What are schools/teachers doing this summer to make DL actually work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So if I can do prepare for a very uncertain fall, why can't k-12 teachers? Most college professors don't make much more than senior-level teachers; we have serious writing and research loads along with our teaching obligations; and most of us also have major administrative work. So our workloads are similar too. What makes teachers so entitled, besides the thug-like backing of their unions?

I'll tell you why in my case: I am an elementary school teacher and don't have as much autonomy as you do. My school district will tell me what I am supposed to teach and how I should teach it; which lessons should be face to face and which should be prerecorded, which platforms we should use, and which we must no longer use. We are told which hours (and how many hours) we need to teach and when we may not teach.

Although I hope it doesn't happen, I could start school next fall and be told I am assigned to teach not 2nd grade but 5th grade. I could be presented with a set of prerecorded lectures from the central office and be told my job is to use these lectures plus a new program our school just adopted. I could be told to no longer use Google Classroom, we are switching to Schoolology.

So I am not going to invest a lot of time in planning courses until I have all the information I will need to do so.

So when you say school district, what do you mean? MCPS is our school district. Or do you mean BCC cluster or something else?

[Anonymous]

So when you say school district, what do you mean? MCPS is our school district. Or do you mean BCC cluster or something else?

This is the schools & education general discussion forum. Not everyone is MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a professor, I had essentially three days to convert my in person classes to online DL classes. It was really hard but I did it.

Now, this summer, I am completely revamping my classes so I will have both a regular, in-person version of class and an online version of class ready to go. I am on a 9 month contract, like most professors, and so I am spending my unpaid time preparing for teaching in the fall, whether it be DL, F2F, or hybrid. We honestly don't how what it will be, so we are ALL preparing for any circumstances.

So if I can do prepare for a very uncertain fall, why can't k-12 teachers? Most college professors don't make much more than senior-level teachers; we have serious writing and research loads along with our teaching obligations; and most of us also have major administrative work. So our workloads are similar too. What makes teachers so entitled, besides the thug-like backing of their unions?

I was a high school teacher (and did a stint in middle) before I went back to school, got a PhD, and became a professor. College level teaching is SO MUCH EASIER than high school teaching. I do make significantly more than I made teaching HS and live in a much less expensive area. My responsibilities outside of teaching are much greater at the uni, but I do work at a teaching focused uni.

For those that are curious, I miss teaching high school all the time. I sometimes think about going back to it. Because of the schedule, age, and format, it was much easier to get to know the high schoolers; they are fun and interesting and really sorting themselves out as people. Despite enjoying the age more, there were so many things about teaching HS that were torture: extreme lack of resources in one way or another, constant switching of "improvement" plans, being punished for things we had absolutely no control over, and extremely disruptive students that would be there EVERY DAY. In addition, my high schoolers were more likely to have more severe problems outside of school: food insecurity, homelessness, abusive or disruptive home life, etc.

I am in the exact same boat as the prof I quoted above (wonder if we're at the same school). In addition, we were told we need to have an online and in version of our classes running at the same time because students who are sick/in quarantine will need to keep up. I'm not happy about having to prepare twice and run two classes for every class I teach. I have complained a lot about it, but I am doing it. I am lucky I have the time and money to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I brought home materials to prep my first quarter lessons, but my principal can’t yet tell me what I am teaching or how I will be teaching it—although I put in for hybrid, my specialized classes may need to be online and they don’t know if it would be asynchronous or synchronous. I literally don’t KNOW what or how I will be teaching yet. They HOPE to tell me by Early August, and then I can start prepping.

I’m a prepper and never mind summer planning (it saves me from those marathon days at the beginning of the year), but I can’t plan until I know what I am planning for.

Me too. Normally, I spend tons of time over the summer prepping for the next year. This summer I'm not because I have no idea, what I'm going to have to do.

[Anonymous]

This teacher is busting her chops at Instacart, you know, being essential AF, putting my life on the line, as DCUM'ers say, to make ends meet. I also just finished my Master's and am paying that off my credit card by teaching English online at 3 am. I also have 3 kiddos who go to a neighbor during the day. Then, in my "free time" since I do nothing but shop at Target, watch Netflix and go to the beach, I am planning to kick butt in DL like I did in the Spring. And don't you DARE insult my performance as all 26 of my families sent gifts and wrote letters of thanks as I took the kids on college tour a, virtual field trips and delivered last day of school summer buckets of fun on each child's doorstep. Don't you dare take that away from me and tell me I am lousy as I go above and beyond to serve and help, even helping a child read 3 days a week for an hour after our 2 hour zoom. And, I work in MCPS. Oh, and during my other " free time", I am out serving food and cleaning up trash and masks/gloves that thoughtless, entitled people leave all over the ground in astounding amounts. I have raised money and bought toys, games and books for kids home all summer with nothing to do. Next, I am building Little Pantries in areas of need. Maybe if you help and be a decent human being and stop being a part of the problem, we can get through this together. We are all parents and humans just trying to survive. Please stop hating on each other and collaborate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This teacher is busting her chops at Instacart, you know, being essential AF, putting my life on the line, as DCUM'ers say, to make ends meet. I also just finished my Master's and am paying that off my credit card by teaching English online at 3 am. I also have 3 kiddos who go to a neighbor during the day. Then, in my "free time" since I do nothing but shop at Target, watch Netflix and go to the beach, I am planning to kick butt in DL like I did in the Spring. And don't you DARE insult my performance as all 26 of my families sent gifts and wrote letters of thanks as I took the kids on college tour a, virtual field trips and delivered last day of school summer buckets of fun on each child's doorstep. Don't you dare take that away from me and tell me I am lousy as I go above and beyond to serve and help, even helping a child read 3 days a week for an hour after our 2 hour zoom. And, I work in MCPS. Oh, and during my other " free time", I am out serving food and cleaning up trash and masks/gloves that thoughtless, entitled people leave all over the ground in astounding amounts. I have raised money and bought toys, games and books for kids home all summer with nothing to do. Next, I am building Little Pantries in areas of need. Maybe if you help and be a decent human being and stop being a part of the problem, we can get through this together. We are all parents and humans just trying to survive. Please stop hating on each other and collaborate.

That’s wonderful. Truly. Can you accept that some of your fellow teachers did not have your attitude? That your 26 families sent you letters because you personally were so above and beyond what they saw this spring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
So when you say school district, what do you mean? MCPS is our school district. Or do you mean BCC cluster or something else?

I don't know why it matters, but my school district is PGCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You do know that many elementary teachers in the county don’t even know what grade they will be teaching in the fall right now. There are always changes happening in the summer. I’ve taught grades k-3 so far.

Many, many people have no clue about this. Such as the annoyed PP who thinks teachers teach the same thing year after year.

DH is on a committee trying to make this all work for their school. Guess what's happening? Nothing. They can't do anything without approval, and those people aren't working right now.

[Anonymous]

I’m an ESOL teacher but I was told I might be teaching general ed this year so that we can have smaller class sizes. Who knows what will happen? I’m working FT this summer so I don’t have time to plan for two different scenarios that might never happen. Frankly, the school districts don’t even have money for the basics. Where are they getting all of this money for extra cleaners, supplies, partitions, air filters, etc? Let’s be real. Teachers know that their districts are full of it. Parents still live in Fantasyland. We will be all virtual by Halloween at the latest. Plan for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ESOL teacher but I was told I might be teaching general ed this year so that we can have smaller class sizes. Who knows what will happen? I’m working FT this summer so I don’t have time to plan for two different scenarios that might never happen. Frankly, the school districts don’t even have money for the basics. Where are they getting all of this money for extra cleaners, supplies, partitions, air filters, etc? Let’s be real. Teachers know that their districts are full of it. Parents still live in Fantasyland. We will be all virtual by Halloween at the latest. Plan for it.

NP, and another teacher, and I'm starting to think it will be a miracle if school systems can get it together enough for us to open in person at all.