Why does my kid's school have SO MANY 'professional days'?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming most or all of you are not teachers I'm going to tell you what 99% of all teachers hate the absolute most about their jobs. It is the reason many leave the profession and many others sometimes just hate it.

Parents.

Honestly want to know, what exactly is it that parents do? I need examples.

I just have a hard time imagining because while I have been vocal to the administration about reopening, and often bring concerns to them, I do not bother our teachers with much. Occasionally send a message asking if they can comment or consider some aspect of my kid's learning which isn't working, but that's about it. Basically we don't communicate a whole lot. I used to stop by at pickup and chat, and even then worried they didn't want to hear from me, but then sometimes I think teachers want to hear from parents more, to form a relationship - so which is it?

I just wonder what are people doing that you hate???

You have literally no idea how terrible parents can be in private to teachers. I taught in the past and a handful of parents with terrible behavior really could ruin a teacher's year.

Wow like just sending them private messages criticizing the teacher directly? I just have a hard time imagining. I thought this happened in private schools like you gave my kid a B how could you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming most or all of you are not teachers I'm going to tell you what 99% of all teachers hate the absolute most about their jobs. It is the reason many leave the profession and many others sometimes just hate it.

Parents.

Honestly want to know, what exactly is it that parents do? I need examples.

I just have a hard time imagining because while I have been vocal to the administration about reopening, and often bring concerns to them, I do not bother our teachers with much. Occasionally send a message asking if they can comment or consider some aspect of my kid's learning which isn't working, but that's about it. Basically we don't communicate a whole lot. I used to stop by at pickup and chat, and even then worried they didn't want to hear from me, but then sometimes I think teachers want to hear from parents more, to form a relationship - so which is it?

I just wonder what are people doing that you hate???

I love 96% of my parents! It's just a few, you always get these parents IMO.

1. The parent who thinks I live and breathe their child's education. That my sole reason for existence is to help their child. I am not exaggerating. Emailing 5 times in an hour, asking when I will answer their questions. This is why I can't give parents my phone number anymore.

2. The parent who doesn't care about school. Endless calls, endless reports to CPS. Nothing. No care. Only call is to curse me out if CPS pays them a visit. Oh and then silence because they figure out CPS does nada.

[Anonymous]

The issue is that many here don’t consider teachers professionals b/c they are majority women and heavily WOC in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The issue is that many here don’t consider teachers professionals b/c they are majority women and heavily WOC in DC.

Ding ding ding

[Anonymous]

I think parents can be dicks — I was a teacher, and certainly there were select parents who were dicks.

But I also still think there’s a lack of communication about what’s happening on Wednesdays.

There is SO MUCH in pandemic schooling issues that could be solved by transparency and good communication. It’s appalling how bad that communication has been. I think that’s on school administrators, who appear to be bad at communication, generally. Don’t get me started on the Chancellor’s office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Assuming most or all of you are not teachers I'm going to tell you what 99% of all teachers hate the absolute most about their jobs. It is the reason many leave the profession and many others sometimes just hate it.

Parents.

Honestly want to know, what exactly is it that parents do? I need examples.

I just have a hard time imagining because while I have been vocal to the administration about reopening, and often bring concerns to them, I do not bother our teachers with much. Occasionally send a message asking if they can comment or consider some aspect of my kid's learning which isn't working, but that's about it. Basically we don't communicate a whole lot. I used to stop by at pickup and chat, and even then worried they didn't want to hear from me, but then sometimes I think teachers want to hear from parents more, to form a relationship - so which is it?

I just wonder what are people doing that you hate???

Someone else gave you a good answer but since this was my comment you were responding to I'll just say that it was after reading all the comments that came before mine that reminded me of why dealing with parents is the most hated part of a teacher's job. Dealing with the kids, even the most difficult kids, is pure joy compared to the crap some parents dish out. It's definitely not all parents by any stretch, but the most vocal ones can dominate your life even as you do your best by their child. So start at the beginning of this thread (and many others if you want) and read all the comments and imagine how they would make you feel if you were a teacher. Then you'll get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You'd think the "Professional Days" could be on Wednesdays, since teachers already have that day off.

You don't get it. They DON'T have the day OFF. They are still working.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. I don't have much hope that the parents on this thread who want to micromanage teachers will actually take the information said here but it can never be stressed enough:

Just because you went to school once, doesn't mean you have any idea what it's like to be a teacher.

Even I, having minored in education and then gotten a master's degree in teaching did not get a real glimpse of what it's like until I student taught. And that's exactly what it was: a glimpse.

First of all, if any of your children's teachers are in their 1st through 4th year teaching, they require a WHOLE LOT MORE planning time than teachers in their 5+ year of teaching.

The things that happen in class don't just magically appear. https://www.engageny.org/file/18286/download/math-g4-m5-topic-a-lesson-3.pdf?token=rV04wBqs / Here is a typical math lesson of a typical lesson from Eureka that teachers are expected to have read and planned from. How long does that take to read?

Okay, so that's just math class and we haven't actually prepared any materials yet. Also, this is just the lesson. Before this lesson, we were supposed to have read the whole module outline and know where the unit is going. Preferably, we were supposed to have also looked at the end of unit assessment to ensure that we will cover our bases by the time we actually teach.

Now, we're in online learning where content doesn't just appear at students' work surface. Somehow, these lessons are presented -- power point? Canvas? word document? Something to download and send or edit? That takes time to prepare. Most teachers are not computer programmers and Canvas is possibly the least user friendly piece of software ever invented. If teachers are trying a new program, you have to build in some time to figure out how it works, see that it fails, maybe e-mail someone downtown who can maybe help with the issue, maybe not?

Okay, so now we actually get to teaching it. (The least time consuming piece of our work, frankly).

Then we have to grade the things that students completed. (2nd least time consuming thing).

Now we have to take the grades that kids got on the assignment and put it into the online grading system. Aspen is probably the 2nd least user friendly piece of software ever invented and a lot of times grades need to be transferred one-by-one. Take, for example, First in Math. A program we often use in math class through clever.com. The names in Aspen are in alphabetical order by last name. The names in First in Math are alphabetical by FIRST NAME. There is no way to reorganize either list so that they match. So teachers can download the report into excel, make an extra column for last names and sort (if they're technically proficient). Or maybe they go back and forth between the 2 screens putting in students' grades 1-by-1 from First in Math to Aspen. Either way, another time suck. This happens across most platforms.

We have grade-level meetings, department level meetings, committee meetings, special events (monthly celebrations?), advisory groups and ALSO corresponding with parents.

My typical Wednesday looks like this:
8:15-8:30am Whole School meeting
8:30-9:30am Grade level meeting
9:30am-12pm tutoring / office hours for students at risk of failing while also simultaneously trying to grade and update grades.
12-12:30pm supposedly lunch (interesting that pp adding up hours doesn't include any time for teachers to eat. Probably accurate as mostly I don't end up eating).
12:30-2:30pm Department level meeting
2:30-4pm planning.


Parents that question how teachers spend our time should apply for the many openings that are available next year.

[Anonymous]

Every job I’ve ever had doesn’t count my meal time as work hours. Presently my official duty hours are 8.5 hours, allowing 30 min for lunch. So 8 hours of working, not 7.5. Since we are nit-picking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every job I’ve ever had doesn’t count my meal time as work hours. Presently my official duty hours are 8.5 hours, allowing 30 min for lunch. So 8 hours of working, not 7.5. Since we are nit-picking.

Every salaried job that I have had does count my meal time as work hours. And when I was hourly in HS they gave us 15 min breaks outside of going to the bathroom to eat or rest or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every job I’ve ever had doesn’t count my meal time as work hours. Presently my official duty hours are 8.5 hours, allowing 30 min for lunch. So 8 hours of working, not 7.5. Since we are nit-picking.

Every salaried job that I have had does count my meal time as work hours. And when I was hourly in HS they gave us 15 min breaks outside of going to the bathroom to eat or rest or whatever.

Well, that’s different than the entire federal government.

[Anonymous]

Teachers: please stop telling everyone to just become a teacher without training. It devalues your profession.

—a former teacher

[Anonymous]

Why isn't Spring Break canceled? We can keep kids out of school for a year, but we can't cancel Spring Break?

The children always lose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I don't have much hope that the parents on this thread who want to micromanage teachers will actually take the information said here but it can never be stressed enough:

{truncated}

My typical Wednesday looks like this:
8:15-8:30am Whole School meeting
8:30-9:30am Grade level meeting
9:30am-12pm tutoring / office hours for students at risk of failing while also simultaneously trying to grade and update grades.
12-12:30pm supposedly lunch (interesting that pp adding up hours doesn't include any time for teachers to eat. Probably accurate as mostly I don't end up eating).
12:30-2:30pm Department level meeting
2:30-4pm planning.

So I appreciate this post in that it explains what teachers are doing in the time that they are not doing "in-person" instruction (meaning their face is in front a student either on a screen or in person). What it doesn't do is elucidate the point: the concern that teachers are doing less because they don't do any instruction Wednesdays (or rather, many aren't doing instructions on Wednesdays; I know there are many that are).

I believe that DL has meant that schools have moved around schedules; it would be helpful to have a teacher compare the two schedules (pre-pandemic and DL). Divide into hours of instruction, planning, meetings, and communication. Examine how the hours are different.

Note: I'm not suggesting the PP do this (Unless she wants to for whatever reason). I'm suggesting that to get parents to stop thinking that Wednesdays is "off" for teachers, administrators might show them just how everything got moved around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers: please stop telling everyone to just become a teacher without training. It devalues your profession.

—a former teacher

As someone with formal training, I think we all recognize that the formal training is useless, except for maybe the first few grades or those teaching self-contained classes. Pretty much any reasonably intelligent person could do it.