How to avoid letting teacher maternity leave disrupt the learning environment

[Anonymous]

We just found out DCs 4 th grade teacher next year will be going out for maternity leave mid year. We have experienced this already and the sub was low quality, there was bad behavior, and not enough learning. We had been considering a school change and are kicking ourselves for not doing it.

Any suggestions on how to keep things on track?

[Anonymous]

This could happen at any school OP. Furthermore, I would imagine you appreciated maternity leave for your children.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you could phrase this in a way that sounds a tiny bit less elitist and draconian.

[Anonymous]

Try this, OP: "Is there a way to ensure a teacher's long leave [thus leaving maternity leave out of the focus] won't affect the quality of the classroom experience?] Any tips for beforehand meetings with principal, etc.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you could phrase this in a way that sounds a tiny bit less elitist and draconian.

+1

You sound nasty, OP.

[Anonymous]

Mandatory depo shots?

[Anonymous]

I think this is a fair question. DCPS just needs to retain a pool of highly effective teachers to rotate around the system for men and women on family leave. Other systems do this.

[Anonymous]

I think the OP may be in a charter where they wouldn't have access to a large pool of long term subs. (Which is a good idea for DCPS, BTW). Unfortunately, if it's the charter I'm thinking of, it has not had a good track record of placing strong substitutes with good classroom management skills for long term teacher absences.

[Anonymous]

OP, I posted a similar query last fall, when my child's K teacher went on maternity leave on the first day of school. (She was supposed to leave a few weeks in but went on bedrest unexpectedly.) I was really annoyed, to be quite honest; not that a teacher was having a baby, but that my child's first experience in "real" school was going to be disjointed and possibly disorganized. I also tended to doubt the teacher would come back after maternity leave.

I got bashed, as you are beginning to do, and I don't think that was entirely fair - it's reasonable to want your child to have consistent teaching. But here's the thing: I was totally one hundred percent wrong. The long-term sub who came to my child's classroom on day 2 was fantastic, and the original teacher returned after 3 short months and was equally wonderful (or better, I can't really compare.) My child had a perfect year in kindergarten.

So all this is to say that I understand your anxiety but it doesn't have to work out badly.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's unfair to wonder about a disjointed year, but OP's phrasing was terrible.

[Anonymous]

OP needs to take her concerns to the principal who is really the only one who can help solve the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just found out DCs 4 th grade teacher next year will be going out for maternity leave mid year. We have experienced this already and the sub was low quality, there was bad behavior, and not enough learning. We had been considering a school change and are kicking ourselves for not doing it.

Any suggestions on how to keep things on track?

Perhaps DC could raise taxes to provide a full school year of paid leave for teachers who otherwise would be out part of the year for maternity leave? I'm sure you won't go for that, but I'm not sure what you think the alternative is.

[Anonymous]

I don't blame you OP. And not to mention - all you need to do is read the expectant moms forum here about all the women who can barely make it through the day at work after 30 weeks, and worry about the last couple months as well. Elementary education is a very demanding, difficult job. I'd be disappointed and concerned too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame you OP. And not to mention - all you need to do is read the expectant moms forum here about all the women who can barely make it through the day at work after 30 weeks, and worry about the last couple months as well. Elementary education is a very demanding, difficult job. I'd be disappointed and concerned too.

And how was your job performance at 30 weeks? I bet not awesome. So you probably should have done better for your salary as well. Dammit ladies- when are we going to stop doing silly things like having families and focus on the important things- like work! And keeping others happy!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't blame you OP. And not to mention - all you need to do is read the expectant moms forum here about all the women who can barely make it through the day at work after 30 weeks, and worry about the last couple months as well. Elementary education is a very demanding, difficult job. I'd be disappointed and concerned too.

You know, it used to be that teachers could only stay in the classroom until they got married. Maybe we ought to go back to that system.