If schools have to continue online, shouldn’t teachers worry about their jobs?

[Anonymous]

Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I’m worried. I’m a private school teacher. Worried I’ll be gig teaching on lots of platforms in a couple of years for peanuts. Another middle class job destroyed to serve the interests of billionaires.

Why do you think this? Do you honestly think there aren’t going to be physical schools anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Parents want kids back in school. The pressure will be on.

Parents aren’t special. We know what you want. This is about slowing the spread of death and disease. Making parents happy is not a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they’re not, they should be.

+1. I think people in this area are in denial, but it’s already happening in other parts of the country. I half wonder if MD waited so long to close for the remainder of the year in part to discourage layoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

Do you think it is reasonable appropriate to have young kids sit in front of their computers for 5 hours per day?

Please, please, please let's just open the schools back up. If parents are not comfortable sending their kids, then they can use Virtual Virginia or instructional videos and assignments posted on a Google Classroom site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

My sister is an ES teacher and says many of her kids can barely handle 15 minutes. It’s not a great teaching method for young kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent here. I think this time should be spent to fine tune online instruction, August is a long way but if the need be then online instruction can continue. However, at that point instead of 1 hr, at least 5 hr should be the norm. This is a serious situation and you can’t expect teachers and rest of the school staff to risk their lives.

At that point nobody will be sympathetic to the fact that teachers have their own kids at home to take care of, that’s the case for all is us. I am sure most reasonable teachers will try to do whatever they can to make online instruction work in August.

My sister is an ES teacher and says many of her kids can barely handle 15 minutes. It’s not a great teaching method for young kids.

I agree. My kid has a decent attention span and can do longer but doesn't enjoy it and screens make him sluggish after about 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

Do you also complain about all the unemployed workers who are receiving more from unemployment then they did from working? I can only imagine what the public reaction would be if teachers were in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you worried about your job? I’m pretty sure everyone is worried about their job no matter what field they are in. Whether they lose it or their job is totally reimagined into something they no longer enjoy, changes are here.

It’s bizarre that parents are so angry at teachers right now. I’m sorry that you have to watch your own kids all day but I never planned on teaching from home. This was totally unexpected and now we have to totally reimagine everything. I hope you can continue providing for your family. I’m not sure why parents are chomping at the bit for teaches to get fired. I don’t think we’re sitting around hoping all of you lose your livelihoods.

m
Are you kidding?! Because you’re not teaching! You out assignments up with no teaching videos or Zoom instruction and just expect parents to teach everything.

I taught my 2nd trader how to make a bar graph, line plot, and an outline today.



That’s because there is no grading nitwit. Without grades barely any students will do any work. I teach live Zoom classes (math) and out of my 117 students, maybe 10 will show up. Of course teachers aren’t putting the same effort in when, the school year has essentially been canceled due to no more grading.
Teacher could have demonstrated this over zoom or made teaching videos. Did neither.

+1

Exactly, this is the problem OP outlines. Teachers are doing NO teaching.

Putting up assignments through an online program or app like Khan Academy or even a scan of a worksheet is NOT teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are lazyAF.

They just want to sit at home on their couches and still get paid what they normally would. Totally taking advantage of the situation.

HAHAHAHA. You are so out of touch with what’s actually happening. Does it make you feel better to insult people you don’t even know?

So address the fact that many are doing no actual teaching. No teaching videos, no live zoom instruction. Just put up assignments, that’s it.

If kids don’t automatically know what to do (and how would they if it’s new content?) parents have to take time out of their work day to show them.

What will they do when they encounter something new in their lives, and you aren't around, and a teacher hasn't done a live or pre-recorded lesson for them? What do you do when you don't know or can't remember something? Google it. Point them to Khan Academy or YouTube or dozens of other sites. Get them workbooks or textbooks. Let them try and figure it out first, and help them only if they get stuck. Direct instruction isn't even needed in most cases, especially if classmates can work together to figure things out.

Yeah, I'm definitely pointing my first grader to Google and YouTube. "Figure it out, Johnny!"

+1

I should have told my 2nd grader to google bar graphs and figure it out, I guess.

Sink or swim b1tches.

My guess is that bar graphs is a review topic for your 2nd grader. In most districts, teachers are not supposed to be introducing new topics.

[Anonymous]

The economy will never come back without schools being open, far too many working parents. For this reason alone there will be tremendous pressure to open schools.

Studies are showing children do not get or pass the virus with any regularity, yes there are outliers but it’s in no way significant.

Schools will be back this fall

[Anonymous]

They certainly should be. The unemployment numbers released Friday morning included well over half a million job losses in April in "local government education". State budgets are hemorrhaging money like we haven't seen in almost a century. Education budgets will be decimated over the next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They certainly should be. The unemployment numbers released Friday morning included well over half a million job losses in April in "local government education". State budgets are hemorrhaging money like we haven't seen in almost a century. Education budgets will be decimated over the next year.

This. Some states already have their budget for the year and are okay because the money is *already* there. But some work differently and are laying off staff, imposing pay cuts, etc. My state is one of the "we already have the money for this coming year's budget" kind. But next year? I fully expect that my spouse might lose her job. She's not a classroom teacher but out of 8 people in her department she has the second most seniority. That might save her job, we don't know. I'm a teacher also and have a ton of seniority in a high need area. I'll never lose my job unless the world ends. We could live on my salary if we had to, but obviously, would prefer not to.

Across the nation, tons of cuts are happening. Tons. Teachers taking 20% pay cuts, class sizes increasing, TA's being cut, etc. The one thing that is not happening? Administration jobs aren't being cut. Typical. The one position that has the least positive effect on students and there's always plenty of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
They certainly should be. The unemployment numbers released Friday morning included well over half a million job losses in April in "local government education". State budgets are hemorrhaging money like we haven't seen in almost a century. Education budgets will be decimated over the next year.



This. Some states already have their budget for the year and are okay because the money is *already* there. But some work differently and are laying off staff, imposing pay cuts, etc. My state is one of the "we already have the money for this coming year's budget" kind. But next year? I fully expect that my spouse might lose her job. She's not a classroom teacher but out of 8 people in her department she has the second most seniority. That might save her job, we don't know. I'm a teacher also and have a ton of seniority in a high need area. I'll never lose my job unless the world ends. We could live on my salary if we had to, but obviously, would prefer not to.

Across the nation, tons of cuts are happening. Tons. Teachers taking 20% pay cuts, class sizes increasing, TA's being cut, etc. The one thing that is not happening? Administration jobs aren't being cut. Typical. The one position that has the least positive effect on students and there's always plenty of those.

There's a lot of bloat at places like Syphax and Gatehouse. Those jobs should be the first to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see sooo many teachers commenting in various places that they’re worried about getting the virus so don’t think schools should resume in person.

Ok fine. If that happens? How many math teachers does a school really need? One per grade to put together the content. The online programs like Khan Academy do everything else including teaching and grading. This goes for the programs that my kids’ science and Spanish teachers are using as well.

If school continues online for the next however many years, won’t there be a massive lay off of teachers? Why are they not more worried about their jobs?

They'll need more than one math teacher per grade. Non-educators think this process is so easy. Picking a Khan Academy video and posting it online is not teaching. If you think it is, please pull your student from school and homeschool them (for real).

Actually, my DC's math teacher in Pre-Calc Honors (FCPS) which features project-based learning rarely actually teaches--she tells students to figure out the concepts within their assigned group or to use Khan Academy. We've had to hire a math tutor to actually provide math instruction to my DC.