Pre service week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Our school does them at every staff meeting. It’s really unnecessary and not respectful of our time.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely nothing. I hate the beginning of every year with the nonsense meetings and the non stop ice breakers. Email us with anything new and let us get ready for the year. I’d rather use the time towards the students I teach. Never been more micromanaged in a career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Teaching is a second career for me. No, we never had ice breakers at my other jobs. Maybe a quick “my name is Larla, I’ve been working in the field for x years, and before this job I focused on blah blah blah with that other firm.” Now I have to talk about what super hero I am and what is my why. I have to fill out exit tickets at the end of meetings to share how I will use the information presented.

I also have to engage regularly with coworkers about my cultural background during cultural competency trainings. Trainings are important. Discussing my family traditions and times I have been discriminated against, on the fly with coworkers I’ve never met, when I have a pile of legally mandated paperwork that I’d really like to complete is not the best use of anyone’s time.

To answer the question, I DO look forward to meeting the kids and getting to know them. I DO look forward to collaborating with a few of my very creative and talented coworkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Teaching is a second career for me. No, we never had ice breakers at my other jobs. Maybe a quick “my name is Larla, I’ve been working in the field for x years, and before this job I focused on blah blah blah with that other firm.” Now I have to talk about what super hero I am and what is my why. I have to fill out exit tickets at the end of meetings to share how I will use the information presented.

I also have to engage regularly with coworkers about my cultural background during cultural competency trainings. Trainings are important. Discussing my family traditions and times I have been discriminated against, on the fly with coworkers I’ve never met, when I have a pile of legally mandated paperwork that I’d really like to complete is not the best use of anyone’s time.

To answer the question, I DO look forward to meeting the kids and getting to know them. I DO look forward to collaborating with a few of my very creative and talented coworkers.

1-2 ice breakers a year at preservice really isn’t that big of a deal to me. They’re all of 10 minutes and I think it’s disliked because of collective grumbling—like in college my friend hated a particular word and then suddenly all my friends talked about hating that word when they didn’t care before—maybe ice breakers only feel annoying because so many people complain about them.

I’ll be honest that I think the cultural
competency trainings are incredibly important. That teachers have the negative attitude towards it is part of why we need this training. Having been a first generation American myself, being an “other” is actually more isolating than you can imagine if that wasn’t you’re upbringing. And I am white and speak English well, so I didn’t even have as much discrimination as others. But teachers aren’t as culturally competent as they think they are and I’ve seen it over and over again. I wish teachers would take the cultural competency trainings more seriously, it might help them understand their students and help them learn better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Teaching is a second career for me. No, we never had ice breakers at my other jobs. Maybe a quick “my name is Larla, I’ve been working in the field for x years, and before this job I focused on blah blah blah with that other firm.” Now I have to talk about what super hero I am and what is my why. I have to fill out exit tickets at the end of meetings to share how I will use the information presented.

I also have to engage regularly with coworkers about my cultural background during cultural competency trainings. Trainings are important. Discussing my family traditions and times I have been discriminated against, on the fly with coworkers I’ve never met, when I have a pile of legally mandated paperwork that I’d really like to complete is not the best use of anyone’s time.

To answer the question, I DO look forward to meeting the kids and getting to know them. I DO look forward to collaborating with a few of my very creative and talented coworkers.

1-2 ice breakers a year at preservice really isn’t that big of a deal to me. They’re all of 10 minutes and I think it’s disliked because of collective grumbling—like in college my friend hated a particular word and then suddenly all my friends talked about hating that word when they didn’t care before—maybe ice breakers only feel annoying because so many people complain about them.

I’ll be honest that I think the cultural
competency trainings are incredibly important. That teachers have the negative attitude towards it is part of why we need this training. Having been a first generation American myself, being an “other” is actually more isolating than you can imagine if that wasn’t you’re upbringing. And I am white and speak English well, so I didn’t even have as much discrimination as others. But teachers aren’t as culturally competent as they think they are and I’ve seen it over and over again. I wish teachers would take the cultural competency trainings more seriously, it might help them understand their students and help them learn better.

A well run cultural competency training is important. These are not well run. (I’m the poster you’re replying to). I’m a minority in my school and the conversations are just uncomfortable (and not in the good, productive kind of way).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Teaching is a second career for me. No, we never had ice breakers at my other jobs. Maybe a quick “my name is Larla, I’ve been working in the field for x years, and before this job I focused on blah blah blah with that other firm.” Now I have to talk about what super hero I am and what is my why. I have to fill out exit tickets at the end of meetings to share how I will use the information presented.

I also have to engage regularly with coworkers about my cultural background during cultural competency trainings. Trainings are important. Discussing my family traditions and times I have been discriminated against, on the fly with coworkers I’ve never met, when I have a pile of legally mandated paperwork that I’d really like to complete is not the best use of anyone’s time.

To answer the question, I DO look forward to meeting the kids and getting to know them. I DO look forward to collaborating with a few of my very creative and talented coworkers.

1-2 ice breakers a year at preservice really isn’t that big of a deal to me. They’re all of 10 minutes and I think it’s disliked because of collective grumbling—like in college my friend hated a particular word and then suddenly all my friends talked about hating that word when they didn’t care before—maybe ice breakers only feel annoying because so many people complain about them.

I’ll be honest that I think the cultural
competency trainings are incredibly important. That teachers have the negative attitude towards it is part of why we need this training. Having been a first generation American myself, being an “other” is actually more isolating than you can imagine if that wasn’t you’re upbringing. And I am white and speak English well, so I didn’t even have as much discrimination as others. But teachers aren’t as culturally competent as they think they are and I’ve seen it over and over again. I wish teachers would take the cultural competency trainings more seriously, it might help them understand their students and help them learn better.

A well run cultural competency training is important. These are not well run. (I’m the poster you’re replying to). I’m a minority in my school and the conversations are just uncomfortable (and not in the good, productive kind of way).

+1

Kind of bold also to assume from the other teacher that those teachers who don’t enjoy the time wasting during pre-service don’t respect cultural differences of the community they teach in. 🙄 talk about bias …..

[Anonymous]

It's year 18 for me, and I'm looking forward to setting up my classroom and catching up with work friends. I'll confess I don't mind ice breakers IF they're done quickly and have a purpose. The worst is when they drag on or don't facilitate actually getting to know new staff members, or helping them get to know us.

But really, I just want my class list and to set up my classroom and get ready for another great school year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully they cancel all ice breakers

SDTs love to break the ice. Wish they would treat us as professionals. 🧊

Do you think that professionals in every other office job *don't* have to do ice breaker activities at least once a year?

Our school does them at every staff meeting. It’s really unnecessary and not respectful of our time.

Agreed. Do it once if there are multiple new members of the PLC. Do I really care if my coworker of seven years prefers fries or tots? No. Do I want more time planning or grading? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-service week, also known as teacher work week, is a period before the start of the school year dedicated to professional development and classroom preparation for teachers. What do you look forward to the most, teachers?

Setting up my classroom. I can’t focus on anything else until that is done. Some years, I show up a couple days early and get it all set up. I am not a Pinterest teacher, but I have to pack up every single thing in June and unpack it in late August.

Where do you store your packed materials over the summer if you know you are coming back to the same school but not same classroom?

Everything is boxed and labeled. You leave it in the classroom. It gets moved into the hallway for the classroom to be cleaned. If you are returning to the same classroom, 90% of your stuff returns there, 9% is randomly placed in neighboring classrooms, and 1% is potentially somewhere else in the building, but also possibly thrown away or taken by whoever held summer camp in your building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying hold back to school night/open house at the same time -- in the evening that Wed or Thurs of preservice week? But then most students won't come with their parents if it's held in the evening.

They normally come with their parents. I’m at a Title 1 school so nobody had money for a babysitter.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind learning about new staff members but only after we’ve had a lot of time in our classrooms otherwise it’s hard to focus on anything else. No, I don’t want a full day PD at another school that week unless I’m a new teacher.

[Anonymous]

I'm at a title 1 and all the kids come with the parents. I'm at year 25 and I'm very tired of the ice breakers. One or two would be fine, since there is often new staff. But having them at every meeting is annoying. I also loathe exit tickets and quizzes. We have modules that we have to read and then a quiz afterwards. About the cultural competency, I think many of us are tired of it. It's not always presented in the right way and it's presented over and over to the determent of other issues and material that we need to cover. That being said, I work in a title 1 school and sent my kids to a title 1 school. It's hard to have a conversation with others who would never send their own kids to a title 1 school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying hold back to school night/open house at the same time -- in the evening that Wed or Thurs of preservice week? But then most students won't come with their parents if it's held in the evening.

They normally come with their parents. I’m at a Title 1 school so nobody had money for a babysitter.

[Anonymous]

What time do you typically leave during preservice week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm at a title 1 and all the kids come with the parents. I'm at year 25 and I'm very tired of the ice breakers. One or two would be fine, since there is often new staff. But having them at every meeting is annoying. I also loathe exit tickets and quizzes. We have modules that we have to read and then a quiz afterwards. About the cultural competency, I think many of us are tired of it. It's not always presented in the right way and it's presented over and over to the determent of other issues and material that we need to cover. That being said, I work in a title 1 school and sent my kids to a title 1 school. It's hard to have a conversation with others who would never send their own kids to a title 1 school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying hold back to school night/open house at the same time -- in the evening that Wed or Thurs of preservice week? But then most students won't come with their parents if it's held in the evening.

They normally come with their parents. I’m at a Title 1 school so nobody had money for a babysitter.

Yes students come with parents during Open House which is held the day before first day of school. Some were asking if there is still an open house (which is for all ES grades) before Transition day (which is for students entering ES grades K and 3rd &/or 4th if going to a CES)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What time do you typically leave during preservice week?

At the regular end of the duty day. I’m in a high school, so that’s 3:00.