Part time teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even PT teachers have to cover advisory, attend team and department meetings, biweekly PD meetings and after school staff meetings. You also have to write quarterly reports for any kid with an IEP/504. You have to write SLO’s and you’re on the same type of evaluation cycle as full time teachers.

This doesn’t count other duties like study halls, etc. schools utilize every adult in the building. Working PT in MCPS sucks.

I’m part time and you absolutely don’t have to do all that. Data collection and IEP reporting? Absolutely - that’s part of ensuring student success and compliance. I do not have to do any meetings after school, no advisory, no covering classes, no meetings during the day. That’s why I went part-time because I was so burnt out. Going part-time was my last effort before quitting all together to help me get more of a work/life balance. I’m an alternative cert - I used to conduct bench science - and the workloads of teachers are intense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a need in certain subjects, higher level computer science, math, science and language courses are often not offered because there are not qualified teachers and/or not enough students ready for the course to justify the use of an allocated teacher- a principal won’t have on level classes at 30+ to offer a section of an above level course for 15.

OPs idea could work, especially in the form of a partnership where an extra teacher was available one period a day to teach the course. Would experienced teachers push back, possibly, but in thinking about deploying this to the highest levels where there are few qualified teachers it could work. Said teachers would teach and grade, but not have hone rooms or other duties assigned. They would likely teach first period or maybe last period so as to not completely take over their day. Many colleges have teachers for just one course- granted it’s a totally different structure, but with the teaching shortage and lack of rigor to keep some advanced kids engaged, we need to try something!

Experienced teacher here. I could see this potentially working and wouldn’t really care if AP-level classes go to someone new. My question, though: What type of training do you envision these part-time teachers would receive?

I believe this is a huge misconception many people have about teaching. Teachers deal with A LOT , even in AP classes. (Teenagers are teenagers, after all.) The job is much, much harder than people expect and it only gets easier with experience and an accumulated bag of tricks.

I wouldn’t want somebody to go through the preparation to teach just to quit in the first year. I’ve lost two teachers in my department already this fall, both burned out experienced teachers. How do we keep someone new to the pressures of this field from doing the same?

Mentoring, training, and support. While teaching isn’t easy it would be slightly less burdensome for these part-time teachers because they are not carrying a full load. Ideally, this would free up some time for experienced full time teachers to have planning time or the opportunity to work on other things like actual real professional development in their content area or mentoring or other things.

It’s a win for students and schools who get teachers with real world industry/government experience, it’s a win for teachers who get reduced load, and it’s a win for the part-time teacher who gains additional credentials as well as the joy of sharing knowledge with kids. It will also help all stay up to date on things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP is saying that the school system should be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. OP may have a point there but even teaching one class is a lot of work. Content planning for K-12 is not easy. You may be an expert in your subject but figuring out how to communicate it effectively to teenagers with a wide range of abilities is challenging. I think it will be a much bigger time commitment than OP is expecting.
And when will OP be available to help students outside of class. And some kids need extended time and other accommodations. The teacher cannot just teach one class and then book it out of school. A half day schedule would be more realistic

Just like college the part time teacher would set office hours before school, lunch, or afterschool certain days of the week. As well as answer emails.

[Anonymous]

Tutor

[Anonymous]

Adjunct a Community College class. Since the pandemic, you will be working with lots of underprepared kids to get them up to level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any space in our school system for something like this?

I feel like some UMC parents could actually do something like this if it was an option. For example, I'm in STEM and I'd love to teach AP Stat or AP Calc. I would also have a ton of real-world examples to share. But I do work full time (flexible, in research) and I like my day job. But I have enough space in my schedule to teach 1 class (1 section) since my kids are older now. My neighbor, who is Chinese (as in immigrated here), teaches kids at a local Chinese language school on weekends but works full time during the week. She also mentioned she'd love to take on one 1 period of Mandarin at our high school. None of us would be motivated by $$/benefits (because truthfully we pay teachers abysmally). But we could perhaps help the teacher shortage. I told an msps teacher friend of mine who said I could sub in math, like, tomorrow. But that having flexibility (just teaching 1-2 periods for example) isn't there. Also, that everyone wants to teach the AP math classes because that's where the better behaved kids are anyway.

Just thinking outside the box because the part time structure is what's happening in many parts medicine now. For example, if anyone does Emergency Medicine long term, they often do it part time because it is so grueling/painful otherwise. Part timing prevents burnout.

MCPS does hire people that are not full time teachers. Especially world language teachers. Pass the Praxis and you'll be good to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the OP is saying that the school system should be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. OP may have a point there but even teaching one class is a lot of work. Content planning for K-12 is not easy. You may be an expert in your subject but figuring out how to communicate it effectively to teenagers with a wide range of abilities is challenging. I think it will be a much bigger time commitment than OP is expecting.
And when will OP be available to help students outside of class. And some kids need extended time and other accommodations. The teacher cannot just teach one class and then book it out of school. A half day schedule would be more realistic

Just like college the part time teacher would set office hours before school, lunch, or afterschool certain days of the week. As well as answer emails.

True but unlike college, kids have so many different individual situations that K-12 teachers have to deal with. And I feel we should deal with it because even HS students are still kids. I have office hours but some of my AP kids need more support than that. Or they can’t make it to office hours for various reasons so I have to meet with them at other times. I have a student who always leaves my class early to go to Edison and I have to meet with him after school sometimes to give him extra help.

[Anonymous]

OP’s idea would work well for being a long term sub in an AP class. Situations arise when those are needed sometimes and very hard to find for AP classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a need in certain subjects, higher level computer science, math, science and language courses are often not offered because there are not qualified teachers and/or not enough students ready for the course to justify the use of an allocated teacher- a principal won’t have on level classes at 30+ to offer a section of an above level course for 15.

OPs idea could work, especially in the form of a partnership where an extra teacher was available one period a day to teach the course. Would experienced teachers push back, possibly, but in thinking about deploying this to the highest levels where there are few qualified teachers it could work. Said teachers would teach and grade, but not have hone rooms or other duties assigned. They would likely teach first period or maybe last period so as to not completely take over their day. Many colleges have teachers for just one course- granted it’s a totally different structure, but with the teaching shortage and lack of rigor to keep some advanced kids engaged, we need to try something!

Experienced teacher here. I could see this potentially working and wouldn’t really care if AP-level classes go to someone new. My question, though: What type of training do you envision these part-time teachers would receive?

I believe this is a huge misconception many people have about teaching. Teachers deal with A LOT , even in AP classes. (Teenagers are teenagers, after all.) The job is much, much harder than people expect and it only gets easier with experience and an accumulated bag of tricks.

I wouldn’t want somebody to go through the preparation to teach just to quit in the first year. I’ve lost two teachers in my department already this fall, both burned out experienced teachers. How do we keep someone new to the pressures of this field from doing the same?

Mentoring, training, and support. While teaching isn’t easy it would be slightly less burdensome for these part-time teachers because they are not carrying a full load. Ideally, this would free up some time for experienced full time teachers to have planning time or the opportunity to work on other things like actual real professional development in their content area or mentoring or other things.

It’s a win for students and schools who get teachers with real world industry/government experience, it’s a win for teachers who get reduced load, and it’s a win for the part-time teacher who gains additional credentials as well as the joy of sharing knowledge with kids. It will also help all stay up to date on things.

Unfortunately, this will not reduce existing teachers’ workloads. We still will have full schedules, extra duty assignments, grading, and planning.

One word of caution about people with real world industry/govt experience: that doesn’t mean you are ready for the classroom. I worked with a career changer who spent 15 years in a govt lab before switching to teach Chem and AP Chem. She was brilliant and easily the smartest person on staff. The students couldn’t stand her. They could tell she was content strong, but she lacked the ability to translate that knowledge to others. Her students scored poorly on AP exams because she couldn’t train them properly, and she quit after 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adjunct a Community College class. Since the pandemic, you will be working with lots of underprepared kids to get them up to level.

Pandemic is not why these kids aren't prepared and stop using it as an excuse when its been over for two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adjunct a Community College class. Since the pandemic, you will be working with lots of underprepared kids to get them up to level.

Pandemic is not why these kids aren't prepared and stop using it as an excuse when its been over for two years.

Oh, I disagree! My high school students, even my advanced ones, are still suffering from the pandemic. We see it in work ethic, maturity, and lack of resilience. We still meet regularly about how to get an entire generation of students back on track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take the appropriate Praxis exams to be certified.

DP. Is taking this test enough to teach in MCPS? I have a Ph.D. in STEM and consider myself strong in math/physics, but I don't want to go through multiple month certification process.

Careful! There's a lot more to teaching than just course knowledge.

+1
Even if you are teaching only advanced students, there’s still a lot of skills around classroom management, engaging student thinking, lesson design, collaboration with colleagues, etc. You would have to be certified to teach which includes the Praxis test and a set of specific required courses. There are programs at MC and UMD for career changers. If you become certified, you could work part time (.2 .4 etc), but you’d have to fine a HS that has oddball staffing needs and willing to take someone part time.

What probably would be more useful is to get hired as a substitute and then make yourself available as a long-term substitute for specific AP classes. Schools may be willing to split a long term sub job up to bring in someone who knows the content (AP). But in that case, you’d have to take a class whenever it happens to be during the day.

+2
I agree that you should try to get hired as a sub, but don't turn your nose up at certification. Anyone can register for the bar exam without going to law school, but law school teaches some useful habits and skills. It's the same with teaching. Getting certified requires you to teach under supervision by a more experienced teacher. You might be surprised at how much there is to learn. The fastest certification programs I know are in local colleges and universities and they last 12 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adjunct a Community College class. Since the pandemic, you will be working with lots of underprepared kids to get them up to level.

Pandemic is not why these kids aren't prepared and stop using it as an excuse when its been over for two years.

Oh, I disagree! My high school students, even my advanced ones, are still suffering from the pandemic. We see it in work ethic, maturity, and lack of resilience. We still meet regularly about how to get an entire generation of students back on track.

+1 parent of teens here. We know this is true and we're still working on it at home. We appreciate teachers who aren't sweeping it under the rug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a need in certain subjects, higher level computer science, math, science and language courses are often not offered because there are not qualified teachers and/or not enough students ready for the course to justify the use of an allocated teacher- a principal won’t have on level classes at 30+ to offer a section of an above level course for 15.

OPs idea could work, especially in the form of a partnership where an extra teacher was available one period a day to teach the course. Would experienced teachers push back, possibly, but in thinking about deploying this to the highest levels where there are few qualified teachers it could work. Said teachers would teach and grade, but not have hone rooms or other duties assigned. They would likely teach first period or maybe last period so as to not completely take over their day. Many colleges have teachers for just one course- granted it’s a totally different structure, but with the teaching shortage and lack of rigor to keep some advanced kids engaged, we need to try something!

Experienced teacher here. I could see this potentially working and wouldn’t really care if AP-level classes go to someone new. My question, though: What type of training do you envision these part-time teachers would receive?

I believe this is a huge misconception many people have about teaching. Teachers deal with A LOT , even in AP classes. (Teenagers are teenagers, after all.) The job is much, much harder than people expect and it only gets easier with experience and an accumulated bag of tricks.

I wouldn’t want somebody to go through the preparation to teach just to quit in the first year. I’ve lost two teachers in my department already this fall, both burned out experienced teachers. How do we keep someone new to the pressures of this field from doing the same?

Mentoring, training, and support. While teaching isn’t easy it would be slightly less burdensome for these part-time teachers because they are not carrying a full load. Ideally, this would free up some time for experienced full time teachers to have planning time or the opportunity to work on other things like actual real professional development in their content area or mentoring or other things.

It’s a win for students and schools who get teachers with real world industry/government experience, it’s a win for teachers who get reduced load, and it’s a win for the part-time teacher who gains additional credentials as well as the joy of sharing knowledge with kids. It will also help all stay up to date on things.

Unfortunately, this will not reduce existing teachers’ workloads. We still will have full schedules, extra duty assignments, grading, and planning.

One word of caution about people with real world industry/govt experience: that doesn’t mean you are ready for the classroom. I worked with a career changer who spent 15 years in a govt lab before switching to teach Chem and AP Chem. She was brilliant and easily the smartest person on staff. The students couldn’t stand her. They could tell she was content strong, but she lacked the ability to translate that knowledge to others. Her students scored poorly on AP exams because she couldn’t train them properly, and she quit after 3 years.

+1 I have worked with an incredible amount of PhDs in my field of science (I worked in the field for about 15 years, but do not have an advanced degree such as a PhD) and it's a very rare occurrence for someone who is used to working at such a high level to be able to bring it down to a level that a 10-17 year old can relate to. Most of the PhDs I see now in MCPS are awful in the secondary classroom. The students are so lost; because the teacher does not know pedagogy at all. They struggle with classroom management. The students end up really disliking the teacher, and the teacher ends up quitting or leaving. I think anyone coming in without being certified should really sub first to understand what you are truly being asked of and need to do to help support students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a need in certain subjects, higher level computer science, math, science and language courses are often not offered because there are not qualified teachers and/or not enough students ready for the course to justify the use of an allocated teacher- a principal won’t have on level classes at 30+ to offer a section of an above level course for 15.

OPs idea could work, especially in the form of a partnership where an extra teacher was available one period a day to teach the course. Would experienced teachers push back, possibly, but in thinking about deploying this to the highest levels where there are few qualified teachers it could work. Said teachers would teach and grade, but not have hone rooms or other duties assigned. They would likely teach first period or maybe last period so as to not completely take over their day. Many colleges have teachers for just one course- granted it’s a totally different structure, but with the teaching shortage and lack of rigor to keep some advanced kids engaged, we need to try something!

Experienced teacher here. I could see this potentially working and wouldn’t really care if AP-level classes go to someone new. My question, though: What type of training do you envision these part-time teachers would receive?

I believe this is a huge misconception many people have about teaching. Teachers deal with A LOT , even in AP classes. (Teenagers are teenagers, after all.) The job is much, much harder than people expect and it only gets easier with experience and an accumulated bag of tricks.

I wouldn’t want somebody to go through the preparation to teach just to quit in the first year. I’ve lost two teachers in my department already this fall, both burned out experienced teachers. How do we keep someone new to the pressures of this field from doing the same?

Mentoring, training, and support. While teaching isn’t easy it would be slightly less burdensome for these part-time teachers because they are not carrying a full load. Ideally, this would free up some time for experienced full time teachers to have planning time or the opportunity to work on other things like actual real professional development in their content area or mentoring or other things.

It’s a win for students and schools who get teachers with real world industry/government experience, it’s a win for teachers who get reduced load, and it’s a win for the part-time teacher who gains additional credentials as well as the joy of sharing knowledge with kids. It will also help all stay up to date on things.

Unfortunately, this will not reduce existing teachers’ workloads. We still will have full schedules, extra duty assignments, grading, and planning.

One word of caution about people with real world industry/govt experience: that doesn’t mean you are ready for the classroom. I worked with a career changer who spent 15 years in a govt lab before switching to teach Chem and AP Chem. She was brilliant and easily the smartest person on staff. The students couldn’t stand her. They could tell she was content strong, but she lacked the ability to translate that knowledge to others. Her students scored poorly on AP exams because she couldn’t train them properly, and she quit after 3 years.

+1 I have worked with an incredible amount of PhDs in my field of science (I worked in the field for about 15 years, but do not have an advanced degree such as a PhD) and it's a very rare occurrence for someone who is used to working at such a high level to be able to bring it down to a level that a 10-17 year old can relate to. Most of the PhDs I see now in MCPS are awful in the secondary classroom. The students are so lost; because the teacher does not know pedagogy at all. They struggle with classroom management. The students end up really disliking the teacher, and the teacher ends up quitting or leaving. I think anyone coming in without being certified should really sub first to understand what you are truly being asked of and need to do to help support students.

Your tendency to generalize is mind-blowing. Ability to teach well is a skill (I would argue you are pretty much born with.) Your assessment that having a PhD hinders teaching ability is ridiculous. If anything, having a big picture about the subject matter would help to present the material in an understandable manner.