Teacher workdays/school planning are ridiculous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs.

Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout.

So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers.

Are you a teacher? Because, to be honest, what you wrote sounds like fiction. It doesn't sound like you have direct, personal experience with teaching. Instead, it reads like a script for a teacher-focused movie... full of stereotypes and assumptions. It's like when I watch Abbott Elementary. That's not remotely how a school operates. How do those teachers have all that time to sit around and talk?

Since I posted about ignorance above, at least two posters have made assumptions about me. One accused me of being ignorant of other jobs. That's true. I don't know what it's like to be a doctor, a lawyer, a fed. But I'm also not online making blanket assumptions about these jobs and assuming my ignorance is more valuable than their expertise. I read posts about these jobs here on DCUM and ***I DO NOT COMMENT*** because my uninformed opinion would not support the thread's purpose. So there's the difference: I fix ignorance my listening, not by screaming louder than those who know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs.

Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout.

So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers.

Are you a teacher? Because, to be honest, what you wrote sounds like fiction. It doesn't sound like you have direct, personal experience with teaching. Instead, it reads like a script for a teacher-focused movie... full of stereotypes and assumptions. It's like when I watch Abbott Elementary. That's not remotely how a school operates. How do those teachers have all that time to sit around and talk?

Since I posted about ignorance above, at least two posters have made assumptions about me. One accused me of being ignorant of other jobs. That's true. I don't know what it's like to be a doctor, a lawyer, a fed. But I'm also not online making blanket assumptions about these jobs and assuming my ignorance is more valuable than their expertise. I read posts about these jobs here on DCUM and ***I DO NOT COMMENT*** because my uninformed opinion would not support the thread's purpose. So there's the difference: I fix ignorance my listening, not by screaming louder than those who know.

Close family member of a successful public school teacher. My views are informed by her frustrations with her entitled colleagues and their unrealistic expectations.

Your acknowledged ignorance about other professions seems to have missed the intersection with your own. The current calendar creates burdens on working parents in other professions which you clearly do not understand. Those burdens outweigh potential benefits of this calendar because they take resources away from students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs.

Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout.

So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers.

I have never heard that as a reason. I have 2 HS teacher friends in different states who don’t know each other. Their complaints… Students who should have been held back but kept getting promoted to next grade because of admin and parents. Reading at a 3rd grade level. Can’t do basic arithmetic. Disrespectful students who refuse to do work. Terrible behavior problems. Not being able to give meaningful consequences because of admin and parents. Parents who enable their kids and complain about homework and supplemental lessons. One friend is no longer a teacher. The other friend is deflated. She thought she could make a difference and bring creative engaging lessons to the classroom. Instead, she feels she has to just teach to the test because of pressure from admin and parent complaints.

I volunteer for one of my kid’s activities. Some of the parents ruin the experience for everyone. I can’t imagine if my job was to deal with parents all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

This is a thread complaining about teachers. Her perspective on life as a teacher is actually relevant. Your perspective on life as a working parent who expects free daycare once your kids turn five is not relevant.

If you don’t want to accept it, you can always homeschool. Or hire a private tutor. Otherwise, beggars (that’s you!) can’t be choosers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs.

Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout.

So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers.

Are you a teacher? Because, to be honest, what you wrote sounds like fiction. It doesn't sound like you have direct, personal experience with teaching. Instead, it reads like a script for a teacher-focused movie... full of stereotypes and assumptions. It's like when I watch Abbott Elementary. That's not remotely how a school operates. How do those teachers have all that time to sit around and talk?

Since I posted about ignorance above, at least two posters have made assumptions about me. One accused me of being ignorant of other jobs. That's true. I don't know what it's like to be a doctor, a lawyer, a fed. But I'm also not online making blanket assumptions about these jobs and assuming my ignorance is more valuable than their expertise. I read posts about these jobs here on DCUM and ***I DO NOT COMMENT*** because my uninformed opinion would not support the thread's purpose. So there's the difference: I fix ignorance my listening, not by screaming louder than those who know.

Close family member of a successful public school teacher. My views are informed by her frustrations with her entitled colleagues and their unrealistic expectations.

Your acknowledged ignorance about other professions seems to have missed the intersection with your own. The current calendar creates burdens on working parents in other professions which you clearly do not understand. Those burdens outweigh potential benefits of this calendar because they take resources away from students.

Once again: you fail to see the teacher’s experience, clearly assuming yours is paramount.

I am a working parent, just like you. The calendar is a burden for me, as well. I have my own childcare struggles, as I often have to stay at school and my DH has to take leave to get our children.

I did not create the calendar. I deal with its challenges, too.

So what’s the difference between us? I seem to consider other perspectives, and I also am able to extend grace. I know it isn’t easy. But I’m not going to throw wild, ignorant accusations at people in a misguided attempt to make my own life better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

And yet you show no eagerness to learn about subjects about which you are ignorant— for example what it is like to be in a demanding job that isn’t teaching while also being a parent.

Perhaps if you showed more willingness to learn— embrace the opportunity as you put it— then parent frustration wouldn’t reach the level of needing to advocate to the board to make changes that teachers could’ve made themselves.

DP. She doesn’t need to learn about how tough your life is due to your career and family choices. She is not your hired help. Get that through your skull and maybe you’ll be less frustrated.

She seems very interested in telling us how difficult her life is as a teacher, and why that means we should accept additional teacher planning days in a terrible calendar. But really there’s no need for us to accept that, just to make her life and her choices easier.

DP. I’m a parent who actually respects teachers. Do I think all of my kids’ teachers are excellent? No but I think they have a tough job and the majority do their best with the hand they are dealt. Attitudes like yours is why teachers leave the profession. If you treat teachers in real life like you do online, you are making it more difficult for teachers to educate students. If you have a demanding job as you describe with commensurate pay and you are so disgruntled with the calendar and teacher prep time, then private school is where your family belongs.

Teachers leave the profession because they absorb very entitled attitudes from toxic older teachers and then are frustrated when those entitlements never get fulfilled. If teachers were told: this is a hard job. You will work nights and weekends in your early years as you develop your plans. You will get some incredible perks. Remember that schools serve students NOT teachers. And internalized that message, they wouldn’t be playing the victim constantly. Constantly feeling victimized leads to burnout.

So high teacher turnover isn’t a bad thing, and if realistic expectations leads to turnover than we’re losing the right teachers.

Are you a teacher? Because, to be honest, what you wrote sounds like fiction. It doesn't sound like you have direct, personal experience with teaching. Instead, it reads like a script for a teacher-focused movie... full of stereotypes and assumptions. It's like when I watch Abbott Elementary. That's not remotely how a school operates. How do those teachers have all that time to sit around and talk?

Since I posted about ignorance above, at least two posters have made assumptions about me. One accused me of being ignorant of other jobs. That's true. I don't know what it's like to be a doctor, a lawyer, a fed. But I'm also not online making blanket assumptions about these jobs and assuming my ignorance is more valuable than their expertise. I read posts about these jobs here on DCUM and ***I DO NOT COMMENT*** because my uninformed opinion would not support the thread's purpose. So there's the difference: I fix ignorance my listening, not by screaming louder than those who know.

Close family member of a successful public school teacher. My views are informed by her frustrations with her entitled colleagues and their unrealistic expectations.

Your acknowledged ignorance about other professions seems to have missed the intersection with your own. The current calendar creates burdens on working parents in other professions which you clearly do not understand. Those burdens outweigh potential benefits of this calendar because they take resources away from students.

Once again: you fail to see the teacher’s experience, clearly assuming yours is paramount.

I am a working parent, just like you. The calendar is a burden for me, as well. I have my own childcare struggles, as I often have to stay at school and my DH has to take leave to get our children.

I did not create the calendar. I deal with its challenges, too.

So what’s the difference between us? I seem to consider other perspectives, and I also am able to extend grace. I know it isn’t easy. But I’m not going to throw wild, ignorant accusations at people in a misguided attempt to make my own life better.

The difference is that the calendar is meant to serve you, and not other working parents, and the calendar which serves you diminishes the resources available to the children public schools are intended to serve. A kid left alone on a TW day is a worse outcome than you grading during your lunch.

As you say, you’re ignorant of what it is like for other professions. Focus on this opportunity to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

You don’t by any chance teach math?

Look at the FARMS eligibility in FCPS. No, the majority doesn’t make “considerably more” than teachers or their kids wouldn’t be getting free meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just messed up. We have a super short Q3. Teacher work day and school planning immediately after the spring break. 3 days days off in May to celebrate yet another religious holiday. This school year has been a disaster. These kids are barely in school.

There needs to be 1 TW per quarter. One. And follow federal holiday schedule, no religious stuff. FYI, not a Christian here, I don't care if you are closed on my religious holidays or not.

This statement is factually inaccurate. By the end of the year, the kids will have spent just as much time in school as they have every other year. There are legal time requirements mandated by the VDOE. The kids will surpass it, as they always do.

The statement is factually inaccurate. They will have spent a minimum of 990 hours in school. If you want to brag about 993 hours (the number of hours elementary students will have barring another unexpected closures) as surpassing mandated requirements, that’s fine, I guess. But that number is low compared to other years.

It is the lack of consistency. These short days are a complete waste. They waste so much time at lunch and recess you can’t get stuff done. With all the choppy weeks you can’t get started on a week long lesson plan. So then there are gaps. Kids forget. You start over. Repeat. How any thought this was a good idea is just beyond me.

And just to reiterate elementary schools do basically no learning on the short days. They are a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

I'd prefer better pay for teachers, particuarly when FCPS salaries are compared to surrounding jurisdictions but....

Teacher pay is for a less than full year so its not an apples to apples comparasion. Scale it for an equivlent amount of time and the ~60k starting salary in FCPS jumps much closer to entry level engineering pay.

Nope. That’s not how salaries work.

(Also, I made that as an entry level engineer in the area over 20 GD years ago. It’s laughable to defend these miserly salaries for professionals in one of the wealthiest areas of the country.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

You don’t by any chance teach math?

Look at the FARMS eligibility in FCPS. No, the majority doesn’t make “considerably more” than teachers or their kids wouldn’t be getting free meals.

Sorry, dummy, I should have clarified: the majority of the “professionals with demanding jobs” who b—ch and moan about teachers on DCUM are paid considerably more than that.

The majority of folks who aren’t paid as much as teachers are certainly not working at jobs where they’re expected to be on calls all day and then take work home with them. Don’t be absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m of two thoughts:

Yes, the calendar is too disjointed and it needs to be fixed.

But teachers need work days. If we want teachers to stay in the profession, they need to be granted time during the work week (even just occasionally) to get their work done. It shouldn’t be the expectation that nights and weekends belong to their jobs, too.

I have a demanding job. It has me on calls for a good portion of the day. This means I have to work outside of work hours to get my work done.

Teachers need to also use their time more efficiently. FCPS ES and MS have very little grading to do.

You sound ignorant. You don't have a clue what's asked of teachers. Also school isn't daycare figure out your parenting.

Shouldn’t you be grading some papers instead of arguing with parents on here? Since you’re so overloaded and all?

I'm a DP, but I am also a teacher.

Let's be honest: if you don't teach, you ARE ignorant of the demands of teaching. That's not an insult. Ignorance is literally defined as lacking knowledge or awareness about a particular subject. Therefore, if you haven't taught you DON'T actually know what is demanded of teachers. And again: that's not an insult.

But is IS insulting when you come here and belittle a job you know little about.

So when teachers try to explain to you why we need planning time, this is an opportunity for you to learn about something you're unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, posters on this site label comments from teachers as "complaining" or "arguing" when it's simply "explaining." I see it all the time. It's why teachers become defensive, because their words are misconstrued and dismissed at almost every turn by people who are ignorant. (Again: not an insult.)

So, I'll take your advice and go grade papers. That's far more productive than posting here considering these trends.

I am not going to out myself on here, but rest assured, I know the demands of your job because I used to live in a household with a teacher and my own job carries some of the same demands. I also know the demands of other people’s jobs where they are under tremendous pressure to show consistently excellent performance or they will be fired. Being a great teacher is really hard. It’s a thankless job and you have to bring a lot of work home with you if you’re doing it right. But it’s also true that it comes with a lot of job security. Mediocre and lazy teachers can sit in their jobs for years and the worst thing that happens to them is they get moved to a different school. Right now there are a lot of parents who feel like they are barely hanging onto their jobs and this calendar is really not helping.

The majority of those parents get paid considerably more than teachers. Enough with the false equivalence. Hire a f—king babysitter.

You don’t by any chance teach math?

Look at the FARMS eligibility in FCPS. No, the majority doesn’t make “considerably more” than teachers or their kids wouldn’t be getting free meals.

Sorry, dummy, I should have clarified: the majority of the “professionals with demanding jobs” who b—ch and moan about teachers on DCUM are paid considerably more than that.

The majority of folks who aren’t paid as much as teachers are certainly not working at jobs where they’re expected to be on calls all day and then take work home with them. Don’t be absurd.

So many assumptions. You don’t sound very smart. I guess that’s why tou have to sit and take up space in your teaching job where you’ll never fired even if you suck at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have so much they need to do when not actually teaching. They need the work days. The county needs to decide to use the federal holidays as teacher work days or get rid of the cultural holidays in the calendar. TW days and federal holidays and cultural holidays are causing the scheduling issues.

This makes sense to me (a parent who has not taught). I really like the teachers getting what they need, but admin/the school board needs to think of the big picture for kids and families and staff.

My favorite choices is tagging a teacher work day next to a holiday or other necessary “disruption", becuase it let’s families either arrange a care solution for more than one day or take vacation day for an actual vacation somewhere instead of just a stay cation with the kids. Can the first or last day of spring and winter break be a teacher work day?

We spent a year in a different country, and despite the calendar going from basically 9/1 through the end of June, I loved it. There was a 2 week fall break, 2 week winter break, and 2 week spring break, and another break in there. There were few or zero random one day holidays.

[Anonymous]

* and also, the 2 week breaks had day camps offered for those who paid & needed it