making a mistake?

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Home : 2002 : November : 23

making a mistake?
By Carolyn

If it makes you feel any better, I understand what you are feeling. I work in South Carolina. The length of our school day was increased by a half-hour this year. We are also being pressured to raise our students' state
test scores higher so that the district can beam with pride over a TOP 10 status in the state. Everything we do is for the kids to pass the state test. Everything we plan is for the state test. We live and breathe the state test. Are we being compensated for all of this? Of course not. We did not even receive a raise this year. My pay is basically the same as last year, with only

a few hundred dollars being added for the "step." Like many teachers I work with, I am tired of the intense test pressures and the behavior problems added on to that. One of our really wonderful first grade teachers quit teaching this past year because she said she was burned out. The poor woman had developed a number of health problems from teaching, including a loss of voice and loss of weight. It isn't easy, and kids seem to become more and more difficult to work with each year.