Two of my kids’ 3 teachers won’t be in tomorrow

[Anonymous]

I get that, but I mean we will (hopefully from a parent perspective) have the kids in school 5 days a week next year. So, it sounds like they need to expand contracted hours



Um, no. They won't expand contract hours. That would mean they'd have to increase pay. Most of the past 10 years at least APS teachers haven't been getting promised step or COLA increases so now you think they will find the money to give us more planning time? They'll just continue to make us work on our own unpaid time in order to meet basic requirements. And yeah, we have to buy our own post it notes and dry erase markers too. Thanks APS!

Not to mention that if they did expand contract hours, they would not allow teachers to use that time to plan and grade. They would fill it with additional pointless meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I get that, but I mean we will (hopefully from a parent perspective) have the kids in school 5 days a week next year. So, it sounds like they need to expand contracted hours



Um, no. They won't expand contract hours. That would mean they'd have to increase pay. Most of the past 10 years at least APS teachers haven't been getting promised step or COLA increases so now you think they will find the money to give us more planning time? They'll just continue to make us work on our own unpaid time in order to meet basic requirements. And yeah, we have to buy our own post it notes and dry erase markers too. Thanks APS!

Not to mention that if they did expand contract hours, they would not allow teachers to use that time to plan and grade. They would fill it with additional pointless meetings.

YUPPPPP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS teacher here. I am in meetings for usually 5 hours on Mondays. I spend 2-3 hours with my language arts team planning and preparing the comi week’s (or the week after if we are ahead) lessons, assignments, and recordings. So, we aren’t continuously live that whole time. Then in the afternoon we meet as a grade level team and review the planned lessons each person did for the week with the team so we are all prepared to teach it as well as discuss assessments, scheduling for interventions, projects coming up. Then I also work preparing things on my own and working on IEPs or other paperwork (I’m a special Ed teacher for this grade level).

APS changed their plan for tomorrow just a few weeks ago, and some teachers, like MANY students, will still be traveling back and not able to hold synchronous classes tomorrow. You wouldn’t know if they had taken the day of asynchronous but it was likely already planned in advance. Sorry yea hers don’t get to take their earned leave in your view.

When did all this stuff occur prior to Asych Mondays? Did it just happen after the school day? I am just curious.

One thing you should understand is how much work related to teaching is expected to be done on our own time. There is quite literally not enough time in the contract hours to do it all. Yes there is “planning time” - that is usually when you have CLT meetings or PD they make us do once a month or an IEP meeting. Yes, meetings also occur before and after school. For example I have a department meeting tomorrow morning at 8 am. Faculty meetings were always after school on the first Tuesday of the month or whatever. Lesson planning and grading - the assumption is you’ll do it at home. And I used to, but I don’t anymore. If I can’t teach, grade, plan, pull data, give IEP feedback, attend meetings and trainings in the contracted hours, they gave me too much to do. I do absolutely zero work outside of contract any longer because I’m done doing work for free. It gets done on contract time, however many days that takes.

I get that, but I mean we will (hopefully from a parent perspective) have the kids in school 5 days a week next year. So, it sounds like they need to expand contracted hours

But they won’t. Because then they’d have to pay more. And there is this very toxic attitude around education that teachers should be HAPPY to do unpaid work because it’s “for the kids.” The education system completely exploits that and a lot of teachers (myself included up until a few years ago) let them do it, because we fall for the trap. If they give us too much to do during our actual work hours, I no longer spend weekends or precious free time with my family picking up slack and getting it done. I prioritize the stuff dealing directly with the kids, use every minute of my contract time, and whatever doesn’t get done will get done when I get to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 2 days I’m in person, my students only have 30 minutes for specials and those are virtual so I am required to remain in the classroom with them while they participate. I get my 45 minute lunch. Then I have recess duty. Students also come into the classroom on those days beginning at 8:40 because we don’t want them congregating together elsewhere so we have to be ready then (used to be arrival at 8:30 for teachers and then prep until about 8:50).

One virtual day per week we have a 1:15 minute meeting after school with our CLT which is grade level team, admin, specialists, to review intervention data, plan and evaluate assessment data, etc.

One day per week we have sped meetings (not Mondays).
One day per week just my subject matter meets to look ahead and divvy up responsibilities for preparing instruction and work. It takes quite a bit of time to make instruction and work virtually. APS doesn’t use workbooks and teacher manuals unfortunately. So we are creating our own assignments for each subject daily and it’s not a 5 minute task.

This seems like such a massive waste of time. What do school systems have against text books, work books, actually providing a curriculum?

[Anonymous]

This seems like such a massive waste of time. What do school systems have against text books, work books, actually providing a curriculum?

I'd love to know! It's so bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Not to mention that if they did expand contract hours, they would not allow teachers to use that time to plan and grade. They would fill it with additional pointless meetings

This is what happened this year. APS massivley reduced instructional time without reducing contracted hours. This time was filled with pointless meetings that don't benefit students. Now teachers are resisting returning to the prior amount of instructional time because those meetings are now "necessary."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This seems like such a massive waste of time. What do school systems have against text books, work books, actually providing a curriculum?

I'd love to know! It's so bizarre.

+1

The transition to DL for my students was fairly painless because they had textbooks and I had digital copies of the textbooks.

I admit, at first I tried to be "fancy" and use technology to do presentations, online worksheets, and such but it took waaaay too much time to create and actually slowed the progress of a lot of students.

K.I.S.S. really does fit the situation. Now I just share my screen in zoom and put up my digital textbook. I talk to the students (but not lecture) and have them do exercises in their workbooks. If they have a question, I can help them with the shared screen, but they are not staring at the screen for the bulk of their class. Progress is better than in-person and even though it seems boring, the students seem to enjoy this format.

[Anonymous]

Our kid's teacher assigns work on Friday to be returned on Tuesday. Do it over the weekend or on Monday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is tomorrow a synchronous day for all elementary students in APS? Confused parent

Yes synchronous for k-12

Not at our school, it was only grade 3-5. Just to add an extra wrinkle

What school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and they are allowed to take personal days as they please.

Many jobs have restrictions on when you can take personal days. If there aren't enough subs, then that's a pretty darn good reason to restrict when they can be used.

Go away, teacher hater.

Troll. This is just agreeing with a longstanding APS policy.

Someone posted the APS policy on another thread. There definitely shouldn't be so many teachers out today. It's a blatant breach of APS policy.

"Personal leave may not be taken on days immediately before or after a school holiday, a legal holiday, the winter holiday, spring break or at the beginning or end of the school year. An exception may be made by the principal or department head if the employee is attending summer school and attendance is required before the last working day or after the first working day of the school year, or if the employee must meet a compelling personal or business need which cannot be met at any other time. Requests for exceptions must be made in writing and specify the reasons why the exception is needed."

[Anonymous]

I love asynchronous mondays. Kids get a break from the computer. We have an math class scheduled that day for an hour and a foreign language class. Otherwise they are playing and learning in their own way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love asynchronous mondays. Kids get a break from the computer. We have an math class scheduled that day for an hour and a foreign language class. Otherwise they are playing and learning in their own way.

I hate them, but we can't afford fancy tutoring classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This seems like such a massive waste of time. What do school systems have against text books, work books, actually providing a curriculum?

I'd love to know! It's so bizarre.

THEY COST A LOT OF MONEY. Period. It’s always money. They don’t buy it so then teachers have to make it (outside contract hours / even better!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and they are allowed to take personal days as they please.

Many jobs have restrictions on when you can take personal days. If there aren't enough subs, then that's a pretty darn good reason to restrict when they can be used.

Go away, teacher hater.

Troll. This is just agreeing with a longstanding APS policy.

Someone posted the APS policy on another thread. There definitely shouldn't be so many teachers out today. It's a blatant breach of APS policy.

"Personal leave may not be taken on days immediately before or after a school holiday, a legal holiday, the winter holiday, spring break or at the beginning or end of the school year. An exception may be made by the principal or department head if the employee is attending summer school and attendance is required before the last working day or after the first working day of the school year, or if the employee must meet a compelling personal or business need which cannot be met at any other time. Requests for exceptions must be made in writing and specify the reasons why the exception is needed."

It says there’s exceptions . Principals approve these dates every year. This policy as written exists so that IF it gets denied there’s standing for it. But principals can grant leave for exceptions as this policy states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are people and they are allowed to take personal days as they please.

Many jobs have restrictions on when you can take personal days. If there aren't enough subs, then that's a pretty darn good reason to restrict when they can be used.

Go away, teacher hater.

Troll. This is just agreeing with a longstanding APS policy.

Someone posted the APS policy on another thread. There definitely shouldn't be so many teachers out today. It's a blatant breach of APS policy.

"Personal leave may not be taken on days immediately before or after a school holiday, a legal holiday, the winter holiday, spring break or at the beginning or end of the school year. An exception may be made by the principal or department head if the employee is attending summer school and attendance is required before the last working day or after the first working day of the school year, or if the employee must meet a compelling personal or business need which cannot be met at any other time. Requests for exceptions must be made in writing and specify the reasons why the exception is needed."

It says there’s exceptions . Principals approve these dates every year. This policy as written exists so that IF it gets denied there’s standing for it. But principals can grant leave for exceptions as this policy states.

Only for "compelling business or personal reasons." Given the number of teacher absences today, that standard doesn't seem to have been widely enforced this year. Unfortunately at this point its pretty clear that APS doesn't give an f about instruction. Whatever works. Who cares if students learn anything?