demoralized in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hmm. That's not what I'm seeing and hearing. But you as an outsider are free to speculate. If you have kids in the system, that might not be a gamble you want to take.

I’m a teacher in MCPS. Married to another teacher in MCPS. DD in 8th grade in MCPS. I’m usually on the hiring committees at my school. Not hearing about a mass exodus next year.

There are bubbles. But these bubbles are small and are anomalies. I've worked in four schools - all downcounty minus one. mass exodus in all of my downcounty schools - Upcounty is stable.

20 years ago? great principals and stable staff

Once autonomy was removed, it affected their decisions to do what was right for their own students. That obviously trickled down to the teachers. Discipline was top down, which meant no one had control. So a kid who groped my daughter's friend, for example, had his schedule changed.

Look - I get it. Many teachers have a limited perspective. That's no one's fault. If you land at a "good" school and have only been in the system for about 10 years, you don't get it. But there's a whole ugly world out there doing lots of damage to good people. And people - like me - who have been in the system for over two decades have seen these ugly changes.

But we're "toxic." lol

Then why do the younger teachers seek me out if they're having trouble with management or planning? I've given up planning periods to help other teachers. That's what we should ALL be doing as a way to show a united front.

I agree with what you said except for the bolded. I'm at an upcounty school and it's definitely not stable. The thing is--I used to wish for the day my principal would leave. My principal is hot and cold and you never know what you're going to get. They're near the end of the career and a little bit "old school". However, after seeing what the new crop of administrators (APs) are like--micromanagers who are like robots and just follow central office's orders without any kind of critical thinking--I'm scared for when my principal retires. My principal actually understands that not everything is black and white and there is a gray area. After so many years of wishing they would finally retire, I am at the point where I'm wishing that they stay for at least a few more years. We're all truly fu**ed with this new breed of sycophant administrators.

sorry - meant to say that my upcounty school is stable . . . Hardly anyone leaves, but that's b/c many have never been anywhere else.

I was unclear.

Yes, there are FAR too many sycophants in the system. I've never seen it so bad. Anything that comes down the pike is thrown on us, whereas in the past, the autonomous principals, who knew the students, would push many mandates aside. These new ones don't have minds of their own. They just pass down the sh*t.

SLOs, anyone? In the past, our admin would just collect them and file them away. I haven't looked at mine since I wrote one for team. And get this: My RT approved it, but the SDT had major issues with it.

Did you fix the major issues?

We did not fix the "major issues." Instead, we decided to go with the one stamped by the RT. The SLO is in hiding for now. We'll see what happens once they're completed.

Hiding time is up. They are due next week. Let us know how it goes.

Ours were due in October. How are they only just due now?

That’s just writing what you plan to do. Now you have to analyze how effective your plan turned out to be and what your next steps for your target group will be. It’s that last bit that is looked out when you are evaluated: are you able to be reflective on your teaching practices and do you adjust in response.

Oh, we do the analysis and reflection in the spring. I think ours is due in April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hmm. That's not what I'm seeing and hearing. But you as an outsider are free to speculate. If you have kids in the system, that might not be a gamble you want to take.

I’m a teacher in MCPS. Married to another teacher in MCPS. DD in 8th grade in MCPS. I’m usually on the hiring committees at my school. Not hearing about a mass exodus next year.

There are bubbles. But these bubbles are small and are anomalies. I've worked in four schools - all downcounty minus one. mass exodus in all of my downcounty schools - Upcounty is stable.

20 years ago? great principals and stable staff

Once autonomy was removed, it affected their decisions to do what was right for their own students. That obviously trickled down to the teachers. Discipline was top down, which meant no one had control. So a kid who groped my daughter's friend, for example, had his schedule changed.

Look - I get it. Many teachers have a limited perspective. That's no one's fault. If you land at a "good" school and have only been in the system for about 10 years, you don't get it. But there's a whole ugly world out there doing lots of damage to good people. And people - like me - who have been in the system for over two decades have seen these ugly changes.

But we're "toxic." lol

Then why do the younger teachers seek me out if they're having trouble with management or planning? I've given up planning periods to help other teachers. That's what we should ALL be doing as a way to show a united front.

I agree with what you said except for the bolded. I'm at an upcounty school and it's definitely not stable. The thing is--I used to wish for the day my principal would leave. My principal is hot and cold and you never know what you're going to get. They're near the end of the career and a little bit "old school". However, after seeing what the new crop of administrators (APs) are like--micromanagers who are like robots and just follow central office's orders without any kind of critical thinking--I'm scared for when my principal retires. My principal actually understands that not everything is black and white and there is a gray area. After so many years of wishing they would finally retire, I am at the point where I'm wishing that they stay for at least a few more years. We're all truly fu**ed with this new breed of sycophant administrators.

sorry - meant to say that my upcounty school is stable . . . Hardly anyone leaves, but that's b/c many have never been anywhere else.

I was unclear.

Yes, there are FAR too many sycophants in the system. I've never seen it so bad. Anything that comes down the pike is thrown on us, whereas in the past, the autonomous principals, who knew the students, would push many mandates aside. These new ones don't have minds of their own. They just pass down the sh*t.

SLOs, anyone? In the past, our admin would just collect them and file them away. I haven't looked at mine since I wrote one for team. And get this: My RT approved it, but the SDT had major issues with it.

Did you fix the major issues?

We did not fix the "major issues." Instead, we decided to go with the one stamped by the RT. The SLO is in hiding for now. We'll see what happens once they're completed.

Hiding time is up. They are due next week. Let us know how it goes.

Ours were due in October. How are they only just due now?

That’s just writing what you plan to do. Now you have to analyze how effective your plan turned out to be and what your next steps for your target group will be. It’s that last bit that is looked out when you are evaluated: are you able to be reflective on your teaching practices and do you adjust in response.

Oh, we do the analysis and reflection in the spring. I think ours is due in April.

I will do mine this weekend. With the change in schedule, I lost a few of my SLO kids. lol! This is a joke to justify someone's job. I, quite frankly, don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not only are failures not allowed but admin are pushing teachers in MCPS out the door to cut ties with illigitimate grading fraud that they required. Get them to do your bidding by fear of firing them, then fire anyway because they know too much. then if they let the truth out smear campaign. It's the definition of corrupt.

And they sing why oh why do teachers not want to teach anymore. We just don't get it. We need fresh meat through our revolving door because it's a system that is based on ruining lives. This is the flaw in education. Peace out.

I guess teachers are sadly learning what it's like for everyone else these days.

WTH are you babbling about?

Let me say this, genius - TEACHING is all about working with HUMANS. We shape little and not-so-little HUMANS. You can sit your a** in a chair all you want and claim life is hard. But guess what? Your job is a joke compared to ours. And you wouldn't last a goddamn minute in my shoes!

You're pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Some schools allow year long SLOs. Some only allow semester-length. The rationale is that you don’t need 100 days to see that something isn’t addressing a need.

It is what you make it at my school. You can make a useless one and then look dumbfounded when you are asked about it in June —or worse, during your formal eval cycle. Or you can use it to keep track of how appropriately you are serving a subset of students who need intensive help. A really effective way to shut the door on an ineffective pet strategy of your RT is to offer 4 months of data that shows it didn’t work, but what you prefer does.

[Anonymous]

The SLOs at my school usually connect to MAP results. Because of that the SLO almost always show no progress for my target group this time of year. I get better results from spring testing. I find the data interesting but not reflective of my efforts in the classroom. Everyone knows the show though. As long as we put in the analysis and reflection points it’s all good.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe no one pushes back. I've been in two high schools since SLOs were introduced. Behind closed doors, we would always ask, "Who looks at them?"

The only reason we have them is to avoid connecting test data to evaluations. Both scenarios are a joke. But we go through the motions b/c someone who 1) taught eons ago or 2) never taught or 3) taught for a hot second knows better than we do.

I can't believe savvy teachers would fall for this crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe no one pushes back. I've been in two high schools since SLOs were introduced. Behind closed doors, we would always ask, "Who looks at them?"

The only reason we have them is to avoid connecting test data to evaluations. Both scenarios are a joke. But we go through the motions b/c someone who 1) taught eons ago or 2) never taught or 3) taught for a hot second knows better than we do.

I can't believe savvy teachers would fall for this crap.

Do you push back? What does that look like other than asking questions behind closed doors?

[Anonymous]

SLO is just another extra useless task designed to eat your time when you could be grading or figuring out great lesson plans or figuring out how to appease a troll in your class with a clipboard wanting to take your job away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SLO is just another extra useless task designed to eat your time when you could be grading or figuring out great lesson plans or figuring out how to appease a troll in your class with a clipboard wanting to take your job away.

It’s useless if you don’t care about the subgroup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SLO is just another extra useless task designed to eat your time when you could be grading or figuring out great lesson plans or figuring out how to appease a troll in your class with a clipboard wanting to take your job away.

It’s useless if you don’t care about the subgroup.

It doesn’t sound like they find it useful if you DO care about the subgroup, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SLO is just another extra useless task designed to eat your time when you could be grading or figuring out great lesson plans or figuring out how to appease a troll in your class with a clipboard wanting to take your job away.

It’s useless if you don’t care about the subgroup.

really? So you'd prefer to extract a "subgroup," scrutinize them in small groups in the name of differentiation, and then determine their "fate" based on a SLO?

How long have you been teaching? maybe five years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe no one pushes back. I've been in two high schools since SLOs were introduced. Behind closed doors, we would always ask, "Who looks at them?"

The only reason we have them is to avoid connecting test data to evaluations. Both scenarios are a joke. But we go through the motions b/c someone who 1) taught eons ago or 2) never taught or 3) taught for a hot second knows better than we do.

I can't believe savvy teachers would fall for this crap.

Do you push back? What does that look like other than asking questions behind closed doors?

We use the same SLO as a team. "Data" captured is BS. We don't worry about it. After it's filed away, no one looks at it. I have YET to be called on my SLO results,and I've been doing this job for over two decades.

Pushing back for this stupid add on - to justify someone's job - means doing very little with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe no one pushes back. I've been in two high schools since SLOs were introduced. Behind closed doors, we would always ask, "Who looks at them?"

The only reason we have them is to avoid connecting test data to evaluations. Both scenarios are a joke. But we go through the motions b/c someone who 1) taught eons ago or 2) never taught or 3) taught for a hot second knows better than we do.

I can't believe savvy teachers would fall for this crap.

Do you push back? What does that look like other than asking questions behind closed doors?

We use the same SLO as a team. "Data" captured is BS. We don't worry about it. After it's filed away, no one looks at it. I have YET to be called on my SLO results,and I've been doing this job for over two decades.

Pushing back for this stupid add on - to justify someone's job - means doing very little with it.

I agree. Before SLOs there were PDPs and some other one I forget the acronym for. It’s a joke for those of us who work in schools with transient populations. I think there are one or two kids left from my subgroup of 6 identified at the beginning of the year. We have kids moving in and out all year long so it’s basically a piece of paper used to justify some central office person’s job. They will get rid of SLOs in a few years in favor of some other acronym.

[Anonymous]

Next time admin hassles you as a teacher about, "how are you dealing with the black and brown ones", tell them "the same way as I am dealing with the white and yella ones you racist bastards!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe no one pushes back. I've been in two high schools since SLOs were introduced. Behind closed doors, we would always ask, "Who looks at them?"

The only reason we have them is to avoid connecting test data to evaluations. Both scenarios are a joke. But we go through the motions b/c someone who 1) taught eons ago or 2) never taught or 3) taught for a hot second knows better than we do.

I can't believe savvy teachers would fall for this crap.

Do you push back? What does that look like other than asking questions behind closed doors?

We use the same SLO as a team. "Data" captured is BS. We don't worry about it. After it's filed away, no one looks at it. I have YET to be called on my SLO results,and I've been doing this job for over two decades.

Pushing back for this stupid add on - to justify someone's job - means doing very little with it.

I agree. Before SLOs there were PDPs and some other one I forget the acronym for. It’s a joke for those of us who work in schools with transient populations. I think there are one or two kids left from my subgroup of 6 identified at the beginning of the year. We have kids moving in and out all year long so it’s basically a piece of paper used to justify some central office person’s job. They will get rid of SLOs in a few years in favor of some other acronym.

PDPs and SLOs have very different purposes and executions.

PDP is what training you are doing to expand your toolkit of your own knowledge and skills. “I will become conversant in Spanish to support my ESOL 1 students.” SLO is the specific learning objectives and strategies you have for a subset of students. “My Hispanic male ESOL students will be able to write a complete sentence in English without support 4 out of 5 times.

PDP is over the course of several years. SLO is a semester or a year tops.