How many courses do MCPS high school teachers teach each semester?

[Anonymous]

Are they allowed to take fewer courses if they take on admin duties? Does it vary by school?

[Anonymous]

My DH is an MCPS High School teacher. To be full time, I think you have to teach 5 classes. But if you are a resource teacher (team lead), then I think you only have to take 4.

[Anonymous]

5, you only teach 4 if you are a resource teacher or have a team leader position, to be one of those, you need to have taught for 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5, you only teach 4 if you are a resource teacher or have a team leader position, to be one of those, you need to have taught for 3 years.

Interested in going for a team leader position in the near future. Is it 3 years in MCPS or 3 years of teaching in general?

[Anonymous]

What are the other requirements for MCPS teachers? If a school has 8 periods I assume they have lunch for one of them and one if them is student lunch when they have other duties, meetings or student lunch. Is the last period of planning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the other requirements for MCPS teachers? If a school has 8 periods I assume they have lunch for one of them and one if them is student lunch when they have other duties, meetings or student lunch. Is the last period of planning?

HS teachers typically teach 5 periods out of 7. One period off is individual planning, the other period is for collaboration with content alike teachers, meetings, and other school defined tasks. If schools have 8 periods because the bell schedule has multiple lunch times, then one of those is the teacher’s lunch. If the 8th period is an actual class (SMCS program) then teachers don’t have a first period scheduled and arrive later than everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Teachers who are academy heads also teach 4 classes not 5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they allowed to take fewer courses if they take on admin duties? Does it vary by school?

Are you asking about courses or sections (class periods)? As stated by PPs 5 of 7 periods is a standard load.
Most teachers in our school have 2 courses (preps) and done have 3. It’s rare to have only one. Some have 4 or 5 different courses, but typically in those cases the preps are heavily overlapping or don’t require a lot of preparation of instructional materials.

For example, having 2 sections of regular US History and 3 sections of Honors US History would be a pretty straightforward teaching load. Switch two of the Honors to APUSH, and that’s a more challenging 3 preps, but still a lot of overlapping content. If it was AP Government instead of APUSH, then that’s two totally different content courses and also different ages. A more difficult load.

[Anonymous]

This thread really makes it clear how much work HS teacher have!

[Anonymous]

I taught five classes each semester. Typically, it was three preps. Semester A usually would be two different levels of a core course (sometimes 1 level was AP) and an elective. Semester B was two levels and a different elective. Sometimes I taught two electives in one semester.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5, you only teach 4 if you are a resource teacher or have a team leader position, to be one of those, you need to have taught for 3 years.

Interested in going for a team leader position in the near future.Is it 3 years in MCPS or 3 years of teaching in general?

It's 3 uears teachings in general but typically principals promote teachers who are familiar with MCPS policies and who have leadership experience to these roles so I'd start teaching in MCPS before trying out for a TL role.

[Anonymous]

Years teaching*

[Anonymous]

Many teachers don't think the leadership tradeoff is worth the class. There's a ton of prep/other work for leadership roles.

[Anonymous]

Occasionally there might be a teacher hired as a combo .6/.2/.2 position. One of the .2 positions might just be a specialized assistant role like helping to manage a school program but without being a classroom teacher. I have seen it happen at high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH is an MCPS High School teacher. To be full time, I think you have to teach 5 classes. But if you are a resource teacher (team lead), then I think you only have to take 4.

Our resource teacher (large department) teaches 3 periods a day and has two off