For as long as I can remember there has been talk of a teacher shortage. This sparseness is very evident in schools across the country. The reasons for the scarcity of educators vary. What do these vacancies mean for the future of our children?

According to a survey released in December 2023 by the National Center for Education Services, between the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, 7.9% of teachers left the profession. Among those that left, 16% retired, 13% left to pursue a new field, and 9% left because they wanted a higher salary. While these numbers don’t sound shockingly high, the impact is definitely felt on campuses everywhere.

The National Center for Education Statistics projects that there will be a 5% decrease in teachers between 2019-2030. The number of new hires is projected to be 21% lower in 2030 than in 2019. What are these numbers saying about the future of education?

I have come across a few reasons teachers have shared for leaving the profession; lack of autonomy, lackluster professional development, wanting more planning time, lack of support, student behavior, testing, and overwhelming stress. What can school districts do to address teacher concerns? What can we learn from what has been shared?

I believe that some of the problems could be solved by thinking outside the box. One great thing that came from schools being closed during the height of the pandemic was school districts finding new ways to educate students. District leadership teams could benefit from examining their current practices and trying to adjust to new realities. We will not get new outcomes from continuing business as usual.

Teachers that will be entering the profession need encouragement. They are too often met with people that share more negative than positive feelings about the current state of teaching. We need to provide a true sense of what the work entails and provide exposure to the good things about being a teacher.

What can school leaders do to reverse the current trend of teachers leaving the profession? How do we get to the root of the issue without placing blame? Good teachers are a treasure and we need to do all that we can to show them that their work is valued.

How many times have you sat in a training and thought “ There’s no way that this person thinks this is a good use of my time”? Perhaps you’ve even had the thought “This could have been shared via email”. We’ve all been there and that is a frustrating place to be. In recent years there has been a push to personalize professional learning for educators. Let’s discuss.

With most things in our lives if we are interested, we tend to give whatever it is our attention and effort. The other side of this thought is that if we are not interested, we do not give full attention and put forth very little effort. This is just human nature. Knowing this to be true, why then has professional learning for educators been so hit or miss?

A part of the problem, in my opinion, has been school districts leadership not thinking outside of the box. Yes, there are district initiatives that are the focus of teacher learning, but delivery of that information could be handled in different ways. What can be done to make sure that the information is given and teachers retain the information and find practical ways to use it?

One thought is to survey teachers to find out what their learning needs are. Once you know the teacher’s interest, now you can begin to figure out how to best serve them. Are there members of your staff that are knowledgeable enough in the topics that interest your teachers? You could then send a survey to see who would be interested in presenting to their peers. Much like the process for presenting at a conference, you could ask potential presenters to submit a proposal for the learning sessions. There may also be people that work in different departments within your school district that could come and present to your staff.

Since 2020, education resources available through technology have exploded. There are many people with years of experience that are sharing what they know via social media. This could be another way to have information delivered to your teachers. Of course you would need the instructional leaders on your campus to help facilitate the learning.

We always say that part of differentiating learning for students is to offer choice, but when it comes to teacher learning, there are few opportunities for choice. What if we gave teachers the autonomy to choose their own learning? This could potentially make district and campus staff development days something for teachers to look forward to. Hopefully this type of thinking could be beneficial for campus leaders. What do you think?

I’m sure we have all heard the saying “ fake it until you make it”. Some days are harder than others to make it through. The day to day demands of work can take its toll. When you are a campus leader sometimes it’s best not to show exactly how you feel.

Everyone has an off day from time to time. Balancing dealing with life’s issues while being productive at work can be a challenge. How do you take care of the people you are called to lead when you are not feeling like yourself?

There are some staff members that will notice that something is not right with you. They might even offer an encouraging word or offer to bring you something to cheer you up. There are others that take the stance that “you chose to be in a leadership role, so deal with it.” There are usually more people that are empathetic than those that are indifferent to your plight.

School leadership is hard. There are some things that school leaders deal with that will make your spirit heavy. There are waves of overwhelming sadness that can make you feel as though there is no hope.

When these feelings come over you, there has to be something that provides comfort. If possible, one may need to take some time to refocus. Listening to your favorite songs, meditating, or a quick phone call to a trusted friend, family member, or significant other sometimes does wonders for your mental health.

I often remind myself of the reason I do what I do. My reason for coming to work everyday is the success of our students. Their future depends on the efforts of the adults in the building. There is no time to waste.

A close second are teachers and staff that support our students. I enjoy engaging in conversation, whether it’s about academics or aspects of teachers personal lives that they choose to share. Offering suggestions and a listening ear help to enrich my experience.

Being a school leader comes with great responsibility. You have to have conviction about what drives you to want to come to work everyday. Hopefully, you have a mentor or a network of people that are doing similar work to you that you can confide in. Take care of yourself and keep things in the proper perspective. Our students, teachers, and parents need you.

If you have ever played a new board game, video game, or card game the first thing you would normally do is learn the rules of the game. Learning the rules will help you to be successful and ease the frustration of making mistakes that could cause you to lose the game. In the world of high stakes assessments, it’s no different, to be successful, you have to know the rules of the game. Many educators are doing what they can to level the playing field by playing the game according to the rules.

Many people have accused teachers of “teaching to the test”. This has been a phrase used for the past decade at least. This opinion is based on the high stakes testing environment that has been created. Although it is commonly repeated, this statement is not completely accurate.

Yes, teachers teach students test taking strategies. This is done to help students learn to problem solve and to achieve a level of familiarity with standardized testing. This is an essential part of helping students learn the prescribed curriculum.

With online testing becoming more prevalent, teachers have a new element to contend with. There are tools to help students highlight and underline text and tools to help with reading comprehension. Students need an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the online options before being assessed formally. If teachers never gave students chances to practice, the actual testing experience could be disastrous.

Because of the emphasis put on student assessments by state boards of education, many teachers feel pressured to focus on students performance in regards to said testing. Teaching the curriculum is at the forefront of their minds. There is an immense sense of pressure to have students succeed on state assessments.

Student learning should be multifaceted. Project based learning can be incorporated into units of study. Real world experiences help to provide students with background knowledge needed to succeed. Hands on activities provide a way to make learning real.

It is my hope that teachers balance their instruction. Yes, state assessments are important, but that should not be the primary focus. Reading comprehension and problem solving skills are important as students matriculate through school. Are students being offered the very best experiences in our classrooms? I hope that the answer is yes.

Daily, I witness teachers working to help students grow. Students are working cooperatively with their classmates and sharing their knowledge. Experiences are being offered to help our students become aware of future opportunities. Our students are learning, growing, and showing that they represent much more than a test score.

If you’ve worked in education for a while you are probably familiar with PLC’s. Depending on where you work, your experience with PLC’s could vary widely. In some schools, PLC’s are a great experience for educators. In others, educators are wondering why they have to attend PLC’s at all. Let’s talk about it, shall we?

What is a PLC? This question will prompt different responses from a wide range of educators. The answer is based on personal experience in different educational settings. Solution Tree defines a PLC as an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve.

DuFour, R.,Eaker,R.,Many, T. (2006)

Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities At Work, pg. 2-4.

If you were to visit twenty different campuses, there’s a possibility that you will see twenty different versions of PLC’s. How PLC’s are executed depends on the campus Principal’s vision. Is there a right way to design PLC’s? It depends on who you ask.

Most educators treat PLC’s as a meeting. They meet at a certain time, on a certain day, and oftentimes sit in the same seats. The team collaborates and once the meeting is over, they go back to their classrooms to provide instruction the best way that they know.

While this could be a productive way for teams to operate, is it the best way? Are the instructional needs of students being met? Are teachers getting better at their craft? Are campus and grade level goals being met?

A PLC is more than just a weekly meeting. It is not simply comprised of one grade level. A PLC should be a campus wide entity. Collaboration should be an ongoing occurrence, not just minimized to a certain window of time. Everyone on a campus is responsible for the education of our students, from the bus drivers to the workers in the cafeteria, and everyone in between.

A true PLC should engage in a cycle of analyzing data, setting goals, and individual and collective growth. There should also be room for productive conflict. New ideas can be birthed from respectful disagreements. PLC’s also need strong facilitators.

Educators are incredibly talented. In order for our schools to be effective, we must lean on the collective expertise of everyone that serves our students. When done right, PLC’s can achieve amazing things. Remember, it’s all based on the four questions that should guide our instruction;

What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

How will we know if they learn it?

How will we respond when some students do not learn it?

How will we extend the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?

It’s not a secret that teaching is difficult. With all of the things that teachers have to do, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut. The best teachers find a way to not only take care of things they must do, but also inject fun and creativity into their classrooms.

The first few years of teaching can be intimidating. There’s curriculum that needs to be learned, students learning needs that have to be met, and classroom management strategies to be implemented. It takes time to become a good teacher.

There are some people that come into the teaching field that appear to be naturals. Lesson planning seems to come easy to them. Classroom management also appears to be a breeze.

The other side of this is something that we’ve all seen. You walk into a classroom and things are not going well. The lesson seems to be unorganized, students are not engaged, and the teacher is struggling with managing behavior.

Teaching, like anything else, requires dedication to be effective. Previewing lessons before teaching them, reading standards to make sure that lessons are taught with correct depth and complexity, and finding ways to make the content relevant to students takes practice. There has to be time spent outside of normal teaching hours in the beginning.

Many school districts have professional development opportunities to help new teachers. The topics usually include classroom management, understanding curriculum, and also tools to help facilitate student learning. In most schools, mentor teachers assigned to help young teachers navigate their early years.

After teaching a subject for a few years, you develop a sense of how things work. You understand misconceptions that students may have, you learn the standards and how to be effective teaching them, and you gain confidence in your ability to deliver instruction in that content area. All of these things together help you to be creative when it comes to lesson creation.

There’s nothing better than being sure of yourself. Taking the time to develop your craft as a teacher enhances the impact that you can have on students. A personal investment in your teaching skills is worth the time and effort. Good teachers are artists whose canvas is the minds of their students.

There are several moving pieces that help schools to be successful. The support of school superintendents and school boards empowers educators to strive to serve students. School leaders that support the classroom efforts of teachers and students is vital as well. An important piece that is often overlooked is the partnership of parents and schools.

Parent involvement is helpful in many ways for schools. Parents can provide a unique perspective on how your campus is viewed by members of the community. There are parents that want to be involved at their child’s school, but don’t know where to start. Part of our responsibility as educators is to help show parents where they can help.

Communication with parents sets a foundation for your school year. Sometimes educators assume that parents are not concerned with their students academic progress. This, in most cases, is not true. Parents want to be involved but don’t know how they can help.

The easiest way to involve parents is by making a phone call. The call doesn’t have to last long, just long enough to share important information. Most people will appreciate you taking time to call.

Sometimes it is necessary to deliver information that is not pleasant for parents to hear. This is part of the reality of education. When relaying news that may be difficult for parents to hear, stick to the facts of the situation. Remember, this is a partnership. Work with parents to find solutions for the benefit of the student.

Something I hear from parents often is that they don’t know how to help their student at home. There are different solutions to help this issue. Communication through a student planner could be a solution. Having notes about what was done during the school day and assignments to be completed written and communicate the need for parents to check the planner daily.

There are a ton of resources on the internet and social media. Teachers could create short videos explaining concepts learned in class. There could also be newsletters emailed detailing important events coming up. Some examples of this could be research assignments, daily homework, or upcoming assessments.

Schools must be intentional when it comes to parent communication. Oftentimes the members of communities don’t have complete knowledge of what’s happening in their schools. Giving parents opportunities to volunteer and inviting them to school events helps to strengthen the relationship between community and school.

Parents can be our strongest advocates. We, as educators, have to be intentional when considering how our parents can help us. Knowledge is power and the more parents know about what happens in school from day-to-day, the more they can help students to be successful. Embrace the opportunity to include parents as much as possible.

When thinking about school performance, oftentimes people begin to think about interventions. What can be done to improve student performance? What if we thought about how our schools are performing differently? We must shift our focus from depending on tier two and tier three interventions to quality tier one instruction.

Tier one instruction is not given the attention that it demands. When planning for instruction, are we trying to reach all of our students? Are we giving every student a fair chance at learning grade level material?

Reading instruction is vital. As educators we know that if students struggle with reading comprehension, they will struggle in every academic subject. How are we providing instruction that will support every learner in our classrooms?

Are students exposed to various types of reading material? Are teachers modeling reading text in an expressive manner? Are students getting feedback that is immediate so that they can practice their reading skills more effectively? Students should also receive strong vocabulary instruction.

Math is another area major focus in most schools. There is sometimes a tendency to focus on what students can’t do. The use of high quality instructional materials to expose students to grade level work is critical. If they don’t receive instruction at grade level how can we expect them to meet grade level standards?

Fact fluency should be a part of instruction in Elementary grades. Teaching problem solving skills helps students develop reading and comprehension skills. Encouraging students to write and verbalize their mathematical thinking is another skill builder. Providing feedback quickly gives students a chance to practice effectively during class time.

Small group instruction is important, not just for students that need tier two and tier three interventions. Students that are operating at grade level and above deserve opportunities to further increase their knowledge. Educators must provide enrichment for our students that have already grasped the material being taught.

We have an opportunity to change the way we have traditionally done things. We must be creative in our teaching methods and interventions. Our students deserve to be challenged no matter what level they are working on. Providing quality learning experiences should be the priority for every educator.

Each day of the school year, millions of educators report to campuses across the United States. Most are firmly rooted in the work that needs to be done. There are others that are not sure of their purpose for serving students and their families. The work of educating tomorrow’s future leaders is too important to approach haphazardly.

If you’ve spent anytime around teachers you can tell which ones truly love their work. Their conversation about students is different. Their classrooms reflect their passion. Their dedication shows in all that they do.

The flip side of this, are those educators that are not as dedicated. Their conversations share a different side of the reality in schools everywhere. There is a lack of conviction missing that is a potential detriment for our students.

Working in education is hard. There is a lot expected from educators everyday. Federal and state guidelines have to be followed. Curriculum needs to be taught.

I’ve noticed that after Covid shut things down, teachers have not been the same. During virtual teaching and hybrid returns to campus, things were relaxed. Lesson plans, methods of instruction, and teacher supervision were all less stringent than they were before the shutdown.

The return to somewhat “normal” the last two years has been eye opening. There are some educators that don’t have the same zeal for student learning. Maybe it’s just my perception, but things are different. There seems to be more of an uptick in teacher apathy.

I am in no way discrediting that teaching is hard. There has been a shift toward some teachers not wanting to do basic things that are good for students. Yes, teachers deserve to have their feelings validated, but student learning is a priority. After all, teachers are paid to be a positive influence in students lives.

I will always be a vocal advocate for teachers. I also advocate just as much for student learning. What can we do to increase a love for and pride in being a teacher?

There are so many examples of teachers showing up for students daily. They work on lessons outside of their work hours, study to make lessons engaging for students, and work to foster positive relationships with students and their families. Still others volunteer their time for clubs and other after school activities.

There are many educators that exemplify the characteristics that you want to see when you walk into a school building. Our society needs to show the same appreciation that was shown when schools were shut down and learning was happening online. The dedication that it takes to provide quality learning experiences for students is a source of pride. The work is hard and the laborers are few, but our best educators make magic happen everyday.

The beginning of the school year is filled with optimism. Administrators are hopeful for a successful year. Teachers are refreshed and ready for a new group of students. Students are excited to see their friends and meet their new teachers. Parents are eager for their children to return to school after a long summer.

The school year starts with expectations for good things to happen. Expectations are set and new relationships begin to form. Parents are supportive and looking forward to the development of their student. The rhythm of arrival, learning, and dismissal begins.

How do we make the most of the one hundred and seventy days that we have students on campus? What can we do to provide students and parents with the best experience possible? Our preparation for the school year is vital.

Grade level teams have identified essential learning standards for the first nine weeks. Instructional materials have been distributed. Details of safety and security have been discussed. Classrooms are prepped and ready.

As instruction begins there are some things to keep in mind. Students do not get to choose where they go to school. A students school is dictated by the living arrangements of the adults in their lives. Learning experiences should not be determined by zip code or income status.

Students will not be in their current grade level again. We, as educators, should strive to make sure that students receive the very best that we have to offer. The learning environment should be engaging and welcoming.

Educators, remember why you do what you do. Yes, the work is challenging. Yes, sometimes there are difficult students and parents. Yes, there will be directives that you don’t like or understand. Assume positive intent when working with others. I hope that each and every teacher, paraprofessional, custodian, nutritional staff, administrator, parent, and student have the best possible school year.