Parents, please don’t ask me to stay after school and tutor your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our teachers are always available after school to help kids in middle school and high school. Even an elementary teacher could find some time at the end of the day to help some students. Maybe you should ask for a mentor and see what’s up.

Of course I could “find time” and I do. It’s just that time is my unpaid for personal time and I’m resentful of people simply treating it like an expectation. I would bet a great many teachers at your school who do it aren’t happy about it as well.

Welcome to being a working adult.

At least you only have to deal with this 10 months out of the year while others deal with it year round.

Teachers are not more out upon than other professions. Most teachers simply don’t understand what being a working professional is actually like because they start out as teachers and don’t work in professional jobs prior to teaching.

I actually think no teacher should be hired straight out of school and all should be required to have a minimum of two years work experience in a professional setting first. This would improve the quality of teachers and teaching tremendously since it would allow recent grads the chance to learn some professional work skills prior to coming to the classroom and reducing the learning curve of just being a working adult. This impacts new teachers quite a bit as they have to suddenly be a full time working adult, deal with admin and teachers , and actually manage and teach.

This sounds fantastic as long as everyone who feels compelled to comment on teachers' performance, jobs etc. should be required to have a minimum of two years work experience as a teacher as part of their civic engagement.

[Anonymous]

Learn the life lesson: how to promptly and politely say N-O.

That's on you, dear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another teacher here.

My own pet peeve is the current student who refuses to come in at lunch or after school so that I can work with him and give him the extra support he needs. I've been offering/advising that he arrange to do this since the first week of school. Now that he is getting a B-, he told his parents and the school admin that I "won't help him" and "don't like him." I have had multiple meetings this week in response to these accusations.

In response to this, the principal informed his mother that I would be waiting in my classroom at lunchtime to help him. He didn't show up for that, either.

Amen. I used to host lunchtime reviews once or twice a week. With students’ after-school sports, 2x/week faculty meetings, my own need to leave for allergy shots, etc., after-school help was not a practical way for me to be available to all students. NO ONE showed for the lunch reviews, not even when I left notes in their lockers or on their papers inviting specific students to come. But those same students had parents who were cranky that I wasn’t available after school.

I also attempted to host before-school reviews. As that was a popular socializing time at the school where I taught, no one availed themselves of that free tutoring opportunity either. Kids and parents mostly want what’s convenient.

[Anonymous]

OP how is the student's attendance? Participation in class? Effort? Is the student awake and alert?

What is your school's designated time for student-teacher conferences and help? Are there after-school peer tutoring programs in place? Is the parent clear about student-teacher check in times, and that their child should be taking advantage of them? Is the parent doing their part at home to encourage homework completion and studying for tests? Have you been up front with the parent about what their child needs to be doing?

Do you suspect an undiagnosed learning disability that might factor into this child's need for extra help?

[Anonymous]

Wait, what?! Parents actually do this?????

Have a backbone and say no! Your labor isn't free.

[Anonymous]

MS and HS teachers in FCPS typically are expected to provide at least one day a week after school academic support--akin to office hours--for any students that need it. I don't know why the expectations would be different for ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait, what?! Parents actually do this?????

Have a backbone and say no! Your labor isn't free.

She is paid to teach until 4:15... school ends by 3... so yes she is paid until 4:15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MS and HS teachers in FCPS typically are expected to provide at least one day a week after school academic support--akin to office hours--for any students that need it. I don't know why the expectations would be different for ES.

In APS our ES offers and encourages students to attend after school tutoring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is odd to me. When I taught school all teachers were available for a little while before and after school for extra help. Many of us had specific days and hours. That’s just part of the job. I was actually thrilled when a student took the initiative and came to me for help. Maybe teaching isn’t the career fit you, OP.

Says who? Why should that just be part of the job? We don’t ask other people including doctors or nurses to stay after office hours to meet with patients.

Many doctor husband would disagree with you on this one—when they are on call they sometimes get 15 calls a day on the emergency line (Pediatrics) and very few of them are actual emergencies. His whole weekend can be ruined and he does not get paid for each call. And no, we are not super wealthy, we are drowning in loans.

I imagine his job "contract" if he has one includes time spent working on the emergency line. Health facilities provide an emergency line for patients. It's reasonable that they would call it and assume the person responding to it is working what is part of their established work hours It's not reasonable to assume that a teacher should stay after school hours to work with your child when there is no official "homework help" time established. A more accurate comparison would be if I contacted my OB on his own personal time outside of office hours when there is no office emergency or question line.

I just had to respond to this. The fact that people think this might be why we get so many dumb calls on weekends. I get paid per work revenue value unit which basically means per patient I see in the office. When I am on call I do not get any extra money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, what?! Parents actually do this?????

Have a backbone and say no! Your labor isn't free.

She is paid to teach until 4:15... school ends by 3... so yes she is paid until 4:15.

Let her and her department chair or assistant principal decide how she should spend her time on the clock. In other words, leave these decisions to the experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, what?! Parents actually do this?????

Have a backbone and say no! Your labor isn't free.

She is paid to teach until 4:15... school ends by 3... so yes she is paid until 4:15.

Let her and her department chair or assistant principal decide how she should spend her time on the clock. In other words, leave these decisions to the experts.

Yeah, but I don't know of any public school where those extra contract hours aren't intended to provide direct interaction with students at least some of the time--that's definitely how they are billed in the calculations for bills and written into contracts and tax bills and the like. OP might wish she could just focus on what s/he wants to do but s/he should review policy to see what she is supposed to do.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if (since its math, and frankly it doesn't come easily to a lot of kids) you could approach your administration about setting up a math tutoring or math help lab after school? maybe twice a week, the math teachers can take turns staying, and older kids who excel in math could get community service hours for helping. Then you'd be on a set rotating schedule, the kids all get the help they need, and parents are happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, what?! Parents actually do this?????

Have a backbone and say no! Your labor isn't free.

She is paid to teach until 4:15... school ends by 3... so yes she is paid until 4:15.

Let her and her department chair or assistant principal decide how she should spend her time on the clock. In other words, leave these decisions to the experts.

Yeah, but I don't know of any public school where those extra contract hours aren't intended to provide direct interaction with students at least some of the time--that's definitely how they are billed in the calculations for bills and written into contracts and tax bills and the like. OP might wish she could just focus on what s/he wants to do but s/he should review policy to see what she is supposed to do.

+1 This is exactly how these hours should be spent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MS and HS teachers in FCPS typically are expected to provide at least one day a week after school academic support--akin to office hours--for any students that need it. I don't know why the expectations would be different for ES.

In APS our ES offers and encourages students to attend after school tutoring.

Are the teachers paid for this? Some schools receive grants to pay teachers for after school tutoring. In such cases, the teacher would usually be meeting with a group. T

[Anonymous]

I've come across a few teachers who don't teach/help outside of school hours. They are done with students when the bell rings.

Then there are those who coach or offer clubs, or set time for extra help.