MCPS asks for 4 days off so teachers can prepare building for in-person instruction

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy your uncredentialed substitutes and teachers on visas because that's where this is going to go if you keep this up these terrible attitudes towards teachers. It's been a rough year, why do people need to insist on making it worse? Glad I left the profession I felt guilty at first but now I see that my compassion was just being taken advantage of. You'll get what you get even if you pitch a fit.

Retention of teachers was low 5 years ago, I can’t imagine what it is currently.

Surprisingly high - you can work from home. Get a great pension and other benefits and only have to work 8 months of the year.

You are are very misled to think working from home is some perk (that many others professions have right now). I have family in teaching and I would not want to do what they do got the money they make. Many jobs are telework and work from home right now. Why is that special?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy your uncredentialed substitutes and teachers on visas because that's where this is going to go if you keep this up these terrible attitudes towards teachers. It's been a rough year, why do people need to insist on making it worse? Glad I left the profession I felt guilty at first but now I see that my compassion was just being taken advantage of. You'll get what you get even if you pitch a fit.

Retention of teachers was low 5 years ago, I can’t imagine what it is currently.

Surprisingly high - you can work from home. Get a great pension and other benefits and only have to work 8 months of the year.

Oh, and it’s 10 months paid. Summers are not paid. It’s like being laid off.

[Anonymous]

Wait- is MCPS pretending they are coming back?

Is anyone buying this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pray someone from Central office with any authority is reading this thread. For gods sake, you’ve had a YEAR to plan for this and you act like you’re surprised we might actually return to a school building, like ever. I never thought I’d have to beg for the CHOICE to send my kid to school.

New poster here. I agree with nearly everyone here. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Open the schools, teachers can prepare any afternoon after classes end - or before 9am when classes start. You're only teaching like 4-5 hours a day.

Honestly, rooms just won’t get set up then.

If I told my boss, “you are not giving me extra time off to do something that is essential for my job, so I’m just going to ship it,” I would get fired. I work for a nonprofit and don’t get paid a lot, but I am a professional. I am salaried and do what it takes to get my job done. This past year has been a nightmare and work got much busier than usual because I work on issues related to the pandemic. I worked late into the night most nights to get the work done, with no extra time off and no extra pay.

Thankfully, not all teachers have your attitude.

Except teachers are not asking for “time off”, they are asking for time to set up rooms for in-person instruction that you demanded. I’m a career-changer. I used to work a salaried position in two different state governments. If we had a physical setup for events ( time sensitive) to complete that took us away from a public-facing duty, we got the time. We were not told to come in on a Saturday or work from 5 pm until whenever multiple nights.

Setting up a classroom is not the same as an extra intellectual task. It’s physical labor.

There are multiple teachers telling you that rooms will not get set up. It’s the logical outcome of not having sufficient time provided for the task. Personally, I don’t think my students need more than a desk and a screen. They will have to stay seated in their taped off square anyway. The walls will stay bare and it will be okay. Because, according to you, in-school is automatically thousands of times better instruction somehow. This is the product you purchased.

No, it is not multiple teachers saying that. One has. Multiple teachers have said they will get it done without time off.
Last year, teachers got paid for two weeks only non-work when we shut down. They can handle coming into their rooms on w Wednesday to unpack boxes. The rest of us salaried employees do things like that all the time. Many teachers act professionally and will do it. But the poster I responded to passive-aggressively said that she would just not unpack anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pray someone from Central office with any authority is reading this thread. For gods sake, you’ve had a YEAR to plan for this and you act like you’re surprised we might actually return to a school building, like ever. I never thought I’d have to beg for the CHOICE to send my kid to school.

New poster here. I agree with nearly everyone here. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Open the schools, teachers can prepare any afternoon after classes end - or before 9am when classes start. You're only teaching like 4-5 hours a day.

Honestly, rooms just won’t get set up then.

If I told my boss, “you are not giving me extra time off to do something that is essential for my job, so I’m just going to ship it,” I would get fired. I work for a nonprofit and don’t get paid a lot, but I am a professional. I am salaried and do what it takes to get my job done. This past year has been a nightmare and work got much busier than usual because I work on issues related to the pandemic. I worked late into the night most nights to get the work done, with no extra time off and no extra pay.

Thankfully, not all teachers have your attitude.

Except teachers are not asking for “time off”, they are asking for time to set up rooms for in-person instruction that you demanded. I’m a career-changer. I used to work a salaried position in two different state governments. If we had a physical setup for events ( time sensitive) to complete that took us away from a public-facing duty, we got the time. We were not told to come in on a Saturday or work from 5 pm until whenever multiple nights.

Setting up a classroom is not the same as an extra intellectual task. It’s physical labor.

There are multiple teachers telling you that rooms will not get set up. It’s the logical outcome of not having sufficient time provided for the task. Personally, I don’t think my students need more than a desk and a screen. They will have to stay seated in their taped off square anyway. The walls will stay bare and it will be okay. Because, according to you, in-school is automatically thousands of times better instruction somehow. This is the product you purchased.

No, it is not multiple teachers saying that. One has. Multiple teachers have said they will get it done without time off.
Last year, teachers got paid for two weeks only non-work when we shut down. They can handle coming into their rooms on w Wednesday to unpack boxes. The rest of us salaried employees do things like that all the time. Many teachers act professionally and will do it. But the poster I responded to passive-aggressively said that she would just not unpack anything.

There’s nothing to unpack! The rooms will be sterile and desks pushed up against walls. Hardly in kids will be there. No decorations, just taped off desks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone should’ve told me I shouldn’t be working Wednesdays! I’m meeting with groups of students all morning and in meetings all afternoon.

To everyone volunteering my personal, unpaid time to set up classrooms, post your email and I’ll send you the volunteer sign up genius!

I’m getting sick and tired of the teacher trash talk. I love teaching and love watching your children grow and learn but all this vitriol doesn’t make the $25/hr after taxes worth it. You need to realize, this will drive away the really good teachers, the ones that have options. Then you’ll really have something to complain about when the teachers that are left are inexperienced or inept.

Do you know how many hours I work at home, outside of my pay. I am sure millions of others do the same. It is a SALARIED position. You are not an hourly employee.

Exactly. All of us are exhausted and doing way more than is listed on our job descriptions! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a ton of extra work to do, plus of course caring for their own kids. I get frustrated when teachers imply that their circumstances are unique.

+1000, teachers are not the only people who have had to adjust in the past year and the continued implication that they are unique is so frustrating. Many of us are putting in hours well above and beyond our normal tours of duty, some of which is attributable to the fact that schools remain closed, so do I get to pass around a sign up genius for you to do portions of my job in exchange for the portions of your job that I am currently doing?

+10000 - MCPS employees have truly shown this year how little they care about students at a time they were supposedly rolling out a new program about the physical, social, and emotional support of students. I have sat with my child to get him online and have him work in the dining room and classes are abysmal soul sucking experience. One teacher’s class yesterday was “independent work”. No review or instruction for the major unit test. Just directions to log of and work on your own. Another teacher was driving his car during class. DL is a sh$t show.

Never judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.

My contracted planning time is the hour your children are at lunch. So far this week, I spent my non-instructional and personal time:
-Planning synchronous and asynchronous activities for my students (each 45 minute lesson takes over an hour to plan and create google slides, none of my lessons are repeated)
- Planning lesson supports for my ESOL and Students with special needs
- Making phone calls and filling out forms because of an immediate student need
- grading, giving each student feedback, and entering those grades
- taking screenshots of completed assignments and filing them to be printed for the EOL file
- meeting with 2 different teams
- running to Target to purchase headphones for a student and delivering them to the student
- emailing and meeting over zoom with a parent to help resolve a tech issue
- During my 30 minute lunch- on Monday I had a meeting but meet with students on Tuesday for a lunch bunch
- meeting with a student in crisis and finding supports for that child

My classroom is currently packed up in about 50 boxes. In a normal year I spent roughly 20-30 hours of time setting up my classroom, and that doesn’t include meetings and planning. Don’t tell me I’m selfish, lazy, stupid, entitled and that I don’t care about my students. Ultimately teachers do what is needed to be done in the best interest of our students. OTOH, I’m a mother first and I’m unwilling to sacrifice any more of my time with them. Maybe you have different priorities.

- helping with Marking Period 3 material distribution
- emailing every single student with a list of unfinished work that they need to complete before the end of the Marking Period

I think that many folks are forgetting is that every elementary school has at least one new curriculum this year, which means none of the resources they have used in the past for math or ELA can be used this year. Every though it is a curriculum created by a company, there are no centrally created slides, Nearpods or other interactive resources. Teachers have to take a curriculum that was designed for in-person instruction and adapt it to a virtual world, which takes time.

[Anonymous]

What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

Yes, this has always been the case. Many/most teachers are working very hard. However, DL as currently constructed is an ineffective learning platform (even if you're "thriving", the curriculum has been slowed down).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I pray someone from Central office with any authority is reading this thread. For gods sake, you’ve had a YEAR to plan for this and you act like you’re surprised we might actually return to a school building, like ever. I never thought I’d have to beg for the CHOICE to send my kid to school.

New poster here. I agree with nearly everyone here. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Open the schools, teachers can prepare any afternoon after classes end - or before 9am when classes start. You're only teaching like 4-5 hours a day.

Honestly, rooms just won’t get set up then.

If I told my boss, “you are not giving me extra time off to do something that is essential for my job, so I’m just going to ship it,” I would get fired. I work for a nonprofit and don’t get paid a lot, but I am a professional. I am salaried and do what it takes to get my job done. This past year has been a nightmare and work got much busier than usual because I work on issues related to the pandemic. I worked late into the night most nights to get the work done, with no extra time off and no extra pay.

Thankfully, not all teachers have your attitude.

Except teachers are not asking for “time off”, they are asking for time to set up rooms for in-person instruction that you demanded. I’m a career-changer. I used to work a salaried position in two different state governments. If we had a physical setup for events ( time sensitive) to complete that took us away from a public-facing duty, we got the time. We were not told to come in on a Saturday or work from 5 pm until whenever multiple nights.

Setting up a classroom is not the same as an extra intellectual task. It’s physical labor.

There are multiple teachers telling you that rooms will not get set up. It’s the logical outcome of not having sufficient time provided for the task. Personally, I don’t think my students need more than a desk and a screen. They will have to stay seated in their taped off square anyway. The walls will stay bare and it will be okay. Because, according to you, in-school is automatically thousands of times better instruction somehow. This is the product you purchased.

No, it is not multiple teachers saying that. One has. Multiple teachers have said they will get it done without time off.
Last year, teachers got paid for two weeks only non-work when we shut down. They can handle coming into their rooms on w Wednesday to unpack boxes. The rest of us salaried employees do things like that all the time. Many teachers act professionally and will do it. But the poster I responded to passive-aggressively said that she would just not unpack anything.

There’s nothing to unpack! The rooms will be sterile and desks pushed up against walls. Hardly in kids will be there. No decorations, just taped off desks.

Fine. I care about the kids getting in-person learning for academic and social reasons. If the classrooms are more sterile than normal, so be it. And I have very young kids, where classroom decorations are arguably a bit more important than in older grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait- is MCPS pretending they are coming back?

Is anyone buying this?

That's really the crux of it all. No, nobody is really buying that this is happening. If it were, sure...take four days and knock yourself getting ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enjoy your uncredentialed substitutes and teachers on visas because that's where this is going to go if you keep this up these terrible attitudes towards teachers. It's been a rough year, why do people need to insist on making it worse? Glad I left the profession I felt guilty at first but now I see that my compassion was just being taken advantage of. You'll get what you get even if you pitch a fit.

Retention of teachers was low 5 years ago, I can’t imagine what it is currently.

Surprisingly high - you can work from home. Get a great pension and other benefits and only have to work 8 months of the year.

You forgot basements and pajamas!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

+1

I love a good rational and empathetic post.

I also think teachers should remove the burden of having a beautifully set up classroom like they would any other year. I think having desks set up and then maybe doing little bits here and there while you’re back in the classroom if you like. I don’t know if we are going back this year, if the union is going to push back or what will happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

DL only works for parents who raise their kids. Parents who phone it in and normally rely on the MCPS to raise them have issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

DL only works for parents who raise their kids. Parents who phone it in and normally rely on the MCPS to raise them have issues.

Ok. Next...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I'm seeing on this forum is very interesting. Teachers are saying that they are working hard to maintain DL and some parents are denying it. Parents are saying that DL is not working for their child and some teachers are denying it. Both of these things can be true. Teachers can be working hard and DL can also not work for everybody. Trash-talking parents and teachers for trying their hardest doesn't help anybody in this situation and only leads to an adversarial relationship with resentment on both sides. Ultimately, both "sides" want the same thing, for students to receive an education.

Should teachers get 4 days to set up their classroom? I have no idea. But I do know that both parents and teachers are working really hard and are reaching a point where they feel like they are burning out and that's it's just easier to blame somebody else. It is possible for both groups to feel the same way, but for different reasons.

+1

I love a good rational and empathetic post.

I also think teachers should remove the burden of having a beautifully set up classroom like they would any other year. I think having desks set up and then maybe doing little bits here and there while you’re back in the classroom if you like. I don’t know if we are going back this year, if the union is going to push back or what will happen.

+1. Most teachers I know IRL hate DL- it’s more work for them and they recognize that many students have a hard time learning that way.