Why are our teachers being paid to do 0-30 minutes of teaching every day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You all sound like stay at home moms. I'm sure this is relaxing for you and you are posting cool pictures of you cooking with your kids and doing all your homeschooling but for those of us with health care jobs this is a disaster.

Amen to that. I'm a registered nurse and can't take a day off from work for the last 2 months. Now forget to even think about taking any time off. I only have a preschooler at home, so she doesn't have home work yet, but I still get all these projects and ideas to work with my child. I don't have time for none of it.

You should be working with your preschooler on basics like reading, colors, alphabet, numbers. If you are working and don't have time for that, then I feel bad for your kid as you cannot devote 20 minutes a day to that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nasty, nasty OP.

Grow up, teacher. Your comments are really immature.

I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent, and I agree that OP is the problem. Parents like OP really drag community down on a regular basis. I wish they would move away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nasty, nasty OP.

Grow up, teacher. Your comments are really immature.

I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent, and I agree that OP is the problem. Parents like OP really drag community down on a regular basis. I wish they would move away.

Calm down, it's an April Fools joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nasty, nasty OP.

Grow up, teacher. Your comments are really immature.

I'm not a teacher, I'm a parent, and I agree that OP is the problem. Parents like OP really drag community down on a regular basis. I wish they would move away.

Calm down, it's an April Fools joke.

um...really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all sound like stay at home moms. I'm sure this is relaxing for you and you are posting cool pictures of you cooking with your kids and doing all your homeschooling but for those of us with health care jobs this is a disaster.

I’m sorry someone in healthcare is so stupid. You thought your child would be nannied from afar, perhaps? How exactly would this work? Do you also tie your kid down to his chair in front of his Chromebook then leave for work?

[Anonymous]

Why are we paying them? Because just like most of us here on DCUM, they are salaried. They are not hourly workers that are paid only for the hours they work. If they were, many of them would get overtime pay at time and a half for the hours that they spend in the evenings grading papers and exams, weekends, creating worksheets, lesson plans and labs. We would be paying them extra when they meet parents after school or tutor kids after school or when band and orchestra teachers conduct a concert in the evenings or teachers who run clubs after school mentor their kids through extracurricular activities. As it is, we already pay them a salary that is prorated from the 10 months of actual school and spread their salary out to 12 months. Teachers make far below what they should make based on the average amount of education necessary to attain teaching credentials compared to the average amount of education necessary for a ton of other jobs out there.

The fact that they are salaried means they get the same salary whether they work 60 hours in a week or 0 hours in a week. And right now, most teachers are working some portion of time to prepare for distance learning. Some are working more than others. I have a friend who has a special needs 4th grader whose teacher has been working with him to give him specialized tutoring. She zooms with him for an hour in the morning to give him some lessons and some work and she zooms with him in the afternoon 30 minutes+ to review what he did during the day, go over answers and help him understand if he missed any. And he is not the only teacher that is working with students. I also know a few others who were in the first wave of teachers to learn the new tech and then are conducting zoom sessions with their coworkers to teach them how to use the new tech. And unfortunately the new tech is not as easy to use as Zoom which is not allowed by MD state because there is no allowance for closed captioning and other ADA required aids for students with special needs. I also know several teachers who have been helping school administrators with the acquisition of chromebooks and the distribution of chromebooks to the students to ensure that even those without tech at home and our poorest FARMS students all have the technology that they need to get on-line for the distance learning when it starts. And I was called yesterday by a teacher who was helping the administration call those people who had not filled out the technology questionaire. I filled the googledocs page that came out the day it came out (we're in HCPSS) and apparently many of the Googledocs replies were lost and so many of us who followed the instructions the first few days had to be called. And teachers were helping out with calling because the admins were really busy with other work to get things going.

I'm not a teacher, but I have a lot of profound respect for the teachers. And even if they are at home not working, I know that in about 3 weeks when they start, they will be working very hard...again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shut up. I have a lot of problems with MCPS and whiny teachers, but seriously: They are learning brand new skills. They are trying to figure out a new way to educate our kids. They may be trying to do their work with their own children underfoot. The world has changed in completely unexpected ways in the last 2.5 weeks. Give everyone including teachers a break. Your kids, and mine, and everyone else's, will catch up later.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe our taxes are paying for this.

Why are you being paid to work when you are here posting your inane nonsense on DC urban moms? Teachers (and I’m not one) have to plan, train on this new platform, and teach in an entirely new way to an audience at home with anxious parents, scary news, and who knows what else. Jeez!! I am so grateful to the teachers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’re ramping up to teach. Be patient. This is a whole new world they’re not prepared for. Distance learning is completely different than in class learning. Don’t forget that some of these teachers will also be home with their baby/toddlers getting into things AND/OR trying to homeschool their older kids too. Be patient and kind.

Thank you! I know several teachers who are normally calm and cool on every situation. Even they are in tears today so frustrated with the system. Your kindness means a lot.

A teacher who is desperately trying to do the best for your kid (and mine) with very limited information and resources

[Anonymous]

As a teacher I am really sorry that I opened this. I ignored my own kids all day to try to call every family and update them with the very little information I have. Thankfully, they were much more kind than OP.

[Anonymous]

I’m a contractor getting paid $14k a month to do get very little at the moment given current circumstances . There are more things to be outraged at than paying our teachers. They are lifesavers and they are heroes to our children.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. I haven’t cried about work in a few years but I’ve cried a few times in the last few days. It’s overwhelming. Like first year of teaching overwhelming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are we paying them? Because just like most of us here on DCUM, they are salaried. They are not hourly workers that are paid only for the hours they work. If they were, many of them would get overtime pay at time and a half for the hours that they spend in the evenings grading papers and exams, weekends, creating worksheets, lesson plans and labs. We would be paying them extra when they meet parents after school or tutor kids after school or when band and orchestra teachers conduct a concert in the evenings or teachers who run clubs after school mentor their kids through extracurricular activities. As it is, we already pay them a salary that is prorated from the 10 months of actual school and spread their salary out to 12 months. Teachers make far below what they should make based on the average amount of education necessary to attain teaching credentials compared to the average amount of education necessary for a ton of other jobs out there.

The fact that they are salaried means they get the same salary whether they work 60 hours in a week or 0 hours in a week. And right now, most teachers are working some portion of time to prepare for distance learning. Some are working more than others. I have a friend who has a special needs 4th grader whose teacher has been working with him to give him specialized tutoring. She zooms with him for an hour in the morning to give him some lessons and some work and she zooms with him in the afternoon 30 minutes+ to review what he did during the day, go over answers and help him understand if he missed any. And he is not the only teacher that is working with students. I also know a few others who were in the first wave of teachers to learn the new tech and then are conducting zoom sessions with their coworkers to teach them how to use the new tech. And unfortunately the new tech is not as easy to use as Zoom which is not allowed by MD state because there is no allowance for closed captioning and other ADA required aids for students with special needs. I also know several teachers who have been helping school administrators with the acquisition of chromebooks and the distribution of chromebooks to the students to ensure that even those without tech at home and our poorest FARMS students all have the technology that they need to get on-line for the distance learning when it starts. And I was called yesterday by a teacher who was helping the administration call those people who had not filled out the technology questionaire. I filled the googledocs page that came out the day it came out (we're in HCPSS) and apparently many of the Googledocs replies were lost and so many of us who followed the instructions the first few days had to be called. And teachers were helping out with calling because the admins were really busy with other work to get things going.

I'm not a teacher, but I have a lot of profound respect for the teachers. And even if they are at home not working, I know that in about 3 weeks when they start, they will be working very hard...again.

Technically, the substitutes and longterm substitutes are hourly. How are they being paid here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe our taxes are paying for this.

You "see" 0 - 30 minutes. You have no idea what else they are doing. My husband has spent 4 hours in online meetings today.

[Anonymous]

I for one would like to thank all the teachers out there who are attempting to make the best of terrible situation. The rude and insulting comments from the parents on here are truly disgusting. These teachers are clearly not in this profession for the money. They spend more time with your kids than you do and in the midst of a pandemic you feel it’s the best time to criticize their work ethic and attack their character.