Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In APS, elem. teachers have 360 minutes (min) of planning time weekly with a 45 min daily minimum, but the exact number and the way it is used both vary widely. At our school, teachers have two PLCs each week, so there goes 90 min of planning time. And meetings do sometimes happen at lunch, even though our lunch is supposedly duty free.

At my APS school, they include the 20 minutes in the morning setup time before kids arrive—except that kids are officially allowed in the classroom during that time to eat breakfast (or just hang out). Sure we can continue doing some prep during that time, but we can’t run out to make a copy or use the bathroom. There goes 100 minutes of that 360 minutes planning time. FCPS seemed to do much better with this by making specials last a full hour daily so that our planning time was maximized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In APS, elem. teachers have 360 minutes (min) of planning time weekly with a 45 min daily minimum, but the exact number and the way it is used both vary widely. At our school, teachers have two PLCs each week, so there goes 90 min of planning time. And meetings do sometimes happen at lunch, even though our lunch is supposedly duty free.

At my APS school, they include the 20 minutes in the morning setup time before kids arrive—except that kids are officially allowed in the classroom during that time to eat breakfast (or just hang out). Sure we can continue doing some prep during that time, but we can’t run out to make a copy or use the bathroom. There goes 100 minutes of that 360 minutes planning time. FCPS seemed to do much better with this by making specials last a full hour daily so that our planning time was maximized.

300 minutes in FCPS. In FCPS the time before the students arrive doesn’t count towards the daily planning time. The 300 minutes has to occur during the student day.


V. ELEMENTARY TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS (Grades K-6)
Elementary teachers engaged in the responsibilities associated with their position on a full- time basis shall be allowed 300 minutes of planning time per week or 600 minutes over a 2-week period. Within that time, a minimum of 60 minutes of collaborative planning time and 240 minutes of teacher-directed planning times per week or 120 minutes of collaborative planning time and 480 minutes of teacher-directed planning times over a 2- week period will be provided.
Classroom planning time is provided during art, physical education, music, and/or other instructional programming. Other certified personnel without direct classroom responsibilities may also be assigned in a manner that provides planning time. Such assignments may only exceed 10 hours per week per position with the approval of the region assistant superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In APS, elem. teachers have 360 minutes (min) of planning time weekly with a 45 min daily minimum, but the exact number and the way it is used both vary widely. At our school, teachers have two PLCs each week, so there goes 90 min of planning time. And meetings do sometimes happen at lunch, even though our lunch is supposedly duty free.

At my APS school, they include the 20 minutes in the morning setup time before kids arrive—except that kids are officially allowed in the classroom during that time to eat breakfast (or just hang out). Sure we can continue doing some prep during that time, but we can’t run out to make a copy or use the bathroom. There goes 100 minutes of that 360 minutes planning time. FCPS seemed to do much better with this by making specials last a full hour daily so that our planning time was maximized.

300 minutes in FCPS. In FCPS the time before the students arrive doesn’t count towards the daily planning time. The 300 minutes has to occur during the student day.


V. ELEMENTARY TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS (Grades K-6)
Elementary teachers engaged in the responsibilities associated with their position on a full- time basis shall be allowed 300 minutes of planning time per week or 600 minutes over a 2-week period. Within that time, a minimum of 60 minutes of collaborative planning time and 240 minutes of teacher-directed planning times per week or 120 minutes of collaborative planning time and 480 minutes of teacher-directed planning times over a 2- week period will be provided.
Classroom planning time is provided during art, physical education, music, and/or other instructional programming. Other certified personnel without direct classroom responsibilities may also be assigned in a manner that provides planning time. Such assignments may only exceed 10 hours per week per position with the approval of the region assistant superintendent.

PP here—I truly wish APS would word their policy like this too. Our administration counted the minutes before students arrive and the 15 minutes after they depart into our official planning time. This setup and cleanup time should not count—especially since we usually have students in the room on both ends (breakfast and late buses).

[Anonymous]

I’m jealous! I work in Baltimore City and elementary teachers are guaranteed 135 minutes of planning per week. But we also get 45 minute lunches and I know many districts only get 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous! I work in Baltimore City and elementary teachers are guaranteed 135 minutes of planning per week. But we also get 45 minute lunches and I know many districts only get 30 minutes.

Is part of that time spent walking kids to/from the cafeteria?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous! I work in Baltimore City and elementary teachers are guaranteed 135 minutes of planning per week. But we also get 45 minute lunches and I know many districts only get 30 minutes.

Is part of that time spent walking kids to/from the cafeteria?

We are supposed to have 45 minutes but it is never really 45 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m jealous! I work in Baltimore City and elementary teachers are guaranteed 135 minutes of planning per week. But we also get 45 minute lunches and I know many districts only get 30 minutes.

Is part of that time spent walking kids to/from the cafeteria?

We are supposed to have 45 minutes but it is never really 45 minutes.

PG County here.
We get 30 mins for lunch at my school. Five of which are spent in the hallway outside the cafeteria waiting for the cleaning staff to finish up from the last wave of kids. We're also "expected" to show up at least two minutes early to pick them up, so 23 minutes for lunch.

[Anonymous]

We have duty free lunch too (FCPS). I don’t really get asked to meet during lunch, and if I am I make sure 30 minutes is set aside.

Meet during lunch? Politely decline.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Two teacher household here, both elementary. Other than perhaps taking a class every few years I can’t say either one of us do anything work related during the summer.

Yes, but that is because you are a. elementary and b. at a public school. And there's nothing wrong with that, but even teachers need to realize that we aren't all doing the same type of work. I spend many more hours each week doing schoolwork outside of class than my elementary/public school friends. To be fair, I could not handle being around little kids for so many hours, so I'm not saying that my job is harder. However, implying that we all do the same thing is doing us all a disservice.

So are you at a private HS?

Yes. I am sure public school teachers of my subject spend similar amounts of time working out of school, though.

People need to understand that workload is different between elementary and secondary, and even within subjects.

I’ve taught all 3 levels and elementary was by far the biggest workload.

So you weren't a high school English teacher.

I have friends in elementary. They do prattle a lot about lunch duty and bus duty, etc, but they do not spend much time grading or preparing outside of school. One of my good friends teaches second grade, and I've seen her making bulletin board charts and decorations while we watched a movie, but that's pretty much it. She is not spending hours and hours of time grading.

Prattle on about lunch duty and bus duty, etc??? Come on, this isn't about whose dick is bigger. I teach kindergarten and I put in 60 hours a week. You as an English teacher might work more hours because yes, you absolutely have a shit ton of work to do. So do we. And I'm not talking about bulletin boards of decorations. Stop tearing down other teachers. It isn't a good look.

All of the bolded. High school English teacher up there needs to stop with martyr crap. That isn't a good look, either.

[Anonymous]

Mostly because of terrible parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mostly because of terrible parents

And disrespectful children and/or entitled teens with little work ethic

[Anonymous]

Check out demoralization in mcps on dcum. When the union, admin, the public etc shit on teachers, blame us for everything, and the try to get us to fraud grades or else it becomes a complicated game of keeping a thankless low wage job as a slave with no support or protection.

[Anonymous]

Close public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Close public schools.

Okay Betsy. Anything for you! You’re so persuasive and we know you are all about your bottom line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out demoralization in mcps on dcum. When the union, admin, the public etc shit on teachers, blame us for everything, and the try to get us to fraud grades or else it becomes a complicated game of keeping a thankless low wage job as a slave with no support or protection.

Wow... Talk about a victim complex...