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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

It is not consistent across the county how many periods a resource teacher will have off. For example, one school may give a science RT 1 period off and the next school may give 2 periods off for the same duties. It depends on the principal.

The same is true for other duties. An example would be that one school may give a teacher 1 or more periods off for test administrator responsibilities (think SAT, AP, etc) as well as a stipend, another school may just give a teacher the stipend. In general, it comes down to moving administrative duties to the teachers which then means that class sizes somewhere in the building are a little higher.

On a separate note, in addition to teaching 5 classes to be full time (usually with 2 or 3 preps), most teachers also teach an advisory class and are expected to tutor during their lunch period. Tutoring every day is the norm for math teachers and other subjects that build on themselves.

[Anonymous]

Math and English are usually the RTs who have an extra period off because of the testing/data component

[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?

Teachers at those schools get screwed. They teach more classes for the same pay and none of our contract language supports them.

[Anonymous]

Also keep in mind that the number of periods you teach does not equal the number of preps or the number of individual course codes they combine into your 4-5 periods. I teach 4 periods but EIGHT individual course codes that each have their own curriculum. It’s a nightmare trying to prep and create instructional materials.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Teachers at those schools get screwed. They teach more classes for the same pay and none of our contract language supports them.

When I taught at Parkland I taught 5 out of 8 periods. The 3rd period off was for lesson and curriculum design since we had no help from the county for our more specialized lessons. It was actually kinda nice considering how inadequate county lesson materials can sometimes be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also keep in mind that the number of periods you teach does not equal the number of preps or the number of individual course codes they combine into your 4-5 periods. I teach 4 periods but EIGHT individual course codes that each have their own curriculum. It’s a nightmare trying to prep and create instructional materials.

Ugh. Is that like when they have a regular and honors version of a class taking place concurrently, some students in each?