good evening my name is lee allen and i'm the 2022 gwinnett county teacher of the year i'm here tonight to speak about teacher retention at the end of this school year i will be leaving gwinnett county schools leaving behind the opportunity to submit for state teacher of the year roughly ten thousand dollars in salary and most importantly the students and colleagues that i've built strong relationships with i'm leaving in hopes that i can regain the ability to do the job that i love i'm speaking tonight to use my small platform to raise awareness on issues
facing teachers today so the district can seriously consider a plan a plan to proactively combat these issues before more learning is lost and more teachers leave i do not claim to speak for all teachers however i have spoken with several teachers across the district and state and have solicited and received feedback online from others first issue at hand is student apathy and disrespect for school rules and norms returning from concurrent learning we have an alarming number of students that simply do not care about learning and refuse to even try we are also experiencing incredible disrespect
and refusal to follow basic school rules there is little to no accountability or expectation for grades or behavior placed on students or parents rather than being asked what the student can do to improve their understanding teachers are expected to somehow do more with less student effort next cell phone use teachers cannot possibly compete with the billions of dollars tech companies pour into addicting people to their devices phones allow constant communication often being the spark that fuels fights drug use and other inappropriate meetups throughout the day we need a comprehensive district plan with support behind it
in order to combat this epidemic and protect the learning environment lastly there is a huge disconnect between administrators and teachers the classroom in 2022 is drastically different from just three years ago most administrators have not been in a classroom full time in years or even decades many teachers currently do not feel understood valued or trusted as professionals from administrators and the decisions that they make many decisions seem to be short-term band-aids placed on gaping wounds while these issues are not new and there was a negative trend in these in education before 2020 the pandemic has
acted as a catalyst and turned a slow negative trend into an exponential crisis i won't list complaints without offering ideas for improvement first all administrators from the school level and throughout the isc should be required to spend one week immersed in a high needs classroom without a suit without people knowing your title and in the same room all day for an entire week if administrators truly care about improving the issues then they need to understand what is happening you cannot understand the issues in planned visits or 15-minute observations next smaller class sizes need to be
a priority 36 plus students in an academic class makes it near impossible to manage post-covered behavior while effectively meeting the much higher post-covered needs of every student 25 students in a sheltered esau class is not what's best for gwinnett's diverse student body every single decision we make should be for the students picture this a circular model of teachers parents and administrators working together with students at the center currently the circle is broken we must offer support without threats or frivolous lawsuits we all want the same thing and we cannot accomplish this without supporting one another
students need clear and consistent expectations lastly there needs to be transparency in january this year gps reported that behavior roles were at the same level yet many teachers and people are raising red flags about what is happening is it the same and as any good leader can tell you you cannot fix a problem that you won't exist thank you
