The PD video teachers must watch on Monday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have only been a teacher for less than 5 years. My observation is that many of the administrators are dumb and ineffective. Not all of them. A few are amazing but they are few and far between. Do bad teachers decide to throw in the towel and move into administration? I’m so confused why so many administrators I have come across are mediocre at best but usually actively terrible

Long-time teacher NP.

I think a lot of administrators have failed up. I’ve worked for many who were ineffective teachers and found their way out of the classroom by becoming ineffective administrators. It’s really hard to take observations and staff meetings seriously when the admin can’t do what I’m expected to do every day.

I’ve learned to just keep my head down and ignore as much as I can. This keeps me sane and shields my students from a lot of the “this is the latest and best thing!” mandates that always come, take a ton of time, fail, and then fade out.

+100. I agree. For the most part, highly effective teachers don’t want to leave the classroom unless they are feeling burned out. I also just try to keep my head down and focus on my students but MCPS and administrators just love to make my job harder and more confusing. PD days like this enrage me because I have so much stuff to do that would directly help my students. My school has a full afternoon planned of more random useless stuff.

PD days like this enrage me, too. If I can get away with it, I try to salvage the time by getting real work done in the back of a room. I can actually make the time valuable, which keeps me from getting angry.

I’m convinced the purpose of PDs and a lot of administrative nonsense is just to justify admin jobs. If they don’t create work and purpose for themselves, they may actually have to go back to the classroom.

[Anonymous]

MCPS is terrible. I’m so glad we moved far away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have only been a teacher for less than 5 years. My observation is that many of the administrators are dumb and ineffective. Not all of them. A few are amazing but they are few and far between. Do bad teachers decide to throw in the towel and move into administration? I’m so confused why so many administrators I have come across are mediocre at best but usually actively terrible

Long-time teacher NP.

I think a lot of administrators have failed up. I’ve worked for many who were ineffective teachers and found their way out of the classroom by becoming ineffective administrators. It’s really hard to take observations and staff meetings seriously when the admin can’t do what I’m expected to do every day.

I’ve learned to just keep my head down and ignore as much as I can. This keeps me sane and shields my students from a lot of the “this is the latest and best thing!” mandates that always come, take a ton of time, fail, and then fade out.

+100. I agree. For the most part, highly effective teachers don’t want to leave the classroom unless they are feeling burned out. I also just try to keep my head down and focus on my students but MCPS and administrators just love to make my job harder and more confusing. PD days like this enrage me because I have so much stuff to do that would directly help my students. My school has a full afternoon planned of more random useless stuff.

PD days like this enrage me, too. If I can get away with it, I try to salvage the time by getting real work done in the back of a room. I can actually make the time valuable, which keeps me from getting angry.

I’m convinced the purpose of PDs and a lot of administrative nonsense is just to justify admin jobs. If they don’t create work and purpose for themselves, they may actually have to go back to the classroom.

Have his this same though SO many times. What a huge waste of time and money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It just occurred to me that maybe some of the people making these videos are not even teachers or parents themselves. They have no recent experience managing students in the world of screen addiction, modern parenting, and dis regulation.

[b]My favorite question to ask in any PD meeting is "how does this really look in practice? "[img]

Once I gave an example of a time that I did exactly what they were saying, and the outcome was problematic. I asked what I could have done differently or how we should proceed if xyz happens. Presenter froze, got visibly upset, and someone else took over and changed the subject. They're not trained to go off script.

That is a valid and appropriate question to ask, IMO. Keep asking it and I hope others do as well. Otherwise, what is the point of this type of training?

[Anonymous]

I left MCPS last year after teaching there for 15 years. I left teaching altogether and am so much happier. Maybe teaching is better elsewhere, but never ever MCPS.

Now I have choices to telework if I wish, up to 2 days a week. No one making me watch videos that make me want to vomit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this woman discuss how to tend to a troublemaker child (or in most cases, multiple children) when you have a class of 25?

I'm pretty hippy dippy, but teachers need practical real world/classroom help, not ideal visions of a dreamy perfectly supportive world (with unsupported parents).

I teach for APS, and thankfully we have a lot more freedom for tomorrow's PD day. I actually plan to go to the gym for part of the day!

25 would be great! How about 29 and about 60% have limited English proficiency as middle schoolers despite being born in the US? I get that there was a pandemic but their children were done dirty by their elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left MCPS last year after teaching there for 15 years. I left teaching altogether and am so much happier. Maybe teaching is better elsewhere, but never ever MCPS.

Now I have choices to telework if I wish, up to 2 days a week. No one making me watch videos that make me want to vomit.

Please help the rest of us leave to! What are your tips for career switchers trying to leave the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Sigh, teachers are always treated this way. It sucks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else have a principal who wants everyone to watch this sitting in the same room but on their own devices?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do they speak to educators like they speak to 3rd graders? This wouldn't fly in a normal corporate setting.

Ex-teacher here. I have wondered this for many years. I wish someone working in organizational psychology would do some research on this.

[Anonymous]

If you look this woman up, she wrote an article about how she believes no K-12 student should be suspended or expelled, ever, for any reason.

[Anonymous]

In a video interview in 2021 in NH, this lady tells the audience that the whole idea for her dissertation/book/money cow did not come from her (very limited) time teaching but from her frustration at her stepson not wanting to go to school.

This whole idea is based on being a parent who wants the system to magically improve and not at all about the reality of teachers who must navigate what students/parents/administration/curriculum/society demand of them every day.

[Anonymous]

*cash cow

[Anonymous]

Absolute nonsense. All of this.

https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/carla-shalaby-on-radically-inclusive-discipline

Yay. Another FORMER teacher who couldn’t actually hack it in the classroom telling us how it should be done.

[Anonymous]

20 year mcps employee..agree with the other pps...multi task as much as you can to reduce bitter feelings about ridiculous pd. I love when I go into a virtual group chat at a pd where we are supposed to discuss a presented topic-- and we all slagree to not do that and just use the time to work instead

[Anonymous]

I work with special ed kids, and I see them marginalized all the time. This PD actually speaks to it in reasonable ways.

I'm sorry it's threatening or triggering to so many of you.