Those Who Can't Teach Anymore

Those Who Can't Teach Anymore is a Finalist in this year's Signal Awards. Vote for us in the Education Category: VOTE HERE. Voting closes October 9. Thank you all for your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our final episode of Season 2: A Different Kind of the Same Thing, we look back at the 2023-2024 school year to think about what the future of education should look like in order to keep teachers in the profession. We will also hear from host Charles Fournier reflect on his own audio journals from the school year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the end of the year, and 4th quarter amnesia settles in as teachers reflect on their final weeks at school. Several teachers make plans to continue teaching, but a few decide to go another direction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For today's bonus episode, enjoy Betsy Burris' podcast Teaching Through Emotions. In this episode, two teachers make sense of their feelings of overwhelmedness and confusion. They talk about * imagination in teaching and learning * the importance of emotional and relational data * creative solutions to overwhelming and confusing problems * the importance — and ways — of digging up assumptions * how to turn from worrying to working with your emotions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once the school year hits, maintaining self-care can be a challenge. For Becca Swain and Ashley Clark, their understanding of self-care changes drastically once they leave the classroom. In this episode, hear what the challenges teachers face when trying to take care of their mental and physical health during the school year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If teachers decide to leave teaching by summer break, they have to start the job hunt early. Sofi Velazquez learns new skills, rewrites her resume, and starts applying for jobs. In this episode, hear how the steps to leave the classroom take time and are not always full of rainbows and butterflies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Velma Rose reflects on the impact of secondary trauma on teachers, and something happens that makes her feel unsafe at school. In this episode, hear about the culture of violence is seeping into schools and how this is contributing to teachers leaving the classroom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 6: January featured excerpts from Meredith Paul's award-winning original oratory. In this bonus episode, hear the speech in it's entirety. Stick around at the end of this episode to hear a brand new song made for this season by our very own Julian Saporiti. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We might need to rethink education as a whole if we want to keep teachers from leaving the profession. This episode, hear a high school student's take on what education should look like, and hear about an example of what education could look like from middle school teacher Iva Moss Redman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leadership matters. Velma Rose, who has been a long-time fan of attending school board meetings, can't sleep after the most recent meeting she attended. Velma's 5am journal entry gives us insight into the meeting where she was accosted and a student was booed for speaking. In this episode, hear about the increasing disconnect between district level leadership and teachers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When negotiations don't result in a contract, Portland School District goes on strike. Charlie Blackwood has never taken part in a strike, but they record their experience as the strike progresses through November. In this episode, hear about the impact of Teacher Unions on teacher well-being. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The students are changing. Dan Morris, who is retiring at the end of this school year, never thought the kids were changing, but things have changed. In this episode, hear how student behavior is impacting the classroom and teachers' decisions to stay or leave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As routines fall into place, teachers show why they are experts in their field. In this episode, teachers talk about best practices, and we hear some of the ways that teacher expertise is devalued. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s hard to describe how it feels to be pulled into the momentum of a new school year. In this episode, hear how teachers from across the country navigate the excitement and anxiety of starting a new year, and meet Amber, a brand new teacher who doesn't quite know what to expect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Teachers are still leaving education at an alarming rate. In the new season of Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, we will get a look at a year in the life of a teacher. We will meet 15 teachers from across the country who volunteered to keep weekly personal audio journals of their 2023-2024 school year. These teachers recorded on their own at home on their couches, in their kitchens, in their classrooms, or on their drives to work. Teachers everywhere are all going through similar things. If we have a better understanding of what teachers experience, we might be able to take the steps needed to help keep brilliant teachers in education. Look for Episode 1 on May 6, National Teacher Appreciation Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents a segment that Charles Fournier produced for the podcast The Modern West. In this segment, "One Size Does Not Fit All," you will meet Iva, an innovative teacher conducting scientific research with her middle schoolers on the Wind River Reservation. They even set up trail cameras! You can find other episodes from The Modern West wherever you find podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents a segment from the podcast Those Who Can't Do, hosted by Andrea Forcum. In this segment, Charles Fournier talks with Andrea about teacher attrition, absurd dress codes, and what not to do in your classroom. To hear the whole episode and more episodes from Andrea's podcast, check out Those Who Can't Do wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents the award-winning episode, "The Kids Are Not All Right," from This Changes Everything, a Cascade Public Media/Crosscut podcast. In this episode, producer and host Sara Bernard explores how the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health of students and teachers. In a moment when students and teachers are in need of support, the questions remain: What is being done and is it enough? To hear more about how the pandemic has impacted schools, check out the rest of This Changes Everything, Season 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think about your favorite teacher. What were they like? What made them your favorite? Now, imagine if your favorite teacher quit their job before you had them in your life. What would you have lost? Think about what future generations of students will lose if more teachers leave because teachers don’t feel valued or trusted or fairly compensated. If things don’t change, more teachers will leave because they are realizing that they can. In this episode, we hear from former teachers who left education and are happier for it. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Don’t You Leave” by Crowander is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Happening for Lulu” by Kraus is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Soldier’s Story” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Be Nice” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Fireworks” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Faster, Sons of Vengeance, Faster!” by Doctor Turtle is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Changing Moment (ID 1651)” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Transcript: A quick warning, this episode discusses sexual abuse. During the quarantine, I received an anonymous letter from a former student that had since graduated. After pleasantries, the note says “I’m writing you now to thank you for things that you never knew you did when I was your student.” And then they go on to explain that though I would not have known this, they had been sexually abused by their father, and they had just found the strength to tell someone, cut ties, and start the healing process. They said that my class was a space that made them feel safe, heard, and respected. They wrote that I helped them quote “understand that there are good men, ones that deserve to be fathers.” end quote They were intentional in saying that they didn’t know if I would figure out who they were, but regardless, they wanted to thank me and let me know that I played a part in helping them get through the abuse. Every time I read this letter, it breaks me. I hate that this student had to go through this. I hate their father. I am humbled by the fact that I could be a source of support for this student, and I hope so badly that they can heal. No kid should ever have to experience this, but they do, and because they do, they need adults, teachers, in their lives that can support them, even if those adults are unaware of that support. We need teachers who are themselves supported and happy and in a space that values them, so that they can be as wholly present as possible for students. But at this moment in time, many teachers, so of the people that students need most, don’t want to teach anymore. And that fact is devastating. We’re at the end of this series. We’ve explored a variety of things contributing to teachers leaving the profession - feelings of being devalued, a lack of autonomy, struggles with mental health. We’ve looked at why teachers might be treated the way they have been, from pop-cultural stereotypes to an odd historical inheritance …to having unclear expectations of what education is for. And we’ve even looked at some solutions and where they come from. All of this to make sense of why teachers might be leaving, and to draw attention to the fact that without authentic and relevant change that is not the burden of teachers, teachers will keep leaving. Today, we will hear teachers who left education explain how their lives are now, and we will explore some resources available to teachers who are looking to leave education. And from what I’ve heard through interviews and people reaching out to me because of this podcast, a vast majority of teachers that have left the classroom are much happier. So, if nothing from this season has convinced you that we need to do something to keep teachers in education and something real, maybe this episode will. I am not saying this as a threat, but from the perspective of a realist. Think of it as a natural consequence. Refuse to...

The first step to solving the problem of teacher attrition is to admit that there is a problem. Some groups have already taken this step, and they are listening to teachers in order to create solutions that will retain teachers. These programs make a big difference, but their approach isn’t the norm. In this episode, we hear about successful efforts to keep teachers in education, and we’ll ask the question: Who should have the responsibility of keeping teachers in education? Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Sunlight” by Nul Tiel Records is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “I’m Fat” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Keep The Prices Down” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Kaptan Hayvanlar Alemi” by Hayvanlar Alemi is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Grab a Bargain” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY license. “Place on my Bonfire” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Your Paradigm Dial” by Origami Repetika is licensed under a CC BY license. Transcipt My third grade teacher had a phone booth in his classroom. It was a full size, glass booth that was mostly sound-proof. The phone booth was the choice place to spend any indoor recess, but during class, it was used as the equivalent of a time-out. Our teacher was a mustachioed man who called his facial hair his “cookie duster” and wore tinted-glasses and thick collared polyester shirts, If a student was misbehaving, he would point that student to the phone booth, and that’s where the student would remain for the rest of the lesson. Discipline reigned in his class. I’m not sure if this is a quality of 3rd grade teachers in general, but both of the 3rd grade teachers at my school at the time were strict, and my parents loved it. I appreciate some of it now, but at the time I thought it was downright oppressive - especially disciplining groups of kids together, which I’m still not a fan of. There was a week-stretch in particular where our class lost out on several recesses because a core group of kids were acting out. I don’t remember what they were doing, but I remember the sinking feeling of losing out on the chance to play tetherball or football or to climb on those tractor tires that were half buried in the ground and always had a faint smell of urine. We were stuck indoors. I complained to my dad about the injustice when he picked me up from school. I ranted about inequity and being punished for something I didn’t do. And I remember his response clearly. He asked me if I was part of the problem or part of the solution. He had to explain what “solution”meant, and then he told me that I needed to think about whether I was helping or hurting the situation. I realized that even if I wasn’t doing anything wrong, I still might not be part of the solution. Like a whole gaggle of my parents’ other truisms that I didn’t want to hear at the time, this has stuck with me. We’ve spent the last 5 episodes looking at what factors, what problems, might be contributing to teachers leaving education. Over half of all teachers are considering leaving the profession, but there are teachers who are staying, some of them stay thanks to efforts made by organizations to convince teachers to remain in education. So, today, we’re going to think about solutions that keep brilliant teachers in education, but we’ll also ask the question, whose responsibility is it to keep teachers in education? This is Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore, a 7-part podcast series exploring why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus. I’m Charles Fournier. Here is part 6: “Those Who Stay” Elizabeth Smith: I brought mimosas. I hope you don't mind. I met Elizabeth on the back patio of the Middle Fork restaurant in Lander, Wyoming. If her voice sounds familiar, it’s because we heard from her earlier in the series. She wore a blue dress with flower print and she carried a binder and a tote bag. The binder had a copy...