Teachers, please describe your week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent I'm really upset MCPS took away a professional day recently to have teachers watch a PD video that teachers have told me was useless. That resulted in them having less time to prepare class, grade and address concerns from and about students. I'd like to hear more specifics about what a teacher's work week looks like so that the community can advocate to help create a more realistic way for teachers to meet all the demands by their school admin while still being able to teach.
What is the main challenge this year that is taking time away from your own classroom needs? Needing to fill in as subs or taking on additional duties such as car or bus duty? Confusing curriculum mandates? Lack of supplies so you need to spend your time and money on this issue? Other PD training?

You are only a parent. Don’t get confused and think you are an important stakeholder.

Stay in your lane.

Parents are important stakeholders. Who the hell are you? Someone from district office? Sounds like it.

No, I wasn't.

Uh…I think the above poster was being ironic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to spend all my planning time documenting accommodations bc we do not have enough special Ed teachers. I cannot plan for quality lessons nor can I support all of my students bc of the students with severe learning differences/behaviors requiring all of my attention. We are breaking the law and the county knows we are not in compliance, yet chooses to not provide more tpt, sp Ed paras, or provide a higher sp Ed allocation. Our principal fights for more yet we are ignored and are not given resources. Again, directors are aware we are not in compliance. These are the same directors that allowed sexual predators to get promoted. They only respond to lawsuits and when groups of parents threaten to bring issues to the media.

We need a clean house in MCPS administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A kid assaulted a staff member this week. There were no consequences per our Directors demands- we are supposed to have a restorative justice circle. That is it. The teacher is refusing and is in the process of lawyering up. Welcome to mcps.

Good for the teacher. We are doing these kids no favors with no consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a high school science teacher, my week looks like this:

Weekend - I complete a "big push" planning session to get at least an overview of the week finished and to make sure all necessary items are posted to Canvas. I work at the same time as a teammate so that we can text each other and share the job, sending Canvas pages between the two of us.

Before school - I arrive by 7 AM so that I can set up my room. Sometimes I need to put lab equipment and chemicals out. I also need to check email for any last-minute items. I need to be prepared early in case students come in early for tutoring. Students may start to arrive around 7:15 or even earlier. If there are no students coming in early, I might run to the copier to make copies for a future day or complete some late work grading.

My Lunch Period - As a science teacher, I have students in my room every day. I spend my lunch period tutoring students. This is also when I give extended time accommodations to students as well as give reassessments.

Planning Periods -
50% of planning periods are going to various meetings (IEP/504, staff, etc) or contacting parents (attendance concerns, not attempting work concerns, cell phone distraction concerns, etc). All parent contacts must be documented in synergy.
25% of planning periods are working with my PLC doing various required tasks such as data chats and required documentation of our PLC work. Planning is focused more on the "big picture" of what we will do.
25% of planning periods are individual work time. This is most beneficial since I can do my "nuts and bolts" planning which directly impacts student instruction.

After school - I try to leave by 4:00. My time is spent cleaning up my room (lab equipment, proper disposal and storage of chemicals) as well as organizing papers received from students. I also double check my email for parent concerns. I make sure I have the work I need to take home. If needed, I finish my documentation of various tasks in synergy.

Evening - I finish grading the day's assignments. Sometimes I can't get the grading done, but getting it started helps me to know if I need to change my warm-up question for the next day to clarify a misconception or insert some extra practice questions.

 I hope this helps to clarify what high school science teachers do. To be honest, what teachers need in order to be effectively do their jobs can differ greatly from elementary to high school as well as through the different subjects. I think it would be hard to pick just one or two items as an advocacy focus. I do appreciate the original poster asking for our feedback. Thank you for the post.

You sound like an incredible teacher. Thank you for all you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have posted this before. I have 45 minutes of individual planning time a day. In that 45 minutes, I need to:
- plan lessons - I have three different classes, so I have to plan 15 different lessons per week. We have a new schedule this year, so everything needs to be adjusted
- analyze curriculum that the county is asking me to teach to see if there is any bias/racism in it and if there is I need to figure out how to address that
- can't use the lessons from last year, because school has a new initiative with a new focus, so need to adjust the lessons, sometimes have to just completely start over
- set up Canvas pages (I have three preps, so three Canvas pages)
- grade papers and provide feedback (if I don't get this, DCUM will call me lazy)
- complete IEP/504 paperwork (I teach 20+ kids with IEPs, that means 20+ quarterly reports that I have to fill out, so the week that those are due, means pretty much no planning/grading is happening because, well those are legally mandated)
- contact parents of students who are failing, if parent answers the phone, this could take up the entire 45 minutes
- contact parents of students who did not turn in their assignment
- respond to parent emails (again if I don't respond quickly enough, I am lazy)
- respond to admin because a parent emails them to complain that teachers are marking student late, when student tell parent they are always on time.
- send out reminders to student who didn't turn in assignments
- respond to student emails (a lot of them are 'I turned in this assignment yesterday, why haven't you graded it')
- respond to staff emails
- document parent contacts in Synergy
- hopefully there is time to use the bathroom
- try to find students who have turned in their major writing assignment
- talk to counselor of needs of students
- talk to IEP case managers
- sync grades to Synergy and hope that they actually sync
- collect data/lesson that is needed for a team meeting/department meeting

That is a lot. As a parent, I was always shocked when teachers emailed me back from the classroom. You need to be available to the kids. I don’t think people expect such swift responses. Is that admin putting pressure on you to do so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a high school science teacher, my week looks like this:

Weekend - I complete a "big push" planning session to get at least an overview of the week finished and to make sure all necessary items are posted to Canvas. I work at the same time as a teammate so that we can text each other and share the job, sending Canvas pages between the two of us.

Before school - I arrive by 7 AM so that I can set up my room. Sometimes I need to put lab equipment and chemicals out. I also need to check email for any last-minute items. I need to be prepared early in case students come in early for tutoring. Students may start to arrive around 7:15 or even earlier. If there are no students coming in early, I might run to the copier to make copies for a future day or complete some late work grading.

My Lunch Period - As a science teacher, I have students in my room every day. I spend my lunch period tutoring students. This is also when I give extended time accommodations to students as well as give reassessments.

Planning Periods -
50% of planning periods are going to various meetings (IEP/504, staff, etc) or contacting parents (attendance concerns, not attempting work concerns, cell phone distraction concerns, etc). All parent contacts must be documented in synergy.
25% of planning periods are working with my PLC doing various required tasks such as data chats and required documentation of our PLC work. Planning is focused more on the "big picture" of what we will do.
25% of planning periods are individual work time. This is most beneficial since I can do my "nuts and bolts" planning which directly impacts student instruction.

After school - I try to leave by 4:00. My time is spent cleaning up my room (lab equipment, proper disposal and storage of chemicals) as well as organizing papers received from students. I also double check my email for parent concerns. I make sure I have the work I need to take home. If needed, I finish my documentation of various tasks in synergy.

Evening - I finish grading the day's assignments. Sometimes I can't get the grading done, but getting it started helps me to know if I need to change my warm-up question for the next day to clarify a misconception or insert some extra practice questions.

 I hope this helps to clarify what high school science teachers do. To be honest, what teachers need in order to be effectively do their jobs can differ greatly from elementary to high school as well as through the different subjects. I think it would be hard to pick just one or two items as an advocacy focus. I do appreciate the original poster asking for our feedback. Thank you for the post.

Here’s where we see how inequitable the protection is for planning periods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a high school science teacher, my week looks like this:

Weekend - I complete a "big push" planning session to get at least an overview of the week finished and to make sure all necessary items are posted to Canvas. I work at the same time as a teammate so that we can text each other and share the job, sending Canvas pages between the two of us.

Before school - I arrive by 7 AM so that I can set up my room. Sometimes I need to put lab equipment and chemicals out. I also need to check email for any last-minute items. I need to be prepared early in case students come in early for tutoring. Students may start to arrive around 7:15 or even earlier. If there are no students coming in early, I might run to the copier to make copies for a future day or complete some late work grading.

My Lunch Period - As a science teacher, I have students in my room every day. I spend my lunch period tutoring students. This is also when I give extended time accommodations to students as well as give reassessments.

Planning Periods -
50% of planning periods are going to various meetings (IEP/504, staff, etc) or contacting parents (attendance concerns, not attempting work concerns, cell phone distraction concerns, etc). All parent contacts must be documented in synergy.
25% of planning periods are working with my PLC doing various required tasks such as data chats and required documentation of our PLC work. Planning is focused more on the "big picture" of what we will do.
25% of planning periods are individual work time. This is most beneficial since I can do my "nuts and bolts" planning which directly impacts student instruction.

After school - I try to leave by 4:00. My time is spent cleaning up my room (lab equipment, proper disposal and storage of chemicals) as well as organizing papers received from students. I also double check my email for parent concerns. I make sure I have the work I need to take home. If needed, I finish my documentation of various tasks in synergy.

Evening - I finish grading the day's assignments. Sometimes I can't get the grading done, but getting it started helps me to know if I need to change my warm-up question for the next day to clarify a misconception or insert some extra practice questions.

 I hope this helps to clarify what high school science teachers do. To be honest, what teachers need in order to be effectively do their jobs can differ greatly from elementary to high school as well as through the different subjects. I think it would be hard to pick just one or two items as an advocacy focus. I do appreciate the original poster asking for our feedback. Thank you for the post.

My head hurts from reading this. Thank you for writing this out. I hope more high school parents and students read this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for asking this. I can't speak for anyone except myself, but I actually just went on leave because I had such a severe panic attack at school I can't go back right now. For starters, I ended up buying my own curriculum (I teach an elective no one else does) to save myself time (one was not provided by MCPS). A very sweet teacher offered me their slides from the previous year, but that was it. I am buying all of my curriculum supplies to make it as engaging of a class I can (even buying rewards) because I have so many students I have that need extra support (IEPs, 504s, ELLs, ect). I have packed classes with students who cannot sit, stay off their phone, stop talking, some even steal my personal items. There was a fight during lunch a bit ago and my students came into class all hyped up. I could not get them to calm down, even with security staff coming in. I am not a spring chicken (mid-career) and I don't know how much more I can take. In addition, my own child was assaulted at his high school and they told me 'they can't ID the kid.' I filed a police report, but we are at an impasse (please don't ask for any details). So now on top of my very stressful job, I also am helping my child manage the trauma and fear he now has. I worked so hard for my teaching license but if I walk away, I could lose it. I don't know. I'm overwhelmed. I'm taking some time off to see if I can stay in this profession.

There are a lot of teachers on this forum who empathize with you. When you are a new teacher, schools can take advantage of you, because it is hard to change schools without three years in. They will give you too many preps, too many students, no curriculum support, and it is beyond challenging. It sounds like your administrators are not stepping up to support you. I am sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest issue at our elementary is that teachers have a significant chunk of planning every day, but it is only their own “personal” planning one day a week — the other days it’s spent entirely with their team and other staff. So it’s a long meeting in the middle of the day.

So genuinely trying to understand, when do you want this team , leadership, etc type meetings to happen? Do you want to be contracted for a longer day? Do the meetings need less frequency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to spend all my planning time documenting accommodations bc we do not have enough special Ed teachers. I cannot plan for quality lessons nor can I support all of my students bc of the students with severe learning differences/behaviors requiring all of my attention. We are breaking the law and the county knows we are not in compliance, yet chooses to not provide more tpt, sp Ed paras, or provide a higher sp Ed allocation. Our principal fights for more yet we are ignored and are not given resources. Again, directors are aware we are not in compliance. These are the same directors that allowed sexual predators to get promoted. They only respond to lawsuits and when groups of parents threaten to bring issues to the media.

We need a clean house in MCPS administration.

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have posted this before. I have 45 minutes of individual planning time a day. In that 45 minutes, I need to:
- plan lessons - I have three different classes, so I have to plan 15 different lessons per week. We have a new schedule this year, so everything needs to be adjusted
- analyze curriculum that the county is asking me to teach to see if there is any bias/racism in it and if there is I need to figure out how to address that
- can't use the lessons from last year, because school has a new initiative with a new focus, so need to adjust the lessons, sometimes have to just completely start over
- set up Canvas pages (I have three preps, so three Canvas pages)
- grade papers and provide feedback (if I don't get this, DCUM will call me lazy)
- complete IEP/504 paperwork (I teach 20+ kids with IEPs, that means 20+ quarterly reports that I have to fill out, so the week that those are due, means pretty much no planning/grading is happening because, well those are legally mandated)
- contact parents of students who are failing, if parent answers the phone, this could take up the entire 45 minutes
- contact parents of students who did not turn in their assignment
- respond to parent emails (again if I don't respond quickly enough, I am lazy)
- respond to admin because a parent emails them to complain that teachers are marking student late, when student tell parent they are always on time.
- send out reminders to student who didn't turn in assignments
- respond to student emails (a lot of them are 'I turned in this assignment yesterday, why haven't you graded it')
- respond to staff emails
- document parent contacts in Synergy
- hopefully there is time to use the bathroom
- try to find students who have turned in their major writing assignment
- talk to counselor of needs of students
- talk to IEP case managers
- sync grades to Synergy and hope that they actually sync
- collect data/lesson that is needed for a team meeting/department meeting

This past week, I spent more than a combined 60 min on one parent who was infuriated that:
I was following MCPS policy
I did not have a physical way to not follow MCPS policy.
I agreed with her that if I wasn’t going to do what she wanted, she should take it to someone above me.
I was not afraid of consequences for following MCPS policy that I did not have a way to circumvent.

Four different times, I responded “Yes, you should escalate this. Here’s the contact info of people on three different levels above me. If they can’t help you either, maybe they can provide contact info for people above them. You may also contact the Board of Ed and the Superintendent.” Four different times, she threatened me with escalating to people above me.

That is 60 minutes that I could have done things for the other approx 120 students I serve. A policy that teachers must answer every email within a school day shouldn’t include parents beating a dead horse who have alternatives means of resolving their problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have posted this before. I have 45 minutes of individual planning time a day. In that 45 minutes, I need to:
- plan lessons - I have three different classes, so I have to plan 15 different lessons per week. We have a new schedule this year, so everything needs to be adjusted
- analyze curriculum that the county is asking me to teach to see if there is any bias/racism in it and if there is I need to figure out how to address that
- can't use the lessons from last year, because school has a new initiative with a new focus, so need to adjust the lessons, sometimes have to just completely start over
- set up Canvas pages (I have three preps, so three Canvas pages)
- grade papers and provide feedback (if I don't get this, DCUM will call me lazy)
- complete IEP/504 paperwork (I teach 20+ kids with IEPs, that means 20+ quarterly reports that I have to fill out, so the week that those are due, means pretty much no planning/grading is happening because, well those are legally mandated)
- contact parents of students who are failing, if parent answers the phone, this could take up the entire 45 minutes
- contact parents of students who did not turn in their assignment
- respond to parent emails (again if I don't respond quickly enough, I am lazy)
- respond to admin because a parent emails them to complain that teachers are marking student late, when student tell parent they are always on time.
- send out reminders to student who didn't turn in assignments
- respond to student emails (a lot of them are 'I turned in this assignment yesterday, why haven't you graded it')
- respond to staff emails
- document parent contacts in Synergy
- hopefully there is time to use the bathroom
- try to find students who have turned in their major writing assignment
- talk to counselor of needs of students
- talk to IEP case managers
- sync grades to Synergy and hope that they actually sync
- collect data/lesson that is needed for a team meeting/department meeting

This past week, I spent more than a combined 60 min on one parent who was infuriated that:
I was following MCPS policy
I did not have a physical way to not follow MCPS policy.
I agreed with her that if I wasn’t going to do what she wanted, she should take it to someone above me.
I was not afraid of consequences for following MCPS policy that I did not have a way to circumvent.

Four different times, I responded “Yes, you should escalate this. Here’s the contact info of people on three different levels above me. If they can’t help you either, maybe they can provide contact info for people above them. You may also contact the Board of Ed and the Superintendent.” Four different times, she threatened me with escalating to people above me.

That is 60 minutes that I could have done things for the other approx 120 students I serve. A policy that teachers must answer every email within a school day shouldn’t include parents beating a dead horse who have alternatives means of resolving their problem.

That’s a parent you should have have nicely told, “ma’am/sir I’ve already agreed with you twice and provided additional means for you to redress your concern. I’d also be happy to let the team lead and admin know about your concern. Is there something else you would like to discuss as I don’t want to waste either of our time.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid assaulted a staff member this week. There were no consequences per our Directors demands- we are supposed to have a restorative justice circle. That is it. The teacher is refusing and is in the process of lawyering up. Welcome to mcps.

Some should call the Director to account. Restorative Justice does not mean no consequences.

DP. I’ve never seen any real consequences come out of a restorative justice circle. What I have seen is a bunch of high school students mocking them. They know that all they need to do is sit, play along, and walk away. I’ve also seen a student hiding in his car because he didn’t want to face his bully; he knew he would have to be the victim all over again and then accept a fake apology. It’s a joke.

Yes that is a joke and NOT Restorative Justice. Just because someone apologizes does not mean they have done the work to show accountability for their actions or to atone for the community and individual trust they’ve broken. Which is all the reason that School Admins/Directors/and others should be called out because they are making a mockery of Restorative Justice and in the process actually harming victims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A kid assaulted a staff member this week. There were no consequences per our Directors demands- we are supposed to have a restorative justice circle. That is it. The teacher is refusing and is in the process of lawyering up. Welcome to mcps.

Some should call the Director to account. Restorative Justice does not mean no consequences.

DP. I’ve never seen any real consequences come out of a restorative justice circle. What I have seen is a bunch of high school students mocking them. They know that all they need to do is sit, play along, and walk away. I’ve also seen a student hiding in his car because he didn’t want to face his bully; he knew he would have to be the victim all over again and then accept a fake apology. It’s a joke.

Yes that is a joke and NOT Restorative Justice. Just because someone apologizes does not mean they have done the work to show accountability for their actions or to atone for the community and individual trust they’ve broken. Which is all the reason that School Admins/Directors/and others should be called out because they are making a mockery of Restorative Justice and in the process actually harming victims.

+1 agreed. It’s not being executed correctly at all

[Anonymous]

Don't forget that when they nonrenew a teacher who devoted their life to education and worked unlimited overtime with a smile, they fib to unemployment office and saay you resigned even when you did not. Sheesh.