Can we all stop with the "school isn't daycare" argument? It does very little to advance the discourse. Clearly parents are incredibly frustrated with the fragmented calendar! Teachers do whine more than most about their job. It's a remnant of COVID years. I don't know what the best solution is but arguing in favor of this crappy calendar isn't winning anyone over. |
I’m not penalizing teachers for anything. I’m saying before a single hour of “teacher planning” time is added to the calendar, the principals should have to prove they’re compliant with the regulations set out for teacher planning time in the workday. Then time should be placed on holidays before new days off are added. |
All your efforts to shame parents has only motivated them, and gotten the school board to propose taking away two federal holidays. Maybe time to change tactics? |
Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all? |
I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher. Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult. But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about. So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.) So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends. |
LOL. How much does your demanding job pay, exactly? If it’s more than 45K you can have a seat and STFU. |
Parents are frustrated because they think school is daycare, teachers are their personal tutors (how else to explain every one having an IEP these days), oh and that teachers should work for free. I’m not a teacher, but I honestly don’t understand how they put up with parents’ BS these days. |
Does calling teachers whiners advance the discourse? |
And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent. Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves. |
DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated. |
Public servants don't work for the community... |
She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier. |
DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs. |
I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping. |
Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout. So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers. |