Anonymous wrote:As someone who went to school in mcps in the 90s and early 2000s, the disdain for teachers in this thread is unreal.
Frightening really.
There is not disdain for teachers. Newsflash: Not all teachers are great and not all teachers do the things that should be done. Parents and students who experience those things have a right to speak about those experiences without being labeled anti-teacher.
You are advocating for a scenario in which no teacher should be held accountable and that is unfair and insane.
There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are good parents and bad parents. I'm sure neither group appreciates being labeled with the same brush by the worst in their category, but we also can't deny the bad actors and experiences if we hope to improve the educational experience overall.
Who the heck is advocating for a scenario in which teachers aren't held accountable? I challenge you to go back and find that statement.
The rudeness on this thread is absolutely astounding. Unfortunately for all of us, the lazy teachers don't remotely care what you think of them. The only people who are listening and getting offended are those doing the right thing... the teachers who sacrifice to give your children the best experience possible. I don't understand what you achieve by being so callous and dismissive toward people giving their all to do the job well.
And, before the "why aren't you teaching" poster gets on me for posting during school hours: I work in a different district and am done for the year. (Incidentally, I am online prepping for next year already.)
Then no need to post in mcps like you are a teacher when you are not for our kids.
Anonymous wrote:As someone who went to school in mcps in the 90s and early 2000s, the disdain for teachers in this thread is unreal.
Frightening really.
There is not disdain for teachers. Newsflash: Not all teachers are great and not all teachers do the things that should be done. Parents and students who experience those things have a right to speak about those experiences without being labeled anti-teacher.
You are advocating for a scenario in which no teacher should be held accountable and that is unfair and insane.
There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are good parents and bad parents. I'm sure neither group appreciates being labeled with the same brush by the worst in their category, but we also can't deny the bad actors and experiences if we hope to improve the educational experience overall.
Who the heck is advocating for a scenario in which teachers aren't held accountable? I challenge you to go back and find that statement.
The rudeness on this thread is absolutely astounding. Unfortunately for all of us, the lazy teachers don't remotely care what you think of them. The only people who are listening and getting offended are those doing the right thing... the teachers who sacrifice to give your children the best experience possible. I don't understand what you achieve by being so callous and dismissive toward people giving their all to do the job well.
And, before the "why aren't you teaching" poster gets on me for posting during school hours: I work in a different district and am done for the year. (Incidentally, I am online prepping for next year already.)
Then no need to post in mcps like you are a teacher when you are not for our kids.
DP. Firstly, anyone can post anywhere on DCUM. Also, This teacher could have kids in MCPS. Just because someone called out the unbelievably poor treatment of teachers doesn’t mean you get police the thread. No to mention, dragging teachers is off topic. Get back to whining about how unfair the MCPS grading system is for all the mediocre kids. All the parents with gifted kids are happy that they aren’t viewed the same as all those kids getting 89.5s and making MCPS look like a joke to colleges.
Anonymous wrote:As someone who went to school in mcps in the 90s and early 2000s, the disdain for teachers in this thread is unreal.
Frightening really.
There is not disdain for teachers. Newsflash: Not all teachers are great and not all teachers do the things that should be done. Parents and students who experience those things have a right to speak about those experiences without being labeled anti-teacher.
You are advocating for a scenario in which no teacher should be held accountable and that is unfair and insane.
There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are good parents and bad parents. I'm sure neither group appreciates being labeled with the same brush by the worst in their category, but we also can't deny the bad actors and experiences if we hope to improve the educational experience overall.
Who the heck is advocating for a scenario in which teachers aren't held accountable? I challenge you to go back and find that statement.
The rudeness on this thread is absolutely astounding. Unfortunately for all of us, the lazy teachers don't remotely care what you think of them. The only people who are listening and getting offended are those doing the right thing... the teachers who sacrifice to give your children the best experience possible. I don't understand what you achieve by being so callous and dismissive toward people giving their all to do the job well.
And, before the "why aren't you teaching" poster gets on me for posting during school hours: I work in a different district and am done for the year. (Incidentally, I am online prepping for next year already.)
The same is true of the "bad" parents you're chastising who make your work life difficult.
Anonymous wrote:As someone who went to school in mcps in the 90s and early 2000s, the disdain for teachers in this thread is unreal.
Frightening really.
There is not disdain for teachers. Newsflash: Not all teachers are great and not all teachers do the things that should be done. Parents and students who experience those things have a right to speak about those experiences without being labeled anti-teacher.
You are advocating for a scenario in which no teacher should be held accountable and that is unfair and insane.
There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are good parents and bad parents. I'm sure neither group appreciates being labeled with the same brush by the worst in their category, but we also can't deny the bad actors and experiences if we hope to improve the educational experience overall.
Who the heck is advocating for a scenario in which teachers aren't held accountable? I challenge you to go back and find that statement.
The rudeness on this thread is absolutely astounding. Unfortunately for all of us, the lazy teachers don't remotely care what you think of them. The only people who are listening and getting offended are those doing the right thing... the teachers who sacrifice to give your children the best experience possible. I don't understand what you achieve by being so callous and dismissive toward people giving their all to do the job well.
And, before the "why aren't you teaching" poster gets on me for posting during school hours: I work in a different district and am done for the year. (Incidentally, I am online prepping for next year already.)
Then no need to post in mcps like you are a teacher when you are not for our kids.
DP. Firstly, anyone can post anywhere on DCUM. Also, This teacher could have kids in MCPS. Just because someone called out the unbelievably poor treatment of teachers doesn’t mean you get police the thread. No to mention, dragging teachers is off topic. Get back to whining about how unfair the MCPS grading system is for all the mediocre kids. All the parents with gifted kids are happy that they aren’t viewed the same as all those kids getting 89.5s and making MCPS look like a joke to colleges.
There is no consistency with the grading. My kid got a bad grade on a writing assignment from a different teacher helping out and a perfect score with no changes on the final draft, and they refused to fix it. Its not unreasonable to have teachers post, do it accurately, not change the due dates, post the materials, etc. And, give enough assignments and points to be reasonable if kids get marked down for something. Giving 10 point assignments for 10 assignments for the semester is unfair when one dig is a b.
Teachers can advocate for pay raises every year. Surely if they can put the fight in that they can the other issues that bother them. Not the parents job.
I'm a parent of a rising 9th grader. Before this change to grading I wanted my DC take as many AP's as possible even with their year round club sports and other extracurriculars, namely music. I justified this because in the old grading system A+B = A. Now I don't know if this strategy will work for DC. Given all their time commitments something will have to give.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Newsflash: MCEA is by no means the weakest link in the MCPS food chain, parents are because they don't have the benefit of an organized labor union like the teachers do.
And if the MCEA has been advocating for more time and they're still not getting it, that's an issue for teachers to take up with their union because it means MCEA is not being effective in their negotiations with MCPS. That's not parents' fault. Which is why posters were saying if teachers are upset with their working conditions to not blame it on parents and say that parents need to advocate on their behalf, and instead focus their energy and ire on their own union and MCPS.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Newsflash: MCEA is by no means the weakest link in the MCPS food chain, parents are because they don't have the benefit of an organized labor union like the teachers do.
And if the MCEA has been advocating for more time and they're still not getting it, that's an issue for teachers to take up with their union because it means MCEA is not being effective in their negotiations with MCPS. That's not parents' fault. Which is why posters were saying if teachers are upset with their working conditions to not blame it on parents and say that parents need to advocate on their behalf, and instead focus their energy and ire on their own union and MCPS.
News flash: it still is your problem. I have been teaching in the district for years and I never have had parent complaints like this. You are definitely the problem.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Newsflash: MCEA is by no means the weakest link in the MCPS food chain, parents are because they don't have the benefit of an organized labor union like the teachers do.
And if the MCEA has been advocating for more time and they're still not getting it, that's an issue for teachers to take up with their union because it means MCEA is not being effective in their negotiations with MCPS. That's not parents' fault. Which is why posters were saying if teachers are upset with their working conditions to not blame it on parents and say that parents need to advocate on their behalf, and instead focus their energy and ire on their own union and MCPS.
News flash: it still is your problem. I have been teaching in the district for years and I never have had parent complaints like this. You are definitely the problem.
It's clear that you will refuse to hold your union accountable and instead want to shift the burden to parents, who have to volunteer their time and energy to advocate and even when they do bother to do that, routinely get ignored by the BOE and MCPS.
You're barking up the wrong tree but you know that and you don't care. You just want someone else to blame so you're punching down on parents, who again, are the ONLY MCPS stakeholders without a union in the MCPS ecosystem. Shame on you.
Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent of a rising 9th grader. Before this change to grading I wanted my DC take as many AP's as possible even with their year round club sports and other extracurriculars, namely music. I justified this because in the old grading system A+B = A. Now I don't know if this strategy will work for DC. Given all their time commitments something will have to give.
Nothing needs to change in your plan. It's OK to get a B sometimes.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Newsflash: MCEA is by no means the weakest link in the MCPS food chain, parents are because they don't have the benefit of an organized labor union like the teachers do.
And if the MCEA has been advocating for more time and they're still not getting it, that's an issue for teachers to take up with their union because it means MCEA is not being effective in their negotiations with MCPS. That's not parents' fault. Which is why posters were saying if teachers are upset with their working conditions to not blame it on parents and say that parents need to advocate on their behalf, and instead focus their energy and ire on their own union and MCPS.
News flash: it still is your problem. I have been teaching in the district for years and I never have had parent complaints like this. You are definitely the problem.
It's clear that you will refuse to hold your union accountable and instead want to shift the burden to parents, who have to volunteer their time and energy to advocate and even when they do bother to do that, routinely get ignored by the BOE and MCPS.
You're barking up the wrong tree but you know that and you don't care. You just want someone else to blame so you're punching down on parents, who again, are the ONLY MCPS stakeholders without a union in the MCPS ecosystem. Shame on you.
DP. Nobody on this thread is shifting burdens to parents. I posted way above that parents and teachers shouldn’t be at odds with each other; we share a common goal. I suppose the only “burden” I’ve placed on *a couple* parents is a request to stop the rude attacks on this thread, especially since so much of this is out of a teacher’s control. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request.
And your shaming of a teacher above is exactly what I was hoping to avoid. I agree with that teacher: your attitude is part of the problem. And I’ll call it out right along with her. Teachers are working in a failing system right now. They are the duct tape holding what’s left together. They seem like an odd group for you to go to war with.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
Middle school has 2 20 minute blocks per week for students to meet with teachers. It’s “mascot time”.
Your middle school has that. Every school is different and ours did not. Nor does our hs.
Name a middle school that doesn’t.
Name the one that does it. Every school does the scheduling different.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Or teachers can keep doing the job they were paid to do and you can keep crying about it anonymously on a message board instead of engaging with the School Board hearings or Central Office outreach.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Newsflash: MCEA is advocating for more time. It’s been a part of their campaign for a long time. But I guess you just like to fly off the handle and blame the weakest link.
Newsflash: MCEA is by no means the weakest link in the MCPS food chain, parents are because they don't have the benefit of an organized labor union like the teachers do.
And if the MCEA has been advocating for more time and they're still not getting it, that's an issue for teachers to take up with their union because it means MCEA is not being effective in their negotiations with MCPS. That's not parents' fault. Which is why posters were saying if teachers are upset with their working conditions to not blame it on parents and say that parents need to advocate on their behalf, and instead focus their energy and ire on their own union and MCPS.
News flash: it still is your problem. I have been teaching in the district for years and I never have had parent complaints like this. You are definitely the problem.
Or parents don’t have a forum to speak up. It is not my problem as a parent.
Anonymous wrote:How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days. We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond. How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on. How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing? We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month. Not ok. Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort.
Most teachers are putting in the effort. But that effort requires time. We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again:
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours . Thats the total time to grade one assignment. If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours. That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.
Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok.
Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.
The other four are giving you what they are paid for.
Some, yes, some no. It’s their job. Not ok to not grade. As of today still no grades posted for the past month.
I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:
I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.
And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.
So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.
So… SHOULD this be my job?
How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?
I am a middle school teacher. My students do not read the feedback. They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?' I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.
As parents, we are going in and reading it. And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with.
Yep, keep blaming the teacher. At what point does the student have any accountability.
“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”
The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are.
I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback? I don't have office hours. If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading. If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do? Plan or grade? Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week. I am not going to do that. And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job. Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done. The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together. And for what? For parents to still not value what we do. I will say it again. Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity. Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.
If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme.
DP here.
I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?
Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.
Did you think this through, PP?
Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted.
Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.
And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.
Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?
I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame.
In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship. Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too. You call us lame when we don't do agree with you. Keep blaming the teachers. This is what MCPS wants. If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.
It’s not the parents responsibility to advocate, it’s yours and your union.
Sure, sure. And, understanding that, the parents need to accept what they get because that's all they advocated for. The teachers teach the class. Expecting them to then personally hold little Janie/Jonny's hand and remind them eleven times to turn in their work and then stay in at lunch and after school to re-teach the classwork they already taught is unreasonable. You want the teachers to put in the work to teach your kid study skills because you didn't/don't. That's not their responsibility, it's yours. If you insist on offloading that responsibility and putting the burden on the teachers, then yes, you DO have to get involved to figure out how and when, exactly, they're supposed to do all of that on top of their actual job of teaching the curriculum during school hours.
Algebra class is about Algebra, not study skills. You're expected to provide that, just like all other necessary school supplies. Do your job.
Problem is not all teachers teach. In math we e has teachers send links to videos and tell the kids to use them. Teachers need to teach study skills and time management. Parents can support. Instead we are the ones teaching our kids algebra or working ourselves to pay for tutors so our kids can be successful.
My favorite is in English when they show a video or play a recording of the book vs actually reading it. Kids don’t even get a copy of the book except if we buy it.
As a teacher you advocate for your needs as should your union. As parents we advocate for our kids. As an adult stop expecting others to do your job and meet your needs.
This isn’t a battle. As a teacher, I’m not fighting to have my needs met. I’m fighting to provide more for my students. That may look like advocating for more grading time, but that’s so my students can receive more timely feedback. Everything we do is for our students. We are not in competition with you, as your last paragraph suggests. We want to work with you.
And curriculum is not set by individual teachers, so you are going to battle against the wrong people anyway.
Again, those are things you, your coworkers and union need to advocate for. Testify at the BOE, write letters, push the union to handle it. Stop putting it on parents.
Correct. It's insane that some teachers seem to expect more from parents to improve their work environment rather than the union that they pay dues to and holds far more power and influence with MCPS than parents.
Chat, what is a democracy? Why can’t I can’t get top tier service at rock bottom prices without paying any attention?
MCPS is not a democracy. It's a fiefdom, and the teachers' union, which is staffed with paid employees and has the leverage of a contractual agreement with MCPS, carries more weight and heft than the all-volunteer MCCPTA, which is the closest thing parents have to a union in MCPS and carries none of the contractual heft and weight that the labor agreements MCEA has with MCPS.
Or teachers can keep doing the job they were paid to do and you can keep crying about it anonymously on a message board instead of engaging with the School Board hearings or Central Office outreach.
Who says I haven't engaged in the school board or central office? I have.
As I have already said: Parent advocates are volunteers with no union in MCPS. My complaints do not carry the weight that teacher voice does, since you all have a union which can hold MCPS's feet to the fire with a contract.
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