demoralized in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About 15 years ago, while teaching in high school, my principal showed m e a lot of compassion by making my schedule flexible enough to drop my then toddler to a daycare bear my home that started at 8 am. I basically started my day with period 3 and taught 4 classes back to back until my lunch break. None of my coworkers minded thus arrangement. Nowadays I’m elsewhere where the expectation is to get to school an hour prior to instructional time. This is definitely not contractual; however the principal believes that the earlier one arrives the better prepared he or she is. So there are cars in there are cars parked in the lot waiting for building service to arrive. If I need to schedule a therapy appt. early in the morning, and arrive 20 minutes before starting time, I better go and fill out a leave form prior entering my room before the principal and secretary receive scores of mails if my arrival time from teachers who are keeping tabs on others.
The principal sets the tone for the school climate and unfortunately I’m in a place where put downs, getting someone in trouble and “gotcha” rules among teachers and gets them brownie points with administration.

This kind of compassion has never been equitably done at schools. For four years, I asked for first period off for the same reason and was told no, although two male coworkers in my department had that privilege and a third was allowed to leave a period early to pick his child up from school. There was no way to complain officially because their comings and goings didn’t officially exist. They weren’t taking leave. They just weren’t there and yet, they were being paid for that time. They also weren’t sharing in the coverage the rest of us had to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About 15 years ago, while teaching in high school, my principal showed m e a lot of compassion by making my schedule flexible enough to drop my then toddler to a daycare bear my home that started at 8 am. I basically started my day with period 3 and taught 4 classes back to back until my lunch break. None of my coworkers minded thus arrangement. Nowadays I’m elsewhere where the expectation is to get to school an hour prior to instructional time. This is definitely not contractual; however the principal believes that the earlier one arrives the better prepared he or she is. So there are cars in there are cars parked in the lot waiting for building service to arrive. If I need to schedule a therapy appt. early in the morning, and arrive 20 minutes before starting time, I better go and fill out a leave form prior entering my room before the principal and secretary receive scores of mails if my arrival time from teachers who are keeping tabs on others.
The principal sets the tone for the school climate and unfortunately I’m in a place where put downs, getting someone in trouble and “gotcha” rules among teachers and gets them brownie points with administration.

This kind of compassion has never been equitably done at schools. For four years, I asked for first period off for the same reason and was told no, although two male coworkers in my department had that privilege and a third was allowed to leave a period early to pick his child up from school. There was no way to complain officially because their comings and goings didn’t officially exist. They weren’t taking leave. They just weren’t there and yet, they were being paid for that time. They also weren’t sharing in the coverage the rest of us had to do.

Yup, just like the part time special ed teacher at my school who has been allowed to flex her time so that her work day starts earlier than the contractual duty day so she can leave earlier and so she actually has more planning time than some full time teachers and her actual time spent with students is very little in proportion to the amount of planning time she has. She’s also allowed to flex her time in other ways as well. Meanwhile I have to fill out a leave slip and take leave if I need to leave 30 minutes early, have worked through my 30 minute lunch, had stayed late every other afternoon that week and will only be missing my planning time by leaving early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About 15 years ago, while teaching in high school, my principal showed m e a lot of compassion by making my schedule flexible enough to drop my then toddler to a daycare bear my home that started at 8 am. I basically started my day with period 3 and taught 4 classes back to back until my lunch break. None of my coworkers minded thus arrangement. Nowadays I’m elsewhere where the expectation is to get to school an hour prior to instructional time. This is definitely not contractual; however the principal believes that the earlier one arrives the better prepared he or she is. So there are cars in there are cars parked in the lot waiting for building service to arrive. If I need to schedule a therapy appt. early in the morning, and arrive 20 minutes before starting time, I better go and fill out a leave form prior entering my room before the principal and secretary receive scores of mails if my arrival time from teachers who are keeping tabs on others.
The principal sets the tone for the school climate and unfortunately I’m in a place where put downs, getting someone in trouble and “gotcha” rules among teachers and gets them brownie points with administration.

What an awful climate

[Anonymous]

Just like a SPED teacher at my school who didn't even show up to many of his classes that he cotaught with me. I was a newbie going through the par ringer, planning and grading and yes doing all the SPED paperwork too. I could have used the support but when people have security they sometimes get lazy and when others need support many times they are neglected or taken advantage of. It was a negative crash course in how practitioners that might be burned out themselves interact to limit their own stresses by passing them along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just like a SPED teacher at my school who didn't even show up to many of his classes that he cotaught with me. I was a newbie going through the par ringer, planning and grading and yes doing all the SPED paperwork too. I could have used the support but when people have security they sometimes get lazy and when others need support many times they are neglected or taken advantage of. It was a negative crash course in how practitioners that might be burned out themselves interact to limit their own stresses by passing them along.

Burnout teachers should quit rather than dragging things down for the students and those of us who aren’t “demoralized”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:About 15 years ago, while teaching in high school, my principal showed m e a lot of compassion by making my schedule flexible enough to drop my then toddler to a daycare bear my home that started at 8 am. I basically started my day with period 3 and taught 4 classes back to back until my lunch break. None of my coworkers minded thus arrangement. Nowadays I’m elsewhere where the expectation is to get to school an hour prior to instructional time. This is definitely not contractual; however the principal believes that the earlier one arrives the better prepared he or she is. So there are cars in there are cars parked in the lot waiting for building service to arrive. If I need to schedule a therapy appt. early in the morning, and arrive 20 minutes before starting time, I better go and fill out a leave form prior entering my room before the principal and secretary receive scores of mails if my arrival time from teachers who are keeping tabs on others.
The principal sets the tone for the school climate and unfortunately I’m in a place where put downs, getting someone in trouble and “gotcha” rules among teachers and gets them brownie points with administration.

Call MCEE. They are sort of useless, but you can document and stir up some trouble.

[Anonymous]

Why quit when protected turds don't even have to show up to class to be rock stars and the people doing the work will be cycled through and fired.

[Anonymous]

I've had the opposite happen. A supervisor was peeved that I was well liked by parents and started restricting my work time, among other behaviors. She told me I was making others uncomfortable because they couldn't put in extra time. I was forbidden to respond to emails on the same day I received them or to work beyond my duty day. That was kind of the last straw for me -- it was a horrible situation. I didn't know she was violating my contract and tried to stay on her good side but ended up leaving anyway. She made it clear she would keep amping up her "interventions" until I left. She is still supervising an entire department. I'm pretty sure she's still miserable even though she got rid of me. I'm 1,000 times happier now, but I still shake my head at how much damage one supervisor can do to a person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why quit when protected turds don't even have to show up to class to be rock stars and the people doing the work will be cycled through and fired.

Because you will get hurt less if you do a controlled jump than an uncontrolled fall?
Better to plan to leave in June and have a new job lined up than be fired and spend the summer scrambling.

Unless you consider yourself a protected turd and aren’t really worried about firing?
Or, you just love drama, and being fired would give you something to talk about.

[Anonymous]

https://youtu.be/_kTMlEb34rA

Here's one about a teacher quitting the toxic profession. He mentions the retribution faced if a teacher tries to advocate for students or actually do their jobs. Admin fires the good ones. I thought retaliation was illegal. That's why the union needs your money to pay for the lawyers that will fight you when you sue. The got ya in a catch 22 trap. No respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why quit when protected turds don't even have to show up to class to be rock stars and the people doing the work will be cycled through and fired.

The protected turds in my school are the ones with their very flexible schedule are being presented as rock stars even when they do minimal work.
They do not even have to report when they don’t show up to work because no student will be affected by their absences.
I’m just hoping we get a new head of school next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why quit when protected turds don't even have to show up to class to be rock stars and the people doing the work will be cycled through and fired.

The protected turds in my school are the ones with their very flexible schedule are being presented as rock stars even when they do minimal work.
They do not even have to report when they don’t show up to work because no student will be affected by their absences.
I’m just hoping we get a new head of school next year.

Do, basically, you teaching a private and not MCPS?

[Anonymous]

https://youtu.be/xfr2FeTdfPA

Here's a video about classrooms in crisis due to behavior issues, discipline issues, administration support issues etc. Many teachers can relate to this. To see teachers also worry about job security and appraisals while they seem like the only ones working is backwards. The system should value hardworking good people and churning them in and out is a big negative of the job.

[Anonymous]

If power players want to fire teachers because it's a popularity contest and not an educational atmosphere the the data needs to reflect poor leadership and not weak teachers that are just whining quitters.

[Anonymous]

The teachers are not weak unless you consider money is power and teachers lack funds. If educators don't respect educators you get what mcps us dealing with and that is unhealthy climate that students learn from, admin who demands good data by any means necessary, and the absence of trust that schools have the best interest of good hardworking people in mind. Raise your hand if this sounds like what we deal with everyday in the classroom.