I feel like MCPS sucks the joy out of teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To echo a PP, thank you for your service!

Just curious - if you could, what on that list would you get rid of or outsource? Ie What is high effort for low returns in your opinion?

-One size fits all training (district, school, department levels).
-One size fits all school initiatives.
-Any plan/initiative that takes away the ability for teachers to adapt to the needs of the students in their class.

Every year there are great ideas that will improve outcomes for some kids in some classes. But then someone decides everyone has to do that thing. Which means whole staff training, new documents that are force fit for everyone to track what they are doing, meetings to monitor that you filled out the forms, emails to read to remind you to do cuz about the new idea, emails sent to 10 people because 2 people didn’t do whatever. Reminders to pull data to monitor whatever the initiative is, nevermind that for your content area there is no alignment between your curriculum, the initiative, and the data you can pull. Then the extra meetings to review the data and justify to admin that whatever is going on does make sense. And by the time January rolls around, admin realizes they don’t want to spend all the time they committed to to read through new documents or sit in data chats. Then nothing more is heard of the initiative despite the 20 hours per staff member spent on it that year. Repeat again next year.

It’s freaking exhausting. And every year there’s a new crop of freshly trained admin or folks doing their PhD to generate a new set of initiatives.

[Anonymous]

Op I’m a teacher too. I roll my eyes at most of the trainings now. Clearly none of the county designed training is designed by current classroom teachers. It is getting offensive at this point to be talked down to with the same pre-recorded speeches. ELD is a complete mess. There is a big push right now to get all the schools aligned curriculum wise, but we are getting no extra support for ELD’s. No teacher has enough time to do what they ask now. Just do the bare minimum.
Use auto grade on MyMCPS as much as possible for multiple choice questions. Stay in it for 10 years so that you are eligible for pension benefits though.

[Anonymous]

Did I write that PP? Right down to PhD candidates trying out their silver bullet ideas even though they’ve never taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moving my kids to private school was the best decision we have ever made. Just hearing these rants if part of the proof. The teachers in her new private school are so dedicated and happy. Perhaps not paid as well, but they are happy and they are more mission driven than a typical miserable public school teacher.

My sister works in a private school. They are required to put on a happy face for parents. They are literally trained since it makes parents happy to think the teachers are happy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m in year 6 of teaching HS. The first 3 years were absolutely brutal especially as I came in through the career changer route. But I somehow survived and am still here. But I’m still working 6 days a week (10+ hours). The demands are never ending. This month, besides teaching 2 different preps including an AP class and grading for approx. 150 students, I had 15 college recommendations to write, PSAT training + proctoring, PD on how to support ELL students, additional school PD (all of it useless). I also have to get special ed quarterlies to do this week for 15 kids, a separate testing PD that must be completed, SLO Part 1 to get done by Nov 1, + the usual end of quarter grades, etc. This is all in addition to planning for each day, teaching, grading, helping kids at lunch, answering parent emails. We have also been asked to incorporate strategies to support ELL students in our classroom and collect data on how effective our approach is and present our findings in upcoming department meetings. I could go on but you get the idea.

I wish I could just focus on the kids and my classes. I like to try new things in the classroom but it is hard to get any time to explore and research new ideas and content. I wonder if a different district or private school might be better

Thank you for your service. I am sorry you have so much on your plate.

[Anonymous]

My observation as a parent is that there is a very wide range of effort put in by teachers and the school seems okay with all of it.
I’m wondering if you can just phone in the fun assignments. Like when you go to PD, can you grade papers or respond to emails while you are there? For the ESL assignment, I would write something like “When ESOl students are present in my class, I am working with them to provide appropriate content adjustments as needed to increase their access to the materials.” Or simply “I do not have ESOL students in my classes.” Or have ChatGPT write that answer. No one is gojng to fire you for doing the bare minimum on these stupid assignments. Focus your time on the stuff that matters to the kids. I greatly appreciate the teachers who are doing that for my kids, and love the teachers that maintain some level of enthusiasm for their work despite the soul crushing bureaucracy. I think the only way to survive is to give the bureaucracy the bare minimum and save your energies for the stuff that matters.

[Anonymous]

Curious — what happens if you just ditch the professional development courses? Can you then ignore follow up? I’m just very curious whether there are consequences for this — it doesn’t seem like the schools ever fire teachers unless they are truly awful so I have to imagine there are some teachers ignoring those requirements and getting away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious — what happens if you just ditch the professional development courses? Can you then ignore follow up? I’m just very curious whether there are consequences for this — it doesn’t seem like the schools ever fire teachers unless they are truly awful so I have to imagine there are some teachers ignoring those requirements and getting away with it.

Not MCPS but if I don't turn in all of my deliverables (I despise that word), I am marked down on my professional responsibilities. That affect my raise. I am paid too little to not get a raise every year so I jump through the million hoops so I can pay my bills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious — what happens if you just ditch the professional development courses? Can you then ignore follow up? I’m just very curious whether there are consequences for this — it doesn’t seem like the schools ever fire teachers unless they are truly awful so I have to imagine there are some teachers ignoring those requirements and getting away with it.

Not MCPS but if I don't turn in all of my deliverables (I despise that word), I am marked down on my professional responsibilities. That affect my raise. I am paid too little to not get a raise every year so I jump through the million hoops so I can pay my bills.

That's about the only good thing MCPS does-salary isn't included in subjective evaluations. DCPS ties EVERYTHING into their insane evaluation process including money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in year 6 of teaching HS. The first 3 years were absolutely brutal especially as I came in through the career changer route. But I somehow survived and am still here. But I’m still working 6 days a week (10+ hours). The demands are never ending. This month, besides teaching 2 different preps including an AP class and grading for approx. 150 students, I had 15 college recommendations to write, PSAT training + proctoring, PD on how to support ELL students, additional school PD (all of it useless). I also have to get special ed quarterlies to do this week for 15 kids, a separate testing PD that must be completed, SLO Part 1 to get done by Nov 1, + the usual end of quarter grades, etc. This is all in addition to planning for each day, teaching, grading, helping kids at lunch, answering parent emails. We have also been asked to incorporate strategies to support ELL students in our classroom and collect data on how effective our approach is and present our findings in upcoming department meetings. I could go on but you get the idea.

I wish I could just focus on the kids and my classes. I like to try new things in the classroom but it is hard to get any time to explore and research new ideas and content. I wonder if a different district or private school might be better

I teach in Baltimore City and I contemplate quitting every year at this exact time. It's awful and they've added even more trainings and a new SLO platform that nobody knows how to use. So much time wasted doing work that has nothing to do with teaching.

Ugh. THIS is the problem, for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The EML situation at some of the schools is out of control. Today I had to give out letters that need to be signed by the parents of EML students. ONE student in my 4th-grade class did not get a letter. ONE out of 23. The class is impossible to teach. Not only are there so many newcomers with little English, but they are also coming in with minimal education even in their native language. Yet we are required to make sure that we keep up with the grade level curriculum. And now we are supposed to somehow design every lesson around their language needs. Impossible!

Yet instead of having help from the ELD teachers, they are busy doing county mandated paperwork- individually scanning in tons of documents page by page. What a waste of time. Focus on the children- not paperwork. That also goes toward the SLO's that were mentioned. Let us teach the children. Provide the support that is needed.

And then there is Home School Model. Why am I having no support with students who cannot do 4 + 1 without their fingers? CKLA- So far above their heads. But where are the SPED teachers? Oh yeah- they are no longer able to support in ELA and all is left to the classroom teacher.

MCPS has ruined education.

This is an issue that needs to be dealt with as it is only getting worse.

Like it or not, we are in this situation as a direct result of our local politics. And teachers are being left to pick up the pieces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The EML situation at some of the schools is out of control. Today I had to give out letters that need to be signed by the parents of EML students. ONE student in my 4th-grade class did not get a letter. ONE out of 23. The class is impossible to teach. Not only are there so many newcomers with little English, but they are also coming in with minimal education even in their native language. Yet we are required to make sure that we keep up with the grade level curriculum. And now we are supposed to somehow design every lesson around their language needs. Impossible!

Yet instead of having help from the ELD teachers, they are busy doing county mandated paperwork- individually scanning in tons of documents page by page. What a waste of time. Focus on the children- not paperwork. That also goes toward the SLO's that were mentioned. Let us teach the children. Provide the support that is needed.

And then there is Home School Model. Why am I having no support with students who cannot do 4 + 1 without their fingers? CKLA- So far above their heads. But where are the SPED teachers? Oh yeah- they are no longer able to support in ELA and all is left to the classroom teacher.

MCPS has ruined education.

This is an issue that needs to be dealt with as it is only getting worse.

Like it or not, we are in this situation as a direct result of our local politics. And teachers are being left to pick up the pieces.

Probably the "evil" union too, right? *Massive eyeroll*

[Anonymous]

I teach in an MCPS HS too. I have the same demands as you (I teach only on level. One recommendation I have (if you’re not doing it already) is to repeat your SLO from year to year. Copy/paste the whole thing and just change dates and names. That’s what many teachers do. SLOs are worthless and anyone who spends time doing them with fidelity is wasting their time. I said it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re only 6 years in there’s still time to move to private and get paid more. I left MCPS for a local private and have 1/2 the number of students, way more flexibility, a better work/life balance and a higher salary. There are still students with learning differences, but they are all native English speakers which fits my skill set. I did not feel at all equipped in MCPS to teach EML students in a gen Ed setting without any asssistance. My child is still in MCPS so I see how this affects students as well as teachers.

All of this, except for the higher pay part. My salary went down compared to MCPS but my quality of life more than made up for it.

[Anonymous]

I stayed 10 years and left for private. My whole life changed and I had more energy even though I was a decade older.