage, not quality. In many districts, teachers must cover several subjects in order to meet scheduled deadlines and administrative expectancies. But anytime competition becomes more important than delivering a quality education, a school district is cheating the teachers, students and parents. Instead of mastery in specified, academic areas, recognition for coverage becomes the norm.

Sequence of consequences

When teachers are overwhelmed with heavy teacher workloads, several consequences can arise and destroy the quality of teaching.

Days of Exhaustion

In order to effectively teacher a classroom full of expectant students, a teacher needs plenty of energy and clarity. Coming to school exhausted from grading tons of paper and designing multiple lesson plans for different grade levels can spell chaos for the classroom teachers. Instruction becomes less effective because it is usually rushed through.

Related Health Issue

The stress of heavy teacher workloads can lead to serious health problems such as chronic headaches, high blood pressure, and heart issues, especially when new teachers are pushing themselves too far due to fear of losing their jobs. A classroom of challenging students only adds to the stress and chaos of the classroom.

Massive Frustration

Teachers who are frustrated with the administration cannot teacher effectively. They view the administration as un-supportive and out of touch with the demands of the classroom. This disconnection can lead too high turnover and teacher shortages in many school districts. As a consequence of teacher shortages, many districts submit to accelerated programs designed to attract teachers who may be less interested in teacher and more interested in earning a paycheck.

The Key Solution for Dealing with Heavy Teacher Workloads

The solutions to heavy teacher workloads must begin with administration. Reducing the teacher’s burden must begin with technology designed to educate the student without much input from the teacher. One ideal suggestion is the creation of a virtual classroom where students can engage in learning without teachers drowning in a ton of lesson planning. This unique idea would teach students to become more responsible for their own education and have fun doing it.

Math, English, science, and social studies can all be taught in a virtual environment. Sure there

will be teachers in the classroom to facilitate and provide critical instructions and assessments, but the virtual programs will do the rest. In addition, this form of learning through technology would have more students excited about coming to school and probably would reduce several classroom management problems. Students would be too engaged in their virtual environment to act out due to boredom or provocation.

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Identifying Toxic Students

You can identify toxic students as soon as they enter the room. The volume of their voices rises above others to a level 5. During seatwork, they constantly in engage in excessive chatter and laughter while others are during their work. They refuse to work and often get out of their seat even after being redirected several times during the course of the day.

Going Beyond Redirection

When you confront them, they are insubordinate, smarting off at the mouth against every aspect of your redirection message. Toxic students work to take away your power and to get the rest of the classroom on their side. If you as a teacher remain passive, you will lose control and the classroom will become chaotic and unsafe.

Passive teachers will spend the entire school year attempting to change toxic students by constantly redirecting their behavior. They may use time out or the buddy room many times to no avail. Yet timid teachers go no further than this. For some reason, such teachers refuse to open a communication channel with the parents or guardians of the child.

Taking a Firm Stand against Toxic Students

Teachers must firmly confront such toxic students with the threat of serious consequences unless they change their behavior and begin to make smart choices. Constant redirection will not eradicate the problem and will only embolden such students to do as they please. The most logical response is to have such students removed from the room. This will take away what illusionary power that they might appear to possess.

Protecting Yourself from Burnout

In order to avoid teacher burnout and frustration, you must open up a communication channel with the child’s parents or guardians. Work with administration and other teachers to find a solution. However, make it known to the parents that their children have serious behavior problems and are endanger of failing in school. You must give the parents a reason to help you instill in a sense of urgency in their children. Toxic students must know why they are in school and the consequences of not taking it serious. Who better can convince them of this fact than the parents themselves?

A classroom without the atttitudes of toxic students will become a safe and an appealing environment for teaching and learning. Students will respect one another and work together to accomplish quality seatwork and projects that gives them a sense of accomplishment and academic success.

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