Teaching Online

[Trurl]

There is a shortage of teachers. What would be a legitimate online school to teach for? I am not a secondary school teacher but I am asking about cyber schools both secondary and post secondary schools.

What are trusted employers? How do you apply?

One challenge to secondary schools is disciplining the classroom. I assume the online format would correct this.

But if anyone knows of teaching positions in a legitimate online school post it.

[swansont]

9 hours ago, Trurl said:

here is a shortage of teachers.

There is a shortage of teachers at the salaries being offered, under the current working conditions.

 

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One challenge to secondary schools is disciplining the classroom. I assume the online format would correct this.

Getting students to pay attention and engage is also a problem, and I would think that being online makes this harder.

There have to be a number of reports on the challenges and benefits/problems of online instruction at this point.

[OldChemE]

The practicality and efficiency of online teaching also depends on the subject matter.  Subjects that involve a lot of one-on-one interaction with students are more difficult to effectively teach online.  For example, good math instruction frequently requires to teacher to wander the classroom and observe individual students as they work problems and also to discuss individual problems with the students.  That's difficult in an online environment.  Computer programs for teaching math are used by many school systems, and suffer from the same issues.

[Trurl]

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There is a shortage of teachers at the salaries being offered, under the current working conditions.

You sound like a teacher. I guess it differs state to state but in my area teachers make a decent wage. It is the substitute teachers that don’t and they use them to fill teachers’ positions.

All a substitute teacher needs is a bachelors degree. They lowered the certification to fill openings. But you are right that does lower wages.

I felt that working online would be easier to control the classroom. I am not skilled at giving detentions and unruly kids. I’d rather work with adults.

I guess now is the best time to find a job in education. If I was going to take a class, I agree that in person is better. I have taken online classes and all the work was left up to me. The professor just graded me telling me I did it all wrong. I had nothing such as other student’s work to compare. The comments did not show what was wrong except minor grammar.

The videos on YouTube are way more educational. But you don’t earn a degree watching YouTube.

I have some ideas that I would use to improve online courses. Online courses are not cheaper than in person but the instructors usually don’t give instruction.

With modern internet technology this should not be so. You made a good point that math instruction is difficult remotely, but why doesn’t the classroom share a document in real time in a chat room?

What is your take on this?

[swansont]

7 hours ago, Trurl said:

You sound like a teacher.

Or just someone who is informed.

7 hours ago, Trurl said:

I guess it differs state to state but in my area teachers make a decent wage.

What is that "decent wage"?

On average across the United States, a high school teacher working in a public school earns $65,930 a year. The average occupation in the U.S. that requires at least a college degree pays $92,175 a year – according to government labor force data for May 2019.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/09/29/states-with-the-most-underpaid-teachers/42699495/

(as you note, teaching often requires other courses beyond just a college degree)

[Trurl]

On 8/19/2022 at 6:31 AM, swansont said:

What is that "decent wage"?

I’m speaking with speculation, but one of the worst things I have heard goes back to discipline. Teachers aren’t given methods to control the classroom. When teaching adults the usually want to be in the classroom. If not grades and money (in tuition) will motivate them. Adolescents are not motivated the same way. When rewards don’t work and class is still disrupted how do you handle it?

Money is important. But if you aren’t given tools to stop disruptive behavior you can’t teach. And thing like test scores and graduation rates is your fault.

Again in speculation, higher pay will not correct this problem.

[iNow]

13 minutes ago, Trurl said:

Teachers aren’t given methods to control the classroom. <…> Adolescents are not motivated the same way. When rewards don’t work and class is still disrupted how do you handle it?

The answer depends on the goal being sought.

Are schools and the teachers charged with progressing their mission there to educate children and help them learn to think through problems critically and explore solutions, or is it there to habituate kids and get them used to falling in line and acquiescing to commands from others?

[swansont]

7 hours ago, Trurl said:

I’m speaking with speculation

“in my area teachers make a decent wage” is something you asserted as fact.

(BTW, I was able to easily find that where I went to school the 2019 entry salary was about $46k, median is ~$70k and salaries top out at ~$100k. This ranks them in the upper third in the state. They report new union contracts in the local paper)

 

7 hours ago, Trurl said:

, but one of the worst things I have heard goes back to discipline. Teachers aren’t given methods to control the classroom. When teaching adults the usually want to be in the classroom. If not grades and money (in tuition) will motivate them. Adolescents are not motivated the same way. When rewards don’t work and class is still disrupted how do you handle it?

Money is important. But if you aren’t given tools to stop disruptive behavior you can’t teach. And thing like test scores and graduation rates is your fault.

Again in speculation, higher pay will not correct this problem.

I agree that salary is only one component of hiring and retaining teachers, but an important one. Teaching online doesn’t solve the issue of being underpaid.

What is your evidence that the lack of “methods to control the classroom” is the missing component? I don’t recall this being an issue when & where I was in school. What is different?

[Trurl]

9 hours ago, swansont said:

What is your evidence that the lack of “methods to control the classroom” is the missing component? I don’t recall this being an issue when & where I was in school. What is different?

Story time:

When I was in 5th grade 3 students were sent to an empty classroom to take a make up test. Soon one came back and said the other 2 just left the building. Then a kid in the classroom pointed them out and the class came to the window and watched them for minutes as they ran through the woods.

How does a teacher teach while they are trying to get the kids back?

That is a mild example.

And you can’t use traditional methods today like when there is a fight; let them use boxing gloves to wear it out of them.

You don’t want a military type of discipline but those are mild disruptions in my stories. Kids like the school shooting profiles start this way. I don’t know how to fix it. I figured if an online student interfered with the feed it would be recorded and I could just block them.

Again from just speculation: teaching is more managing the classroom than the instruction of students. Teaching is a leadership position. (Especially in secondary school)

That is why I’d prefer to teach adults where there is a emphasis on instruction and not classroom management. I want a classroom where the students know how to behave as students.

 

[swansont]

34 minutes ago, Trurl said:

Again from just speculation:

You do realize that “speculation” as used on SFN means you have some kind of evidence. It’s not a WAG, and the plural of anecdote is not evidence. What you have is a narrative, and are cherry-picking information to support it. 

Your story, for example, suggests that the children were not supervised, which is a funding issue, if you don’t have the staff to do this. It’s not an inherent discipline problem. And how, pray tell, does having an online teacher solve the issue of students running off?

[Trurl]

Well I used the word speculation to mean I don’t have a scientific study. I was basing my view on facts of my education experience and what situations I know and what other teachers have told me in discussions.

But you miss understand me. Being an online teacher is to avoid the disciplining of the classroom. Picture Arnold Schwarzenegger on the first day of class of Kindergarten Cop. Teachers to there credit are managing classrooms and students behavior more often than the art of instruction. I want to practice instruction without the headache of bad student behavior.

Teachers salary was discussed because you mentioned it. My original question was to find legitimate places for teaching adults or high school online.