I'm an MCPS elementary school teacher...AMA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is you reading specialist helpful for lesson planning and WIN time planning? Is there someone to help with math?

OP here

Our reading specialist is a phenomenal resource! Love her. She helps with CKLA planning and FIT/WIN time planning.
Yes! Our staff development teacher helps us plan for math. She is also amazing.

What does your school do during FIT/WIN time for kids who do not need intervention? Is it mostly busywork/computers or is there any real enrichment available for kids who are above-level (and if so, how often do they get it and how does that work)? Does Central Office have any rules/requirements around this or send out any materials to support it (besides the 3rd-5th grade ELA enrichment stuff) or is it mostly left up to the schools or teachers to decide what they want to do?

OP here...

It varies widely school to school. At my school, it is left up to the schools/teachers/grade level teams to decide what they want to do during FIT/WIN time.

There is a centrally identified "enrichment" FIT/WIN class, so students who have been identified as meeting that Central Office decided criteria go to a teacher that teaches a set curriculum that was created by the AEI office.

Students that need intervention are usually pulled out to work with someone with training on an intervention program. The rest that haven't been identified as needing intervention/enrichment are exposed to different activities that are up to us. I try to do novel studies with the kids bc they love them! I also mix up highly engaging informational and literary texts. So there is some enrichment available, but if/when/how often it happens will depend on your child's individual teacher/school.

Central Office is useless. They like to mandate things and then not provide support to make it happen.

Thanks for sharing. So (other than the 3rd-5th grade literacy enrichment) MCPS really doesn't have any supports/materials or schools figuring out what to do for the kids who need enrichment or are on grade level, and no rules about what schools and teachers can or cannot do? I've gotta imagine that leads to a lot of time on the computer for a lot of kids (certainly does for mine...)

Glad to hear you are coming up with great content for your kids on your own, though, thank you for doing that!

OP here..

You're exactly right. MCPS has no supports/materials for schools figuring out what to do for the kids who need enrichment or are on grade level, and no rules about what schools and teachers can or cannot do.

I'm sorry your kids are ending up on computers.

We are required to use Boost (an online part of CKLA) a certain amount of time per week, so some of it is out of our hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for OP. Do you think this culture of teachers bashing "parents" online is helpful? Do you think it changes behavior? Do you think it inspires sympathy for people in your profession? Do you think it makes you look good?

DP here, but also a teacher.

For every one post where a teacher is “bashing” a parent, there are easily 20 in which posters are tearing apart teachers.

And what often passes for “bashing” is a comment regarding what may/may not be happening at home. And as a teacher, I can tell you we often hear what happens at home. Out of the mouth of babes…

There are more parents than teachers and only a tiny minority of either group posts on DCUM and a tiny minority of them bashes the other group as a group. Using the other group as an excuse for talking sh&t about all teachers or parents is a.lame excuse and just makes you look worse.

As for what you hear from kids, if you are attributing that to "parents" as a group, that is going to piss people off and not going engender much sympathy. Because it's a dumb a petty thing to do.

Your first paragraph makes little sense, so I can’t comment on it much. But you do realize teachers are also parents, correct? And that our children also have teachers? We are just able to see situations from multiple angles because we experience them from multiple angles.

As for what we hear, it’s simple fact. You may not like that, but it is. We are often considerably gracious and understanding toward parents, too. When a student says something to us, we are able to remember the source. Do you do the same when your child says something about their teacher? Because according to all the evidence on this site, teachers become the enemy pretty quickly.

You could make the same statement but change "teachers" to "parents". If I were to take what I see on DCUM at face value I'd get the impression teachers have a culture of blaming parents for all the problems they see in schools. When your colleagues constantly echo your opinions they start to feel like facts.

I have an enormous amount of respect for my kid's teachers and fully recognize I could not do that job and if I tried, I would be terrible at it. My kid has some special needs and I have been blown away by how they have just known intuitively how to support her. I feel extremely lucky to be in a school district that is able to attract and retain these experienced professionals. From what I can tell, most of my friends feel the same. However, there are systemic issues in the schools that we cannot control and can be extremely frustrating. And there is a total lack of acknowledgement of the stress that most parents are under these days, something that is a known public health problem.

If you are under such tremendous stress that it spills into your child's school life, please try to make adjustments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And fyi the "we're so underpaid" is just false, I am sorry but it is. I don't think teachers are overpaid either. I think the compensation is well in line with those for other jobs requiring similar education (but no, it's not in line with inflated tech salaries - guess what you still have a job and thousands of them don't so joke's on them)

I’m a 2nd year teacher making 63k, and I work tons of overtime.

You think that’s paid well?

Do you think other people with masters start making that much with benefits? Most don't, unfortunately.

Yes they do. Education is a low paying field because it’s mostly women. My kid made more than that with just a four year degree.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP. Sounds like the Ed tech is particularly out of control in MCPS. That’s rough. We are fortunate to be in a district where it’s more limited and where gifted kids fo to “gifted school” one day a week (all day) for enrichment.

But even more so - if the parents on this thread are a sample of the ones you deal with - yikes. That is rough. I don’t think the gifted program would work anyway, since everyone would insist that their bright and high achieving kids were “gifted.”

PS - I have a lot of thoughts for the screens at cava poster (I’m assuming that is a reference to something) but I have a feeling I won’t get through anyway. So just taking a deep breath and offering commiseration, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are a parent yourself then you get it. And frankly you should state your opinions about social media and YouTube because we all need your support. The only teachers I've had problems with are the 22 year olds with pronoun pins.

Your problem isn’t the pronoun pins. Your problem is that - just like the older teachers are trying to do - the 22 year old teachers are teaching the way *they* were taught in school. They literally don’t know anything else because they lived the chaos of what the past 20 years of lowering standards in the classroom did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And fyi the "we're so underpaid" is just false, I am sorry but it is. I don't think teachers are overpaid either. I think the compensation is well in line with those for other jobs requiring similar education (but no, it's not in line with inflated tech salaries - guess what you still have a job and thousands of them don't so joke's on them)

I’m a 2nd year teacher making 63k, and I work tons of overtime.

You think that’s paid well?

Do you think other people with masters start making that much with benefits? Most don't, unfortunately.

Yes they do. Education is a low paying field because it’s mostly women. My kid made more than that with just a four year degree.

Thanks for sharing your study of your sample of one. Look at the data from the Census Bureau yourself if you want. People wildly overestimate how much money most people (even those with advanced degrees) make. And that data doesn't account for pension benefits which as much as people complain about them, are quite significant.

[Anonymous]

sounds like a plant from moms for liberty

[Anonymous]

Where are the MAP scores? (I realize you’re not responsible for the delay, but have you been told anything about it?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And fyi the "we're so underpaid" is just false, I am sorry but it is. I don't think teachers are overpaid either. I think the compensation is well in line with those for other jobs requiring similar education (but no, it's not in line with inflated tech salaries - guess what you still have a job and thousands of them don't so joke's on them)

I’m a 2nd year teacher making 63k, and I work tons of overtime.

You think that’s paid well?

Do you think other people with masters start making that much with benefits? Most don't, unfortunately.

Yes they do. Education is a low paying field because it’s mostly women. My kid made more than that with just a four year degree.

Thanks for sharing your study of your sample of one. Look at the data from the Census Bureau yourself if you want. People wildly overestimate how much money most people (even those with advanced degrees) make. And that data doesn't account for pension benefits which as much as people complain about them, are quite significant.

Not OP-why are you so obsessed with teacher salaries? Get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for OP. Do you think this culture of teachers bashing "parents" online is helpful? Do you think it changes behavior? Do you think it inspires sympathy for people in your profession? Do you think it makes you look good?

DP here, but also a teacher.

For every one post where a teacher is “bashing” a parent, there are easily 20 in which posters are tearing apart teachers.

And what often passes for “bashing” is a comment regarding what may/may not be happening at home. And as a teacher, I can tell you we often hear what happens at home. Out of the mouth of babes…

There are more parents than teachers and only a tiny minority of either group posts on DCUM and a tiny minority of them bashes the other group as a group. Using the other group as an excuse for talking sh&t about all teachers or parents is a.lame excuse and just makes you look worse.

As for what you hear from kids, if you are attributing that to "parents" as a group, that is going to piss people off and not going engender much sympathy. Because it's a dumb a petty thing to do.

Your first paragraph makes little sense, so I can’t comment on it much. But you do realize teachers are also parents, correct? And that our children also have teachers? We are just able to see situations from multiple angles because we experience them from multiple angles.

As for what we hear, it’s simple fact. You may not like that, but it is. We are often considerably gracious and understanding toward parents, too. When a student says something to us, we are able to remember the source. Do you do the same when your child says something about their teacher? Because according to all the evidence on this site, teachers become the enemy pretty quickly.

You could make the same statement but change "teachers" to "parents". If I were to take what I see on DCUM at face value I'd get the impression teachers have a culture of blaming parents for all the problems they see in schools. When your colleagues constantly echo your opinions they start to feel like facts.

I have an enormous amount of respect for my kid's teachers and fully recognize I could not do that job and if I tried, I would be terrible at it. My kid has some special needs and I have been blown away by how they have just known intuitively how to support her. I feel extremely lucky to be in a school district that is able to attract and retain these experienced professionals. From what I can tell, most of my friends feel the same. However, there are systemic issues in the schools that we cannot control and can be extremely frustrating. And there is a total lack of acknowledgement of the stress that most parents are under these days, something that is a known public health problem.

If you are under such tremendous stress that it spills into your child's school life, please try to make adjustments.

Q. When was the last time your breadwinner was RIF’d in the middle of a national affordability crisis? And if that happened recently and was not stressful, why was that in your humble opinion?

[Anonymous]

Do you teach in a school with a full language immersion program, have you ever done so, and if yes to either, what is your impression of how the dynamics discussed here do or do not show up in the same ways in the immersion programs you have observed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And fyi the "we're so underpaid" is just false, I am sorry but it is. I don't think teachers are overpaid either. I think the compensation is well in line with those for other jobs requiring similar education (but no, it's not in line with inflated tech salaries - guess what you still have a job and thousands of them don't so joke's on them)

I’m a 2nd year teacher making 63k, and I work tons of overtime.

You think that’s paid well?

Do you think other people with masters start making that much with benefits? Most don't, unfortunately.

Yes they do. Education is a low paying field because it’s mostly women. My kid made more than that with just a four year degree.

Thanks for sharing your study of your sample of one. Look at the data from the Census Bureau yourself if you want. People wildly overestimate how much money most people (even those with advanced degrees) make. And that data doesn't account for pension benefits which as much as people complain about them, are quite significant.

Not OP-why are you so obsessed with teacher salaries? Get a life.

That's hilarious. You're just mad someone is questioning totally unsupported statements about teacher pay in Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a question for OP. Do you think this culture of teachers bashing "parents" online is helpful? Do you think it changes behavior? Do you think it inspires sympathy for people in your profession? Do you think it makes you look good?

DP here, but also a teacher.

For every one post where a teacher is “bashing” a parent, there are easily 20 in which posters are tearing apart teachers.

And what often passes for “bashing” is a comment regarding what may/may not be happening at home. And as a teacher, I can tell you we often hear what happens at home. Out of the mouth of babes…

There are more parents than teachers and only a tiny minority of either group posts on DCUM and a tiny minority of them bashes the other group as a group. Using the other group as an excuse for talking sh&t about all teachers or parents is a.lame excuse and just makes you look worse.

As for what you hear from kids, if you are attributing that to "parents" as a group, that is going to piss people off and not going engender much sympathy. Because it's a dumb a petty thing to do.

Your first paragraph makes little sense, so I can’t comment on it much. But you do realize teachers are also parents, correct? And that our children also have teachers? We are just able to see situations from multiple angles because we experience them from multiple angles.

As for what we hear, it’s simple fact. You may not like that, but it is. We are often considerably gracious and understanding toward parents, too. When a student says something to us, we are able to remember the source. Do you do the same when your child says something about their teacher? Because according to all the evidence on this site, teachers become the enemy pretty quickly.

You could make the same statement but change "teachers" to "parents". If I were to take what I see on DCUM at face value I'd get the impression teachers have a culture of blaming parents for all the problems they see in schools. When your colleagues constantly echo your opinions they start to feel like facts.

I have an enormous amount of respect for my kid's teachers and fully recognize I could not do that job and if I tried, I would be terrible at it. My kid has some special needs and I have been blown away by how they have just known intuitively how to support her. I feel extremely lucky to be in a school district that is able to attract and retain these experienced professionals. From what I can tell, most of my friends feel the same. However, there are systemic issues in the schools that we cannot control and can be extremely frustrating. And there is a total lack of acknowledgement of the stress that most parents are under these days, something that is a known public health problem.

If you are under such tremendous stress that it spills into your child's school life, please try to make adjustments.

This isn't an individual issue and the solutions are not going to happen at an individual level.

Murthy said a cultural shift is necessary to support 63 million parents with children younger than 18 who live in the U.S., as well as an estimated several million additional adults who serve as a child's primary caregiver. He noted the importance of extending that support to diverse families, like LGBTQ+ parents, foster parents and parents who are single.

Wednesday's advisory also outlined tangible policy shifts to reduce the burden on parents and caregivers — especially those dealing with financial instability, which is singled out as one of the most significant root causes of parental wellness on the decline.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parental-stress-public-health-issue-surgeon-general-advisory/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi Op, on the girls versus boys behavior issue. My son (5th grade) who is a very well behaved kid according to his teachers regularly tells me how unfair he thinks the teachers and in particular the teacher’s aides are, always being harsh on boys and very nice to girls.

He says “they never say anything when the girls say mean things, create drama, tattle tell etc..but boys get punished even when they just say - i am done I don’t want to deal with the girls group they are just too mean-. It is not fair. Teachers just prefer girls”.

I can actually see why thishappens. Boys are louder, take space, are annoying and that’s the key disruptive behavior to tackle. I get it and I try to explain that to my son. I have my son and my girl’s friends at home regularly and know the difference.

BUT, my question to you is : do you get the sense that boys generally tend to feel like they are indeed less favored by the teachers in school (fairly or unfairly)? It is a current political trope, and not one I want to believe. But it is a recurring complaint from my son (who again is a straight A student with no discipline issue himself, he comments on what he sees). Not sure if this is generalized or not

As the mom of the three boys I’ve heard this story in some form from all of mine and their friends over the years. You know when that changed? The year they had a male teacher. One of mine practically floated on air the year he had a male teacher. So much so my husband even remarked about how great that kid’s school year was going.

I love female teachers and know they do a wonderful job, but primary years would definitely benefit from an infusion of male teachers. Same as university levels benefits when female join the ranks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are the MAP scores? (I realize you’re not responsible for the delay, but have you been told anything about it?)

Someone on the MAP thread says there's an error on the NWEA side regarding generating the parent reports that MCPS is waiting for NWEA to finish resolving.