{"id":20019,"date":"2013-08-30T09:48:18","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T13:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=20019"},"modified":"2013-09-10T10:17:32","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T14:17:32","slug":"classroom-contemplations-teacher-left-because-it-was-hard-to-hone-my-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/08\/30\/classroom-contemplations-teacher-left-because-it-was-hard-to-hone-my-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"Classroom Contemplations: Teacher Left Because &#8220;It Was Hard To Hone My Craft&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_19892\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"One reason teachers say they leave the field? Not enough training or feedback.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/08\/8-19_CommonCoreTraining.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19892\" alt=\"One reason teachers say they leave the field? Not enough training or feedback.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/08\/8-19_CommonCoreTraining-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/08\/8-19_CommonCoreTraining-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/08\/8-19_CommonCoreTraining-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">John O&#39;Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">One reason teachers say they leave the field? Not enough training or feedback.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Editor\u2019s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" id=\"docs-internal-guid-4f72c7f1-cf6c-db2f-af3c-dbe1079bfa16\">How often do budding investment bankers leave the field in their mid-20s to try their hand at teaching?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Not often. \u00a0And that\u2019s only one of the things that makes Henry Rodriguez special. \u00a0We met him earlier in this series as he helped a disengaged student find her voice as a consumer educator. \u00a0Rodriguez fits the mold of what many say the profession is looking for. \u00a0He\u2019s young, well-educated, vibrant and personable &#8212; and great with kids.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Rodriguez told me he was attracted by the promise of the field of education and its significance.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI wanted to make an impact on a personal level instead of just on the bottom line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He did just that for four years. \u00a0I heard very positive things about Rodriguez from both his colleagues and a former student.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But now he\u2019s gone back into the private sector, this time in technology instead of finance, \u00a0and in our conversation he mentioned a few reasons he left, reasons that help begin to explain why the teaching profession loses half of its recruits within the first five years.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The first relates to the new hiring practices of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. \u00a0These mirror the practices of many districts around the country, which have moved to annual contracts for new teachers to avoid the political pitfalls of tenure. \u00a0Under this system, Rodriguez remained on annual contracts each year he taught.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI was basically getting fired every June 10 [once the school year was over] and getting hired every August 5 [before the next year began]. \u00a0I had no security. \u00a0It was stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/08\/13\/classroom-contemplations-how-teachers-find-success-from-failure\/\">Classroom Contemplations: How Teachers Find Success From Failure<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/26\/classroom-contemplations-what-silicon-valley-tells-us-about-evaluating-performance\/\">Classroom Contemplations: What Silicon Valley Tells Us About Evaluating Performance<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/24\/classroom-contemplations-helping-students-find-their-voice\/\">Classroom Contemplations: Helping Students Find Their Voice<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/12\/classroom-comtemplations-lessons-after-the-school-day-ends\/\">Classroom Comtemplations: Lessons After The School Day Ends<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/11\/classroom-contemplations-overlooking-the-value-of-veteran-teachers\/\">Classroom Contemplations: Overlooking The Value Of Veteran Teachers<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/07\/08\/19443\/\">Classroom Contemplations: Little Books, Big Statement<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/06\/jeremy-2011-117.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/classroom-contemplations\/\">Classroom Contemplations: Education Policies From A Teacher&#8217;s Perspective<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s ironic that the job security that many public workers are derided for is what Rodriguez had to go to the private sector to get.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A second reason Rodriguez left had to do with his interest in professional and personal growth.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He had already begun a career once and thought he knew what to expect as a beginner.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201c[In most careers] when you start off, you\u2019re micromanaged for a while and, ideally, as you improve, they back off a little.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Teaching, however was a different story. \u00a0Rodriguez did not go through a traditional teacher training program and was on his own after he was hired.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBasically, we had one day of teacher training with a few speeches,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, it was like \u2018here\u2019s your lunch and good luck.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And Rodriguez didn\u2019t find support at his school either. \u00a0He saw his principal the required two times a year, but he didn\u2019t get feedback on his performance or helpful suggestions.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt was hard to hone my craft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There one more piece to Rodriguez\u2019s decision: money.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In his new position in sales, Rodriguez now makes the equivalent of his teacher\u2019s salary as a base, and clears up to 50 percent more based on commissions he makes. \u00a0So, for leaving teaching, he\u2019ll make at least $20,000 more his first year. \u00a0He\u2019s quick to point out, though, that money wasn\u2019t the biggest issue. \u00a0He said that he and his wife have made wise economic decisions, but the salary didn\u2019t not make things easy and it was not an incentive to stay. \u00a0He said financial considerations were about 25 percent of the decision to leave.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The things that chased Rodriguez out of the profession point out some real deficiencies in our education policies.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Clearly, job security is important, particularly as you are beginning a challenging career. \u00a0If we are not willing to offer that to new teachers and, instead, we continue to threaten them with accountability systems, they will leave.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Nurturing new teachers is also important. Like all professionals, teachers need help, particularly in the beginning of their careers. Providing such help would be a wise investment. \u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, mentoring programs and meaningful professional development are often the first things to go when budgets are cut. \u00a0They are seen as extras, when, they are essential if we want to keep people in the profession.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And finally, salaries are too low. \u00a0Particularly without these other pieces in place, teachers are not compensated well enough to put up with the other structural challenges of the job.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If we continue to ignore these issues, we will continue to see people like Rodriguez leave. \u00a0And the private sector seemed only too happy to snap him up and meet his professional needs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At his new job, Rodriguez told me that he gets a lot more feedback.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He said he often hears, \u201cHey, this is how you\u2019re doing. \u00a0This is what you\u2019re doing right, this is what you need to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Unfortunately, he never got that in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">He is sad to have left. He found the job rewarding through the very end. \u00a0He misses that part of teaching and his students, who let him know that they miss him as he left.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t tell you what it was like reading those goodbye letters. \u00a0I\u2019ll keep them forever,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n<p>If only we could have kept him.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jeremy Glazer is a Miami-Dade teacher writing about classroom issues for StateImpact Florida. Want to sound off on something Glazer has written? Want to suggest a topic for him? Send us an email at Florida@stateimpact.org and put \u201cClassroom Contemplations\u201d in the subject line.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editor\u2019s note: Names of teachers and students have been changed. How often do budding investment bankers leave the field in their mid-20s to try their hand at teaching? Not often. \u00a0And that\u2019s only one of the things that makes Henry Rodriguez special. \u00a0We met him earlier in this series as he helped a disengaged student [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":19892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[841,1119,1079,1067],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20019"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20019"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20024,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20019\/revisions\/20024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}