Educators Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Burnout, Dissatisfaction Among Educators In Latest WVEA Survey

West Virginia teachers have become increasingly more likely to leave the profession, according to the latest survey of West Virginia Education Association members.

Dale Lee, president of the WVEA, shared results Tuesday and said the survey was conducted to gauge levels of frustration amongst association members. He said the survey showed low pay and a lack of respect for the profession are leading to higher stress and burnout.

“More than half of our members, 62 percent, reported experiencing higher levels of stress and burnout than in previous years, with 26 percent saying that their level of burnout is at its highest level ever,” Lee said.

The higher levels of burnout and stress are leading to more educators to consider leaving the profession. Lee said while more than half of respondents are confident they will continue working in education, “nearly half of them say that they are much more likely to retire or leave education earlier than planned.” The results were broken down by tenure, and newer educators were more likely to consider leaving.

“We already have a problem with attracting and retaining education employees,” Lee said. “And this poll indicates that without changes, the problem will only get worse without significant action.”

Lee raised concern about the ongoing teacher shortage, citing the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to say there has been a 14 percent reduction in the number of students entering the education programs, as well as a lack of students seeing education as a career.

“You can see the staffing issues will continue to grow if something isn’t done to address these concerns,” he said.

Other results included a disapproval of public funds being used for private education: 85 percent of WVEA members said taxpayer funding for education should only be used for our public schools. And more than 70 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with their working conditions.

“In all instances, the dissatisfaction is overwhelming,” Lee said. “Now keep in mind that the working conditions over educators are the learning conditions of our students.”

Turning to solutions, Lee highlighted two interesting results of the survey. When asked to indicate support for different proposals to address education burnout, such as allowing teachers more input in the classroom decisions by eliminating the bureaucracy, 100 percent of respondents chose “raise salaries” and “increase educator respect”.

According to the National Education Association, West Virginia ranks last among U.S. states in average teacher pay.

“Our pollsters indicate that it’s very rare to have such a consensus on two items in a poll,” Lee said.

Lee says he hopes to present the survey findings to both the Senate and House education committees, and work with them on solutions.

Wheeling Island Principal Receives $25,000 Milken Award

An educator in the Northern Panhandle has received a national award.

Andrea Trio is the third Milken Educator Award recipient in the state this year.

Trio was recognized Thursday morning in a surprise ceremony at Madison Elementary School on Wheeling Island, where she is the principal.

Nationally, more than 60 awards will be distributed by the Milken Family Foundation this year, each including $25,000.

Trio said she is honored by the award, but hasn’t considered what to do with the money yet.

“I think automatically, children, that’s where my heart goes to,” she said. “I’ll certainly do a lot of reflection on that, and think about how I can just continue to make myself be the best that I can be in serving students each and every day.”

Trio thanked the staff of Madison Elementary, as well as her students, for helping her to achieve work worthy of the award.

“I have to thank you for believing in Mrs. Trio, because you are the reason that I do what I do each and every day,” she said. “When I promise to do my best as the principal of Madison Elementary School, I meant that with my whole heart, and I won’t stop.”

In attendance for the event were several former West Virginia Milken Award winners, including 2002 recipient Ohio County superintendent Kim Miller and 1993 recipient state superintendent David Roach.

Miller said Trio is exactly who the state wants to be representing them, and this opportunity will only help her grow.

“This will allow Mrs. Trio the opportunity to network with an amazing group of educators that are forward thinking, that will provide opportunities that she’ll be able to attain and come back and continue to grow as an educator,” Miller said.

Roach said that even 30 years on, receiving the award continues to inspire him, and the Milken group of educators will help elevate Trio’s work.

“We’ll be utilizing her with our principals in West Virginia, because of her expertise,” Roach said. “There’s nothing, no barriers that will stop her from whatever she wants to do.”

Trio is the 76th West Virginian to receive the award since its creation in 1987.

Eight W.Va. Counties Will Be Remote, Virtual School This Week

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that eight counties will be remote learning-only for the week of Oct. 26. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Oct. 24 at 5 p.m.

Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Mingo, Monroe, Wayne and Wirt counties, which were in the orange zone on the state’s color-coded map, will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

Wyoming was the only county in the red category, and will also be required to teach students virtually this week.

Some counties also shifted in their color zones, according to the state’s COVID-19 Data Review Panel. They included:

Doddridge County: Moved from orange to gold due to data validation as a result of lab updates with correct county of residence.
Kanawha County: Moved from yellow to gold due to four cases updated to confirmed status and lab updates with correct county of residence.
Lewis County: Moved from green to yellow due to data validation as a result of lab updates with correct county of residence.
Wirt County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation as a result of lab updates with correct county of residence.

Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in red include: Wyoming

Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. Extracurricular practices may occur, however, competitions may not. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in orange include: Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Mingo, Monroe, Wayne, Wirt

Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction is permitted with restrictions, including face coverings at all times for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted. Competitions can take place against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Counties in gold include: Doddridge, Jackson, Kanawha, Logan, Morgan, Pendleton, Webster

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Cabell, Clay, Jefferson, Lewis, Lincoln, Mercer, Ritchie, Roane, Summers

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Barbour, Brooke, Calhoun, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDowell, Mineral, Monongalia, Nicholas, Ohio, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wetzel, Wood

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map are announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

As of Saturday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports 21,712 total cases of the virus and 422 deaths. 4,712 cases are considered active, according to DHHR.

West Virginia Teacher of the Year Finalists Announced

Six West Virginia educators have been chosen for Teacher of the Year award.

The West Virginia Department of Education announced Wednesday that the finalists are Teresa Thorne of Slanesville Elementary School in Hampshire County, Tammy Ann Spangler of Ripley Middle School in Jackson County, Kaitlin Thorsell of Washington High School in Jefferson County, Tammy J. Bittorf of Berkeley Springs High School in Morgan County, Adriane L. Manning of Wheeling Middle School in Ohio County and Leslie Lively of Short Line School in Wetzel County.

The Teacher of the Year will be announced during a ceremony on Sept. 18 at the Clay Center in Charleston. The recipient will represent West Virginia at the national level.

The Infusing Technology Conference Leads Teachers On a Road Toward the Future

Encouraging educators from across the state to take hold of new teaching and new learning opportunities is the focus of a three-day conference hosted by the West Virginia Center for Professional Development. It’s called Infusing Technology, and its overall theme is for educators to learn how to effectively teach in a digital age.

The Infusing Technology Conference welcomed approximately 100 educators from across West Virginia. The event will host more than 40 sessions during the three-day conference to help teachers bring technology into all aspects of their teaching. That includes classroom management, lesson planning, and project-based learning. Keeping students engaged during this technological boom and making the criteria personalized for them is the overall goal. Michelle Tharp, the Coordinator for Technology Integration at the West Virginia Center for Professional Development says teachers have to keep up with their students.

“So what we’ve seen is that our students aren’t engaged with worksheets anymore.” said Tharp, “They don’t want to be a part of a flat piece of paper. You know, instead of doing a book report on a piece of paper that only their teacher may see or maybe their parent may see, they can do, you know, a book report, and have it to be oral and have it to be videoed and then on YouTube, and the whole world could see. So it’s much more engaging, they want to engage in that digital, global world, and we have to be a part of that to inspire them.”

Michelle Tharp, the Coordinator for Technology Integration at West Virginia Center for Professional Development speaks on some of her favorite apps and programs.

This three-day training will focus specifically on a variety of iPad apps and resources that have been used effectively by other educators in their classrooms. Instruction will also introduce the web-based equivalent for those apps, so that teachers relying on computers rather than iPads may still use the resources. But iPads are heavily encouraged.

“For me with iPad, tablet technology, it’s accessibility. So when we talk about a mobile tablet technology, that student has access to all the resources that are available. I mean, that, to me is just amazing, and then, before our students come to us, as a young toddler, their whole entire learning process is through exploring their environment, and then we ask them, this is the only time you learn, and then they’re done, and so what we’re saying, no, we want you to continue that lifelong journey and be inspired to want to learn more, and by giving them that mobile technology, they can access whatever they want at home.”

Linda Mundy, a 5^th grade teacher at Cross Lanes Elementary School in Kanawha County will be entering her 41^st year teaching. She is very eager for the technological advance and push for iPads in classrooms. She notes that during this past year she had ten iPads in her classroom.

“It’s a time when we can be exposed to a lot of different apps and strategies,” Mundy said, “to hone or broaden our horizons, and ways to reach out and motivate our students, and a way to see the bigger picture in all of this, cause it is a digital world, and this is the way the children see things and a way to reach these children. Not a paper, pencil world anymore.”

Educators learn of ways to use their iPads effectively in the classroom at the Infusing Technology Conference in Charleston.

Kanawha County is said to be providing iPads for all middle and high school students during the upcoming year, and as a result, teachers and administrators are seeking more training to fully utilize these technologies.

This year’s Infusing Technology Conference will conclude on Thursday, June 26th.