Administering tests leads to grading tests and providing feedback. Group projects leads to grading group projects and providing feedback. You realize that assigning work leads to more work for teachers, right? A teacher trying to “kill time” isn’t going to create work for themselves. |
Group projects are largely bs though. |
My entire grade-level subject area is giving a short quiz AND teaching an entire lesson tomorrow/Friday. My son will be absent from 2nd period on Friday because he has a cardiologist appointment, so he spoke with his teacher about what he will be missing in his class. He is missing a quiz, notes on a new concept, and classwork related to that new concept, during which his teacher always pulls small groups for reteaching. That sounds like teaching is occurring. As a secondary school teacher, I can 100% guarantee you that no secondary teacher is "killing time." There is no flexibility in the curriculum that would allow for "killing time." We can barely get through our curriculum as it is. |
But some of you can have your classes taught by a sub all week so clearly the time pressure is not acute on all of you. Again, I don’t see anything wrong with this. But a principal shouldn’t be saying Teachers will be in the classroom when they will not. |
+1 it’s as simple as that. |
One of my teacher friends has been out all week because she's in the hospital, in the critical care unit. Yes, her classes are being taught by a sub all week. Her sub is a retired teacher who used to be her department chairperson, so her sub is fully qualified to teach her classes. I'm so sorry if her principal "lied" and said she'd be in the classroom when she's not. How incredibly inconsiderate it is of her to have a serious, potentially life-threatening medical issue the week before winter break! I've been teaching for 30 years and have only had a sub a handful of times who is not either a retired teacher or a retired professional from the field in which I teach. I feel confident that my subs have been able to handle instruction when I have been required to be out. I average 4-5 days out per year, though there have been years in which I've missed zero days, and years in which I've missed more than 25 days (such as when I had to have surgery, followed by two different serious illnesses over the course of the school year). In case you're wondering, though, I AM planning to be in my classroom all of this week. Not all teachers who are out this week are on vacation. Just like everyone else, we experience deaths in our families, illness, injuries, emergencies, and other life events that are not always under our control. The time constraint/pressure IS acute /critical for us, so we get stressed when we have to be out. Unfortunately, our family members don't plan their deaths around school holidays, viruses don't wait for weekends to hit us, and surgeons don't care about making surgical arrangements convenient for our school schedules. We are doing the best we can. It would be nice if every family could show a little more empathy and support instead of jumping to the conclusion that we are out partying when we are absent. |
No, it isn't as simple as that. You don't know why teachers may be out this week. It might not have been a planned absence. |
As a teacher, I can assure you that there’s not more than one teacher out in the whole school for the entire week. I don’t even think there’s one teacher out for the entire week. |
There’s a poster on this thread who seems to enjoy fueling the flames. The rest of us know teachers are at school and working. |
And yet there are parents on this thread with more than one. There’s nothing wrong with teachers being out, but its quite a look to send a scolding email to parents when the people who work for you were on a plane last Friday. |
Maybe more empathy and support from the principal about families who live far from home would lead to more understanding from parents. Certainly if your friend is in the school where the principal sent the email, her boss has put her in an awkward position by saying she would be teaching this week. Maybe he’ll learn to do better. |
There’s email wasn’t “scolding” and teachers didn’t send it. Move on. If you want to take a vacation, take a vacation. Nobody cares about this as much as you do. |
You’re right, the teachers didn’t send it, but it makes commitments on their behalf. And since you’re on page 37 it seems like you really care. |
I call out nonsense where I see it. You've spent 37 pages whining about teachers because a principal sent a letter stated that attendance is important. Write an angry letter to the principal and call out all those horrible teachers for taking their leave. Come back and let us know what response you get. |
Are you serious? Good God, you're a piece of work. |