HS teacher not grading papers for two straight semesters. Does FCPS have a policy on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this really is the result of efforts to achieve equity, even before it was called equity, as represented by scores.

The retakes, the leveled instruction, the IEP meetings, disparate levels and unprepared kids who were pushed through, inability to provide meaningful discipline, IDEA, bahavioral issues related to electronic device culture.

All of this has basically taken the responsibility of the parents and foisted it onto the teachers.

Now not every parent can be as responsible to their kids as some others and therefore there will always be different outcomes, but if the expectation is that someone needs to account for those gaps and it’s not parents, then it’s teachers and here we are.

OMG, the OP asked about a teacher grading nothing for half a year. It's absurd to wait this long for corrections. They mean nothing by this time. Teachers have graded things and provided feedback. This has been figured out by other teachers before you. The fact that you keep giving excuses for this teacher is alarming.

An appeal from a burnt-out, ready-to-quit AP teacher here:

Nobody is making excuses for a teacher who hasn’t graded for 1/2 a year. Several posters have tried to explain what grading looks like for us. I am doing 20 hours of grading a week on top of a 40 hour work week. Every week. I’m home sick today, and I’m grading. I’m always grading. I went to my own kids’ concert last week and graded during the break between sets.

Perhaps if the angry parent on this thread could see that those of us grading are sacrificing hours of our own time DAILY to get comments back, we could get somewhere. Yes, I understand it’s my job… and I am doing it! Stop being nasty and just acknowledge that papers don’t grade themselves. And please don’t send me an email when I don’t get 150 in-class writing responses back within 48 hours. I can’t pause time to get it done.

You are not the first teacher to teach. Do you have any idea what it’s like going through a system for 13 years and hearing the same story excusing bad teaching? Why are you defending this teacher if you are spending so much time grading?

I’m the PP. I wrote “nobody is making excuses” and you interpreted that is “why are you defending this teacher.” It’s clear that you simply want to pick a fight. It looks like you got it. Satisfied? You have good teachers who are sacrificing tons of time with their own families to give you exactly what you want. We DO give back work. Regularly. We simply want you to see that all this work gets done on our own time; we are granted no time during our contract hours to get the bulk of the job done.

I’m within an inch of quitting. Nasty posters like you are not helping. I guarantee you that I AM the teacher you want your kid to have. Why chase me away with your nastiness?

No, I don't. You've posted on here all day. I don't even think you are a teacher in FCPS.

I’ve posted twice. It seems there are other teachers on here who would like to be treated with a small amount of respect.
And yes, I am a teacher, and I attended FCPS as a student. Can you try to be kind? What’s the point of picking on people who are on your side and trying to do the job you want us to do?

What is the point of supporting a teacher who doesn't grade? Why do you support this teacher if they are making teachers look bad?

NP: Because they are doing what I don't have the guts to do--make the job 40 hours so they have a life outside school. It isn't a case of "they could do it during the school day but are choosing other things". Arguably the three most critical parts of our job are teaching, lesson planning, and grading. Only 2 of those can be done in 40 hours. Which do you prefer I give up? Or are you saying the only good teachers are those that are willing to work 60 hours?

If more teachers don't learn how to draw a line, there will be an even greater educator shortage soon.

So now you are advocating for teachers to not grade? This is why people are fed up with FCPS. I think it comes with the territory that lesson planning, grading and teaching are part of the job. A job which also has a shortened day and many days off. You really think parents think sending their kids to a school system that teachers are protesting grading is worthwhile to their child’s development? No grades is not a solution to improving FCPS schools. People will just move if they can’t afford other options.

Astounding.

If grading is part of the job, then teachers should get time at work to get grading done. Shortened days? I suppose 10 hours is shorter than 11? Summers off? We don’t get paid for summers. It isn’t “summer off.” It’s “unpaid summer.”

You seriously are going to write to your principal and say that grading isn’t necessary at the high school level because you can’t get it done during working hours? Then they are going to write to the school board and superintendent and then they are going to let the colleges know that high school grading in FCPS is no longer a requirement of teachers? You talk big despite of course knowing that high schoolers need grades to apply to colleges and graduate. Are you actually planning on following through? I guess you have company with OPs teacher. I’d love to hear the parental and student support you receive for giving up on grading. Let us know how it works out. You did this for your own kids too right?

WOW!
Please tell me you are just trying to be purposefully disrespectful and obtuse. That’s the only explanation I can think of for your ridiculously insulting response.

You make me physically sick. I spent 17 hours grading last weekend out of respect for my students. I’m grateful they are kinder, more appreciative people than you. Please do us all a favor and keep your hateful views to yourself. There are younger teachers working their tails off who won’t know how to ignore your misguided hate.

ETA…
Here’s OP’s answer. A quick google search any of us could do:
https://www.fcps.edu/academics/grading-and-reporting/secondary/grading-assignments-and-assessments

Somewhere inside you is a kind, reasonable nature. Please find it.

[Anonymous]

So this teacher is not following policy got it. Please keep the trauma grading stories to yourself. This teacher is doing none of it. Stop projecting your life onto hers as if you are one and the same and you will find more peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this really is the result of efforts to achieve equity, even before it was called equity, as represented by scores.

The retakes, the leveled instruction, the IEP meetings, disparate levels and unprepared kids who were pushed through, inability to provide meaningful discipline, IDEA, bahavioral issues related to electronic device culture.

All of this has basically taken the responsibility of the parents and foisted it onto the teachers.

Now not every parent can be as responsible to their kids as some others and therefore there will always be different outcomes, but if the expectation is that someone needs to account for those gaps and it’s not parents, then it’s teachers and here we are.

OMG, the OP asked about a teacher grading nothing for half a year. It's absurd to wait this long for corrections. They mean nothing by this time. Teachers have graded things and provided feedback. This has been figured out by other teachers before you. The fact that you keep giving excuses for this teacher is alarming.

An appeal from a burnt-out, ready-to-quit AP teacher here:

Nobody is making excuses for a teacher who hasn’t graded for 1/2 a year. Several posters have tried to explain what grading looks like for us. I am doing 20 hours of grading a week on top of a 40 hour work week. Every week. I’m home sick today, and I’m grading. I’m always grading. I went to my own kids’ concert last week and graded during the break between sets.

Perhaps if the angry parent on this thread could see that those of us grading are sacrificing hours of our own time DAILY to get comments back, we could get somewhere. Yes, I understand it’s my job… and I am doing it! Stop being nasty and just acknowledge that papers don’t grade themselves. And please don’t send me an email when I don’t get 150 in-class writing responses back within 48 hours. I can’t pause time to get it done.

You are not the first teacher to teach. Do you have any idea what it’s like going through a system for 13 years and hearing the same story excusing bad teaching? Why are you defending this teacher if you are spending so much time grading?

I’m the PP. I wrote “nobody is making excuses” and you interpreted that is “why are you defending this teacher.” It’s clear that you simply want to pick a fight. It looks like you got it. Satisfied? You have good teachers who are sacrificing tons of time with their own families to give you exactly what you want. We DO give back work. Regularly. We simply want you to see that all this work gets done on our own time; we are granted no time during our contract hours to get the bulk of the job done.

I’m within an inch of quitting. Nasty posters like you are not helping. I guarantee you that I AM the teacher you want your kid to have. Why chase me away with your nastiness?

No, I don't. You've posted on here all day. I don't even think you are a teacher in FCPS.

I’ve posted twice. It seems there are other teachers on here who would like to be treated with a small amount of respect.
And yes, I am a teacher, and I attended FCPS as a student. Can you try to be kind? What’s the point of picking on people who are on your side and trying to do the job you want us to do?

What is the point of supporting a teacher who doesn't grade? Why do you support this teacher if they are making teachers look bad?

NP: Because they are doing what I don't have the guts to do--make the job 40 hours so they have a life outside school. It isn't a case of "they could do it during the school day but are choosing other things". Arguably the three most critical parts of our job are teaching, lesson planning, and grading. Only 2 of those can be done in 40 hours. Which do you prefer I give up? Or are you saying the only good teachers are those that are willing to work 60 hours?

If more teachers don't learn how to draw a line, there will be an even greater educator shortage soon.

So now you are advocating for teachers to not grade? This is why people are fed up with FCPS. I think it comes with the territory that lesson planning, grading and teaching are part of the job. A job which also has a shortened day and many days off. You really think parents think sending their kids to a school system that teachers are protesting grading is worthwhile to their child’s development? No grades is not a solution to improving FCPS schools. People will just move if they can’t afford other options.

No, I’m advocating for teachers to make 40 hour weeks, however they get there because otherwise there will be no teachers soon. The county doesn’t seem motivated to change anything, so teachers will have to control it themselves.

Maybe teacher A stops assigning essays entirely.
Maybe teacher B only grades topic sentences instead of whole paragraphs
Maybe teacher C gives partner quizzes so only half as many are graded
Maybe teacher D just gives everyone As so parents and admin and kids are happy
Maybe teacher E only plans 2 lessons a week and the third is “catch up day” where kids play on their phones and the teacher grades
Maybe teacher F makes every single assignment on the computer so it auto grades, or multiple choice everything so it’s fast
Maybe teacher G just stops grading everything except tests and all class work and homework is basically optional now.

The status quo is not sustainable. It is a job, not martyrdom. My own child asked me yesterday, “do you have time to play with me today, or only to grade more?” I understand that all these options suck but so does missing my kid’s childhood and being on antidepressants because the workload is more than a sane person can handle. I’m either going to scale back or quit, and if it’s quitting than good luck—I’m damn good at my job and no one else wants this position.

[Anonymous]

You sound like you hate it and I can’t imagine what you are like at work with kids and parents. Full of drama I guess. It’s weird that you harp on all this extra work you slave away at but then rationalize that somehow you will still be an excellent teacher if you drop grading and become teacher G or OPs child’s teacher. You may have the capacity but you won’t be an excellent teacher by doing that. It really isn’t an option at the high school level to not grade so you are just making unnecessary drama. You know OPs teacher is going against FCPS policy and not doing her job well but are throwing a tantrum about unrelated work to this discussion anyway to stir things up. You know you don’t have to do extra grading work because you have OPs teacher as an example of one that doesn’t grade and no repercussions. High schoolers need grades. Thank god for AP classes that have actual tests so teachers and school systems can’t just do whatever they want without getting national recognition through lowered scores.

If you are an English teacher, the state of Virginia actually limits those classes on average for the school to 1:20 because the grading is more intensive. If FCPS is not following that is on them.

[Anonymous]

It also makes sense for children to be working on assignments and teachers grading during class once a week. High schoolers have block classes which are long. I’m sure some teachers have figured out how to grade some during the school day.

[Anonymous]

Clearly, some people aren’t cut out for the workload of teaching high school classes. Maybe elementary school would be a better fit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP teacher.

Those free response questions are the death of me. They take 3-4 minutes each to grade, our tests have two each, so 7 minutes per kid x87 kids = 10 hrs of grading for one test. I have fantasized about not grading them…but I just suck it up and devote one Sunday every 2-3 weeks to nothing but free response grading.

Next year I am going to try to be more strategic and have the kids “pre grade” it themselves using the rubric. Is the teacher showing them what the rubric for the short answer questions looks like? Are they going over what a solid answer looks like and picking apart examples of weaker ones? Are they writing a sample solution as a class after they write individual ones? Are they told what year the question was from so they can look up the rubric in college board’s website?

I think all of these are ways to give feedback without grades. If none of that is happening, then I’d be frustrated and would have my kid reach out to the teacher (cc you on the email for accountability) and ask how to get feedback on the written part. If no answer, then go to the administrator in charge of that department and ask how your child can get feedback on their written portions. That’s the more important piece than the grade, IMO. They are having graded assignments (the gradebook isn’t blank! No surprise entries at the end of the quarter) but your child needs guidance to pass the AP test.

AP has been around for a long time. I don't understand why teachers don't have time anymore. Has the class changed?

In addition, the catholic school my kid went to graded morning work. You know that five minute work that kids do when they enter the school? Regularly my kid got over 10 grades a day.

You’re kidding, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have more classes now than years ago? More kids? I am not understanding why I went through FCPS and got grades back within a week for short answer assignments and maybe 3 weeks if it was a large project and nowadays it's asking for the moon. I remember government had three long essays a week every Monday that we got back by Friday to prepare for the next Monday test.

Your question was answered in the previous 8 pages and in multiple previous DCUM posts.

+1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I spent a few hours this past weekend grading labs for a HS science honors class. Returned them to students today. Most immediately threw them in the recycling bin. They only care about the grade and don't even read my comments. Super motivating to spend all that time for the handful that care.

But you graded them. That's all OP is asking for.

You do see why a teacher would be frustrated, correct? If I spend 20+ hours of my OWN time away from my family grading essays, it actually hurts to see students toss my hard work into the trash. You can clearly see why a teacher would figure it isn’t worth the trouble.

I combat this by forcing my students to read my comments, fill out reflections, and then submit a revised copy. Guess what? I then have to grade THOSE! So now one essay can represent 40+ hours of extra work for me. I’m still teaching all my classes, grading all my other assignments, attending all my meetings, responding to all my emails, writing all my student recommendations, etc.

I received an email last week from a parent wondering why I didn’t get an essay back after 6 days. Because I need to sleep? Because I’d like to sit down with my family for dinner a couple times a week? Because that was one essay out of 120?

I am a mother, a daughter, a member of a community group. Occasionally, I like to put down the stack of papers and take care of my family and ME.

Have five minutes of class where the kids read the responses you gave them on their assignments before starting new work. Problem solved.

Oh that’s cute…. You think because we ask them to read them and sit quietly while doing so, that’ll happen.

You are the one who is upset that a child isn't doing all you want as if that should be expected. And by the way this is in the middle of the school day. Why are you on here?

What a snot you are. I can’t wait until your teachers quit and your kids get the warm body Target cashier subs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this really is the result of efforts to achieve equity, even before it was called equity, as represented by scores.

The retakes, the leveled instruction, the IEP meetings, disparate levels and unprepared kids who were pushed through, inability to provide meaningful discipline, IDEA, bahavioral issues related to electronic device culture.

All of this has basically taken the responsibility of the parents and foisted it onto the teachers.

Now not every parent can be as responsible to their kids as some others and therefore there will always be different outcomes, but if the expectation is that someone needs to account for those gaps and it’s not parents, then it’s teachers and here we are.

OMG, the OP asked about a teacher grading nothing for half a year. It's absurd to wait this long for corrections. They mean nothing by this time. Teachers have graded things and provided feedback. This has been figured out by other teachers before you. The fact that you keep giving excuses for this teacher is alarming.

An appeal from a burnt-out, ready-to-quit AP teacher here:

Nobody is making excuses for a teacher who hasn’t graded for 1/2 a year. Several posters have tried to explain what grading looks like for us. I am doing 20 hours of grading a week on top of a 40 hour work week. Every week. I’m home sick today, and I’m grading. I’m always grading. I went to my own kids’ concert last week and graded during the break between sets.

Perhaps if the angry parent on this thread could see that those of us grading are sacrificing hours of our own time DAILY to get comments back, we could get somewhere. Yes, I understand it’s my job… and I am doing it! Stop being nasty and just acknowledge that papers don’t grade themselves. And please don’t send me an email when I don’t get 150 in-class writing responses back within 48 hours. I can’t pause time to get it done.

You are not the first teacher to teach. Do you have any idea what it’s like going through a system for 13 years and hearing the same story excusing bad teaching? Why are you defending this teacher if you are spending so much time grading?

I’m the PP. I wrote “nobody is making excuses” and you interpreted that is “why are you defending this teacher.” It’s clear that you simply want to pick a fight. It looks like you got it. Satisfied? You have good teachers who are sacrificing tons of time with their own families to give you exactly what you want. We DO give back work. Regularly. We simply want you to see that all this work gets done on our own time; we are granted no time during our contract hours to get the bulk of the job done.

I’m within an inch of quitting. Nasty posters like you are not helping. I guarantee you that I AM the teacher you want your kid to have. Why chase me away with your nastiness?

No, I don't. You've posted on here all day. I don't even think you are a teacher in FCPS.

You know teachers have to take a full personal day whenever they have a plumber need to come, or an appointment (that no, can’t be booked “after school or on weekends,” as many providers don’t have weekends and “after school” slots fill up months in advance), and therefore are home the rest of the day on — gasp! — a school day, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this really is the result of efforts to achieve equity, even before it was called equity, as represented by scores.

The retakes, the leveled instruction, the IEP meetings, disparate levels and unprepared kids who were pushed through, inability to provide meaningful discipline, IDEA, bahavioral issues related to electronic device culture.

All of this has basically taken the responsibility of the parents and foisted it onto the teachers.

Now not every parent can be as responsible to their kids as some others and therefore there will always be different outcomes, but if the expectation is that someone needs to account for those gaps and it’s not parents, then it’s teachers and here we are.

OMG, the OP asked about a teacher grading nothing for half a year. It's absurd to wait this long for corrections. They mean nothing by this time. Teachers have graded things and provided feedback. This has been figured out by other teachers before you. The fact that you keep giving excuses for this teacher is alarming.

An appeal from a burnt-out, ready-to-quit AP teacher here:

Nobody is making excuses for a teacher who hasn’t graded for 1/2 a year. Several posters have tried to explain what grading looks like for us. I am doing 20 hours of grading a week on top of a 40 hour work week. Every week. I’m home sick today, and I’m grading. I’m always grading. I went to my own kids’ concert last week and graded during the break between sets.

Perhaps if the angry parent on this thread could see that those of us grading are sacrificing hours of our own time DAILY to get comments back, we could get somewhere. Yes, I understand it’s my job… and I am doing it! Stop being nasty and just acknowledge that papers don’t grade themselves. And please don’t send me an email when I don’t get 150 in-class writing responses back within 48 hours. I can’t pause time to get it done.

You are not the first teacher to teach. Do you have any idea what it’s like going through a system for 13 years and hearing the same story excusing bad teaching? Why are you defending this teacher if you are spending so much time grading?

I’m the PP. I wrote “nobody is making excuses” and you interpreted that is “why are you defending this teacher.” It’s clear that you simply want to pick a fight. It looks like you got it. Satisfied? You have good teachers who are sacrificing tons of time with their own families to give you exactly what you want. We DO give back work. Regularly. We simply want you to see that all this work gets done on our own time; we are granted no time during our contract hours to get the bulk of the job done.

I’m within an inch of quitting. Nasty posters like you are not helping. I guarantee you that I AM the teacher you want your kid to have. Why chase me away with your nastiness?

No, I don't. You've posted on here all day. I don't even think you are a teacher in FCPS.

I’ve posted twice. It seems there are other teachers on here who would like to be treated with a small amount of respect.
And yes, I am a teacher, and I attended FCPS as a student. Can you try to be kind? What’s the point of picking on people who are on your side and trying to do the job you want us to do?

What is the point of supporting a teacher who doesn't grade? Why do you support this teacher if they are making teachers look bad?

NP: Because they are doing what I don't have the guts to do--make the job 40 hours so they have a life outside school. It isn't a case of "they could do it during the school day but are choosing other things". Arguably the three most critical parts of our job are teaching, lesson planning, and grading. Only 2 of those can be done in 40 hours. Which do you prefer I give up? Or are you saying the only good teachers are those that are willing to work 60 hours?

If more teachers don't learn how to draw a line, there will be an even greater educator shortage soon.

So now you are advocating for teachers to not grade? This is why people are fed up with FCPS. I think it comes with the territory that lesson planning, grading and teaching are part of the job. A job which also has a shortened day and many days off. You really think parents think sending their kids to a school system that teachers are protesting grading is worthwhile to their child’s development? No grades is not a solution to improving FCPS schools. People will just move if they can’t afford other options.

JFC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It also makes sense for children to be working on assignments and teachers grading during class once a week. High schoolers have block classes which are long. I’m sure some teachers have figured out how to grade some during the school day.

This has been covered. Read the damn thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a teacher. Your kid’s teacher is lazy and that’s unfortunate. Grading truly sucks and grading writing is time consuming and to provide feedback even more so. That being said, it’s part of the job so unacceptable not to do it. Unfortunately, many of the district policies have created a sense of “why try” among kids and staff. Staff know the kids have to pass no matter what, so do the kids. The result is this sense of “I can give hours and hours to grading and doing work or just pass them all anyway.” And on the kids end it looks like “they’re going to have to pass me anyway so why do the work.” We have a LOT of bad policies that have completely demotivated all stakeholders because the districts just want to cook their data. It sucks.

That is absolute BS. I don’t teach HS anymore but when I did, I worked 60/70 hour weeks. I was NOT lazy. But sometimes I didn’t have an extra 10 hours in the week to grade a set of written responses. The teacher is not (necessarily) lazy. It’s an impossible workload. And frankly, VERY few students pay any attention to feedback in their writing. If I have to prioritize, I focus on planning engaging lessons and activities, but marking up writing that most students don’t care about.

It’s not BS. I do teach HS, and I teach writing. Having NO grades is unacceptable, as much as I hate grading too: you have to have grades. There are ways to reduce the time it takes to give feedback: chunk the writing, only give feedback for one specific element of the writing, do group revisions, etc, but you have to find a way to do it somehow and provide grades. I am not saying grade on the weekends (I don’t.) I’m saying no teacher should accept that having no grades in the gradebook is ok. If a teacher is teaching AP, they agreed to teach a higher level course that is writing heavy and dependent on preparing kids for a writing test. You need to be willing to do that if you CHOOSE to take on an AP course.

I try to manage my time by grading the kids’ writing and then offering the ones who want feedback to schedule a writing conference with me. This way I can truly focus on providing individual feedback to the kids who really want it and will use it instead of spending 10 hours giving it to everyone when all but maybe 5 will never even look at it or use it. So everyone gets a grade, the ones who truly want detailed feedback get it, and my time is spent in more effective ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, some people aren’t cut out for the workload of teaching high school classes. Maybe elementary school would be a better fit?

Literally nobody is cut out for what is expected of teachers. Some manage the expectations better than others but to be VERY clear, the expectations aren’t reasonable and absolutely none of you in this thread would do it much better. If you think you would, you really are entirely unaware of what a day in a high school schedule looks like and what we can ACTUALLY do compared to what schools would WANT us to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like you hate it and I can’t imagine what you are like at work with kids and parents. Full of drama I guess. It’s weird that you harp on all this extra work you slave away at but then rationalize that somehow you will still be an excellent teacher if you drop grading and become teacher G or OPs child’s teacher. You may have the capacity but you won’t be an excellent teacher by doing that. It really isn’t an option at the high school level to not grade so you are just making unnecessary drama. You know OPs teacher is going against FCPS policy and not doing her job well but are throwing a tantrum about unrelated work to this discussion anyway to stir things up. You know you don’t have to do extra grading work because you have OPs teacher as an example of one that doesn’t grade and no repercussions. High schoolers need grades. Thank god for AP classes that have actual tests so teachers and school systems can’t just do whatever they want without getting national recognition through lowered scores.

If you are an English teacher, the state of Virginia actually limits those classes on average for the school to 1:20 because the grading is more intensive. If FCPS is not following that is on them.

Lol