Question for MS and HS teachers

[Anonymous]

Are you expected to stay after school and sponsor an activity or coach? I'm a former elementary school teacher and am considering going back to teaching. I know that I don't want to teach elementary again, and think that I would enjoy MS math. However, the one concern I have is that I don't want to have to run a club. I don't mind staying after school to help my students with math, but being in charge of a club seems like it's adding another part time job. I'm sure that officially teachers can't be forced to sponsor a club, but would I be looked down upon by the administration or other teachers if I didn't do it?

[Anonymous]

I teach middle school math. At my school you are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to stay after at least 2 days a week for free tutoring. You also are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to sponsor a club. None of the tutoring or club sponsorship is paid and the club actually ends up costing money for most teachers because none of the reasonable expenses (board games for the board game club, chess set for the chess club, sewing supplies for the sewing club) are reimbursable.

By pressure from admin I mean that if you don't do what they want suddenly you find yourself: getting observed once a week, your lesson plans (filed jointly with your colleagues) are torn apart and you alone are required to resubmit them multiple times against conflicting directions, you are written up if you aren't in the hallway on the 1 time in 100 that you miss it because you're in your classroom helping a kid pick up after a binder spill, and your classes begin to get filled with the worst behaved kids. I'm watching it in action right now at my school. It is brutal for this poor teacher who really can't stay after and who would if s/he could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach middle school math. At my school you are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to stay after at least 2 days a week for free tutoring. You also are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to sponsor a club. None of the tutoring or club sponsorship is paid and the club actually ends up costing money for most teachers because none of the reasonable expenses (board games for the board game club, chess set for the chess club, sewing supplies for the sewing club) are reimbursable.

By pressure from admin I mean that if you don't do what they want suddenly you find yourself: getting observed once a week, your lesson plans (filed jointly with your colleagues) are torn apart and you alone are required to resubmit them multiple times against conflicting directions, you are written up if you aren't in the hallway on the 1 time in 100 that you miss it because you're in your classroom helping a kid pick up after a binder spill, and your classes begin to get filled with the worst behaved kids. I'm watching it in action right now at my school. It is brutal for this poor teacher who really can't stay after and who would if s/he could.

So what percentage of the teachers at your school would you say don't sponsor a club?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach middle school math. At my school you are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to stay after at least 2 days a week for free tutoring. You also are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to sponsor a club. None of the tutoring or club sponsorship is paid and the club actually ends up costing money for most teachers because none of the reasonable expenses (board games for the board game club, chess set for the chess club, sewing supplies for the sewing club) are reimbursable.

By pressure from admin I mean that if you don't do what they want suddenly you find yourself: getting observed once a week, your lesson plans (filed jointly with your colleagues) are torn apart and you alone are required to resubmit them multiple times against conflicting directions, you are written up if you aren't in the hallway on the 1 time in 100 that you miss it because you're in your classroom helping a kid pick up after a binder spill, and your classes begin to get filled with the worst behaved kids. I'm watching it in action right now at my school. It is brutal for this poor teacher who really can't stay after and who would if s/he could.

So what percentage of the teachers at your school would you say don't sponsor a club?

Fewer than 10%. They may work with another teacher on a club or they may have their own club but almost everyone does something b/c of the admin issue. Interestingly, none of the admin do any tutoring or sponsor any clubs, and some of them regularly leave before the activity buses.

[Anonymous]

Independent school, not DC area.

I'm required to sponsor an activity, one day per week. I teach in the upper school, and was assigned a lower school activity for the next quarter. I'm not pleased about this: if I wanted to work with little children, I wouldn't have completed a graduate degree in my subject, plus certification for secondary.

[Anonymous]

At my school in MCPS, it is expected, but can’t be enforced and you won’t be looked down on by admin if you can’t due to young kids or grad school.

I was asked to do two specific clubs in my interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Independent school, not DC area.

I'm required to sponsor an activity, one day per week. I teach in the upper school, and was assigned a lower school activity for the next quarter. I'm not pleased about this: if I wanted to work with little children, I wouldn't have completed a graduate degree in my subject, plus certification for secondary.

In the private my DD attended, even the lower school teachers had these qualifications. They didn’t confuse that with being too good to work with young children after school. The math teacher did really challenging STEAM activities with the girls. An English teacher taught them screenwriting and they made scripts. Put your attitude aside and use your brains to come up with something amazing. If you can’t, you’re really limited despite your credentials.

[Anonymous]

I've taught in both middle school and high school (MCPS) and there was no expectation that teachers had to do clubs. There was of course a desire for teachers to participate - it's part of making the school community well-rounded. And I'm sure that having run different clubs and being someone who "goes above and beyond" required duties is looked upon favorably when being evaluated (it's part of the standards acutally) and certainly can help if you want to change schools. However, I know of plenty of teachers who don't do anything extra, ever. They aren't "penalized" by administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Independent school, not DC area.

I'm required to sponsor an activity, one day per week. I teach in the upper school, and was assigned a lower school activity for the next quarter. I'm not pleased about this: if I wanted to work with little children, I wouldn't have completed a graduate degree in my subject, plus certification for secondary.

In the private my DD attended, even the lower school teachers had these qualifications. They didn’t confuse that with being too good to work with young children after school. The math teacher did really challenging STEAM activities with the girls. An English teacher taught them screenwriting and they made scripts. Put your attitude aside and use your brains to come up with something amazing. If you can’t, you’re really limited despite your credentials.

I have no idea why anyone would go into teaching these days. What a ridiculous set of expectations. If we want excellent teachers, we should be treating them like the professionals we want them to be.

[Anonymous]

I teach middle school math. We are "required" (not paid, but part of our review is contribution to the school community) to stay 90 minutes once a week for free tutoring, and 90 minutes once a month for a "committee". Math teachers also have to run a remediation class during the study hall block (so essentially another prep). Clubs are strongly encouraged, but not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I teach middle school math. At my school you are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to stay after at least 2 days a week for free tutoring. You also are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to sponsor a club. None of the tutoring or club sponsorship is paid and the club actually ends up costing money for most teachers because none of the reasonable expenses (board games for the board game club, chess set for the chess club, sewing supplies for the sewing club) are reimbursable.

By pressure from admin I mean that if you don't do what they want suddenly you find yourself: getting observed once a week, your lesson plans (filed jointly with your colleagues) are torn apart and you alone are required to resubmit them multiple times against conflicting directions, you are written up if you aren't in the hallway on the 1 time in 100 that you miss it because you're in your classroom helping a kid pick up after a binder spill, and your classes begin to get filled with the worst behaved kids. I'm watching it in action right now at my school. It is brutal for this poor teacher who really can't stay after and who would if s/he could.

People need to stand up for themselves. I had a similar issue about 12 years ago. My own child was in elementary school in another county and I had to pick him up from after school care by 4:30. There was no way I could stay an hour after school and discussing this with admin fell on deaf ears. It was obvious the screws were being tightened more than for others, so I went to the union local about it. Long story short, the pressure lessened. Years later I'm now at a different school and a teacher's time is better respected, so it varies by building I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Independent school, not DC area.

I'm required to sponsor an activity, one day per week. I teach in the upper school, and was assigned a lower school activity for the next quarter. I'm not pleased about this: if I wanted to work with little children, I wouldn't have completed a graduate degree in my subject, plus certification for secondary.

In the private my DD attended, even the lower school teachers had these qualifications. They didn’t confuse that with being too good to work with young children after school. The math teacher did really challenging STEAM activities with the girls. An English teacher taught them screenwriting and they made scripts. Put your attitude aside and use your brains to come up with something amazing. If you can’t, you’re really limited despite your credentials.

Relevance?

[Anonymous]

I teach in an independent middle school. We're not required to coach or serve as a club advisor, but it's encouraged and compensation is provided. BTW, I love teaching middle schoolers -- they're capable of so much and are really interesting people. The challenge is that they can be mean to each other. Oh, and another positive is that parents are often way more hands off than with younger or older kids. ( I say this as the parent of three kids in HS, college and grad school.)

[Anonymous]

In your experience do kids get less interesting in high school? Why so? Too much pressure in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach middle school math. At my school you are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to stay after at least 2 days a week for free tutoring. You also are virtually required (by pressure from admin) to sponsor a club. None of the tutoring or club sponsorship is paid and the club actually ends up costing money for most teachers because none of the reasonable expenses (board games for the board game club, chess set for the chess club, sewing supplies for the sewing club) are reimbursable.

By pressure from admin I mean that if you don't do what they want suddenly you find yourself: getting observed once a week, your lesson plans (filed jointly with your colleagues) are torn apart and you alone are required to resubmit them multiple times against conflicting directions, you are written up if you aren't in the hallway on the 1 time in 100 that you miss it because you're in your classroom helping a kid pick up after a binder spill, and your classes begin to get filled with the worst behaved kids. I'm watching it in action right now at my school. It is brutal for this poor teacher who really can't stay after and who would if s/he could.

People need to stand up for themselves. I had a similar issue about 12 years ago. My own child was in elementary school in another county and I had to pick him up from after school care by 4:30. There was no way I could stay an hour after school and discussing this with admin fell on deaf ears. It was obvious the screws were being tightened more than for others, so I went to the union local about it. Long story short, the pressure lessened. Years later I'm now at a different school and a teacher's time is better respected, so it varies by building I think.

We're in Virginia. Virginia doesn't have teacher unions.