Will MCPS staff get paid during shutdown?

[Anonymous]

Teacher here, the state should pay for Trinity College or whatever to give the course on online modules like Moodle or such so that teachers can fully instruct online. I took 3 web based learning courses for my masters so I can do it but most cannot. Honestly, as soon as it became clear that there is a problem, we should have all enrolled our last day of school for training. Boo to MCPS on that point because a lot of other counties did do that. I am actually thinking of asking my principal if I can do a Google Classroom or Moodle for my class but I think she will say no because not everyone wants to and they are big on being uniform. My only issue is keeping my 3 year old out of stuff while I teach but I can do videos at night or early in the morning, attach materials and myself teaching in voids and add assignments for each day. Creator quizzes, written responses and texts too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What you don’t realize is that a teacher can’t apply for unemployment to makeup for that missing income. We know several two teacher families that work 60-80 weeks at restaurants and bars or warehouses all summer to make ends meet. If they lose that income, it wouldn’t matter that they got paid to stay home now because they won’t be paid for a summer session that replaces the spring.

There would have to be emergency funding to pay teachers for a make-up summer session.

Are you sure?

I remember working days one summer that cut into my summer job because we were told that we had already been paid for them during the snow days. Fair enough, except I left my summer employer short handed and missed days of that pay check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What you don’t realize is that a teacher can’t apply for unemployment to makeup for that missing income. We know several two teacher families that work 60-80 weeks at restaurants and bars or warehouses all summer to make ends meet. If they lose that income, it wouldn’t matter that they got paid to stay home now because they won’t be paid for a summer session that replaces the spring.

There would have to be emergency funding to pay teachers for a make-up summer session.

Are you sure?

I remember working days one summer that cut into my summer job because we were told that we had already been paid for them during the snow days. Fair enough, except I left my summer employer short handed and missed days of that pay check.

I think that MCPS does not want teachers working now, and are instead doing work generated by central office, so that they can make us work over the summer. I can be wrong, but I think that is why they are calling in ¨emergency leave.¨ --- by the way, I know many teachers who are still trying to instruct students using videos, especially AP teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What you don’t realize is that a teacher can’t apply for unemployment to makeup for that missing income. We know several two teacher families that work 60-80 weeks at restaurants and bars or warehouses all summer to make ends meet. If they lose that income, it wouldn’t matter that they got paid to stay home now because they won’t be paid for a summer session that replaces the spring.

There would have to be emergency funding to pay teachers for a make-up summer session.

Are you sure?

I remember working days one summer that cut into my summer job because we were told that we had already been paid for them during the snow days. Fair enough, except I left my summer employer short handed and missed days of that pay check.

I think that MCPS does not want teachers working now, and are instead doing work generated by central office, so that they can make us work over the summer. I can be wrong, but I think that is why they are calling in ¨emergency leave.¨ --- by the way, I know many teachers who are still trying to instruct students using videos, especially AP teachers.

A lot of kids have plans already this summer and some are not able to be changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again, I don't think anyone (except) one troll is suggesting teachers not be paid.

What people ARE suggesting is that they work, which would mean making an uncomfortable and possibly clumsy transition to online learning. That is still better than the alternative.

We WANT to work, but we need to be trained in how to teach online. It’s not as simple as Zoom on your laptop in your living room. We also need to get computers to teachers who also have children at home but only one device. And figure out how to manage childcare for teachers whose children are too young to not interrupt.

This is where MCPS needs to show some leadership. We have a week and a half left in which MCPS could be training teachers and distributing Chromebooks (maybe at the same locations currently hosting free food pickup).

Easy to type out on DCUM, while you're sitting comfortable at home.

Not so easy to actually do.

I love teachers, but this kind of attitude is what drives me crazy about educators in MoCo. No, it's not easy to move to online, which is why a lot of us (public and private sector folks) started working on this problem in February. We didn't wait until the governor declared an emergency to make plans and develop systems.

I am the media specialist at an elementary school and I was aware that we were headed towards the shut down at least several days prior to the actual closing. I started asking my principal if we were going to be obligated to give out technology to students and guidance for how to make a plan for that. She heard all kinds of conflicting information and finally heard basically at 2:00 on Friday that we were not going to give out any tech because our school does not have hotspots so unless the kids had Wi-Fi at home we will be giving them a $200 dollar brick.

[Anonymous]

If they get paid, why aren’t they teaching? It takes little time to put lessons up. So many public school districts are doing it nationwide. MCPS is abysmal and embarrassing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they get paid and don't have to do any work. We were told not to contact teachers.

curious who told you not to contact teachers? School System? Individual Principal? Someone else?

I'm an MCPS Math teacher, have dutifully posted links to what MCPS tossed out.

Then in addition, I've been adding links to Khan Academy, throwing up "quizizz" links for practice, and so forth.

For long term, I'm looking into how to videocast (looks like one can set up a Khan Academy style video lecture system for surprisingly little money or effort, so that is next goal)
Granted I have zero training in doing doing this as organized as I would like - but I figure spending a few hours a day learning more about digital platforms and a few hours a monitoring/posting to the google classroom is the least I can do, not only because it's my job but also .... well .... beats being utterly bored sitting in my apartment!

One difficulty is the multiple digital platforms MCPS halfheartedly supports. Should I use Instructure/Canvas/myMCPS Classroom, which my students seem to loath, or go with Google Classroom? I've gone the google classroom route, but that does not integrate with gradebook.

Am I going to get fired for linking sites like quizziz, deltamath, khan academy to my Google Classroom and giving them access to my student rosters so the various activities can be coordinated? What can I do about those students who haven't joined?
So I have a billion questions, and MCPS refuses to answer any of them. None of my fellow teachers seem to know, admin simply refuses to even acknowledge I've asked the questions, not even a "we'll get back to you" - but that is what I expected from MCPS Admin. (I'm a career changer, pushing 60 years old. MCPS admin is leaps and bounds the most incompetent and toxic group of people I've ever worked for. Planning to end that relationship as soon I land new employment, not that this is a great time, right).

So I guess I'll just continue to try what I can, and hope the 20 (out of about 90) students that have been doing the assignments get something out of this. And wonder how to get the other 70 students involved. And how much I should just say "screw MCPS" and teach what and how I think I can online to my students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they get paid, why aren’t they teaching? It takes little time to put lessons up. So many public school districts are doing it nationwide. MCPS is abysmal and embarrassing

Little time to put up lessons? YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they get paid, why aren’t they teaching? It takes little time to put lessons up. So many public school districts are doing it nationwide. MCPS is abysmal and embarrassing

Little time to put up lessons? YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

My nieces and nephews online classes thru zoom and you tube started on Monday. They started preparing back in February. Their teachers give video lessons on math with a print out recommended (but not needed) to follow along. Then they go to online work and quizzes and submit them back to their math teacher each day. She emailed them back emails that were personable and encouraging. Literacy is based on science, SS, or fiction with writing and repeat backs sent back to their teachers. They are in 3rd and 5th. Not sure what other grades are like.

So, yes this can easily happen for ES teachers who teach the same 25 kids every day. They can upload a 1 hour video lesson and link up supportive work. It is very easy to post a you tube video and link it. I mean an 8 yr old knows how to do that.

[Anonymous]

I teach three grade levels and have three preps, so for damned sure I want help from the county. Some teachers have way more work than others in terms of setting up online courses and materials. A big requirement for online learning is collaboration. I.e. make one new comment and the respond to two other comments. I think google classroom supports this at a minimal level , and I assume mymcps can do it as well.

[Anonymous]

I teach at the elementary level in MCPS and use Google Classroom to some degree with my students. However, I have no experience teaching predominantly through an online platform. I would imagine high school and middle school teachers have more experience with disseminating information using a mostly online format. Thinking about the staff I work with, I know there are many teachers (like myself) who will need some support with this type of learning/teaching. Whatever the county comes up with, it will likely be a uniform approach. Teachers haven’t heard anything about next steps. At this point, there isn’t even a way we can prepare for what’s coming, as there hasn’t been any communication with staff other than the posts parents are receiving from the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has China been prepared to transition to online learning and we are not?
Why is Germany ordering 10,000 additional ventilators and we haven't?
Why do you pay $700 for an emergency room visit but they decided not to use any of that profit for extra mask?

This country has generated so much wealth for a few and they put not even a small effort into safeguards for society. Not even our children education.
We pay very high property tax and we get kids on emergency with no work to do. No teacher support. No plan for their future.
We have been let down in a colossal way.

We don't, actually. Or rather, you may pay a lot in property taxes, but that's because your property has a high property value. The property tax rates in Montgomery County are not high.

Because unlike other localities with higher property rates, we also pay county income tax. Please don’t try to argue that residents of MoCo don’t pay high taxes, which are more than adequate to educate our local students (now the constant influx of nonresidents is another story).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they get paid, why aren’t they teaching? It takes little time to put lessons up. So many public school districts are doing it nationwide. MCPS is abysmal and embarrassing

Little time to put up lessons? YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

My nieces and nephews online classes thru zoom and you tube started on Monday. They started preparing back in February. Their teachers give video lessons on math with a print out recommended (but not needed) to follow along. Then they go to online work and quizzes and submit them back to their math teacher each day. She emailed them back emails that were personable and encouraging. Literacy is based on science, SS, or fiction with writing and repeat backs sent back to their teachers. They are in 3rd and 5th. Not sure what other grades are like.

So, yes this can easily happen for ES teachers who teach the same 25 kids every day. They can upload a 1 hour video lesson and link up supportive work. It is very easy to post a you tube video and link it. I mean an 8 yr old knows how to do that.

Providing links to lessons that others have spent hours, days, months crafting is not, in my book, "putting up lessons". Sure adding a link to someone else's work is easy peasy, but providing and creating that ORIGINAL content, that takes time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, I don't think anyone (except) one troll is suggesting teachers not be paid.

What people ARE suggesting is that they work, which would mean making an uncomfortable and possibly clumsy transition to online learning. That is still better than the alternative.

The problem is MCPS; those of us teachers who WANT to put up lessons, continue teaching, doing SOMETHING, ANYTHING to help students continue to do so, are - at best - not being supported by MCPS. And at worst are being ACTIVELY BANNED from doing so. Basically if MCPS can't find a way to be "equitable" to 100% of the students, they won't allow ANY instruction.

Imagine if your child's school was on fire and the fire department's response was "we couldn't guarantee we could get ALL the children out, so to be equitable we let them ALL burn to death". That is what the MCPS policy amounts to.

Having ALL students lose a quarter of a year of instruction (maybe longer) in the cause of "fairness" is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they get paid, why aren’t they teaching? It takes little time to put lessons up. So many public school districts are doing it nationwide. MCPS is abysmal and embarrassing

Little time to put up lessons? YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

My nieces and nephews online classes thru zoom and you tube started on Monday. They started preparing back in February. Their teachers give video lessons on math with a print out recommended (but not needed) to follow along. Then they go to online work and quizzes and submit them back to their math teacher each day. She emailed them back emails that were personable and encouraging. Literacy is based on science, SS, or fiction with writing and repeat backs sent back to their teachers. They are in 3rd and 5th. Not sure what other grades are like.

So, yes this can easily happen for ES teachers who teach the same 25 kids every day. They can upload a 1 hour video lesson and link up supportive work. It is very easy to post a you tube video and link it. I mean an 8 yr old knows how to do that.

Providing links to lessons that others have spent hours, days, months crafting is not, in my book, "putting up lessons". Sure adding a link to someone else's work is easy peasy, but providing and creating that ORIGINAL content, that takes time.

They put up you tube videos of THEMSELVES teaching to their own ES students daily. So yes, it is original. Do you know what you need? A phone, a white board, dry erase markets, and a computer to upload to a private you tube URL. 1 hour once a day for one teacher is not hard