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[quote=deafbajagal;917337]My passion for teaching is...well, dying. /QUOTE]
I understand, Deafbajagal. Unsupportive parents and piles of unproductive paperwork (along with unreasonable discipline expectations) are what drove me from teaching at the high school level into college teaching.
Once upon a time, teachers held a position of power and respect in a community. We all know that created some abuses of power, but now the pendulum has swung the other way, and teachers are fair game for any dimwit unhappy about any element of education.
In college, when parents came to see me, I informed them it was against privacy regulations I work under to discuss anything to do with their adult child's grades or classroom activity. Period. When they insisted, I offered to call campus security.
I realize lesson plans help organize new teachers. If an experienced teacher is not conducting professional classes, then I believe a principal has the right to expect lesson plans until the teacher gets back on track -- but to expect them from all teachers all the time is a huge waste of time. I taught 5 classes of at least 25 students every day. To me, that's 125 individual students with individual needs and would require 125 separate lessons plans. Experienced professionals don't need lesson plans to teach subjects they have degrees to teach.
In college, I wrote a syllabus per class for the semester. As I became a better instructor, it became more detailed, but that's all that should be necessary--a guide, not a daily hour-by-hour time frame required by the principal at out high school who never taught a class in her life.
Ha ha ha ha, thanks for letting me vent.
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