If schools have to continue online, shouldn’t teachers worry about their jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes I’m worried. I’m a private school teacher. Worried I’ll be gig teaching on lots of platforms in a couple of years for peanuts. Another middle class job destroyed to serve the interests of billionaires.

Our private school layed off all the teachers until school is able to resume.

That’s one good reason not to work at a private school. Don’t count on those teachers returning, and I’d be surprised if they’re able to attract any good candidates knowing that if schools have to shut down again in the fall/winter that they’ll lose their job.

This is going to happen in charter schools too.

Why do you think that?

Because my friends in charter schools across the state are reporting layoffs. A lot of layoffs.

Were those teachers teaching subjects that got dropped? If not, what is being done -- are classes being consolidated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes I’m worried. I’m a private school teacher. Worried I’ll be gig teaching on lots of platforms in a couple of years for peanuts. Another middle class job destroyed to serve the interests of billionaires.

Our private school layed off all the teachers until school is able to resume.

That’s one good reason not to work at a private school. Don’t count on those teachers returning, and I’d be surprised if they’re able to attract any good candidates knowing that if schools have to shut down again in the fall/winter that they’ll lose their job.

This is going to happen in charter schools too.

Why do you think that?

Because my friends in charter schools across the state are reporting layoffs. A lot of layoffs.

What state? I haven’t heard of any layoffs at charters in DC.

[Anonymous]

I have friends in charter schools in Colorado, Michigan, and NYC and they are all laying off teachers.

There is also this in Detroit, in public schools (not charters)
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/all-5466-detroit-public-school-teachers-receive-layoff-notices

I think some of the Detroit news (re: laying off the entire teaching staff) is posturing to get the feds to give needed money. But I do think that all of us teachers need to be concerned. My spouse and I are both teachers and we have a lot of seniority and high ratings. In theory, this should shield us. Younger teachers with less seniority and lower ratings won't be so lucky. My best guess is that schools are going to see about 20% of their budgets cut. All the extras and then some will go. Hello to large class sizes, good-bye to sports and after school extras and very little support for those who struggle.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if and at what point schools save money by offering early retirement buyouts. It seems I have heard about systems doing that in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

Nope

yup

Nope

Yup.

The most obvious solution is for school to open for this who need or want it. Families who have concerns can watch live feed of their classrooms and learn that way.

If you watched a live stream of my 90 minute high school class you would spend the majority of the time watching students working in pairs, doing activities, or moving around the classroom. I don't know how watching that would help a student alone at home learn. I don't lecture all class, I don't just give worksheets. That is part of why distance learning is so hard. But I really don't see how a student would learn watching from home.

Schools must come to terms with the idea that learning in groups is ineffective. Return to lectures. When I was in high school, we never worked in pairs in social studies classes. A teacher—who was an expert in their subject matter—LECTURED on the constitution, or the civil rights, or macroeconomic theories. This is what schools must do going forward. Toss aside the group work. It sucked anyway. Build knowledge, teach how to think critically, analyze works, and so on.

And then, set up a web camera so students at home can watch the lecture and ask/answer questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have friends in charter schools in Colorado, Michigan, and NYC and they are all laying off teachers.

There is also this in Detroit, in public schools (not charters)
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/all-5466-detroit-public-school-teachers-receive-layoff-notices

I think some of the Detroit news (re: laying off the entire teaching staff) is posturing to get the feds to give needed money. But I do think that all of us teachers need to be concerned. My spouse and I are both teachers and we have a lot of seniority and high ratings. In theory, this should shield us. Younger teachers with less seniority and lower ratings won't be so lucky. My best guess is that schools are going to see about 20% of their budgets cut. All the extras and then some will go. Hello to large class sizes, good-bye to sports and after school extras and very little support for those who struggle.

Yup my friend who is a reading specialist (pull outs, works with kids in small groups) got laid off, as did the specials teachers in her school. As budgets are cut, schools will cut to the bone to compensate. Hey but at least we are all “safe” right?!

[Anonymous]

There will for sure be budget cuts, but we haven’t been told where the money will be taken from. Will it come from everyone’s salary? Will insurance premiums go up? Will a select few be let go? I wonder...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

Nope

yup

Nope

Yup.

The most obvious solution is for school to open for this who need or want it. Families who have concerns can watch live feed of their classrooms and learn that way.

If you watched a live stream of my 90 minute high school class you would spend the majority of the time watching students working in pairs, doing activities, or moving around the classroom. I don't know how watching that would help a student alone at home learn. I don't lecture all class, I don't just give worksheets. That is part of why distance learning is so hard. But I really don't see how a student would learn watching from home.

Schools must come to terms with the idea that learning in groups is ineffective. Return to lectures. When I was in high school, we never worked in pairs in social studies classes. A teacher—who was an expert in their subject matter—LECTURED on the constitution, or the civil rights, or macroeconomic theories. This is what schools must do going forward. Toss aside the group work. It sucked anyway. Build knowledge, teach how to think critically, analyze works, and so on.

And then, set up a web camera so students at home can watch the lecture and ask/answer questions.

What happens to students who are not auditory learners? I was not. My youngest is not. We take good notes by Catholic elem school training, but don’t really learn until we’ve reviewed our notes. Plus, note-taking isn’t even taught in public school anymore.

And how will you teach critical thinking in the humanities through lecture? My Catholic high school social studies classes back in the 1980s didn’t have us do all source analysis like some of today’s kids, but they were not “sit and get” either. We were in a happy middle space where we had seminars and discussed everything. Our teacher didn’t just tell us the causes and effects like yours did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will for sure be budget cuts, but we haven’t been told where the money will be taken from. Will it come from everyone’s salary? Will insurance premiums go up? Will a select few be let go? I wonder...

I suspect the same things that happened in FY09 through FY11 or 12 will happen again. Hiring freeze. Larger core classes to compensate for fewer staff. Fewer singleton electives to reduce the need for staff. Salary freezes and higher teacher contributions to health care —both of which impacted me more negatively in the long run than my divorce did. Virtually no paid PD (duty day release or stipend). No non-emergency infrastructure improvement. Fewer counselors, PPWs, and school psychologists. Fewer media specialists and less instructional tech support.

I survived this already. I can survive it again. Not sure I can survive COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

You have got to be a teenager. Do your parents know you are spending time on DCUM posting idiotic, nasty comments?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools should resume in the fall. period. If teachers can't handle it, then FCPS has all summer to find people that can handle it.

Nope

yup

Nope

Yup.

The most obvious solution is for school to open for this who need or want it. Families who have concerns can watch live feed of their classrooms and learn that way.

If you watched a live stream of my 90 minute high school class you would spend the majority of the time watching students working in pairs, doing activities, or moving around the classroom. I don't know how watching that would help a student alone at home learn. I don't lecture all class, I don't just give worksheets. That is part of why distance learning is so hard. But I really don't see how a student would learn watching from home.

I have been doing the same thing for 90-120 minute classes on Zoom. We use Breakout Rooms for partners to analyze documents, small groups to discuss issues, etc. How is that different from having everyone in person? Just pair up people who are at home. The only thing that is a pain is just getting all of the documents out in advance.

How would I answer their questions while helping kids in the classroom at the same time? How do I send out documents that need to be cut or can't be translated to worksheets? It's very different given that I try to use the whole classroom and have students moving a lot to complete the work. And to try to convert that to kids at home would take a lot of time and wouldn't be as effective.

You need to use your imagination. Kids in Breakout Rooms can ask for help and it appears on your screen. Is it a pain to have to keep your eyes on multiple places, yes, but under this scenario you would have fewer kids in your room as well. I have done "Station" activities this quarter by just sending out all of the documents that would have been at different stations in one file. Is it as interesting to sit in one place, no, but it works fine. What documents "can't be translated to worksheets?" I have converted photos and everything to pdfs to send out. If a worksheet needs to be cut into two, you send out the pdf and give people those instructions. We have even done Escape Room stuff this quarter and they take a picture and send it to me. This is possible. You teach high school students. They don't have to get up and move around to make it through a class.

[Anonymous]

What happens to students who are not auditory learners? I was not. My youngest is not. We take good notes by Catholic elem school training, but don’t really learn until we’ve reviewed our notes. Plus, note-taking isn’t even taught in public school anymore.

And how will you teach critical thinking in the humanities through lecture? My Catholic high school social studies classes back in the 1980s didn’t have us do all source analysis like some of today’s kids, but they were not “sit and get” either. We were in a happy middle space where we had seminars and discussed everything. Our teacher didn’t just tell us the causes and effects like yours did.


They better get over that quickly since nobody cares what kind of learner you are in college. I would say 80%+ of my courses in college were lectures. 100% in the first two years. They expect you already know how to evaluate sources by the time you get to college. No wonder so many kids drop out of college. They haven't ever had to sit and just listen and do the work. They don't want to sit through a 3 hours lecture. They want to be spoon fed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

You have got to be a teenager. Do your parents know you are spending time on DCUM posting idiotic, nasty comments?

Crass response, but kind of true. I don’t think teachers are lazy individually, but as a whole with their union advocating, absolutely. The rest of the country will be back to work in June, July, August. But teachers get to stay home, collect the same pay for no where near full time work, until their is a covid vaccine and zero cases? I don’t think so. If that is what unions are lobbying for, I hope this is the beginning of the end of unions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

You have got to be a teenager. Do your parents know you are spending time on DCUM posting idiotic, nasty comments?

Crass response, but kind of true. I don’t think teachers are lazy individually, but as a whole with their union advocating, absolutely. The rest of the country will be back to work in June, July, August. But teachers get to stay home, collect the same pay for no where near full time work, until their is a covid vaccine and zero cases? I don’t think so. If that is what unions are lobbying for, I hope this is the beginning of the end of unions.

We do not get paid for the summer. We are paid a ten month salary spread out over twelve months. You want me to work two additional months? Okay. Then you’re going to have to pay me for it (proportionally-not a small lump sum) and we are going to need to negotiate vacation time. Teachers don’t have vacation time built into our contracts outside of the schools breaks. We already worked spring break without compensation. I’m not an indentured servant. You don’t seem to understand that teaching is a job and not a charity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

You have got to be a teenager. Do your parents know you are spending time on DCUM posting idiotic, nasty comments?

Crass response, but kind of true. I don’t think teachers are lazy individually, but as a whole with their union advocating, absolutely. The rest of the country will be back to work in June, July, August. But teachers get to stay home, collect the same pay for no where near full time work, until their is a covid vaccine and zero cases? I don’t think so. If that is what unions are lobbying for, I hope this is the beginning of the end of unions.

We do not get paid for the summer. We are paid a ten month salary spread out over twelve months. You want me to work two additional months? Okay. Then you’re going to have to pay me for it (proportionally-not a small lump sum) and we are going to need to negotiate vacation time. Teachers don’t have vacation time built into our contracts outside of the schools breaks. We already worked spring break without compensation. I’m not an indentured servant. You don’t seem to understand that teaching is a job and not a charity.

No one is talking about teachers teaching through summer. Let's not pretend you are working 40 hrs per week for "distance learning" while schools aren't closed now and if they stay closed in the fall