Teachers, please describe your week
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Anonymous
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As a parent I'm really upset MCPS took away a professional day recently to have teachers watch a PD video that teachers have told me was useless. That resulted in them having less time to prepare class, grade and address concerns from and about students. I'd like to hear more specifics about what a teacher's work week looks like so that the community can advocate to help create a more realistic way for teachers to meet all the demands by their school admin while still being able to teach.
What is the main challenge this year that is taking time away from your own classroom needs? Needing to fill in as subs or taking on additional duties such as car or bus duty? Confusing curriculum mandates? Lack of supplies so you need to spend your time and money on this issue? Other PD training? |
Anonymous
| All of the above. Too many meetings during planning periods. We don’t need to meet every week to tell about days. We really don’t. We need at least a day every month to do our own work. No useless PDs. I’ve been a teacher for 11 yrs dnd I’ve been to a total of three useful PDs during that time. Two out of three were from outside vendors. |
Anonymous
| The biggest issue at our elementary is that teachers have a significant chunk of planning every day, but it is only their own “personal” planning one day a week — the other days it’s spent entirely with their team and other staff. So it’s a long meeting in the middle of the day. |
Anonymous
| Admin disregards teachers contractual obligation and make them work unlimited unpaid over time with the threat of calling you not good enough because new teachers have no protection. They are easy to exploit and bully to cover lunch and sub for free with their planning periods with the understanding that they will work for free at home. |
Anonymous
| We can’t get subs, so we spend 3 or more planning periods a week providing coverage for classes that need an adult warm body in the room. You might think that’s not so bad, but we have Team or Department meetings the other planning period that day. As a result, I might get 2 planning periods a week during a good week. Not only does this mean working until 10 pm or later at home, but I can’t meet with as many parents who would like to discuss their child. |
Anonymous
| Anyone know the issue with subs? Are they just not paying enough? Is there a backup with HR screening potential employees? |
Anonymous
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At an elementary level:
According to our union contract we get a certain number of planning hours. On paper (and maybe in reality) it looks like enough. The issue is that there is no provision about how much of the planning time can be dictated/run by administration (ie: collaborative team planning, data chats, professionals learning, test training sessions etc.) versus dictated/run by the individual (ie: replying to parent emails, grading student work, making resources, prepping materials for lessons etc.). My students have specials four times a week which serves as my planning time. Three of those four blocks are dictated by admin. Which leaves me with only one planning per week that I get to decide what to do with, which isn’t enough. |
Anonymous
I’m interested in the safety and security incidents teachers experienced this week. |
Anonymous
| According to my husband with 20+ years in, get rid of mandatory professional development days. They are a waste of time, as others have indicated. Admin needs to leave teacher planning time alone. |
Anonymous
Put down your Pinot Gris. If you'd been competent, you'd still have a job. |
Anonymous
I’m not the PP you are responding to, but I fully understand the point. Admin absolutely disregards teachers’ need for planning time. Teachers are easy to exploit because we are supposed to sacrifice all of our time at home “for the kids.” Nothing the poster above said is wrong. So, rude PP, can I assume you are an administrator? Your comment seems like the sort of thing an ineffective and combative administrator might say. |
Anonymous
| I have to spend all my planning time documenting accommodations bc we do not have enough special Ed teachers. I cannot plan for quality lessons nor can I support all of my students bc of the students with severe learning differences/behaviors requiring all of my attention. We are breaking the law and the county knows we are not in compliance, yet chooses to not provide more tpt, sp Ed paras, or provide a higher sp Ed allocation. Our principal fights for more yet we are ignored and are not given resources. Again, directors are aware we are not in compliance. These are the same directors that allowed sexual predators to get promoted. They only respond to lawsuits and when groups of parents threaten to bring issues to the media. |
Anonymous
It’s a sucky job that doesn’t pay enough. |
Anonymous
| Thanks for asking this. I can't speak for anyone except myself, but I actually just went on leave because I had such a severe panic attack at school I can't go back right now. For starters, I ended up buying my own curriculum (I teach an elective no one else does) to save myself time (one was not provided by MCPS). A very sweet teacher offered me their slides from the previous year, but that was it. I am buying all of my curriculum supplies to make it as engaging of a class I can (even buying rewards) because I have so many students I have that need extra support (IEPs, 504s, ELLs, ect). I have packed classes with students who cannot sit, stay off their phone, stop talking, some even steal my personal items. There was a fight during lunch a bit ago and my students came into class all hyped up. I could not get them to calm down, even with security staff coming in. I am not a spring chicken (mid-career) and I don't know how much more I can take. In addition, my own child was assaulted at his high school and they told me 'they can't ID the kid.' I filed a police report, but we are at an impasse (please don't ask for any details). So now on top of my very stressful job, I also am helping my child manage the trauma and fear he now has. I worked so hard for my teaching license but if I walk away, I could lose it. I don't know. I'm overwhelmed. I'm taking some time off to see if I can stay in this profession. |
Anonymous
Subs are mainly older people. They feel unsafe in the schools. It started because of Covid, but is now a violence issue for some. Getting knocked over because students are brawling is bad at 22-55, but you won’t break a hip. The average age of subs in our building was 68. A school that I subbed in had a 90 year old sub who wanted to work every day. Younger people who don’t want to break into teaching usually don’t sub. |