How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went into MyPDE and counted 19 online trainings that have to be completed by Sept. 30 and 1 that has to be done by Sept. 1. I thought, "This can't be right", but it looks that way.

I thought it was more like 10 or 11 trainings. Ugh.

A bunch of them take less than 5 minutes. Teachers have August 12 as a work in an alternate location day. The trainings can be done then.

Are you sure? That would help if our school admin doesn’t schedule something else. The only day that is listed as such is June 20. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/2022-2023-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

It kind of stinks that only 2 of the first 6 are TW days and the second is that Friday, most likely after Open House.

Aug 12 is not an alternative location workday. Some principals may make it that, but it is not county-wide.

It is. There is a doc on the Employee Hub with all the dates. If your principal is making you come in they are not following the rules.

DP
I don't see that. In the Hub under "Calendars" I see links to the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 calendars. On the FCPS page the calendar does not show Aug. 12 as an alt. work location option.

It is an actiongram from June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went into MyPDE and counted 19 online trainings that have to be completed by Sept. 30 and 1 that has to be done by Sept. 1. I thought, "This can't be right", but it looks that way.

I thought it was more like 10 or 11 trainings. Ugh.

A bunch of them take less than 5 minutes. Teachers have August 12 as a work in an alternate location day. The trainings can be done then.

Are you sure? That would help if our school admin doesn’t schedule something else. The only day that is listed as such is June 20. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/2022-2023-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

It kind of stinks that only 2 of the first 6 are TW days and the second is that Friday, most likely after Open House.

Aug 12 is not an alternative location workday. Some principals may make it that, but it is not county-wide.

It is. There is a doc on the Employee Hub with all the dates. If your principal is making you come in they are not following the rules.

Oh thank God!

Where did you find it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went into MyPDE and counted 19 online trainings that have to be completed by Sept. 30 and 1 that has to be done by Sept. 1. I thought, "This can't be right", but it looks that way.

I thought it was more like 10 or 11 trainings. Ugh.

A bunch of them take less than 5 minutes. Teachers have August 12 as a work in an alternate location day. The trainings can be done then.

Are you sure? That would help if our school admin doesn’t schedule something else. The only day that is listed as such is June 20. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/2022-2023-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

It kind of stinks that only 2 of the first 6 are TW days and the second is that Friday, most likely after Open House.

Aug 12 is not an alternative location workday. Some principals may make it that, but it is not county-wide.

It is. There is a doc on the Employee Hub with all the dates. If your principal is making you come in they are not following the rules.

DP
I don't see that. In the Hub under "Calendars" I see links to the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 calendars. On the FCPS page the calendar does not show Aug. 12 as an alt. work location option.

It is an actiongram from June.

Actiongram June 23- PD Planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

In the Pacing Guides the units are already about as unpacked as they are going to get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

In the Pacing Guides the units are already about as unpacked as they are going to get.

Yup. And I think the documents we were using were “best practices” about 5 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went into MyPDE and counted 19 online trainings that have to be completed by Sept. 30 and 1 that has to be done by Sept. 1. I thought, "This can't be right", but it looks that way.

I thought it was more like 10 or 11 trainings. Ugh.

A bunch of them take less than 5 minutes. Teachers have August 12 as a work in an alternate location day. The trainings can be done then.

Are you sure? That would help if our school admin doesn’t schedule something else. The only day that is listed as such is June 20. https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/2022-2023-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf

It kind of stinks that only 2 of the first 6 are TW days and the second is that Friday, most likely after Open House.

Aug 12 is not an alternative location workday. Some principals may make it that, but it is not county-wide.

It is. There is a doc on the Employee Hub with all the dates. If your principal is making you come in they are not following the rules.

DP
I don't see that. In the Hub under "Calendars" I see links to the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 calendars. On the FCPS page the calendar does not show Aug. 12 as an alt. work location option.

It is an actiongram from June.

Actiongram June 23- PD Planning.

Yes, thank you for sharing that, PP. It should be updated on the Employee Calendar. It’s not listed there. The only work in an alternate location listed on the Employee calendar is in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

In the Pacing Guides the units are already about as unpacked as they are going to get.

Yes, but we have to talk about our feelings about the unit and get consensus on everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

In the Pacing Guides the units are already about as unpacked as they are going to get.

Yes, but we have to talk about our feelings about the unit and get consensus on everything.

We barely get out in time to use the bathroom. The best was when our coach was gone a few times and we had to ask permission to end early and have our own planning time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all schools even have coaches. Our coach want our CLTs and it was sometimes frustrating because of the way we had to run our time together.

But in the end, all of our resource people were covering or subbing by the end of the year.

So were ours. They were complaining that the shouldn’t have to “change diapers” when they subbed in K and pre-k.

The 2’coaches at my school complained very loudly when they had to proctor SOLs and tried to convince Admin to pull other classroom teachers to proctor and get subs (that we couldn’t get all year). They truly thought their time was more valuable than classroom teachers’. They’ll probably both be Principals within 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all schools even have coaches. Our coach want our CLTs and it was sometimes frustrating because of the way we had to run our time together.

But in the end, all of our resource people were covering or subbing by the end of the year.

So were ours. They were complaining that the shouldn’t have to “change diapers” when they subbed in K and pre-k.

The 2’coaches at my school complained very loudly when they had to proctor SOLs and tried to convince Admin to pull other classroom teachers to proctor and get subs (that we couldn’t get all year). They truly thought their time was more valuable than classroom teachers’. They’ll probably both be Principals within 2 years.

They don’t plan or grade and are on the teacher scale. They really did a good job at scamming the system - unfortunately, none of the teachers respect them.

[Anonymous]

Most coaches I know "hated teaching" and wanted jobs where they don't have to be in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Regarding CLTs, the coaches babysit us and we don't get any real planning done. The only time we can get quality planning is when we are on our own. That's when we get things done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw a picture from FCPS instructional coach kickoff today. The slide was touting how effective coaches are….the research referenced was from 2002. I’d be curious to see some actual data from FCPS that is concrete (and not touchy feely coach reported) on effectiveness that is from this decade. If my students cited data from 20 years ago in a research paper, I’d tell them to find more recent data to support their position.

And to the poster telling teachers to stop complaining…this is about using FCPS resources effectively at a time when teachers are at a premium. Teachers can’t actually stand up and say how ineffective coaches are in a non-anonymous forum because they would be scoffed at/retaliated against by the principals that love them.

In our CLTs, we had one for LA and one for Math. We have a google slide agenda and had to go through each unit. Sometimes we had to Do an unpacking document to talk about the unit.

Many times we just wanted to talking about ideas and plan but rarely could.

In the Pacing Guides the units are already about as unpacked as they are going to get.

Yes, but we have to talk about our feelings about the unit and get consensus on everything.

We barely get out in time to use the bathroom. The best was when our coach was gone a few times and we had to ask permission to end early and have our own planning time.

If we miss one because of a weather day or holiday, we have to make it up later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:


I agree. The school board is dragging its feet on this.



I used to be a huge supporter of unions. I think unfortunately for teachers locally, how Covid was handled really soured the public on the school system and by association-the teachers. The extremists marching around with coffins, the people who phoned it in on virtual, the teachers who refused to help kids catch up this year--a few bad apples spoilt it for the bunc

h.

Puh-leeze.
1) Show me the person in FFX Co. who "marched around with a coffin." Show me...bet you can't, because it didn't happen here in Fairfax.
2) It was impossible to "phone it in" during virtual. Impossible. It was very difficult work to teach under those conditions, and every teacher did their best.
3) What teachers are these who "refused to help kids catch up" this year? Seriously...who did this? No one. Every teacher out there did their best this year.
PP sounds like a sour grapes person who, even under the circumstances, cannot admit that teachers have been terribly maligned and mistreated. I'll bet PP was one of the loudest voices out there at the time.

+1 And won't recognize their own culpability in creating vitriol that increased the teacher shortage.

Yeah, that’s been a huge factor in me questioning my career - I was stunned at the anger and teacher-blaming that happened during the pandemic. I didn’t understand why people who clearly needed us would proceed to verbally abuse us - it seems counterintuitive. I realized that it’s the people we need the most who are often abused the most, as if making them question their worth and self-esteem will keep them around - women, mothers, nurses, teachers. We are a society of bullies and many of us are in abusive relationships, work-wise.

+100

I'm a parent not a teacher and I was stunned by what I heard too. I have to believe it's a vocal minority.

+1