I feel like MCPS sucks the joy out of teaching

[Anonymous]

Your situation sounds like every job I’ve had, including my first one, where I was paid less than teachers. I put in 10-12 hours or more a day, worked weekends, was on call during holidays, and had to represent myself as an expert to customers on a subject I had only cursory knowledge of….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thx all. This is OP. I appreciate the support.
I probably need to lighten up but I find it hard not to do a ton of preparation for my classes. That’s just how I am. Not that my teaching is perfect or even close to it. But I do try my best. I get frustrated at the amount of busy work that MCPS and my school administrators throw at us. And I would like to support my EML students but it is hard when I have 31 students in my classroom with a range of abilities and needs. And the SLO is the biggest waste of time and should be eliminated. Cell phone use among students is a huge issue at my school. Which is ironic because I was so busy at school today that I didn’t even check my text messages all day until I was driving home at 4 pm. Curious what teachers thought of the EML PD from Central. I could not figure out how I would implement what they were suggesting.

Teacher here and I think you've gotten to the crux of the problem. One of the biggest problems at MCPS is they don't give enough prep time when you are teaching new classes. This makes the rate of teacher burnout really high for younger teachers because they are not given the bandwidth to prepare. If I were in charge I'd give teachers teaching new classes an extra free period. I know that's impossible but it's what is warranted. When you are a college prof and you have a new class to teach you are making up a new curriculum so they get a lot of extra time to prep and while being a teacher at MCPS where the curriculum is provided to you more or less is not exactly the same I do think there are some parallels and you can't expect teachers to come up with lectures and lessons and having them know the material really well without giving them time.

I empathize OP. It will get better if you keep teaching those classes though and you'll find the good, engaged students. I'm sure of it. They are not necessarily the ones who get As or are the ones who raise their hands but the ones who actually appreciate everything you do and you make a difference in their lives. They are worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your situation sounds like every job I’ve had, including my first one, where I was paid less than teachers. I put in 10-12 hours or more a day, worked weekends, was on call during holidays, and had to represent myself as an expert to customers on a subject I had only cursory knowledge of….

I don't disagree. Had the same experience myself but were you responsible for teaching something important to 150 young minds whose only knowledge of a subject might be the words that come from you? I never took chem ever again after high school as an example and literally the only thing I know when hearing the news is from that high school teacher. Good thing she was a good one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thx all. This is OP. I appreciate the support.
I probably need to lighten up but I find it hard not to do a ton of preparation for my classes. That’s just how I am. Not that my teaching is perfect or even close to it. But I do try my best. I get frustrated at the amount of busy work that MCPS and my school administrators throw at us. And I would like to support my EML students but it is hard when I have 31 students in my classroom with a range of abilities and needs. And the SLO is the biggest waste of time and should be eliminated. Cell phone use among students is a huge issue at my school. Which is ironic because I was so busy at school today that I didn’t even check my text messages all day until I was driving home at 4 pm. Curious what teachers thought of the EML PD from Central. I could not figure out how I would implement what they were suggesting.

Teacher here and I think you've gotten to the crux of the problem. One of the biggest problems at MCPS is they don't give enough prep time when you are teaching new classes. This makes the rate of teacher burnout really high for younger teachers because they are not given the bandwidth to prepare. If I were in charge I'd give teachers teaching new classes an extra free period. I know that's impossible but it's what is warranted. When you are a college prof and you have a new class to teach you are making up a new curriculum so they get a lot of extra time to prep and while being a teacher at MCPS where the curriculum is provided to you more or less is not exactly the same I do think there are some parallels and you can't expect teachers to come up with lectures and lessons and having them know the material really well without giving them time.

I empathize OP. It will get better if you keep teaching those classes though and you'll find the good, engaged students. I'm sure of it. They are not necessarily the ones who get As or are the ones who raise their hands but the ones who actually appreciate everything you do and you make a difference in their lives. They are worth it.

Thx. I’m trying to hang in there. I agree with you that MCPS acts like daily class planning and figuring out what you are teaching and how to teach it should take no time at all while to me - that is the most important part of being a teacher (along with being in the classroom and interacting with actual students). When you teach core subjects and AP classes, planning takes a long time (except perhaps for veteran teachers).
All the busy work + useless meetings literally drive me insane because I need to spend so much time on planning what I am doing every day. And it is becoming easier for sure but I’m always trying to improve my curriculum and make it more accessible and engaging for kids but it feels like MCPS is actively fighting my efforts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thx all. This is OP. I appreciate the support.
I probably need to lighten up but I find it hard not to do a ton of preparation for my classes. That’s just how I am. Not that my teaching is perfect or even close to it. But I do try my best. I get frustrated at the amount of busy work that MCPS and my school administrators throw at us. And I would like to support my EML students but it is hard when I have 31 students in my classroom with a range of abilities and needs. And the SLO is the biggest waste of time and should be eliminated. Cell phone use among students is a huge issue at my school. Which is ironic because I was so busy at school today that I didn’t even check my text messages all day until I was driving home at 4 pm. Curious what teachers thought of the EML PD from Central. I could not figure out how I would implement what they were suggesting.

Teacher here and I think you've gotten to the crux of the problem. One of the biggest problems at MCPS is they don't give enough prep time when you are teaching new classes. This makes the rate of teacher burnout really high for younger teachers because they are not given the bandwidth to prepare. If I were in charge I'd give teachers teaching new classes an extra free period. I know that's impossible but it's what is warranted. When you are a college prof and you have a new class to teach you are making up a new curriculum so they get a lot of extra time to prep and while being a teacher at MCPS where the curriculum is provided to you more or less is not exactly the same I do think there are some parallels and you can't expect teachers to come up with lectures and lessons and having them know the material really well without giving them time.

I empathize OP. It will get better if you keep teaching those classes though and you'll find the good, engaged students. I'm sure of it. They are not necessarily the ones who get As or are the ones who raise their hands but the ones who actually appreciate everything you do and you make a difference in their lives. They are worth it.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Except I’m in year 7 and I’ve had a new or revamped curriculum every single year. This year I have 3 new preps. I’ve even had admin give me classes with NO curriculum or standards and I have to wing it. I’ve had to go to part-time to try and manage my time better as I also have a child with a disability. I’m only staying for the schedule and health insurance now. I hate MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your situation sounds like every job I’ve had, including my first one, where I was paid less than teachers. I put in 10-12 hours or more a day, worked weekends, was on call during holidays, and had to represent myself as an expert to customers on a subject I had only cursory knowledge of….

Yeah, lots of jobs suck and take endless hours. I used to pull all nighters to complete proposals in previous jobs before I switched to teaching. Teaching is far more grueling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

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

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

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

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

This. Great summary. It feels like we are going around and around on a hamster wheel. I would laugh but it is utterly depressing when most teachers are trying their best to educate kids and MCPS keeps getting in the way.

[Anonymous]

Also mcea could care less that we are made to write 40 hrs in our timesheets however every teacher that teachers a core class needs around 40 hrs a week just to grade and plan let alone delivering it. Thanks mcea for taking my money but having no motivation to actually support us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also mcea could care less that we are made to write 40 hrs in our timesheets however every teacher that teachers a core class needs around 40 hrs a week just to grade and plan let alone delivering it. Thanks mcea for taking my money but having no motivation to actually support us.

Same. I’m part-time (0.8) and I only get paid for 32 hours a week. I have 120 students. I have to put 6.4 hours for each day on the timesheet. It’s a slap to the face that I’m forced to waaaay more than that with all this inane busywork we have to do. If I don’t, then I’m dinged in meeting the MCPS “professional standards” we are evaluated on (aka another way inefficient MCPS admin can blackmail teachers). I was thinking this the other day- we have no out. No way to reduce this. Unless we quit.

[Anonymous]

So MCPS makes you put in the exact hours a day you are scheduled for and not the time you work? At my work they tell us to put in actual hours worked, which is always more than the scheduled time. No overtime pay, but they still want to know. And there is know what I'm putting in 8 hours when I'm actually working 10 or more. -Nonprofit employee

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also mcea could care less that we are made to write 40 hrs in our timesheets however every teacher that teachers a core class needs around 40 hrs a week just to grade and plan let alone delivering it. Thanks mcea for taking my money but having no motivation to actually support us.

Same. I’m part-time (0.8) and I only get paid for 32 hours a week. I have 120 students. I have to put 6.4 hours for each day on the timesheet. It’s a slap to the face that I’m forced to waaaay more than that with all this inane busywork we have to do. If I don’t, then I’m dinged in meeting the MCPS “professional standards” we are evaluated on (aka another way inefficient MCPS admin can blackmail teachers). I was thinking this the other day- we have no out. No way to reduce this. Unless we quit.

MCPS evaluations are a joke and the easiest part of the entire job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So MCPS makes you put in the exact hours a day you are scheduled for and not the time you work? At my work they tell us to put in actual hours worked, which is always more than the scheduled time. No overtime pay, but they still want to know. And there is know what I'm putting in 8 hours when I'm actually working 10 or more. -Nonprofit employee

Yes. I think that’s why many of us are so incensed about the workload. We are reminded every two weeks we are only paid for so many hours and are not allowed to account for the actual hours worked.

Even though we are paid out our hourly rate for summer school or for certain trainings/events. As another former nonprofit employee, it really doesn’t sit well with me - this type of accounting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also mcea could care less that we are made to write 40 hrs in our timesheets however every teacher that teachers a core class needs around 40 hrs a week just to grade and plan let alone delivering it. Thanks mcea for taking my money but having no motivation to actually support us.

Same. I’m part-time (0.8) and I only get paid for 32 hours a week. I have 120 students. I have to put 6.4 hours for each day on the timesheet. It’s a slap to the face that I’m forced to waaaay more than that with all this inane busywork we have to do. If I don’t, then I’m dinged in meeting the MCPS “professional standards” we are evaluated on (aka another way inefficient MCPS admin can blackmail teachers). I was thinking this the other day- we have no out. No way to reduce this. Unless we quit.

MCPS evaluations are a joke and the easiest part of the entire job.

Ok. 👍

[Anonymous]

Lol...and the colas they want to give us for the next 1 years are going to be potentially wiped our with rising insurance premiums

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also mcea could care less that we are made to write 40 hrs in our timesheets however every teacher that teachers a core class needs around 40 hrs a week just to grade and plan let alone delivering it. Thanks mcea for taking my money but having no motivation to actually support us.

Same. I’m part-time (0.8) and I only get paid for 32 hours a week. I have 120 students. I have to put 6.4 hours for each day on the timesheet. It’s a slap to the face that I’m forced to waaaay more than that with all this inane busywork we have to do. If I don’t, then I’m dinged in meeting the MCPS “professional standards” we are evaluated on (aka another way inefficient MCPS admin can blackmail teachers). I was thinking this the other day- we have no out. No way to reduce this. Unless we quit.

MCPS evaluations are a joke and the easiest part of the entire job.

Ok. 👍

DP, but if you think MCPS evaluations are stressful...just lol. I've worked in so many districts due to moving for my husband's military job and agreed- MCPS is by far the least stressful district I've ever worked in regarding evaluations-especially once you hit tenure.