I feel like MCPS sucks the joy out of teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a reason why I felt my joy sucked out today. One of our School Improvement Plan goals — which means a goal that all of our individual teams need to support — is for more Hispanic kids to come to school more often (yes, it specifies Hispanic). So, we are evaluating ourselves on whether parents send their kids to school. Yes, the school has a role in communicating to parents that school is important. But us teachers? If only we were more entertaining, they would come, I guess?

MCPS seems to only care about Hispanic students these days. They are pouring money into supporting new immigrant students.

[Anonymous]

They don’t care about Hispanic students. They care about the perception that they care about Hispanic students.

The chief of schools (and others in CO) have made a career out of this, as have many in CO. It is an open secret, that is not well hidden.

Image over substance is 100% the mission of Montgomery County Public Schools. When CO tries to dispute this on this board (which they will do, unless this post gets deleted by admin) you can recognize it because they will try to distract from this very real fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a reason why I felt my joy sucked out today. One of our School Improvement Plan goals — which means a goal that all of our individual teams need to support — is for more Hispanic kids to come to school more often (yes, it specifies Hispanic). So, we are evaluating ourselves on whether parents send their kids to school. Yes, the school has a role in communicating to parents that school is important. But us teachers? If only we were more entertaining, they would come, I guess?

We were told during pre-service our top priority goal this year was to halve the number of office referrals for black males (I teach at a majority black Title 1 MoCo Elem school).

The result so far? Teachers are HIGHLY discouraged to write office referrals! The same out of control behaviors that were present last year are back this year (fighting, throwing materials across the room, cussing out teacher) but instead of going to the office, they now just stay in the classroom! The behaviors have gotten more extreme and there has been an increase in other students starting to mimic the bad behaviors. (And yes I have developed relationships with the students and have good classroom management - this is the first year I truly dread going to work every day.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don’t care about Hispanic students. They care about the perception that they care about Hispanic students.

The chief of schools (and others in CO) have made a career out of this, as have many in CO. It is an open secret, that is not well hidden.

Image over substance is 100% the mission of Montgomery County Public Schools. When CO tries to dispute this on this board (which they will do, unless this post gets deleted by admin) you can recognize it because they will try to distract from this very real fact.

We are at a high Hispanic school. We have so much less in terms of ap classes, funding for arts, sports, music.

[Anonymous]

This week on two separate occasions I have students wander into my high school classroom. There are just so few expectations and consequences now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I am sorry for the stress but grateful for your work and the work of all teachers in MCPS. My kids attended MCPS and we were really pleased with their experience and amazed by the dedication of their teachers.

Yes, it was great 20 years ago!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This week on two separate occasions I have students wander into my high school classroom. There are just so few expectations and consequences now.

I had this happen to me and the student assaulted me (unprovoked threw a chair and trash can at me) and I was given a lecture if I provoked him to do it.

This was in 2002.

This isn’t new. Welcome to the profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school runs out of its 40 hrs per week teachers should just go home and say cya. We should be able to fill out our time sheets truthfully and without any funny business in deflating our numbers bc the powers that be don't want a paper trail of how many hours past contract teachers actually work.

I feel this powerfully. It frustrates me every week that if I leave 1 hour early for an appointment I need to take sick leave, but if I have to come in early or stay late every day of the week, I am still required to say I worked 8 hours per day and no more.

Agree that this is wrong, but its how salaried workers are treated in the corporate world from the admins all the way up the ladder.

No it is not. I'm an exempt employee and I am not nickel-and-dimed on leave. If I leave an hour early for an appointment I'm not forced to take leave. I can show up an hour earlier and take no leave.

My spouse works for the government, also exempt. He is nickel-and-dimed on leave, but he also has a system where he can earn comp time (though that's not what it's called) for working extra hours, up to 24 at a time. So when he has to leave an hour early for an appointment, he does not have to take vacation or sick leave to do it.

It's really unfair that teachers have to put in extra time to get ther job done, but then they have to use leave if they have an appointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t care about Hispanic students. They care about the perception that they care about Hispanic students.

The chief of schools (and others in CO) have made a career out of this, as have many in CO. It is an open secret, that is not well hidden.

Image over substance is 100% the mission of Montgomery County Public Schools. When CO tries to dispute this on this board (which they will do, unless this post gets deleted by admin) you can recognize it because they will try to distract from this very real fact.

We are at a high Hispanic school. We have so much less in terms of ap classes, funding for arts, sports, music.

Do you have less funding for those things or is your funding being spent kn other areas?

[Anonymous]

You mean the multitude on conflicts of interest aren't a joy. When admin want us to give out top grades and pass students who don't show up at the same time as giving us bad reviews for student truancy, misbehavior, student disrespect and when we report crimes. I don't recommend teaching as a profession. There is zero support and we have to take all the blame with low pay and corruption all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a reason why I felt my joy sucked out today. One of our School Improvement Plan goals — which means a goal that all of our individual teams need to support — is for more Hispanic kids to come to school more often (yes, it specifies Hispanic). So, we are evaluating ourselves on whether parents send their kids to school. Yes, the school has a role in communicating to parents that school is important. But us teachers? If only we were more entertaining, they would come, I guess?

We were told during pre-service our top priority goal this year was to halve the number of office referrals for black males (I teach at a majority black Title 1 MoCo Elem school).

The result so far? Teachers are HIGHLY discouraged to write office referrals! The same out of control behaviors that were present last year are back this year (fighting, throwing materials across the room, cussing out teacher) but instead of going to the office, they now just stay in the classroom! The behaviors have gotten more extreme and there has been an increase in other students starting to mimic the bad behaviors. (And yes I have developed relationships with the students and have good classroom management - this is the first year I truly dread going to work every day.)

This is what is broken about MCPS. They take a metric and try to manipulate the metric, rather than attempting to get at the root-cause of what's behind the metric.

This just causes more harm to the very same group they claim to be helping, as you point out. The behavior doesn't change. It just goes unreported or ignored to make the metric artificially look like it's going down.

[Anonymous]

All the data is majorly skewed because of the intimidation for reporting crimes and the retaliation that happens as teacher have no support or protection to do our jobs as we learned to in our grad schools. Our expensive student loan oriented grad schools.

[Anonymous]

There are less people that want to coach, less kids that want to do sports so no teams are formed. Less of a PTA to push opportunities. My friend had kids in two different MCPS high schools due to a blended marriage. One was at a poor HS and one at a more affluent one. The two kids had very different opportunities. Their prom nights and graduation activities also varied greatly with the one who went to a title 1 HS had way less.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t care about Hispanic students. They care about the perception that they care about Hispanic students.

The chief of schools (and others in CO) have made a career out of this, as have many in CO. It is an open secret, that is not well hidden.

Image over substance is 100% the mission of Montgomery County Public Schools. When CO tries to dispute this on this board (which they will do, unless this post gets deleted by admin) you can recognize it because they will try to distract from this very real fact.

We are at a high Hispanic school. We have so much less in terms of ap classes, funding for arts, sports, music.

Do you have less funding for those things or is your funding being spent kn other areas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound really dedicated. I have kids in MCPS and also friends who teach in MCPS. Can you maybe find a mentor to help you make the demands work? My friends aren’t this stressed and they write more college recommendations. I hope you can find joy in your job.

They've probably taught longer and care less. That's a good coping mechanism IMO. I do my work but I rarely ever bring any work home. If it doesn't get done at school, it just doesn't get done.

Trust me, we know the teacher that put in the bare minimum. I wish as parents we could rate teachers and get rid of the bare minimum. Teachers should not have ot be putting in crazy hours but on the flip side the checked out, I'm there for a pay check only teachers need to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a reason why I felt my joy sucked out today. One of our School Improvement Plan goals — which means a goal that all of our individual teams need to support — is for more Hispanic kids to come to school more often (yes, it specifies Hispanic). So, we are evaluating ourselves on whether parents send their kids to school. Yes, the school has a role in communicating to parents that school is important. But us teachers? If only we were more entertaining, they would come, I guess?

We were told during pre-service our top priority goal this year was to halve the number of office referrals for black males (I teach at a majority black Title 1 MoCo Elem school).

The result so far? Teachers are HIGHLY discouraged to write office referrals! The same out of control behaviors that were present last year are back this year (fighting, throwing materials across the room, cussing out teacher) but instead of going to the office, they now just stay in the classroom! The behaviors have gotten more extreme and there has been an increase in other students starting to mimic the bad behaviors. (And yes I have developed relationships with the students and have good classroom management - this is the first year I truly dread going to work every day.)

This is what is broken about MCPS. They take a metric and try to manipulate the metric, rather than attempting to get at the root-cause of what's behind the metric.

This just causes more harm to the very same group they claim to be helping, as you point out. The behavior doesn't change. It just goes unreported or ignored to make the metric artificially look like it's going down.

+ a million. It’s one of the nuttiest situations ever and it is rampant throughout the district. It’s also super strange that they manipulate the data to show whatever improved desired outcome they seek when I’m not sure who the audience is. When they actually fail to deliver on measurable goals (test scores, attendance), no one does anything anyway. They are also freakishly obsessed with race.