In a school environment there are a lot of little annoyances everyday. These are not big problems, but annoying small issues that impact your day. I believe it's natural to ignore those annoyances, however, these small troubles add up and can affect the good work you're able to do. What's a teacher to do and what are these annoyances.
Need to Re-Look at Teaching Assistant Positions, Pay, and Structures
One relatively new annoyance that educators are facing in schools today is ever changing staffing. With teaching assistant/substitute pay low and jobs more plentiful, it becomes more difficult to fill the assistant jobs out there. One friend from a school other than mine said that she has had many different teaching assistants this year which has challenged consistency. It's time for schools to recognize the integral role that teaching assistants play, and to compensate those roles better and change the structure of how those roles are led and trained. This will support schools better.
Inefficient Systems
Another annoyance is old systems that no longer meet today's standards or needs. Often we stay satisfied with old systems because of multiple reasons. Perhaps no one is really in charge of those systems or perhaps no one feels that updating the systems is worth the time or energy needed, yet systems that are inefficient create struggle at schools and take time away from other important tasks.
More Directives than Help
When systems are top heavy with leadership there is often the problem of too many initiatives or directives and not enough help. This can be stressful for those tasked with following out all the directives with insufficient support.
More Expectations than Time
When curriculum outdistances time, there a problem--you simply can't do more than time allows.
I'm sure that these sources of annoyances exist in most school systems today. And while the issues are small overall, it's important to deal with these issues so that the frustration and stress they can cause doesn't affect the day to day teaching and learning.
