The PD video teachers must watch on Monday

[Anonymous]

These idiots who are Doctors (ha) get 6 figs and job security for life by declining the safety of our profession and blaming teachers of the violent students. Mcps, you don't deserve educated teachers. Anyone with half a brain would realize the corruption.

[Anonymous]

I won’t watch the video. What is it about and what’s the controversy?

[Anonymous]

The problem with this is that although there may be some good ideas here and some important points the whole idea is that freedom=everyone being safe=we are all accountable for our own freedom and the freedom of others and community members need to have their needs met.

Okay but...you can't realistically expect staff to absorb this and implement it when their needs are not being met.

Here is a suggestion:

Fully staff schools at an appropriate level to support all students (which would mean placing more social workers, psychologists, special education teachers, related service providers, counselors, and paraeducators inside schools).

Ensure teachers have the training they actually need to implement the curriculum with fidelity and then give them appropriate time to prepare lessons, progress monitor students, and evaluate that data.

Staff schools with pupil personnel workers (or social workers) so that those professionals can do the very time-consuming work of reaching out to non-responsive parents, abusive parents, and parents who cannot meet their kids' needs or get them to school.

And on and on. Simply telling teachers who are overwhelmed and under-resourced to refrain from saying, "stop," or, "line up," to kids and instead encourage them to say confusing things to kids like, "mind your spot," or "mind the volume of your voice," is unhelpful and impractical.WTF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this is that although there may be some good ideas here and some important points the whole idea is that freedom=everyone being safe=we are all accountable for our own freedom and the freedom of others and community members need to have their needs met.

Okay but...you can't realistically expect staff to absorb this and implement it when their needs are not being met.

Here is a suggestion:

Fully staff schools at an appropriate level to support all students (which would mean placing more social workers, psychologists, special education teachers, related service providers, counselors, and paraeducators inside schools).

Ensure teachers have the training they actually need to implement the curriculum with fidelity and then give them appropriate time to prepare lessons, progress monitor students, and evaluate that data.

Staff schools with pupil personnel workers (or social workers) so that those professionals can do the very time-consuming work of reaching out to non-responsive parents, abusive parents, and parents who cannot meet their kids' needs or get them to school.

And on and on. Simply telling teachers who are overwhelmed and under-resourced to refrain from saying, "stop," or, "line up," to kids and instead encourage them to say confusing things to kids like, "mind your spot," or "mind the volume of your voice," is unhelpful and impractical.WTF.

This is really well said. Teachers themselves do not feel safe. They are getting physically and verbally berated daily and told that their needs and safety do not matter. Maybe if MCPS addressed safety on all fronts teachers might be more willing to listen.

[Anonymous]

I have only been a teacher for less than 5 years. My observation is that many of the administrators are dumb and ineffective. Not all of them. A few are amazing but they are few and far between. Do bad teachers decide to throw in the towel and move into administration? I’m so confused why so many administrators I have come across are mediocre at best but usually actively terrible

[Anonymous]

SDT here: I just saw that the centrally designed feedback form is NOT anonymous and results are sent to principals.

[Anonymous]

As a parent who actual does DEI work and believes that restorative Justice can work in certain cases especially with kids, who commissioned this as PD for teachers and why??? And folks wonder why we can’t change hearts and minds or get people involved.

First if there is going to be talk about freedom in classrooms, it needs to get buyoff from the school teachers and administration. Second you would have a training that explores what a more unrestrictive classroom would look like and how it can be practiced slowly but intentionally. For instance bringing in Montessori teachers/ assistant teachers/trainers. You know folks who actually live this with students everyday. And then you would have teachers and teaching teams discuss and plan the changes they want to try implementing first. Not to mention determine what resources and demands would need to be adjusted or added to make such a thing workable.

It’s terrible that this is the PD that teachers have to sit through. Particular since the administrators present are likely not prepared to teach/facilitate such a topic. This is craziness.

[Anonymous]

Even my principal was taking a deep breath and trying not to roll his eyes when he described the training to staff in very general terms.

This is not what teachers want or need. That is obvious to everyone except the strivers in central office looking to justify their positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have only been a teacher for less than 5 years. My observation is that many of the administrators are dumb and ineffective. Not all of them. A few are amazing but they are few and far between. Do bad teachers decide to throw in the towel and move into administration? I’m so confused why so many administrators I have come across are mediocre at best but usually actively terrible

Long-time teacher NP.

I think a lot of administrators have failed up. I’ve worked for many who were ineffective teachers and found their way out of the classroom by becoming ineffective administrators. It’s really hard to take observations and staff meetings seriously when the admin can’t do what I’m expected to do every day.

I’ve learned to just keep my head down and ignore as much as I can. This keeps me sane and shields my students from a lot of the “this is the latest and best thing!” mandates that always come, take a ton of time, fail, and then fade out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is our agenda for Monday, sent to us by our principal:

Districtwide Professional Learning Day – Monday, October 9th

Morning Session – 9:00 a.m.

By the end of our morning session, we will have:

*Built community that recognizes the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture.
*Deepened our knowledge of the levels of racism and the characteristics of White Supremacy Culture.
*Heard an overview of the Equitable Teaching and Learning Framework with a focus on Core Component #2 – School and Classroom Environment.
*Reflected on the lessons that “troublemakers” teach us about our school and classroom environments.
*Explored examples of how our colleagues have reflected on and made shifts to their school and classroom environments to make them more culturally responsive and/or anti-racist.

LUNCH – 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Afternoon Session – 1:30 p.m.

By the end of our afternoon session, we will have:

*Explored and reflected on components of GLEAM
*Collaborated with peers to plan for instruction built on a foundation of GLEAM

As a teacher who has SO MUCH ACTUAL WORK TO DO and who happens to be married to a black man and have biracial kids, this is such a crock of shit. It's just MCPS checking the box to brag about how culturally responsive they are. But honesty from the Board about real problems w/in our own system is what is needed. HOW MUCH MONEY DID MCPS SPEND ON THIS BS TRAINING!

Teachers, what have you learned so far about white supremacy culture?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SDT here: I just saw that the centrally designed feedback form is NOT anonymous and results are sent to principals.

I never fill out any surveys or feedback forms. They are NEVER anonymous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://youtu.be/lKjXipZjLj4

Imagine you are one of Biedleman;s victims when you get to the about 5:30

What does Biedleman's relationships with staff have to do with staff's relationships with children?

Did you go to the spot in the video that OP referenced? What does freedom mean? It means I won’t get scolded about which bathroom I use the one time a day I can leave my classroom. Freedom means I can answer questions honestly without fear or retaliation. Freedom means I am not being threatened by students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the MCEA have no say in the PD material that MCPS purchases to train them? Did the MCEA sign off on this lady and her kooky “training”?

MCEA has no say in this. It is central office produced and then shoved down our throats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do they speak to educators like they speak to 3rd graders? This wouldn't fly in a normal corporate setting.

That is how they treat us too. People who can’t teach and make way more money than us talk to us like children and don’t trust us to do our jobs.

If we push back and ask for some sort of accountability for students, we are told that we are racist. I’m a teacher of color, and having some sort of expectations for students is not racist. Not holding them accountable is hurting them and they will fail in the real world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is our agenda for Monday, sent to us by our principal:

Districtwide Professional Learning Day – Monday, October 9th

Morning Session – 9:00 a.m.

By the end of our morning session, we will have:

*Built community that recognizes the impact of race, ethnicity, and culture.
*Deepened our knowledge of the levels of racism and the characteristics of White Supremacy Culture.
*Heard an overview of the Equitable Teaching and Learning Framework with a focus on Core Component #2 – School and Classroom Environment.
*Reflected on the lessons that “troublemakers” teach us about our school and classroom environments.
*Explored examples of how our colleagues have reflected on and made shifts to their school and classroom environments to make them more culturally responsive and/or anti-racist.

LUNCH – 12:30-1:30 p.m.

Afternoon Session – 1:30 p.m.

By the end of our afternoon session, we will have:

*Explored and reflected on components of GLEAM
*Collaborated with peers to plan for instruction built on a foundation of GLEAM

As a teacher who has SO MUCH ACTUAL WORK TO DO and who happens to be married to a black man and have biracial kids, this is such a crock of shit. It's just MCPS checking the box to brag about how culturally responsive they are. But honesty from the Board about real problems w/in our own system is what is needed. HOW MUCH MONEY DID MCPS SPEND ON THIS BS TRAINING!

Teachers, what have you learned so far about white supremacy culture?

I took the MCPS multicultural course. A lot of this training is borrowed from/shared that semester long course.

Unfortunately, white supremacy culture is a bit of a loaded, triggering phrase. But in summation it is about the rules in a society to maintain the status quo.

Every society has supremacy culture to keep the dominant ethnic group/culture in power.

Not hard to debate. It’s obviously true. However, changing that structure isn’t really the job of teachers nor can it be done by them alone.