As the academic year winds down, the teaching profession and school districts are facing a number of daunting challenges. The pandemic led to the largest drop in  US school employment ever recorded. Even as the job market stabilizes, educator well-being is at an all-time low, and 30% of educators plan to leave the profession within three years. 

What’s more, the perception of teacher prestige is at an all-time low, dropping 47% in the last decade alone. Not surprisingly, the number of new teachers entering the classroom has declined by roughly 30% over that time. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona recently said that the “teacher shortage issue is a symptom of a teacher respect issue, really.”

We at iteach believe that great teachers profoundly impact their students’ lives and deserve the deepest respect from districts, parents, and society at large. Our role in combating the negative public perception of teachers is to do everything in our power to deliver our 1,500+ district and LEA partners a diverse group of educators who are ready to teach, feel empowered to excel in the classroom, and stay in the profession. Many of these people have succeeded in specialized careers but want the personal joy that comes from teaching. They may also be existing school district employees who have a bachelor’s degree and need a more accessible pathway to get accreditation. We are proud to have provided education and guidance to more than 20,000 fully certified teachers, who have proven a high level of effectiveness in the classroom. 

Restoring trust and respect in the teaching profession means holding teacher training programs like ours to a high standard. States and districts have turned to unconventional strategies, including allowing individuals with no training into the classroom. These types of stopgap solutions to teacher shortages around the country could have negative long-term impacts on student outcomes. While there is an urgent need for states to offer efficient, high-quality pathways into the education profession, there are proven, highly rated programs available that help teacher candidates receive the training they need to earn their certification and be successful in schools. 

Unfortunately, there are also bad actors in our industry, and the quality among teacher preparation programs varies widely. Teacher candidates have no protections to ensure the efficacy of the programs they enroll in. For example, if they start a program and the provider gets their certification service revoked, those teachers have no recourse.  

Fortunately, there are a number of steps that aspiring teachers can take to evaluate preparation programs: 

1. Research: Facebook, Google, and Trustpilot, can be helpful, and looking up if the program is in good standing with your state Department of Education’s database can help you choose among programs. 
2. Accreditation: Learn about which programs have third-party accreditation. For example, iteach is the only program not based in an institution of higher learning to earn accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).
3. Quality over speed: As you read news articles and reviews, be suspicious of programs that tout themselves as “easy” or emphasize how quickly you can finish. Instead, look for a program that emphasizes teacher quality, preferably one that is run by accredited teachers. 
4. Getting credit: It may seem self-evident, but it is extremely important to make sure the program you choose is accepted in the state you live in. Also, If you’re interested in pursuing a master’s degree post-certification, confirm that the program you’re considering offers credit hours to a college.
5. Coursework: Before beginning a program, ask yourself if the coursework truly looks applicable to the classroom. For example, iteach offers a course that orients every new teacher to what will happen during the first week of school. One of our graduates who won Teacher of the Year during her first year in the classroom said that this orientation “saved her life.” Also, look for content that goes beyond structured classes, such as the curated video collection from Teaching Channel that all iteach teachers have access to.
6. Support: What sort of classroom support does the program offer? At iteach, every student who completes coursework has a classroom supervisor for their first year. Our student to classroom supervisor ratio is 11:1 (by contrast, a competitive teacher training program’s ratio is 63:1). Texas, one of the states we serve, requires three classroom visits per year, but our classroom supervisors make five visits per year. We believe all new teachers deserve this level of support.  
7. Getting hired: You start a teacher accreditation program with the goal of getting a job as a teacher, so it makes sense to look for one that has strong relationships with the type of schools at which you’d like to teach. One more stat to consider from Texas: iteach’s placement rate is 87% statewide, which is 600% higher than our closest competitor, according to the TEA.

Of course, it comes down to a personal choice, but I believe that the best programs are the ones that ultimately want what is best for teacher development and students. Teaching should be a highly respected profession. Quality teacher training leads to students performing better, so it benefits everyone to hold those training teachers to a high standard. Everyone at iteach is committed to serving new teachers to the best of our ability for the sake of students and parents—and for the longevity of this great profession.

Andrew Rozell is the President of Certification at iteach and can be reached via LinkedIn.

The post 7 Keys to Choosing a Teacher Preparation Program appeared first on iteach.

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be difficult in general, let alone in a profession that requires you to take a lot of your work home with you. As a teacher, you are trying to engage and inspire your students during school hours and stay on top of grading and creating lesson plans outside of school hours. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into being a successful and dedicated teacher, but you don’t need to give up your personal life to reach that point. With the start of the new year, it is a perfect time to revamp your daily routine to better take care of yourself, which will ultimately benefit your students as well.

Be Conscious of your Health

First and foremost, you need to be aware of your health. Your self-care practices can have an effect on your mood, energy level, focus and patience, all of which contribute heavily to your success as a teacher. Therefore, you should be mindful of your diet, take part in a regular exercise routine, take vitamins to make up for any deficiencies and get plenty of sleep outside of work. During the workweek, you can also take short walks or take the stairs to avoid adopting a sedentary lifestyle and consider buying blue light glasses for work, which block the blue light that is transmitted from the digital devices you use to teach and plan lessons from damaging your retina.

Balance your Time

Being a teacher requires you to be involved with and dedicated to students. This means staying after school hours if a student needs extra help, working late grading papers, working weekends to create lesson plans, staying in constant contact with students, parents and faculty if anyone has questions, chaperoning field trips and attending conferences to better yourself and stay up to date on best practices. These outside responsibilities are a lot to take on and keep track of, so you need to manage your work commitments and personal commitments in a calendar or organizer. It may seem like a simple suggestion but in order to make sure there is enough of you to go around, while also practicing self-care, it’s necessary.

Take Breaks from Electronics

As I mentioned before, being a teacher requires you to stay in constant contact with students, parents and faculty just in case anyone has any questions, concerns or updates. This is a responsibility teachers take on willingly as they are devoted to their students’ success. However, it’s important that you set aside specific times to respond to those students, parents and co-workers. Being available at all times may seem ideal as you want to be a good teacher, however, you need downtime as well. Instead, set aside an hour or so at the end of each day to respond to any emails or inquiries they may have.

Don’t Take too Much on

Volunteering and taking on extra tasks, like the aforementioned field trip chaperoning and attending conferences, is very important, but there is a limit. You need to make sure you are involved and there for your students, but it shouldn’t become your whole life. Learn to say no to some commitments; it may be difficult at times, but if you’re putting in a good amount of time, then you shouldn’t feel bad about turning a few events down here and there.

Let the Little Things Go

From an upsetting encounter with a parent to a student struggling to understand a lesson, there are plenty of ups and downs when it comes to being a teacher. As rewarding as a career in helping students grow and learn can be, it can also be difficult. In times like these, it’s important to remember that you are affecting your students in a positive way as long as you remain positive and determined to help. Through everything, just remember that you’re making an impact and setting an example every day.

At the end of the day, you are influencing every student you encounter. In order to make the effect you have on them a positive one, it’s important that you take care of yourself first. Creating the perfect work-life balance can be difficult, and there will be times where it becomes challenging to maintain it, but the healthier and more balanced your life is, the better teacher you will be.

The post Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance in the New Year appeared first on iteach.

The decision to choose to teach as a profession is typically derived from many factors. An article published in The Guardian listed the top reasons people start teaching. The top two (and ahead of all others by a fair majority) were: “Enjoy working with children and young people” and “Want to make a difference.” Other reasons listed by 858 respondents included, “love of my subject”, “having longer holidays,” and “family members work in education.” Of the 12 listed options, none of them included compensation. (I am left to assume that the pay response is included in the “Other” category with 6.7%.) Education Week also published an article (2015) with a survey concluding the top 2 reasons individuals chose the teaching profession. The top 2 reasons were “thought they would be good at it” and “making a difference in pupils’ lives.” (Ed Week)

Teachers teach because of what the job is, not what it pays.

Teaching is often referred to as a noble profession. This solely due to the fact that “compensation” is not a deciding factor for teachers. Teachers teach because of what the job is, not what it pays. Never-the-less, a rising issue in our nation is the abundant lack of resources allocated to providing teachers a fair compensation correlated to the time and effort each one puts forth.

Even though most people, if not all, choose to teach because of the actual work, current pay levels make it difficult for teachers to flourish economically. Matt Damon was extremely vocal on the issue seven years. When asked about his mother, who is a teacher, his response was, “Teachers want to teach, why else would they take a sh*tty salary?!” (YouTube) That video went viral for a short time, but like all other efforts to raise awareness on the issue, it fell on deaf ears.

National Attention Growing

Recent events have drastically brought attention to national levels. Earlier this year, in Arizona, 50,000 teachers marched on the capital — part of a week-long strike. Ultimately their efforts resulted in a legislative 20% pay raise for teachers. (Pheonix New Times)
Similar efforts in Oklahoma and West Virginia provided raises of $6,000 and $2,000 respectively (NY Times)

Most recently, perhaps in an effort to avoid a state-wide strike, Governor Jon Bel Edwards announced a $1,000 raise for all teachers in Louisiana. (NOLA) TIME magazine and other publications have certainly entered into the conversation in full force. The hope of such efforts is to continue pressing legislators to look at the compensation of teachers across the nation.

You would be hard pressed to find someone against paying teachers more but the solution doesn’t seem to be clear, at this point, or where the dollars are to do it.

All the noise around this issue leads me to contemplate what does a teacher actually make. And, for those looking to enter the profession, to better understand what your compensation would be.

Districts Responding

Though we do want teachers to earn even more, districts are beginning to put forth competitive compensation packages for new teachers. Over the next few weeks, we will pull back the curtain on some school districts and look at their benefits packages. What is the base salary? What available stipends exists? How many days is the school year? And, what does the school system contribute to health care and retirement?

Bookmark our blog as we take a deeper look into teachers’ pay.

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