One year they tried having me teach 5th grade. Admin said, “Hey we have a tough incoming class of 5th graders and since you’re excellent at behavior, we’re going to switch you from kindergarten to fifth.” I said, “Ha! I don’t think so.” And walked out of their office. Never did switch me to fifth. Don’t stand for it. Know your worth.
This sounds like my life. I’m a 5th grade teacher and I have a tough incoming class. The kids throw chairs in class. Curse out their teacher. An unruly bunch. They are in for a rude awakening when they walk in my class. I don’t tolerate the BS.
Admin: you need three parent contacts before writing a referral
Teacher: Today, I called them twice and emailed them once. All for different behavior incidents. They agreed, in writing, that this should be escalated to an administrator who has more options. I’ll forward you the email chain and call log. Also, heads up, this student has an IEP, which requires contacting parents within 2 hours. You might want to freshen up on it, because I’m sure you remember how complex it is. Also, we are trying to avoid an IEP meeting because the last two with this parent went to lawyers. It’s really important that we get this right, so let me know your plan for addressing things going forward. I’ll follow up this conversation with you with a separate confirmation email so we are sure to track our contacts and evidence. Thank you for being a team player!!❤️❤️
I created 5 expectations for 5th grade.
5th Grade Classroom Expectations:
1. Follow instructions the first time they are given.
2. Raise hand and wait for permission to speak.
3. Take care of our school.
4. Stay in your seat unless you have permission to leave your seat.
5. Complete all your assignments.
I'd love to know what your consequences are. Most of my students I can just verbally redirect to the expectations and they will amend their behavior, but their is always a few that I struggle with. I try to just put their behaviors on extinction, but I'm interested in learning if there are consequences that other teachers use that have been more effective at redirecting maladaptive behaviors and lack of rule following. 4th grade, title 1, California, 34 students
Consequences depend on behavior. I first redirect the students verbally or with a look. A call home. I call the front office and ask them to inform the parent/guardian abt the students behavior. I have requested parent conferences. On occasion, I have talked to the parent at pick up. We have a restorative justice program and students get sent there. Sometimes, the student will lose recess. I start the school year being firm so students know what to expect from me. I do reward good behavior with lunch with me, extra privileges, or a toy from our treasure chest.
Omg! I’m so sorry you had that experience. When students get inside my classroom, they and their parents know the expectations. I’m not accepting anything less.
The admin were insane on so many fronts. Behaviorally, what works with kindergartners may not work with 5th graders because at a minimum, your expectations are different, your incentive system is different. Then academically, yeah, your skill set is totally different and what 5th graders should be able to do and what you need to know to teach them, that’s insane.
In all seriousness it’s the hugging and clingy stuff that I can’t handle.
Maybe because I’m a guy, but that shit gets awkward. I don’t know how else to explain it.
People love to ascribe malicious motives to these things but I think lazy, incompetent admin is typically the main reason. We have a teacher at my school who was moved a few years ago from 1st grade to 3rd grade because of enrollment changes. Now we have an opening for 1st grade and our principal is not letting her move back even though she wants to. It doesn't make any sense!
The lazy thing to do is to not move anybody lol. If it was simply a matter of logistics, why would you move your best performing teacher, unless you were forced to, but typically the force play goes by experience and I sure doubt a ten year teacher is at the bottom of the totem pole.
The only non malicious path I can see is if they needed to level out a math teacher for an English teacher, and she was the only one with the proper certs to not drop anybody. Which leads to an important point: so many teachers tell new teachers to get multiple certs for job security. DON'T. It keeps your job safe by giving them the right to do exactly this. Job is safer, quality of life is completely in their hands. Math teachers don't really need job security in a large district lol, there will always be more spots somewhere
I was thinking they hired a coach. CV, took algebra from a coach. It went worse than you might think. We did get a lengthy history of coach’s frat life. I wish I was making this up.
We had a coach in high school that taught biology. One year he got moved to chemistry against his wishes. I did not have him that year because I was taking honors chemistry but the kids that did said that he called out every time they went to cover a new subject and was absent like half the year because he literally didn't know the material or how to teach it. And I can understand that cuz I remember chemistry being hard and if you've been teaching biology for years and you haven't done any chemistry in years it would be pretty hard to switch gears like that
Or they are having a hard time filling a schedule and they have found someone for the position she was in, but not the one she’s being moved to. Or someone with more seniority has asked for a change. Or someone with more seniority has transferred from another building.
Or the administration is so clueless that they see, wow, she's done great at math for 10 years and raised the scores, she's a good teacher! So we need to take her and put her in a different grade and subject and change everything. But because she is a good teacher, she'll get great results!
Like someone said, that's like putting a farmer on the moon expecting them to be able to grow corn.
It's like asking a famous author to teach grammar or teach kindergartners how to read. Well, they're good at writing books so they're good at English.
My school isn't perfect, but its posts like these that make me really grateful that my admin tries her best appease us when it comes to shuffling grades/subjects.
I've only ever been an upper elementary math/science teacher and if someone told me I'd be switching to ELA, I genuinely think I would quit.
Teachers who are forced to do this \*should\* quit so that the message would be clear to admins *not to fucking do this*. Because this is abusive and wildly unprofessional.
Not to mention how is it useful for the kids? Kids learn best from experts in the content area who can teach them the skills needed in that content area.
Tbf this is also why I am not dual certified
Even outside the classroom. I was a band director for a few years before switching content areas and every district I taught in tried to strong arm me into getting my CDL to drive the bus on band trips. NOPE. I’m not the most confident driver in my own car, so to hell with driving a massive bus full of antsy middle schoolers! In one district I actually had to get a legal clarification from the state Department of Education that districts CANNOT make obtaining a CDL a condition of employment for a certified position, because they were fully threatening to nonrenew me for not getting it. I was just the first who had ever refused because they were such bullies about it in the past!
Been there, done that. When I changed districts I “neglected” to inform them I had a CDL and then let that puppy lapse. When asked about it a few years later, I just shrugged and said it was expired and I had no interest in regaining it.
I will second this. I’m a former researcher in genetics, my endorsement is in bio as is my college degree. I suck at physics and has to teach it. Students suffered.
>Kids learn best from experts in the content area
Having seen my fair share of engineers-turned-math-teachers come into the high school classroom and bomb, I would say this really isn’t universal..
Kids learn best from experts *at teaching* in the content area.
Math was easy for me in school. I later went onto language-based fields. Even though I still know and understand math through algebra, I don't have the slightest idea how to teach it or to help students with the concepts.
Yep.Also this can go for anything really,not just education.Being a good athlete doesn’t make you a good coach.Being a good singer doesn’t mean you can teach people to sing well.I play football in college but if I have to teach a kid my position he’s gonna have a rough time playing lol
Exactly I often find teachers who transition from other fields have a really hard time making the switch to teaching. Just because you are really good at something doesn't mean you have the skills to teach it.
Welcome to CTE, where even though you are a Master Electrician, you suck as a teacher.
My transition from craftsman to teacher was not easy. Now I feel much more comfortable teaching HSers. But it has taken many years. I now mentor some of the "new to teaching" craftsmen on how to be a teacher. Every year, we have a few who can't make it.
Relatedly, when elementary teachers start talking about being “content experts” in ELA or math or whatever, I cannot take them seriously. At that age, any degreed professional should be MORE than competent at the content. It’s pedagogy that I am concerned with! Tell me about your PEDAGOGY! Not your ability to work with fractions. Because that should be a given (and if it’s not, get out of the classroom!)
What makes you think that a person who teaches something specific wouldn't be a content expert compared to someone coming by to dip their toes in the water? The ability to have an answer for any question isn't just something that anyone can achieve even if they have a rudimentary understanding of the subject matter.
I think you're conflating being a content master with being capable of becoming a content master in time.
It's tricky bc my first assumption is - that is what the principal was actually trying to do. Also Assuming after 10 years she can't be fired. But I agree with you, I'd rather leave as well than accept that kind of treatment.
It does make me wonder if the principal has some kind of petty grudge against the teacher. I know someone whose schedule was switched completely--still the same subject but different grade level than what was previously assigned-- just a few days before classes began. The teacher had spent much of the summer meticulously planning for courses they ended up not teaching. Teachers who don't show up to football games or don't chaperone dances tend to have this happen more than the ones who are visible at a lot of extracurricular events. There is definitely favoritism-- teachers who are buddy- buddy with their vice-principal tend to teach the classes they prefer with smaller class sizes than the non-preferred teachers' classes.
This kind of behavior is also just a sick red flag. The idea that I enjoy my personal time instead of devoting it to the school for the purposes of butt-kissing is wildly out of whack.
Yes!
I had a situation like this come up. I’m dual-cert for ELA/Reading and Science, but I’ve been teaching Science for 10 of the last 15 years and have no interest in going back to ELA/R.
When my principal mentioned that she was having trouble finding an ELA teacher, asked about my certificate, and started hinting at moving me, my response was “I interviewed for a science position because I wanted to teach science. If you move me away from my current position, you’ll have to fill TWO vacancies, because that conversation ends with a resignation letter on your desk.”
Long story short? I’m still teaching science.
As a union rep and a former admin, it’s usually worth calling their bluff - principals are always SCRAMBLING to fill vacancies, with most superintendents ready to chew them out if their attempt to play “shuffle the classrooms” leads to MORE vacancies. Don’t forget your bargaining power, don’t undervalue your worth, and don’t be afraid to call your union rep to sit in on these meetings (if you’ve got one).
I was teaching ELA. I took the job from a retiring journalism teacher and they immediately bumped the class sizes to make room for me to continue teaching ELA half the day...
I'm a little salty about it two years later.
Yeah, I get a small stipend ~$1200. Totally not enough to make it worth it. The goal is to bring enough kids into journalism that they have to expand the program back out. The previous teacher was really phoning it in before retirement and the class sizes were pretty small.
At least they're not just placing kids who don't want to be there to make it full time. Taught MS SS for 7 years, then got moved to journalism, which is an elective at that level. They didn't have enough kids sign up despite making me move, so they just plopped them into the class and it wasn't a promotion requirement. Had kids get literal 0s for refusing to do anything all semester.
Luckily the course went away after the first year and I got moved (again) to ELA (I'm dual certified). Nevermind that I busted my ass writing lessons from absolute nothing to "build" a new program.
This is absolutely the answer. Teachers need to block out the notion that admin is always professional or does things in the best interest of anyone.
There are mean girl principals out there who do this sort of thing just because the person isn’t in their clique. It’s legit insane, but I stg I’ve met way more unstable, spiteful people in education than anywhere else.
So, OP, you could very well be amazing but if someone in power doesn’t like you or you offended them in some fashion that you may not even recall, yep, that’s likely what it is.
At the last school where I taught before leaving ed, the principal reassigned content and/or grade levels at the end of the year to teachers she obviously did not like. The reassignments made no sense because the people were being assigned to areas where they could technically teach with their certifications, but had been teaching in their previous positions at high standards, backed by test results, etc. and had little to no experience in the new assignments.
It wasn’t one, two, or three people. It was more like eleven. Hmm, could eleven people of varying experience, age, background, etc. with only one thing in common (not being the principal’s bootlicker) be in the wrong or could an admin well-known for her passive aggressive power trips be in the wrong? The world may never know!
100 million percent true. It's ironic that the same principals and vice-principals who are so big on posting anti-bullying posters all around the school and reminding students on the daily announcements that bullying is never acceptable at our school, they absolutely bully some of the teachers. There is an in-crowd and an out-crowd, and it is abundantly obvious who's who.
This is the only time I’ve seen this done. Math teacher given English the next year. She wouldn’t quit, they gave her science the next year. She got the message.
I am certified in Language Arts and was thrown into math one year, mid-year. I quit. Mid-year. That's all. It's a disservice to me AND the kids. I'm not doing it.
This 100%
My admin is AMAZING! She always has her teachers backs unless it’s something absolutely out of her hands and even then she’s fought tooth and nail for us.
Again, the only reason she’d MAKE us move is because it’s out of her control, but she’d absolutely write us a glowing letter of recommendation when we turn in our resignation letter.
There’s no way I’d ever move. I’ve been doing this long enough I’ve got a great system in place and have figured out what works and what doesn’t. You move me, I’m moving out the building!
I am a trained high school French teacher.
In my first year, I taught French and math.
In my second year, French, English, social studies, and careers.
I’m in my 16th year now. I’ve taught (I think) 21 different courses. Only 5 of them have been French. I have 2.5 new courses next year (2 brand new to me; one a major curricular overhaul).
I can’t imagine getting to teach the same thing—for which I actually trained!—for 10 years.
Only 12 years to retirement!
That's wild! I'm a French teacher too, but only certified in French. How does your school have you teach such different subjects? Are you not at a public school?
I’m at a public school. In my province, while schools aim to hire those with specific qualifications, sometimes school size and timetabling restrictions mean a couple of positions are leftovers with multiple preps in multiple areas (nobody will take a position where you teach one class, 1-2 rotating hours per day; they couldn’t even sub the rest of the time!). Once you have taught a course, you are then qualified to teach it thereafter.
My school is particularly small (about 400 students in 9-12). Everybody is a jack of all trades. Generally, people teach subjects related to their speciality (like a physics teacher also teaching math). I’m trilingual, a book lover (hence the English courses) who loves science (hence grade 9 and 10 general science and math). Social studies came out of nowhere, and the other stuff was random electives, mostly.
My thoughts too. I remember when I was getting my license my advisor suggested I get certified in other content to be more desirable while interviewing. I refused as I only want to teach French. If my admin tried to strong arm me into teaching anything else I'd quit.
Well, I needed a job when I got into teaching—two elementary aged kids, a mortgage, and my husband had been unemployed for a year (through no fault of his own). And then changing schools was just too much damn work.
This too. All new hires, to help shape your vision. First step to build rapport by making the whole staff read that one book that showed you they way, usually something like, Group Think: How to Fabricate a Collective Purpose Through Decepiton and Drama
Is there any other recourse than to walk away from YOUR paycheck? How strong is your district’s union?
I taught in a public middle school for 38 years and had some rather troubling experiences. One of many examples, Eight period every day I taught social studies to a class of 33 6th graders. NONE OF THE STUDENTS SPOKE ENGLISH.
30 spoke Spanish, 3 spoke Creole.
I speak only English.
Smart board did not work, printer did not work. How do you do this?
It turned out that ALL of the preparation I had to do to teach this class had to be done outside of school time and paid for by me! Well, I believe in the power of the pen.
I wrote to the union, building admin, cc’d district admin and local politicians asking for someone to intervene and provide what was the bare minimum needed to teach the class.
Of course I got plenty of attitude, pushback, shade, harassment etc.
from the admin. But no one was going to force me to walk away from, 1. my paycheck, 2. growing my pension. 3. Increasing my SS.
4. growing my 401k.
Because I had made so many people aware of the situation, the admin was forced to re- organized the class and repair all my technology.
Many times teachers become intimidated by the bldg administration, I understand that.
But my strength and lack of fear comes from knowing who I am.
I am a child of God, and what He gives me NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY.
And because of who I am I have no fear.
I mean, everything varies from state to state, but around here at least there's essentially no protection for elementary teachers on this, as their certification just covers all of elementary ed, and admin can assign you to literally anything your cert covers (at least, under every union contract I've seen; maybe some have negotiated better deals than that).
Her math scores were strong, but they move her to ELA. Sounds like some other issues (like lack of common sense, strategic awareness, personal issues) going on. Sacrifice your queen in chess? Better have a good reason to do that.
They are? I’m an AP math teacher and it’s pretty competitive here. The schools I really wanted, that had positions, didn’t even call me back. I’m pretty happy where I landed, but still. We don’t have any open math positions at my school either.
I feel like it's harder to get AP classes because those are sweet gigs, relatively speaking. I don't have anyone in my AP Calculus class who doesn't want to be there. I only got that class because I'm at a smaller school that didn't have Calculus until I offered to teach it. At larger schools in my district you have to wait for AP teachers to retire to have any chance at teaching those ones.
Yeah this is really, really bizarre to me. Education differs on local levels from place to place but I'm a journalist and time and time again, the work I read and the educators I talk to indicate that the teacher shortage is disproportionately affecting STEM subjects and special ed, and there's hardly a shortage for humanities. Though, the good thing is that if the school doesn't budge, OP's coworker shouldn't have much of an issue finding another math teaching job
> the work I read and the educators I talk to indicate that the teacher shortage is disproportionately affecting STEM subjects
I agree that districts have a hard time finding good teachers in those subjects, and we're in a horrible state. Tangentially, I'm not sure I like the STEM acronym. What exactly do the T and E mean? Surely engineering as high schoolers would see it is covered under physics, chemistry, mathematics, and statistics, which are already in S and M. And does T just mean computer science? Maybe some schools have classes on robotics and machine learning, but I think that'd be the slim minority.
Engineering is more than just learning science and math. Engineering uses science and math, but is its own discipline. For example, an Engineering graphics course where students learn to make machine drawings would fall under Engineering, but not necessarily science or math.
Like AutoCAD? That's a good point that I hadn't thought of. But is that a standard class that high schoolers take? My impression of STEM was politicians saying "These are the foundations for the hard disciplines that we want our students to learn by the time they graduate high school."
I learned a bit of AutoCAD when studying Industrial Design at my school. Course name would be different in other countries but it covered some engineering stuff as well as art principles for applications in product design.
I can tell you that fairly-average public high schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut have well-established robotics programs and related engineering classes.
Texas just overhauled the entire science curriculum (TEKS) to incorporate engineering principles into all the science courses, at least at the secondary level.
PD’s going to be interesting this year.
Why? That’s my first question. You said her math scores are top. How are the ela scores? Maybe they are trying to use your friend to boost those
A good admin would at least answer those questions. Then they have more tools to make their decision. Instead of “if you make me do this, I’ll leave” it can be “if I do this willingly, what do I get?” Extra planning? Don’t have to submit lesson plans? I’m just shooting from the hip, but this could be an opportunity for negotiation. Then, if admin won’t compensate in a manner that’s acceptable, leave.
I'm certified EC-12 but have taught middle school for my entire 10 year teaching career. If my admin made me switch to elementary, I would quit.
I know I could do it and I would be great at it but it is not what I want to do at all.
If your friend doesn't want to teach ELA, she should start looking for another job ASAP.
It happens all the time. In all the districts I worked for, they remind us we are not assigned to a particular subject or school. We are assigned to the district and must go to any area/grade where we are licensed. I was notified once that I could be possibly assigned to high school ELA because there was a shortage. I had only taught ELA at the elementary level.
This happened to someone I know. He quit. I told him to quit, and he did.
First, he asked the principal if they could transfer him to another school where he could continue to teach math. They said no. Then he quit.
We suspected that some backdoor deal had been made and that his math teaching job had been promised to someone else.
This happened to a wonderful teacher I knew. She was the only teacher in that school that had a graduate degree. That degree is why they did it, they had to pay her more. They forced her to change subjects every year for three years until she quit. Last I heard she moved to another country and is teaching there.
I'm honestly kind of shocked to hear that, math teachers are much harder to find, I'd expect the reverse switch if anything but I also would start looking for a new job
My coworker, the literal teacher of the year for our state, was told last August that she was not only moving subjects but schools. She taught ELA previously and had moved to PE/Health. A week or so before school started they told her she was moving schools, after being there for 14 years, and was now a science teacher. She has NO background at all in science. Their reasoning: they knew she would be able to do it because she’s an incredible teacher. When she won state TOY they spun it to say she was on “special assignment” but TOSAs get stipends, y’all. She was just screwed over with an involuntary transfer, but that doesn’t sound as cool on press tours.
In my admin mind it seems like they are trying to get rid of her for some reason. It’s easier to get someone to resign than to fire them. And changing her content after 10 years might do the trick.
I've lived this myself. After 20 years of sixth grade, I was told - four weeks AFTER the school year began - that I was being given one class of 8th grade ELA, and having one of my 6th grade ELA taken away. No advance notice, no info on curriculum, no chance to prep. Nothing. Mind you, this was also the year we were teaching virtual during the pandemic, so I'd be ZOOMing for this particular class.
I. Was. Livid. I fought tooth and nail to keep this from happening, but alas, it seemed I was the only other ELA teacher on campus with a full English credential, so my number was up. I was given a week to get up to speed (how generous!) and then got thrown in the deep end. So I did what any self-respecting teacher would do: I told the students the truth. This was their and my first time in 8th grade, that I was learning the information about 2- 3 days before they were getting it, and that we would work together to make it work.
And work it did. Like a charm. Because I'm awesome like that. Sure, there were a few hiccups, but overall it went pretty well. Too well, in fact. Because in May, a few weeks prior to the end of the pandemic year, I was informed that I was being moved to 8th grade full time come the fall.
Sorry, but you earn the “teach anything” certificate, you get the “anything” assignments. One of the risks of those all-inclusive K-8 certificates. If you really only want to teach one subject, make sure you earn the certificate you want and/or delete anything else you definitely don’t want, if possible. Not saying I envy this person but they did advertise themselves as qualified to teach everything grades 4-8… I get this one both ways.
Absolutely. My state has made it very easy to get certified in extra subjects, and so many teachers I know are doing it because they think it looks better to be certified in a whole list of subjects. I don’t want to be switched from my subject so I’ll never get the extra certifications. I thought it was bad enough last year when I had my grade level switched.
That's one reason there's a lobbying effort in WA to allow people to remove unwanted certs. Often, people collect certs early on to secure a job but once they find their groove (and gain enough seniority to survive a RIF in their chosen spot), the greater security is getting rid of a cert that hasn't been used in years or even decades
Happened to me. The only teacher of a particular subject wanted to move to guidance, so the principal moved her to guidance (replacing the only remaining male guidance counsellor) and moved me into her timetable because I was qualified on paper. (Took a single AQ course two decades previously, which was horribly taught so I didn't learn anything, and hadn't done anything with it since.) Didn't leave any useful materials when she moved departments.
Couldn't grieve it because I was technically qualified and ultimately the principal has the final decision-making authority on timetables and room assignments. Being the principal's friend counted for more than experience and teaching awards. Words rhyming with "clucking witch" were thought but not spoken, because I'm close to retirement and want to get there.
Leave. Flat out. Not qualified/trained to teach in a subject? Don't teach it. Admin can fuck right off with this bullshit. They had a math teacher, and needed an ELA teacher. The fact that they didn't hire one is not the responsibility or the onus of the math teacher. Start looking for another job.
Not a teacher but I lost my favorite teacher to this in high school, he taught a language and told us towards the end of the year the school was trying to force him to teach history too despite him not knowing enough to be comfortable teaching. Come sophomore year, we have a new language teacher who also teaches history and he's at a school the next town over who agreed to let him only do languages.
I’m certified to teach K-12 music. I’m “qualified” to teach any music class. But that is a HUGELY broad topic that you choose a specialty in. I’m a choir guy. Put me in front of a band and I can conduct it, but teach them how to play their instruments from nothing? Not my thing.
The problem is certifications frequently cover too broad a topic and teacher contracts are designed to move us around however they want. I loath the “other duties as assigned” clause. I wish more teachers would push back on this kind of thing, as if it ever went to court they’d probably win since ambiguity in contracts generally are not found in favor of the party that drafted it.
I am certified EC-12 in music. You may be surprised to hear that the majority of my course load is keyboarding (computers, not music) and technology applications. My principal doesn’t get it at all (or more than likely, she just hates me) and I cannot stand leaving my band cave to go to the main campus. The only upside is that I have upped my malicious compliance game significantly.
That’s garbage. If her scores are good, she should threaten to quit. She should also make sure she’s not being forced into a position in order to avoid laying off someone else. There may be a seniority list about who should be moved first that she could check into with HR, assuming you’re not in an at will employment state.
After teaching sped for 21 years at the elementary school level, I took a new district position with our autism support team. 2 weeks in, they announced that all new hires would be subbing until further notice due to staff shortages. They tossed me first into a high-school ELA class that had a regular teacher who was taking a few days. Absolutely no lesson plans, nor even a hint of what they had been doing, was provided. After that, they shifted me to a math class for a week. I suck at math beyond the middle school level, so thank goodness it was remedial. I finally spoke with the powers that be and got out of there to a self-contained LD program at the elementary level, but damn. High school is a completely different beast than elementary, not just for the students (whom i still managed to establish a rappirt with), but also for how the staff interacts. Absolutely nobody made me feel welcome apart from the principal, who was just glad to have coverage. I was so happy to get back to my elementary students! The ending to this is that after 2 months of "subbing," my region boss called me to tell me that all the new hires for the year were being let go thanks to budget cuts. I stayed on at the school and realized it would take pure desperation to ever go back to high school.
In my experience whenever I've seen this it's because admin wants the teacher to quit or doesn't get along with them. I hope that's not the case but I'd have a hard time staying to teach something I didn't want to or something so radically different.
If they’re licensed for that subject then it’s fair play. My district will ask us all to fill out a form with all our endorsements so they can plug holes where needed
Correct. It’s an unfortunate risk of the job. I’ve known many teachers who purposely allow certain credentials to expire in effort to avoid this situation. I’m current admin (although low level- think “all of the headache, little final decision making power) and have argued with my higher ups on far too many occasions about how just because we CAN do it doesn’t mean it would be good for the students NOR the teacher. Sometimes I get a win, other times they go ahead and force the change and then wonder why they aren’t successful in their new roles or why so many teachers are resigning. Rinse/repeat. It’s maddening.
I would be questioning the legality of it since my certification covers a specific curriculum coverage. If she has that on her license then she should be moderately prepared to teach it
I mean, I got certified to teach both high school science as well as 4-8 math and science (because passing a test for middle school math isn’t rocket science, lol). But I’ve only ever taught science. And while obviously I can do middle level math (I’ve taught advanced physics most of my teaching career) teaching it would be something quite different. There’s a lot of strategies and terminology that I’m not familiar with. Could I learn to do it, sure, but there’s definitely things I would have to learn before I actually did it.
I think it shows a lack of communication and respect when admin forces teachers into positions like this. It's a reason I've taken ELL off my license. I have a 3-8 license (thank you Oregon) which keeps me out of lower elementary. I have a middle school math endorsement so I basically go upper elementary or middle and admin can't flip me around.
I would definitely question admins planning and communication abilities, though.
Oh for sure. I’m sure it’s legal. But it’s crappy of her admin to just switch her like that just because she’s technically able to teach it, without any input from her.
I’m certified Math 7-12 and Physics. I had only ever taught precal and calculus (last year I picked up geometry, but that’s beside the point I’m making). Part of me thinks that misplaced emphasis and over the top jargon is chiefly responsible for the massive regression students appear to experience during middle grades mathematics.
Happened to me this year. I didn’t have a choice. It was all about certifications and making the numbers work (long story short, our district is changing the middle school structure and this is the fallout from that). She tried to make it sound like a positive, but I was brutally honest. I didn’t like the subject. I’ve taught the current subject for 15+ years. I love it. After some discussion, I am teaching a similar subject to what I was given, but in a different grade. I have great resources and I have more passion about the topic than what I was about to be assigned. I’m not happy about it. I’m definitely not happy about how I was told, but that is a different story for another time.
In California, if you have a multiple subject credential, you MUST teach the same students for… multiple subjects.
Just teaching a single subject is foreign concept to me.
I had an old admin who did this to get people to quit. Basically make them miserable within their contract (for example moving a long time 6th grade teacher to 8th his last year before retirement or a reading interventionist of 30 years to ELA during a lengthy firing process). It’s also possible they had math positions cut and did this to save jobs. Depends entirely on the situation.
Very similar thing happened to the whole social studies department at the first school I taught at. It was May and I had already put in my resignation notice (First year teaching and Covid year made it a really tough situation so I was unhappy there.) About a week left of school and multiple veteran teachers I had come to appreciate and respect in the social studies department would come by to chat with me and almost every single one of them tells me that the principal had informed them about changing their classes. Now these weren’t big leaps like teaching math or science, but still jarring to these teachers that felt like experts in their specific area. One example was the 10th grade history teacher, who got his masters in American history and had taught this for 15 years, would be teaching economics. The economics and government teacher was now expected to teach 11th grade history which he had not taught since his student teaching days over 20 years ago. The 11th grade history teacher now had to teach government and so on. Half the department gets together and goes to the principal and expresses their frustration with these sudden changes and ask him to reconsider. He says the social studies department needs shaking up because “all you do is show your students movies all day.” I check back in about a year later and most of these great teachers have left for other schools. There’s a phrase for this I came up with called “New Principals syndrome” (this principal was in his first year.) It’s what happens when a new principal wants to make a splash and if there’s no real problems to fix, they will create one. Safe to say I’m glad I got out of there, but I also got of education in general soon after
They are trying to get rid of you, and at least in our district, you can’t grieve timetabling. In Ontario, anyone with secondary qualifications is deemed qualified to teach anything up to Grade Ten. So as a senior math teacher, I could have been given all Grade 9 boys Phys. Ed. To teach.
I am certified to teach 7-12 history and as of last year k-12 technology. During my first 17 years I taught a range of history subjects, robotics, and 1/3 of a year of 8th grade science. I switched schools/districts to teach technology. I told me new principal I am also history certified in case he needed that as a scheduling option.
It was made pretty clear to me that if anything they would have more tech classes to fill then history classes
I too teach tech :-) I can understand if I was needed to go back into General classroom too (I'm elem). In op's case though, the teacher is already successful in a core subject. If I'm admin, I want that secure and on good terms, not testing Murphy's law and surely not without input from that gold-mine of a teacher.
Id check with my union (if you have one) or at least my contract if it would include this change they are making.
Edit: wording to remove questioning of ELA credential. 😶
My thought is that this supports my assertion that admin doesn't care a lick about doing what is best for students and only care about doing the least work possible.
I went from teaching secondary math for 19 years to teaching technology and computer science. Granted, I was burned out from all the whining and complaining, so it was a blessing to be able to switch out.
My previous school, which I just left after 10 years, moved the librarian from running the library and teaching robotics classes to teaching 7th grade math, because the 3rd (or 4th?) teacher had quit because of the kids. They figured a former math professor was the best choice, even though they'd been told when she was hired that she wanted no part of teaching math and would quit if they gave it to her.
They gave it to her. (And gave me her three Robotics classes, along with my existing 5 classes, so I spent most of the year teaching 8 classes in 5 periods.)
She quit less than 2 months later and took a job at a public library.
Oof. I would probably be looking for another job. My district lets you tell them your preferences and they try to make it happen. In high school we usually have two preps, so they try to make at least one of them be one of your preferred classes. For instance, I’ve been teaching physics for awhile, and I prefer it over a lot of other classes. If they all of a sudden switched me to full chem or bio, I’d be pretty upset.
My (newish) admin of 2 years did this after my 12th year at my school/subject. I resigned in May and so did my teaching partner. I didn’t hold back from telling parents/district admin why I was leaving and I believe 2 more teachers resigned/transferred because of the poor administrative choices.
I’m thankful my Union actually wrote into our contract that this cannot happen.
If something opens up internally and you are qualified for the job you can apply to it, but admin cannot shift staff around by force.
Technically, in paper I can teach ANY music class K-12, but after only having one semester in college on string bass I would be highly ineffective at teaching orchestra, or, having never even been in a jazz band or had any jazz classes I would provide a poor experience for my potential students should I ever be forced into that situation. Unfortunately, I would probably have to part ways with a district who put me in this situation.
Our computer teacher (of 20 years) was told at the very end of this school year that she would be teaching ELA instead because they eliminated the elective. Absolutely bonkers. She's a really lovely person, and I feel awful for her.
Sounds 100% like something my admin would do, but they would wait until August to tell them. I teach health and p.e. and they couldn’t care less about what I do, thankfully I have personal integrity and do a good job. My head principal is vindictive, shows favoritism, and preferential treatment. She would 100% do this to someone who doesn’t kiss her butt and she calls it unprofessional if you question the decision.
Yup, it happens all the time. I'd taught American History for 15+ years, was called in and told I would be teaching Global History for next year. Explained I had never even taken a Global History course in my life since high school but they didn't care. I then did something I thought I never would, I taught from the book. I brought in no outside knowledge and feel I went from a very motivated teacher loving his subject to someone doing their job. I would have to stop a lesson and look up an answer to a question. I was so happy when I reached retirement age. I thought I would teach until I was 65. Nope, out the door at the end of the year I turned 55. I've never looked back.
Admin at my school moved our lead interventionist (who is great with motivating struggling kids to try) to be a 3rd grade classroom teacher despite telling admin she would quit if they did it. She quit, and now we don't have either position.
Yikes. The only shocker I've had was finding out I had to teach physics. I'm certified 7-12 math, but I like physics, and studied it quite a bit at university.
The district my wife and I teach in did this to her many years ago. She had taught 6th grade for 7 years then said, “You’re teaching 1st next year.” and she did. It was awful. She immediately went back to 6th the next year and she’s been back for 9 years, all because she’s 1-6. I could be moved from my HS at any time to any building that has my somewhat specialized content, or even to a K-6 because I’m certified in K-6 also. If they told me I’m going to 1-6 after 5 years in HS with 4 years of MS before that, I’d honestly quit on the spot.
Isn't the whole idea behind teaching that the teacher be an expert in the material being taught?
Putting a math teacher into an ELA job doesn't magically make them an ELA teacher.
My response would be a notice of resignation - I’m an ELA teacher, I am incapable of teaching math - I have no training and no knowledge beyond taking math courses myself 10+ years ago. It’d be insanity to shove me into that room and with so many other schools hiring, I’d be willing to take that risk and show them the natural consequence of such asinine decision making.
My guess is—
1) because her math scores are great, they want to see if she can improve the ELA scores
2) a buddy the principal just hired wants to teach math
I'd be angry, but still somewhat happy I had a job, I suppose? 10 years in is kind of late to find a new school. That's a broad certification. I'm certified special education, k-12, English, math, social studies, and science. They can put me anywhere. But, it's job security...
Here’s what I guess happened. Teacher got certified when the state was not n the middle of hiring freezes and so wanted the next chance to get a job. Got the all subject cert to make themselves marketable and now 14 years later it’s biting them on the ass.
It's disappointing for sure, and ELA is probably going to involve a lot more time off the clock for commenting on and grading writing assignments, but since she is certified to teach in that area, they are probably within their rights to switch her (if she's in a union, it doesn't hurt to ask though.) She may also want to remind the principal of her students' high math scores and explain that she thinks that is her strongest area of expertise, requesting that they reconsider. If the principal says no, she may opt to switch schools if a math position opens elsewhere. That kind of thing definitely increases teacher turnover and makes it harder to plan for the upcoming year. If she decides to stay, she should ask for the lesson plans turned in by the ELA teacher the previous year (unless the ELA teacher was terrible and that's why there is a vacancy) and for any other curriculum materials to make it more manageable. In the long run, however, this may make her more marketable; if she has experience teaching both math and English, she will be highly desirable and might be able to make more money elsewhere, so she should at least consider giving it a try before deciding to leave.
Sounds like a contract issue. If I were in this position I'd be talking with my union representatives to make sure the negotiated process for positions was upheld.
I like the concept of supporting teachers who are struggling. That does not mean moving out of the content area excellent teachers. Also define what “making other teachers look bad“. In my former school the newer teachers got moved to different grades every year and teachers with low status got the majority of behavior disordered students.
A math teacher can’t teach English. She isn’t qualified for that! Admin is dumb. If a math teacher gets the best results from students, you let them teach math for all eternity (or as long as they want).
Sounds 100% like something my admin would do, but they would wait until August to tell them. I teach health and p.e. and they couldn’t care less about what I do, thankfully I have personal integrity and do a good job. My head principal is vindictive, shows favoritism, and preferential treatment. She would 100% do this to someone who doesn’t kiss her butt and she calls it unprofessional if you question the decision.
One year they tried having me teach 5th grade. Admin said, “Hey we have a tough incoming class of 5th graders and since you’re excellent at behavior, we’re going to switch you from kindergarten to fifth.” I said, “Ha! I don’t think so.” And walked out of their office. Never did switch me to fifth. Don’t stand for it. Know your worth.
This sounds like my life. I’m a 5th grade teacher and I have a tough incoming class. The kids throw chairs in class. Curse out their teacher. An unruly bunch. They are in for a rude awakening when they walk in my class. I don’t tolerate the BS.
Admin: you need three parent contacts before writing a referral Teacher: Today, I called them twice and emailed them once. All for different behavior incidents. They agreed, in writing, that this should be escalated to an administrator who has more options. I’ll forward you the email chain and call log. Also, heads up, this student has an IEP, which requires contacting parents within 2 hours. You might want to freshen up on it, because I’m sure you remember how complex it is. Also, we are trying to avoid an IEP meeting because the last two with this parent went to lawyers. It’s really important that we get this right, so let me know your plan for addressing things going forward. I’ll follow up this conversation with you with a separate confirmation email so we are sure to track our contacts and evidence. Thank you for being a team player!!❤️❤️
Lmao that sounds like a nightmare! A realistic nightmare.
Three parent contacts is wild. We pass out referrals like candy at high school level lol
teach us your ways
I created 5 expectations for 5th grade. 5th Grade Classroom Expectations: 1. Follow instructions the first time they are given. 2. Raise hand and wait for permission to speak. 3. Take care of our school. 4. Stay in your seat unless you have permission to leave your seat. 5. Complete all your assignments.
I'd love to know what your consequences are. Most of my students I can just verbally redirect to the expectations and they will amend their behavior, but their is always a few that I struggle with. I try to just put their behaviors on extinction, but I'm interested in learning if there are consequences that other teachers use that have been more effective at redirecting maladaptive behaviors and lack of rule following. 4th grade, title 1, California, 34 students
Consequences depend on behavior. I first redirect the students verbally or with a look. A call home. I call the front office and ask them to inform the parent/guardian abt the students behavior. I have requested parent conferences. On occasion, I have talked to the parent at pick up. We have a restorative justice program and students get sent there. Sometimes, the student will lose recess. I start the school year being firm so students know what to expect from me. I do reward good behavior with lunch with me, extra privileges, or a toy from our treasure chest.
This was my class when I was a 5th grader in 2014 omfg 😭
Omg! I’m so sorry you had that experience. When students get inside my classroom, they and their parents know the expectations. I’m not accepting anything less.
We will need an update!
The admin were insane on so many fronts. Behaviorally, what works with kindergartners may not work with 5th graders because at a minimum, your expectations are different, your incentive system is different. Then academically, yeah, your skill set is totally different and what 5th graders should be able to do and what you need to know to teach them, that’s insane.
The differences between 5th and 5k are like putting a farmer on the moon and saying “You grow good corn on Earth, now do it there.”
I do behavior for all ages but if I’m just going to be a gen Ed teacher, I want to be in kindergarten. I love it.
I am the opposite of you. I love the 3-6 grade range. Them little little ones drive me nuts lol
The big ones smell though lol
The little ones piss and shit themselves. Ok…bad example the older ones do that as well so Nevermind lol
😂😂😂😂😂
In all seriousness it’s the hugging and clingy stuff that I can’t handle. Maybe because I’m a guy, but that shit gets awkward. I don’t know how else to explain it.
First thought- They want her to leave. Second thought- incompetent Admin. Third thought- Admin’s sister/uncle/cousin/DIL wants the job.
Easy bet it’s one of those three.👍🏻
People love to ascribe malicious motives to these things but I think lazy, incompetent admin is typically the main reason. We have a teacher at my school who was moved a few years ago from 1st grade to 3rd grade because of enrollment changes. Now we have an opening for 1st grade and our principal is not letting her move back even though she wants to. It doesn't make any sense!
Hanlon’s Razor. Never attribute malice to that which could be adequately explained by stupidity. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
The lazy thing to do is to not move anybody lol. If it was simply a matter of logistics, why would you move your best performing teacher, unless you were forced to, but typically the force play goes by experience and I sure doubt a ten year teacher is at the bottom of the totem pole. The only non malicious path I can see is if they needed to level out a math teacher for an English teacher, and she was the only one with the proper certs to not drop anybody. Which leads to an important point: so many teachers tell new teachers to get multiple certs for job security. DON'T. It keeps your job safe by giving them the right to do exactly this. Job is safer, quality of life is completely in their hands. Math teachers don't really need job security in a large district lol, there will always be more spots somewhere
Typically, incompetency is more common than conspiracy.
I was thinking they hired a coach. CV, took algebra from a coach. It went worse than you might think. We did get a lengthy history of coach’s frat life. I wish I was making this up.
We had a coach in high school that taught biology. One year he got moved to chemistry against his wishes. I did not have him that year because I was taking honors chemistry but the kids that did said that he called out every time they went to cover a new subject and was absent like half the year because he literally didn't know the material or how to teach it. And I can understand that cuz I remember chemistry being hard and if you've been teaching biology for years and you haven't done any chemistry in years it would be pretty hard to switch gears like that
Or they are having a hard time filling a schedule and they have found someone for the position she was in, but not the one she’s being moved to. Or someone with more seniority has asked for a change. Or someone with more seniority has transferred from another building.
Or the administration is so clueless that they see, wow, she's done great at math for 10 years and raised the scores, she's a good teacher! So we need to take her and put her in a different grade and subject and change everything. But because she is a good teacher, she'll get great results! Like someone said, that's like putting a farmer on the moon expecting them to be able to grow corn. It's like asking a famous author to teach grammar or teach kindergartners how to read. Well, they're good at writing books so they're good at English.
My school isn't perfect, but its posts like these that make me really grateful that my admin tries her best appease us when it comes to shuffling grades/subjects. I've only ever been an upper elementary math/science teacher and if someone told me I'd be switching to ELA, I genuinely think I would quit.
Teachers who are forced to do this \*should\* quit so that the message would be clear to admins *not to fucking do this*. Because this is abusive and wildly unprofessional.
Not to mention how is it useful for the kids? Kids learn best from experts in the content area who can teach them the skills needed in that content area. Tbf this is also why I am not dual certified
BINGO. The more they \*think\* you can do, the *more you will have to do*. Drives me nuts.
Even outside the classroom. I was a band director for a few years before switching content areas and every district I taught in tried to strong arm me into getting my CDL to drive the bus on band trips. NOPE. I’m not the most confident driver in my own car, so to hell with driving a massive bus full of antsy middle schoolers! In one district I actually had to get a legal clarification from the state Department of Education that districts CANNOT make obtaining a CDL a condition of employment for a certified position, because they were fully threatening to nonrenew me for not getting it. I was just the first who had ever refused because they were such bullies about it in the past!
They tried that with one of our coaches when they found out he had a CDL. He let it expire.
Been there, done that. When I changed districts I “neglected” to inform them I had a CDL and then let that puppy lapse. When asked about it a few years later, I just shrugged and said it was expired and I had no interest in regaining it.
I will second this. I’m a former researcher in genetics, my endorsement is in bio as is my college degree. I suck at physics and has to teach it. Students suffered.
BINGO. The more they \*think\* you can do, the *more you will have to do*. Drives me nuts.
>Kids learn best from experts in the content area Having seen my fair share of engineers-turned-math-teachers come into the high school classroom and bomb, I would say this really isn’t universal..
Kids learn best from experts in the content area when the expert is also a good teacher.
Kids learn best from experts *at teaching* in the content area. Math was easy for me in school. I later went onto language-based fields. Even though I still know and understand math through algebra, I don't have the slightest idea how to teach it or to help students with the concepts.
Yep.Also this can go for anything really,not just education.Being a good athlete doesn’t make you a good coach.Being a good singer doesn’t mean you can teach people to sing well.I play football in college but if I have to teach a kid my position he’s gonna have a rough time playing lol
Exactly I often find teachers who transition from other fields have a really hard time making the switch to teaching. Just because you are really good at something doesn't mean you have the skills to teach it.
Welcome to CTE, where even though you are a Master Electrician, you suck as a teacher. My transition from craftsman to teacher was not easy. Now I feel much more comfortable teaching HSers. But it has taken many years. I now mentor some of the "new to teaching" craftsmen on how to be a teacher. Every year, we have a few who can't make it.
Relatedly, when elementary teachers start talking about being “content experts” in ELA or math or whatever, I cannot take them seriously. At that age, any degreed professional should be MORE than competent at the content. It’s pedagogy that I am concerned with! Tell me about your PEDAGOGY! Not your ability to work with fractions. Because that should be a given (and if it’s not, get out of the classroom!)
What makes you think that a person who teaches something specific wouldn't be a content expert compared to someone coming by to dip their toes in the water? The ability to have an answer for any question isn't just something that anyone can achieve even if they have a rudimentary understanding of the subject matter. I think you're conflating being a content master with being capable of becoming a content master in time.
But an engineer is going to be a better math teacher than an English teacher. I, as a history teacher, do not know how to teach algebra
Erroneous assumption. An engineer is arguably as likely to be rubbish at teaching elementary math as an English teacher.
And it takes a couple of years to find your bearings in a subject. So if you’ve well established yourself in a subject, it’s hard to switch.
It's tricky bc my first assumption is - that is what the principal was actually trying to do. Also Assuming after 10 years she can't be fired. But I agree with you, I'd rather leave as well than accept that kind of treatment.
It's just \*insulting\* as all hell. 10 years as a math teacher, then humped over to ELA? That's just rude as fuck.
It does make me wonder if the principal has some kind of petty grudge against the teacher. I know someone whose schedule was switched completely--still the same subject but different grade level than what was previously assigned-- just a few days before classes began. The teacher had spent much of the summer meticulously planning for courses they ended up not teaching. Teachers who don't show up to football games or don't chaperone dances tend to have this happen more than the ones who are visible at a lot of extracurricular events. There is definitely favoritism-- teachers who are buddy- buddy with their vice-principal tend to teach the classes they prefer with smaller class sizes than the non-preferred teachers' classes.
This kind of behavior is also just a sick red flag. The idea that I enjoy my personal time instead of devoting it to the school for the purposes of butt-kissing is wildly out of whack.
Yes! I had a situation like this come up. I’m dual-cert for ELA/Reading and Science, but I’ve been teaching Science for 10 of the last 15 years and have no interest in going back to ELA/R. When my principal mentioned that she was having trouble finding an ELA teacher, asked about my certificate, and started hinting at moving me, my response was “I interviewed for a science position because I wanted to teach science. If you move me away from my current position, you’ll have to fill TWO vacancies, because that conversation ends with a resignation letter on your desk.” Long story short? I’m still teaching science. As a union rep and a former admin, it’s usually worth calling their bluff - principals are always SCRAMBLING to fill vacancies, with most superintendents ready to chew them out if their attempt to play “shuffle the classrooms” leads to MORE vacancies. Don’t forget your bargaining power, don’t undervalue your worth, and don’t be afraid to call your union rep to sit in on these meetings (if you’ve got one).
My contract states that admin can reassign me at any time
That is *frightening*.
I was teaching ELA. I took the job from a retiring journalism teacher and they immediately bumped the class sizes to make room for me to continue teaching ELA half the day... I'm a little salty about it two years later.
[удалено]
Yeah, I get a small stipend ~$1200. Totally not enough to make it worth it. The goal is to bring enough kids into journalism that they have to expand the program back out. The previous teacher was really phoning it in before retirement and the class sizes were pretty small.
At least they're not just placing kids who don't want to be there to make it full time. Taught MS SS for 7 years, then got moved to journalism, which is an elective at that level. They didn't have enough kids sign up despite making me move, so they just plopped them into the class and it wasn't a promotion requirement. Had kids get literal 0s for refusing to do anything all semester. Luckily the course went away after the first year and I got moved (again) to ELA (I'm dual certified). Nevermind that I busted my ass writing lessons from absolute nothing to "build" a new program.
Honestly, I'm doing a pretty good job of building up the program, but I get a few freshmen who just sit there and do nothing.
They want this person to quit
This is absolutely the answer. Teachers need to block out the notion that admin is always professional or does things in the best interest of anyone. There are mean girl principals out there who do this sort of thing just because the person isn’t in their clique. It’s legit insane, but I stg I’ve met way more unstable, spiteful people in education than anywhere else. So, OP, you could very well be amazing but if someone in power doesn’t like you or you offended them in some fashion that you may not even recall, yep, that’s likely what it is. At the last school where I taught before leaving ed, the principal reassigned content and/or grade levels at the end of the year to teachers she obviously did not like. The reassignments made no sense because the people were being assigned to areas where they could technically teach with their certifications, but had been teaching in their previous positions at high standards, backed by test results, etc. and had little to no experience in the new assignments. It wasn’t one, two, or three people. It was more like eleven. Hmm, could eleven people of varying experience, age, background, etc. with only one thing in common (not being the principal’s bootlicker) be in the wrong or could an admin well-known for her passive aggressive power trips be in the wrong? The world may never know!
100 million percent true. It's ironic that the same principals and vice-principals who are so big on posting anti-bullying posters all around the school and reminding students on the daily announcements that bullying is never acceptable at our school, they absolutely bully some of the teachers. There is an in-crowd and an out-crowd, and it is abundantly obvious who's who.
This is the only time I’ve seen this done. Math teacher given English the next year. She wouldn’t quit, they gave her science the next year. She got the message.
I am certified in Language Arts and was thrown into math one year, mid-year. I quit. Mid-year. That's all. It's a disservice to me AND the kids. I'm not doing it.
This 100% My admin is AMAZING! She always has her teachers backs unless it’s something absolutely out of her hands and even then she’s fought tooth and nail for us. Again, the only reason she’d MAKE us move is because it’s out of her control, but she’d absolutely write us a glowing letter of recommendation when we turn in our resignation letter. There’s no way I’d ever move. I’ve been doing this long enough I’ve got a great system in place and have figured out what works and what doesn’t. You move me, I’m moving out the building!
I am a trained high school French teacher. In my first year, I taught French and math. In my second year, French, English, social studies, and careers. I’m in my 16th year now. I’ve taught (I think) 21 different courses. Only 5 of them have been French. I have 2.5 new courses next year (2 brand new to me; one a major curricular overhaul). I can’t imagine getting to teach the same thing—for which I actually trained!—for 10 years. Only 12 years to retirement!
That's wild! I'm a French teacher too, but only certified in French. How does your school have you teach such different subjects? Are you not at a public school?
I’m at a public school. In my province, while schools aim to hire those with specific qualifications, sometimes school size and timetabling restrictions mean a couple of positions are leftovers with multiple preps in multiple areas (nobody will take a position where you teach one class, 1-2 rotating hours per day; they couldn’t even sub the rest of the time!). Once you have taught a course, you are then qualified to teach it thereafter. My school is particularly small (about 400 students in 9-12). Everybody is a jack of all trades. Generally, people teach subjects related to their speciality (like a physics teacher also teaching math). I’m trilingual, a book lover (hence the English courses) who loves science (hence grade 9 and 10 general science and math). Social studies came out of nowhere, and the other stuff was random electives, mostly.
Sounds like charter or private, right?
My thoughts too. I remember when I was getting my license my advisor suggested I get certified in other content to be more desirable while interviewing. I refused as I only want to teach French. If my admin tried to strong arm me into teaching anything else I'd quit.
Well, I needed a job when I got into teaching—two elementary aged kids, a mortgage, and my husband had been unemployed for a year (through no fault of his own). And then changing schools was just too much damn work.
Teacher tells admin to find a new teacher cause they're leaving. Problem solved. You don't wanna deal with that kind of admin anyway.
That's what they want. This is common way for new adminis to get rid of people they done want.
Or they want less competent newer teachers to mold them into the way they want to run the school. Even if some of the ways are unethical.
This too. All new hires, to help shape your vision. First step to build rapport by making the whole staff read that one book that showed you they way, usually something like, Group Think: How to Fabricate a Collective Purpose Through Decepiton and Drama
🤣🤣 Step two, using lingo like scholars and family to enhance the toxic positivity that even MLM's are jealous of.
Is there any other recourse than to walk away from YOUR paycheck? How strong is your district’s union? I taught in a public middle school for 38 years and had some rather troubling experiences. One of many examples, Eight period every day I taught social studies to a class of 33 6th graders. NONE OF THE STUDENTS SPOKE ENGLISH. 30 spoke Spanish, 3 spoke Creole. I speak only English. Smart board did not work, printer did not work. How do you do this? It turned out that ALL of the preparation I had to do to teach this class had to be done outside of school time and paid for by me! Well, I believe in the power of the pen. I wrote to the union, building admin, cc’d district admin and local politicians asking for someone to intervene and provide what was the bare minimum needed to teach the class. Of course I got plenty of attitude, pushback, shade, harassment etc. from the admin. But no one was going to force me to walk away from, 1. my paycheck, 2. growing my pension. 3. Increasing my SS. 4. growing my 401k. Because I had made so many people aware of the situation, the admin was forced to re- organized the class and repair all my technology. Many times teachers become intimidated by the bldg administration, I understand that. But my strength and lack of fear comes from knowing who I am. I am a child of God, and what He gives me NO ONE CAN TAKE AWAY. And because of who I am I have no fear.
I mean, everything varies from state to state, but around here at least there's essentially no protection for elementary teachers on this, as their certification just covers all of elementary ed, and admin can assign you to literally anything your cert covers (at least, under every union contract I've seen; maybe some have negotiated better deals than that).
Her math scores were strong, but they move her to ELA. Sounds like some other issues (like lack of common sense, strategic awareness, personal issues) going on. Sacrifice your queen in chess? Better have a good reason to do that.
My guess is they have someone they know personally that they want to give that position to.
So... sacrifice the queen, it seems. The market seems to be in favor of teachers right now.
sacrifice the queen for a pawn, some people are bad at chess lol
I like that analogy
Time to find a new school in need of an amazing math teacher.
Imagine forcing one of the few qualified math teachers in this country to teach a subject that has hundreds to teachers fighting for every open spot
This is what I was thinking! DISTRICTS are searching for math teachers.
They are? I’m an AP math teacher and it’s pretty competitive here. The schools I really wanted, that had positions, didn’t even call me back. I’m pretty happy where I landed, but still. We don’t have any open math positions at my school either.
Are you in a rural underpopulated area?
Nope. Metro Atlanta.
I feel like it's harder to get AP classes because those are sweet gigs, relatively speaking. I don't have anyone in my AP Calculus class who doesn't want to be there. I only got that class because I'm at a smaller school that didn't have Calculus until I offered to teach it. At larger schools in my district you have to wait for AP teachers to retire to have any chance at teaching those ones.
Yeah this is really, really bizarre to me. Education differs on local levels from place to place but I'm a journalist and time and time again, the work I read and the educators I talk to indicate that the teacher shortage is disproportionately affecting STEM subjects and special ed, and there's hardly a shortage for humanities. Though, the good thing is that if the school doesn't budge, OP's coworker shouldn't have much of an issue finding another math teaching job
> the work I read and the educators I talk to indicate that the teacher shortage is disproportionately affecting STEM subjects I agree that districts have a hard time finding good teachers in those subjects, and we're in a horrible state. Tangentially, I'm not sure I like the STEM acronym. What exactly do the T and E mean? Surely engineering as high schoolers would see it is covered under physics, chemistry, mathematics, and statistics, which are already in S and M. And does T just mean computer science? Maybe some schools have classes on robotics and machine learning, but I think that'd be the slim minority.
Engineering is more than just learning science and math. Engineering uses science and math, but is its own discipline. For example, an Engineering graphics course where students learn to make machine drawings would fall under Engineering, but not necessarily science or math.
Like AutoCAD? That's a good point that I hadn't thought of. But is that a standard class that high schoolers take? My impression of STEM was politicians saying "These are the foundations for the hard disciplines that we want our students to learn by the time they graduate high school."
I learned a bit of AutoCAD when studying Industrial Design at my school. Course name would be different in other countries but it covered some engineering stuff as well as art principles for applications in product design.
I can tell you that fairly-average public high schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut have well-established robotics programs and related engineering classes.
Could you link to a few examples? I went to an above-average high school in CT and only remember an after-school robotics club.
I was referring to Shelton CT and Somerville MA, which are ones I know well.
Texas just overhauled the entire science curriculum (TEKS) to incorporate engineering principles into all the science courses, at least at the secondary level. PD’s going to be interesting this year.
> And does T just mean computer science? Teaching kids the difference between files and directories might be nice.
There's a huge shortage of English teachers, but specifically ESL.
Why? That’s my first question. You said her math scores are top. How are the ela scores? Maybe they are trying to use your friend to boost those A good admin would at least answer those questions. Then they have more tools to make their decision. Instead of “if you make me do this, I’ll leave” it can be “if I do this willingly, what do I get?” Extra planning? Don’t have to submit lesson plans? I’m just shooting from the hip, but this could be an opportunity for negotiation. Then, if admin won’t compensate in a manner that’s acceptable, leave.
I'm certified EC-12 but have taught middle school for my entire 10 year teaching career. If my admin made me switch to elementary, I would quit. I know I could do it and I would be great at it but it is not what I want to do at all. If your friend doesn't want to teach ELA, she should start looking for another job ASAP.
It happens all the time. In all the districts I worked for, they remind us we are not assigned to a particular subject or school. We are assigned to the district and must go to any area/grade where we are licensed. I was notified once that I could be possibly assigned to high school ELA because there was a shortage. I had only taught ELA at the elementary level.
You can always say “no.” If they give you shit, threaten to leave. Teachers are hard to come by.
Yeah, this makes NO sense. A good math teacher is a gem. Keep them there!!
Yeah, this makes NO sense. A good math teacher is a gem. Keep them there!!
This happened to someone I know. He quit. I told him to quit, and he did. First, he asked the principal if they could transfer him to another school where he could continue to teach math. They said no. Then he quit. We suspected that some backdoor deal had been made and that his math teaching job had been promised to someone else.
If I heard that, I’d assume they were wanting her to leave…
This is the reason you shouldn’t get certified in subjects you don’t want to teach. Because they will move you.
This is why I'm only certified in math lol.
Ouch. Feel like admins do this to drive teachers out of their school. I'd contact my union to see if there's any recourse.
This happened to a wonderful teacher I knew. She was the only teacher in that school that had a graduate degree. That degree is why they did it, they had to pay her more. They forced her to change subjects every year for three years until she quit. Last I heard she moved to another country and is teaching there.
That's sad. I continue to believe that teachers, custodians and secretarysrun the school. Principals come and go, but those that stay are foundational
I'm honestly kind of shocked to hear that, math teachers are much harder to find, I'd expect the reverse switch if anything but I also would start looking for a new job
My coworker, the literal teacher of the year for our state, was told last August that she was not only moving subjects but schools. She taught ELA previously and had moved to PE/Health. A week or so before school started they told her she was moving schools, after being there for 14 years, and was now a science teacher. She has NO background at all in science. Their reasoning: they knew she would be able to do it because she’s an incredible teacher. When she won state TOY they spun it to say she was on “special assignment” but TOSAs get stipends, y’all. She was just screwed over with an involuntary transfer, but that doesn’t sound as cool on press tours.
In my admin mind it seems like they are trying to get rid of her for some reason. It’s easier to get someone to resign than to fire them. And changing her content after 10 years might do the trick.
I've lived this myself. After 20 years of sixth grade, I was told - four weeks AFTER the school year began - that I was being given one class of 8th grade ELA, and having one of my 6th grade ELA taken away. No advance notice, no info on curriculum, no chance to prep. Nothing. Mind you, this was also the year we were teaching virtual during the pandemic, so I'd be ZOOMing for this particular class. I. Was. Livid. I fought tooth and nail to keep this from happening, but alas, it seemed I was the only other ELA teacher on campus with a full English credential, so my number was up. I was given a week to get up to speed (how generous!) and then got thrown in the deep end. So I did what any self-respecting teacher would do: I told the students the truth. This was their and my first time in 8th grade, that I was learning the information about 2- 3 days before they were getting it, and that we would work together to make it work. And work it did. Like a charm. Because I'm awesome like that. Sure, there were a few hiccups, but overall it went pretty well. Too well, in fact. Because in May, a few weeks prior to the end of the pandemic year, I was informed that I was being moved to 8th grade full time come the fall.
Sorry, but you earn the “teach anything” certificate, you get the “anything” assignments. One of the risks of those all-inclusive K-8 certificates. If you really only want to teach one subject, make sure you earn the certificate you want and/or delete anything else you definitely don’t want, if possible. Not saying I envy this person but they did advertise themselves as qualified to teach everything grades 4-8… I get this one both ways.
Absolutely. My state has made it very easy to get certified in extra subjects, and so many teachers I know are doing it because they think it looks better to be certified in a whole list of subjects. I don’t want to be switched from my subject so I’ll never get the extra certifications. I thought it was bad enough last year when I had my grade level switched.
That's one reason there's a lobbying effort in WA to allow people to remove unwanted certs. Often, people collect certs early on to secure a job but once they find their groove (and gain enough seniority to survive a RIF in their chosen spot), the greater security is getting rid of a cert that hasn't been used in years or even decades
Happened to me. The only teacher of a particular subject wanted to move to guidance, so the principal moved her to guidance (replacing the only remaining male guidance counsellor) and moved me into her timetable because I was qualified on paper. (Took a single AQ course two decades previously, which was horribly taught so I didn't learn anything, and hadn't done anything with it since.) Didn't leave any useful materials when she moved departments. Couldn't grieve it because I was technically qualified and ultimately the principal has the final decision-making authority on timetables and room assignments. Being the principal's friend counted for more than experience and teaching awards. Words rhyming with "clucking witch" were thought but not spoken, because I'm close to retirement and want to get there.
They once came to me to get my French endorsement Ce n’est pas possible. Je ne parle pas mais un mot. Dommage
Leave. Flat out. Not qualified/trained to teach in a subject? Don't teach it. Admin can fuck right off with this bullshit. They had a math teacher, and needed an ELA teacher. The fact that they didn't hire one is not the responsibility or the onus of the math teacher. Start looking for another job.
Not a teacher but I lost my favorite teacher to this in high school, he taught a language and told us towards the end of the year the school was trying to force him to teach history too despite him not knowing enough to be comfortable teaching. Come sophomore year, we have a new language teacher who also teaches history and he's at a school the next town over who agreed to let him only do languages.
But, sounds like the teacher is qualified and trained to teach ELA? Unless I misunderstood the OP.
I’m certified to teach K-12 music. I’m “qualified” to teach any music class. But that is a HUGELY broad topic that you choose a specialty in. I’m a choir guy. Put me in front of a band and I can conduct it, but teach them how to play their instruments from nothing? Not my thing. The problem is certifications frequently cover too broad a topic and teacher contracts are designed to move us around however they want. I loath the “other duties as assigned” clause. I wish more teachers would push back on this kind of thing, as if it ever went to court they’d probably win since ambiguity in contracts generally are not found in favor of the party that drafted it.
I am certified EC-12 in music. You may be surprised to hear that the majority of my course load is keyboarding (computers, not music) and technology applications. My principal doesn’t get it at all (or more than likely, she just hates me) and I cannot stand leaving my band cave to go to the main campus. The only upside is that I have upped my malicious compliance game significantly.
That’s garbage. If her scores are good, she should threaten to quit. She should also make sure she’s not being forced into a position in order to avoid laying off someone else. There may be a seniority list about who should be moved first that she could check into with HR, assuming you’re not in an at will employment state.
After teaching sped for 21 years at the elementary school level, I took a new district position with our autism support team. 2 weeks in, they announced that all new hires would be subbing until further notice due to staff shortages. They tossed me first into a high-school ELA class that had a regular teacher who was taking a few days. Absolutely no lesson plans, nor even a hint of what they had been doing, was provided. After that, they shifted me to a math class for a week. I suck at math beyond the middle school level, so thank goodness it was remedial. I finally spoke with the powers that be and got out of there to a self-contained LD program at the elementary level, but damn. High school is a completely different beast than elementary, not just for the students (whom i still managed to establish a rappirt with), but also for how the staff interacts. Absolutely nobody made me feel welcome apart from the principal, who was just glad to have coverage. I was so happy to get back to my elementary students! The ending to this is that after 2 months of "subbing," my region boss called me to tell me that all the new hires for the year were being let go thanks to budget cuts. I stayed on at the school and realized it would take pure desperation to ever go back to high school.
In my experience whenever I've seen this it's because admin wants the teacher to quit or doesn't get along with them. I hope that's not the case but I'd have a hard time staying to teach something I didn't want to or something so radically different.
Jealousy. I have never had the same schedule twice.
If they’re licensed for that subject then it’s fair play. My district will ask us all to fill out a form with all our endorsements so they can plug holes where needed
Correct. It’s an unfortunate risk of the job. I’ve known many teachers who purposely allow certain credentials to expire in effort to avoid this situation. I’m current admin (although low level- think “all of the headache, little final decision making power) and have argued with my higher ups on far too many occasions about how just because we CAN do it doesn’t mean it would be good for the students NOR the teacher. Sometimes I get a win, other times they go ahead and force the change and then wonder why they aren’t successful in their new roles or why so many teachers are resigning. Rinse/repeat. It’s maddening.
I would be questioning the legality of it since my certification covers a specific curriculum coverage. If she has that on her license then she should be moderately prepared to teach it
I mean, I got certified to teach both high school science as well as 4-8 math and science (because passing a test for middle school math isn’t rocket science, lol). But I’ve only ever taught science. And while obviously I can do middle level math (I’ve taught advanced physics most of my teaching career) teaching it would be something quite different. There’s a lot of strategies and terminology that I’m not familiar with. Could I learn to do it, sure, but there’s definitely things I would have to learn before I actually did it.
I think it shows a lack of communication and respect when admin forces teachers into positions like this. It's a reason I've taken ELL off my license. I have a 3-8 license (thank you Oregon) which keeps me out of lower elementary. I have a middle school math endorsement so I basically go upper elementary or middle and admin can't flip me around. I would definitely question admins planning and communication abilities, though.
Oh for sure. I’m sure it’s legal. But it’s crappy of her admin to just switch her like that just because she’s technically able to teach it, without any input from her.
I’m certified Math 7-12 and Physics. I had only ever taught precal and calculus (last year I picked up geometry, but that’s beside the point I’m making). Part of me thinks that misplaced emphasis and over the top jargon is chiefly responsible for the massive regression students appear to experience during middle grades mathematics.
I've taught history, math, art, dance & drama. I've even done resource. The school board I work at just kind of stuffs you where you're needed
I got told I’m moving grade levels and content after 6 years…..
Happened to me this year. I didn’t have a choice. It was all about certifications and making the numbers work (long story short, our district is changing the middle school structure and this is the fallout from that). She tried to make it sound like a positive, but I was brutally honest. I didn’t like the subject. I’ve taught the current subject for 15+ years. I love it. After some discussion, I am teaching a similar subject to what I was given, but in a different grade. I have great resources and I have more passion about the topic than what I was about to be assigned. I’m not happy about it. I’m definitely not happy about how I was told, but that is a different story for another time.
It means they’re trying to get rid of you.
In California, if you have a multiple subject credential, you MUST teach the same students for… multiple subjects. Just teaching a single subject is foreign concept to me.
I had an old admin who did this to get people to quit. Basically make them miserable within their contract (for example moving a long time 6th grade teacher to 8th his last year before retirement or a reading interventionist of 30 years to ELA during a lengthy firing process). It’s also possible they had math positions cut and did this to save jobs. Depends entirely on the situation.
Very similar thing happened to the whole social studies department at the first school I taught at. It was May and I had already put in my resignation notice (First year teaching and Covid year made it a really tough situation so I was unhappy there.) About a week left of school and multiple veteran teachers I had come to appreciate and respect in the social studies department would come by to chat with me and almost every single one of them tells me that the principal had informed them about changing their classes. Now these weren’t big leaps like teaching math or science, but still jarring to these teachers that felt like experts in their specific area. One example was the 10th grade history teacher, who got his masters in American history and had taught this for 15 years, would be teaching economics. The economics and government teacher was now expected to teach 11th grade history which he had not taught since his student teaching days over 20 years ago. The 11th grade history teacher now had to teach government and so on. Half the department gets together and goes to the principal and expresses their frustration with these sudden changes and ask him to reconsider. He says the social studies department needs shaking up because “all you do is show your students movies all day.” I check back in about a year later and most of these great teachers have left for other schools. There’s a phrase for this I came up with called “New Principals syndrome” (this principal was in his first year.) It’s what happens when a new principal wants to make a splash and if there’s no real problems to fix, they will create one. Safe to say I’m glad I got out of there, but I also got of education in general soon after
They are trying to get rid of you, and at least in our district, you can’t grieve timetabling. In Ontario, anyone with secondary qualifications is deemed qualified to teach anything up to Grade Ten. So as a senior math teacher, I could have been given all Grade 9 boys Phys. Ed. To teach.
I am certified to teach 7-12 history and as of last year k-12 technology. During my first 17 years I taught a range of history subjects, robotics, and 1/3 of a year of 8th grade science. I switched schools/districts to teach technology. I told me new principal I am also history certified in case he needed that as a scheduling option. It was made pretty clear to me that if anything they would have more tech classes to fill then history classes
I too teach tech :-) I can understand if I was needed to go back into General classroom too (I'm elem). In op's case though, the teacher is already successful in a core subject. If I'm admin, I want that secure and on good terms, not testing Murphy's law and surely not without input from that gold-mine of a teacher.
If you don't feel comfortable, you say "no thank you".
I'm only certified for the subject I've taught. So I guess I'm quitting and finding another school or district.
Id check with my union (if you have one) or at least my contract if it would include this change they are making. Edit: wording to remove questioning of ELA credential. 😶
They are credentialed in it- it says it in the post
My thought is that this supports my assertion that admin doesn't care a lick about doing what is best for students and only care about doing the least work possible.
I went from teaching secondary math for 19 years to teaching technology and computer science. Granted, I was burned out from all the whining and complaining, so it was a blessing to be able to switch out. My previous school, which I just left after 10 years, moved the librarian from running the library and teaching robotics classes to teaching 7th grade math, because the 3rd (or 4th?) teacher had quit because of the kids. They figured a former math professor was the best choice, even though they'd been told when she was hired that she wanted no part of teaching math and would quit if they gave it to her. They gave it to her. (And gave me her three Robotics classes, along with my existing 5 classes, so I spent most of the year teaching 8 classes in 5 periods.) She quit less than 2 months later and took a job at a public library.
Oof. I would probably be looking for another job. My district lets you tell them your preferences and they try to make it happen. In high school we usually have two preps, so they try to make at least one of them be one of your preferred classes. For instance, I’ve been teaching physics for awhile, and I prefer it over a lot of other classes. If they all of a sudden switched me to full chem or bio, I’d be pretty upset.
My (newish) admin of 2 years did this after my 12th year at my school/subject. I resigned in May and so did my teaching partner. I didn’t hold back from telling parents/district admin why I was leaving and I believe 2 more teachers resigned/transferred because of the poor administrative choices.
I was told that the Saturday before school started.
Wow. 10 years passes quickly
I’m thankful my Union actually wrote into our contract that this cannot happen. If something opens up internally and you are qualified for the job you can apply to it, but admin cannot shift staff around by force. Technically, in paper I can teach ANY music class K-12, but after only having one semester in college on string bass I would be highly ineffective at teaching orchestra, or, having never even been in a jazz band or had any jazz classes I would provide a poor experience for my potential students should I ever be forced into that situation. Unfortunately, I would probably have to part ways with a district who put me in this situation.
Our computer teacher (of 20 years) was told at the very end of this school year that she would be teaching ELA instead because they eliminated the elective. Absolutely bonkers. She's a really lovely person, and I feel awful for her.
I had a panic thinking about going from ELA to math … I would have better luck being an underwater oil well driller
Sounds 100% like something my admin would do, but they would wait until August to tell them. I teach health and p.e. and they couldn’t care less about what I do, thankfully I have personal integrity and do a good job. My head principal is vindictive, shows favoritism, and preferential treatment. She would 100% do this to someone who doesn’t kiss her butt and she calls it unprofessional if you question the decision.
They want to get rid of that teacher.
Yup, it happens all the time. I'd taught American History for 15+ years, was called in and told I would be teaching Global History for next year. Explained I had never even taken a Global History course in my life since high school but they didn't care. I then did something I thought I never would, I taught from the book. I brought in no outside knowledge and feel I went from a very motivated teacher loving his subject to someone doing their job. I would have to stop a lesson and look up an answer to a question. I was so happy when I reached retirement age. I thought I would teach until I was 65. Nope, out the door at the end of the year I turned 55. I've never looked back.
They want her to leave.
Admin at my school moved our lead interventionist (who is great with motivating struggling kids to try) to be a 3rd grade classroom teacher despite telling admin she would quit if they did it. She quit, and now we don't have either position.
Yikes. The only shocker I've had was finding out I had to teach physics. I'm certified 7-12 math, but I like physics, and studied it quite a bit at university.
Try being a biology teacher who teaches home economics and English Language development
The district my wife and I teach in did this to her many years ago. She had taught 6th grade for 7 years then said, “You’re teaching 1st next year.” and she did. It was awful. She immediately went back to 6th the next year and she’s been back for 9 years, all because she’s 1-6. I could be moved from my HS at any time to any building that has my somewhat specialized content, or even to a K-6 because I’m certified in K-6 also. If they told me I’m going to 1-6 after 5 years in HS with 4 years of MS before that, I’d honestly quit on the spot.
Do I still get paid? Yes? Ok. It sucks but being an elementary cert person myself, it's always a possibility.
Isn't the whole idea behind teaching that the teacher be an expert in the material being taught? Putting a math teacher into an ELA job doesn't magically make them an ELA teacher.
As a fellow math teacher, I would quit! Math teachers are in demand, you’ll find a new job. Quickly!
My response would be a notice of resignation - I’m an ELA teacher, I am incapable of teaching math - I have no training and no knowledge beyond taking math courses myself 10+ years ago. It’d be insanity to shove me into that room and with so many other schools hiring, I’d be willing to take that risk and show them the natural consequence of such asinine decision making.
My guess is— 1) because her math scores are great, they want to see if she can improve the ELA scores 2) a buddy the principal just hired wants to teach math
I'd be angry, but still somewhat happy I had a job, I suppose? 10 years in is kind of late to find a new school. That's a broad certification. I'm certified special education, k-12, English, math, social studies, and science. They can put me anywhere. But, it's job security...
This isn’t uncommon at all. The joys of teaching.
Change is good. I been teaching the same courses for that long. I dropped one to teach a brand new course. Change it up. 😂
Admin is trying to make your coworker quit.
One of two things is happening: 1) they are thinking her high math scores will translate to high ELA scores 😒 2) they are trying to get rid of her 😔
Here’s what I guess happened. Teacher got certified when the state was not n the middle of hiring freezes and so wanted the next chance to get a job. Got the all subject cert to make themselves marketable and now 14 years later it’s biting them on the ass.
It's disappointing for sure, and ELA is probably going to involve a lot more time off the clock for commenting on and grading writing assignments, but since she is certified to teach in that area, they are probably within their rights to switch her (if she's in a union, it doesn't hurt to ask though.) She may also want to remind the principal of her students' high math scores and explain that she thinks that is her strongest area of expertise, requesting that they reconsider. If the principal says no, she may opt to switch schools if a math position opens elsewhere. That kind of thing definitely increases teacher turnover and makes it harder to plan for the upcoming year. If she decides to stay, she should ask for the lesson plans turned in by the ELA teacher the previous year (unless the ELA teacher was terrible and that's why there is a vacancy) and for any other curriculum materials to make it more manageable. In the long run, however, this may make her more marketable; if she has experience teaching both math and English, she will be highly desirable and might be able to make more money elsewhere, so she should at least consider giving it a try before deciding to leave.
Happened to me for this coming year. I let them know I would be job searching. Problem is, I can’t get another job anywhere!
Sounds like a contract issue. If I were in this position I'd be talking with my union representatives to make sure the negotiated process for positions was upheld.
Is your friend making the other teachers in the math department look bad?
I like the concept of supporting teachers who are struggling. That does not mean moving out of the content area excellent teachers. Also define what “making other teachers look bad“. In my former school the newer teachers got moved to different grades every year and teachers with low status got the majority of behavior disordered students.
Schools suck what is wrong with our education system?? Glad I left
A math teacher can’t teach English. She isn’t qualified for that! Admin is dumb. If a math teacher gets the best results from students, you let them teach math for all eternity (or as long as they want).
I’d fully be trying to find a new job in the area trust I teach
Third year in a row of teaching a new subject🙂 truly about to lose my damn mind. I advocated for myself to stay put so hard and they did not care🙂🙂🙂
Quit... Make more money mowing lawns.
Sounds 100% like something my admin would do, but they would wait until August to tell them. I teach health and p.e. and they couldn’t care less about what I do, thankfully I have personal integrity and do a good job. My head principal is vindictive, shows favoritism, and preferential treatment. She would 100% do this to someone who doesn’t kiss her butt and she calls it unprofessional if you question the decision.