The Lengthening of the Teacher Shortage… Is there an end?

20 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by The Book Chamber in Appreciation, Education, Leader, Leadership, Motivation, Passion, Teacher Appreciation, Teacher Shortage, Teachers, Value

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Scrolling through Twitter today, I saw a post from Mississippi Professional Educators that showed that for the 22-23 school year, Mississippi has 2,593 teaching vacancies statewide. 2,593? Yes, you read that correctly. Are you having the OMG moment? The breakdown: 822 elementary school teachers, 376 middle school teachers, 811 high school teachers, and 584 K-12 teachers. To throw some more numbers at you, there are 202 K-12 licensed educator vacancies, 82 administrator vacancies, and 2,111 K-12 support staff vacancies. The good news is that these numbers are down 443 from the 21-22 school year.

Now, let’s not forget that the Mississippi Legislature provided an unprecedented salary raise to public school educators last year. While that may have enticed some to stay in education and some to go into teaching, with 2,593 vacancies, more is needed to solve the teacher shortage problem. Think on this also, according to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers make about 20% less than other professionals with similar education and experience.

In a great opinion piece, Mississippi Must Continue to Invest in Its Educator Pipeline, by Toren Ballard in the Magnolia Tribune, Mr. Ballard makes this statement, “The 2022 pay raise was a promising development for enabling upward mobility in K-12 education, but its impact was stymied by record inflation over the last year: if we account for inflation, the $4,500 increase to the starting salary only boosted pay in ‘real dollars’ by $1,346 from the year before.” Quick math equates to $112 a month.

So, is money still the answer to solving the teacher shortage? I don’t know. It would certainly help, but… the value we place on ourselves differs from what others will place. Another good read by Toren Ballard on the teacher shortage is Eyeing the Exit: Teacher Turnover and What We Can Do About It. That said, we must give those who are even remotely thinking about becoming an educator a reason to be one. However, if our future teachers are in our schools today, and they are, how do you think they look at the teaching profession when they see us and what we do? It’s a question worth asking and, more importantly, answering.

Helping someone discover a reason to want to do something creates an intrinsic value that becomes personalized. When that happens, good things happen. We must give teachers hope, for we are the only model future teachers see. At the same time, a value will always be or not be placed on us as educators by others.

Let’s go fight the good fight of leadership. Someone has to…

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

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The 4th Nine Weeks Stretch…

26 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by The Book Chamber in COVID-19, Deciding, Encouragement, Intentions, Leader, Leadership, Momentum, Motivation, Purpose, Teachers, Useful, Value

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Well, here we are. We have made it—the 4th nine weeks. Just like the 7th Inning stretch in baseball, the end is in sight. For 27 weeks, educators have taught like they never have before. In our teaching, we have dug deeper, gone further, taught harder, and almost exhausted every bit of teaching methodology we know. And, one more thing… most educators have now perfected what I call “Eduzoomcation.“

With all of that being said, we are still not done. As I have spoken with other teachers, many are trying to fit lessons in on top of regular lessons just to get their students where they need to be to progress to what they need to know. The idea of incremental development of lessons has never been more important, but the time factor has many teachers pressing.

More importantly, what we cannot do is compare our teaching and pacing of our subjects to years past. If you do, it will devalue what you have done and accomplished this year. It may not seem as much, but considering everything, it is much. Many teachers have turned into accepting minor roles of psychologists while they teach, asking themselves what they can do to reach one more student and trying to figure out the best way forward. As I told someone the other day, teaching this year during the COVID pandemic is worthy of a resume bullet.

This time last year, we found out that we would not be coming back to school for the 4th nine weeks. Now here we are at that same point one year later. The good news… we still have an opportunity as educators to make good on what we do. It does not matter if students are still on Zoom or in the classroom. What matters is that we stay committed to the values of what education should do… to help better society by educating students for the future.

The 4th nine weeks stretch… Go ahead and stretch… but know, like baseball, there are a few more innings to play, and they matter. If you get complacent, odds are your students will also. And please do not get into what I call the “hook-slide.” While we are rounding third-base, per se, beat the throw at home plate. Don’t try to “hook-slide” in; you might just get tagged out.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

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Passion and the Why – Is it good or bad?

15 Friday Jan 2021

Posted by The Book Chamber in Actions, Agenda, Attitude, Authentic, Character, Choice, Deciding, Decisions, Emotion, Know Your Why, Leader, Leadership, Motivation, Passion, Perception, Value

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In last week’s blog, I wrote on “Decision Making – Emotional or Factual?” One of the three areas where I believe decisions are made is with passion. A few people commented on it enough that I thought I would just use “passion” for our topic this week.

Going along with the title, is your “passion” for what you believe in good or bad? How you answer this, I know, is based on one’s perception and relativeness. However, I also know that putting perception and relativeness aside, your passion is defined by your values and even more by your core values. One of my great mentors at Mississippi College stated, “Values are what you believe in, core values are where you draw the line in the sand.”

A few friends emailed or stopped by to discuss “passion” as they see it regarding making decisions. Here are a few specific comments…

“To take positions we have to take for our clients, I must not only believe in the “rightness” of that position, but I need to have some passion for advancing that position… There are sometimes I do not believe in the “rightness” of what they wanted me to advance. The facts didn’t ‘geehaw’ with my core beliefs.”

“My experience is that some measure of passion for your positions on issues and core beliefs is necessary; otherwise, you come across as passive and lack genuineness.”

“It’s when passion is inappropriately expressed does it become detrimental. However, when you can exhibit passion properly (non-inflammatory), can passion help your cause.”

These are “spot on” with my belief as well on passion. Our passion has to be for the right thing. The “right thing” is where it gets fuzzy… I would say that the “right thing” depends on your “why”… the outcome you want (tangibles and intangibles), goals, motivation, attitude, etc… Is it for good or bad? Do you want revenge or to promote unity? Is your passion for selfish reasons, or is it being for others? Mostly, what is your agenda? I believe these are underlying thoughts as to what “fuels” our passion.

Upon a little digging… “The root of the word “passion” is found in the Latin word “passio.” From the late 1500’s “passio” began to take on the meaning of emotion and, in some cases, controlled emotion. And now we know why passion can help or hurt… it all depends on the “why” and if it is controlled.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

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Mandate and Motivation…

24 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by The Book Chamber in coronavirus, covid19, Crisis, Education, Educational Leadership, Leader, Leadership, Mandates, Motivation, Relationships

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Liberal and weak leadership that openly questions the accuracy and trustworthiness of strong leadership must be called out. Especially in times of crisis, such as we have now. Too many leaders are putting themselves first, taking center stage on decisions, and giving “after the fact congratulations” to the people who are actually doing something.

Nothing like getting right to the point without an introduction, lead-in paragraph, right?

The call for quality leadership is ongoing. We must rally around strong leaders and help them help others to maintain consistent leadership that can block skeptical attacks by those who subscribe to the “me first” attitude.

How can we flesh that out in practical ways? I think the first and foremost answer is in the way in which we proclaim the good that quality leaders are doing. This can easily be seen in the conviction of the way they lead. This conviction leads to the two ideas I have, that in a crisis, every quality leader leads with a mandate and motivation.

Mandate

There is a mandate for quality leadership. Leadership is a ground that many “want” to walk on, but many cannot. Leaders are called to lead, point-blank, pure and simple. That is the mandate. Any leadership that is weak, self-serving, wants popularity… ignores the mandated purpose of what a quality leadership plan is supposed to be. What’s that? To do right by people. How easy that mandate can and should be. When the mandate of doing right by people is accomplished, it creates accuracy and completeness that many strive for. The mandate is carried out entirely and precisely for others first.

As simple as carrying out this mandate seems, it has to have harmony with the right motivation as to why a leader leads the way they do.

Motivation

We are in a different season with our lives right now, due to COVID19. The motivation we lead with can be very dangerous if we are not careful. Make no mistake, there will always be difficult times in the days to come. With that being said, this is an opportune time to make sure our motivation to lead is set accordingly and not threatened. I believe that the number one way our motivation gets threatened is through compromise. This compromise is usually placed in motion by impulses to put self first.

That is why the right mandate and motivation to lead is all the more necessary and urgent in this time of calling. Weak, self-first leaders are what I want to call… Leadership Terrorists. They sneak up, backstab, connive with other evil to make way for themselves, provide “truth” in the actual falsehood that leads to deception and ultimately leaves a path of destruction behind.

All of this is why we need the right leadership, mandates and motivation, now more than ever before. Despite all the dangers that threaten quality leadership, putting others first will always be the right thing to do. Lead from behind or follow from the front, I do not care… just lead for the right reasons and leading for yourself is not one.

Mandates and motivation… what are yours today?

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others

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