I feel like MCPS sucks the joy out of teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The EML situation at some of the schools is out of control. Today I had to give out letters that need to be signed by the parents of EML students. ONE student in my 4th-grade class did not get a letter. ONE out of 23. The class is impossible to teach. Not only are there so many newcomers with little English, but they are also coming in with minimal education even in their native language. Yet we are required to make sure that we keep up with the grade level curriculum. And now we are supposed to somehow design every lesson around their language needs. Impossible!

Yet instead of having help from the ELD teachers, they are busy doing county mandated paperwork- individually scanning in tons of documents page by page. What a waste of time. Focus on the children- not paperwork. That also goes toward the SLO's that were mentioned. Let us teach the children. Provide the support that is needed.

And then there is Home School Model. Why am I having no support with students who cannot do 4 + 1 without their fingers? CKLA- So far above their heads. But where are the SPED teachers? Oh yeah- they are no longer able to support in ELA and all is left to the classroom teacher.

MCPS has ruined education.

Elem school reading teacher here and this post is spot on. Not allowed to pull from the 2 hour CKLA reading block when we have 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who can not read CVC (log, man) or CVe words (kite, bake) and are not coded SpEd. We have extreme behaviors I have never seen on this level before in my 20+ years in education. Sped teachers are also frustrated because they are not allowed to pull even when the students IEP calls for xx minutes of pull out instruction. I’m also at a Title 1 school with large MLL population. Leaving at the end of this year.

The CKLA reading block is supposed to be 90 minutes for 3-5. (It is 120 minutes for K-2.) Is your school making you take 120 minutes for it for grades 3-5? They could be taking the last 30 minutes they are allocating and doing pullouts for kids who need support reading while enriching for other schools. (This is what our school does, but it's longer than 30 minutes.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The EML situation at some of the schools is out of control. Today I had to give out letters that need to be signed by the parents of EML students. ONE student in my 4th-grade class did not get a letter. ONE out of 23. The class is impossible to teach. Not only are there so many newcomers with little English, but they are also coming in with minimal education even in their native language. Yet we are required to make sure that we keep up with the grade level curriculum. And now we are supposed to somehow design every lesson around their language needs. Impossible!

Yet instead of having help from the ELD teachers, they are busy doing county mandated paperwork- individually scanning in tons of documents page by page. What a waste of time. Focus on the children- not paperwork. That also goes toward the SLO's that were mentioned. Let us teach the children. Provide the support that is needed.

And then there is Home School Model. Why am I having no support with students who cannot do 4 + 1 without their fingers? CKLA- So far above their heads. But where are the SPED teachers? Oh yeah- they are no longer able to support in ELA and all is left to the classroom teacher.

MCPS has ruined education.

Elem school reading teacher here and this post is spot on. Not allowed to pull from the 2 hour CKLA reading block when we have 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who can not read CVC (log, man) or CVe words (kite, bake) and are not coded SpEd. We have extreme behaviors I have never seen on this level before in my 20+ years in education. Sped teachers are also frustrated because they are not allowed to pull even when the students IEP calls for xx minutes of pull out instruction. I’m also at a Title 1 school with large MLL population. Leaving at the end of this year.

The CKLA reading block is supposed to be 90 minutes for 3-5. (It is 120 minutes for K-2.) Is your school making you take 120 minutes for it for grades 3-5? They could be taking the last 30 minutes they are allocating and doing pullouts for kids who need support reading while enriching for other schools. (This is what our school does, but it's longer than 30 minutes.)

That should read "while enriching for other students."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So MCPS makes you put in the exact hours a day you are scheduled for and not the time you work? At my work they tell us to put in actual hours worked, which is always more than the scheduled time. No overtime pay, but they still want to know. And there is know what I'm putting in 8 hours when I'm actually working 10 or more. -Nonprofit employee

Yes. I think that’s why many of us are so incensed about the workload. We are reminded every two weeks we are only paid for so many hours and are not allowed to account for the actual hours worked.

Even though we are paid out our hourly rate for summer school or for certain trainings/events. As another former nonprofit employee, it really doesn’t sit well with me - this type of accounting.

Even if you are only paid of a certain amount of hours, someone still needs to know the full hours worked. That's what allows you to plan future initiatives properly and show need for additional resources. The BOE did a study this summer of the actual hours they put, maybe they should request one for Staff.

This makes a lot of sense. But I don’t think MCPS wants to know how much teachers actually work as they want to pretend it can all be done during school hours

They may not want to know, but you all should be documenting your hours anyway. All teachers and staff should. Then an outside group could request the data through an MPIA to find out how much teachers at different schools are actually working. I know it wouldn't change the pay you receive in most instances, presuming you are exempt employees, but it's still important to document the hours worked.

And I'm sorry conditions are so bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So MCPS makes you put in the exact hours a day you are scheduled for and not the time you work? At my work they tell us to put in actual hours worked, which is always more than the scheduled time. No overtime pay, but they still want to know. And there is know what I'm putting in 8 hours when I'm actually working 10 or more. -Nonprofit employee

Yes. I think that’s why many of us are so incensed about the workload. We are reminded every two weeks we are only paid for so many hours and are not allowed to account for the actual hours worked.

Even though we are paid out our hourly rate for summer school or for certain trainings/events. As another former nonprofit employee, it really doesn’t sit well with me - this type of accounting.

Even if you are only paid of a certain amount of hours, someone still needs to know the full hours worked. That's what allows you to plan future initiatives properly and show need for additional resources. The BOE did a study this summer of the actual hours they put, maybe they should request one for Staff.

This makes a lot of sense. But I don’t think MCPS wants to know how much teachers actually work as they want to pretend it can all be done during school hours

They may not want to know, but you all should be documenting your hours anyway. All teachers and staff should. Then an outside group could request the data through an MPIA to find out how much teachers at different schools are actually working. I know it wouldn't change the pay you receive in most instances, presuming you are exempt employees, but it's still important to document the hours worked.

And I'm sorry conditions are so bad.

OP here. Thank you. This is a good point. I don’t really understand why leadership in the education world is so bad. Honestly, most of our administrators don’t seem very smart. It’s like some of the bad teachers got out of teaching and became administrators. And they just love ruling the roost and drowning everyone in useless busy work and nonsensical jargon and fancy-sounding gibberish. MCPS has lost its way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not teaching in a public school anymore, but when I was, I took a sick day each quarter just to get caught up on work.

These days my kids teachers are out at least 1-2 weeks a quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not teaching in a public school anymore, but when I was, I took a sick day each quarter just to get caught up on work.

These days my kids teachers are out at least 1-2 weeks a quarter.

I call BS. I have two kids in HS and I teach in middle school. None of their 16
Teachers are out that often and in my school teachers hate being out because subs can’t really teach the lessons so then they get behind the pacing calendar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not teaching in a public school anymore, but when I was, I took a sick day each quarter just to get caught up on work.

These days my kids teachers are out at least 1-2 weeks a quarter.

I doubt that’s true. Teachers don’t have that type of leave.

I’m not MCPS, but I only get 10 days a year. I can take one day off a month, on average, and I usually don’t bother. It’s too much extra work to be out.

[Anonymous]

Northwood HS had 28 teachers out last Friday.
I’m guessing that most took a sick day to try and catch up on work which is pretty much impossible to do during the school day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwood HS had 28 teachers out last Friday.
I’m guessing that most took a sick day to try and catch up on work which is pretty much impossible to do during the school day

Yep. That was me yesterday. I spent most of my Friday evening getting all of my special education reports done. And then most of the weekend doing more paperwork that’s required. It’s asinine that the priority is paperwork and not grading

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwood HS had 28 teachers out last Friday.
I’m guessing that most took a sick day to try and catch up on work which is pretty much impossible to do during the school day

Teacher at Northwood here. There was a system mandated training that took almost all the resource teachers and half the admin out. That was the reason and what a dumb reason especially on a Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The EML situation at some of the schools is out of control. Today I had to give out letters that need to be signed by the parents of EML students. ONE student in my 4th-grade class did not get a letter. ONE out of 23. The class is impossible to teach. Not only are there so many newcomers with little English, but they are also coming in with minimal education even in their native language. Yet we are required to make sure that we keep up with the grade level curriculum. And now we are supposed to somehow design every lesson around their language needs. Impossible!

Yet instead of having help from the ELD teachers, they are busy doing county mandated paperwork- individually scanning in tons of documents page by page. What a waste of time. Focus on the children- not paperwork. That also goes toward the SLO's that were mentioned. Let us teach the children. Provide the support that is needed.

And then there is Home School Model. Why am I having no support with students who cannot do 4 + 1 without their fingers? CKLA- So far above their heads. But where are the SPED teachers? Oh yeah- they are no longer able to support in ELA and all is left to the classroom teacher.

MCPS has ruined education.

Elem school reading teacher here and this post is spot on. Not allowed to pull from the 2 hour CKLA reading block when we have 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who can not read CVC (log, man) or CVe words (kite, bake) and are not coded SpEd. We have extreme behaviors I have never seen on this level before in my 20+ years in education. Sped teachers are also frustrated because they are not allowed to pull even when the students IEP calls for xx minutes of pull out instruction. I’m also at a Title 1 school with large MLL population. Leaving at the end of this year.

The CKLA reading block is supposed to be 90 minutes for 3-5. (It is 120 minutes for K-2.) Is your school making you take 120 minutes for it for grades 3-5? They could be taking the last 30 minutes they are allocating and doing pullouts for kids who need support reading while enriching for other schools. (This is what our school does, but it's longer than 30 minutes.)

Third grade reading definitely requires 2 full hours according to ckla teacher guide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood HS had 28 teachers out last Friday.
I’m guessing that most took a sick day to try and catch up on work which is pretty much impossible to do during the school day

Yep. That was me yesterday. I spent most of my Friday evening getting all of my special education reports done. And then most of the weekend doing more paperwork that’s required. It’s asinine that the priority is paperwork and not grading

While I get it, it’s absolutely Frustrating for students and parents, not to mention produces so much anxiety. The amount of grades that just show up in the last 1-2 wks of the quarter is ridiculous. We’ve given up any belief that what is listed in Synergy is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwood HS had 28 teachers out last Friday.
I’m guessing that most took a sick day to try and catch up on work which is pretty much impossible to do during the school day

Yep. That was me yesterday. I spent most of my Friday evening getting all of my special education reports done. And then most of the weekend doing more paperwork that’s required. It’s asinine that the priority is paperwork and not grading

While I get it, it’s absolutely Frustrating for students and parents, not to mention produces so much anxiety. The amount of grades that just show up in the last 1-2 wks of the quarter is ridiculous. We’ve given up any belief that what is listed in Synergy is correct.

Unfortunately this happens because MCPS does not build in any time to grade and it has to all be done at home. Some teachers are able to give kids an independent assignment and then grade during class time but that is easier to pull off in some subjects than others. If we didn’t have all the random stuff to do such as special education quarterlies, PD, testing training, PSAT proctor training, college recommendations, SLO’s, department and committee meetings, being asked to sub, etc., we would be able to do a better job keeping up with grading and planning. All the above random stuff was just stuff for the month of October

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Work to rule."

I would like to know how to do this without being terrible at my job.
—APS teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Work to rule."

I would like to know how to do this without being terrible at my job.
—APS teacher

Focus on what you need to do for the next day. Use an Eisenhower matrix.