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Anonymous wrote:Once MD school systems start using test scores in evaluations, some of y’all are screwed. So you should be motivated to try to prop up SLOs as long as you can since you won’t quit and let someone who can teach take your place.
PLEASE, let them start using my students test scores to evaluate me! I WOULD LOVE THAT. My students have always done better then MCPS averages, and also meet or exceed the averages at my school (eg on say 19 or 20 of 22 so called "standards" my students will exceed my school averages, and on only 2 or 3 of 22 will the students I've taught be below or equal my school averages).
My SLO, on the other hand, is the document MCPS uses to demonstrate that I cannot do the undo-able, namely force a student that doesn't want to learn to learn. "Johnny has earned a D or E in math every semester for the last 8 years. Why were you incapable of getting Johnny, who that can't add 2 digit numbers, to earn an "A" in Honors PreCalculus? You must be a terrible teacher."
The SLO COULD be amazingly useful; but as far as I can tell, the MCPS main use of it is as a weapon against teachers.
Again, I am done with MCPS.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:And in addition to the 190 days, we need to do summer trainings. I thought I thought we had the choice of doing online trainings (14 hours) but I was notified that because of not going in person in the middle of July and beginning of August — when I was out of the country — I now need to do 21 hours. The problem is that most of the training sessions are difficult to access. I was also reprimanded today for not being at work an hour before instruction. I explained about the weather and very slow traffic at no avail. It’s the disrespect and the lack of human compassion that makes many of us find a way to get out.
I also got that email. I thought some of the online mandatory trainings counted for some of it. I had no idea that I owe 21 hours!
I got that email, too. I don’t owe 21 hours, but I do “owe” a few. Part of the problem? Some online courses I took through the American Red Cross (approved by MCPS) don’t show up in the tally in the MCPS system. If past experience is prologue, it will take hours and hours of my time to “fix” this. So frustrated with MCPS.
Haha! I didn't get that email- found out because my RT told me I was on the "need 21 hours list". Hilarous thing is I COULD NOT do it in July or August because I wasn't hired until SEPTEMBER. And though MCPS didnt get around to offering me a contract until AFTER the school year began, I was held responsible for NOT being there during the preservice week for which I wasn't YET A CONTRACTED TEACHER. And that, my friends is how the M***F**Kers of MCPS work. Nothing, EVER, is THEIR fault; it is ALWAYS your fault! So done with them.
Barkeeper's Friend is great on stainless pans, but i would not suggest on cast iron and probably not on carbon steel. Use it with gloves. For the cast iron (and maybe carbon steel?) there are "chainmail" scrubbers that work wonders. Not sure why they are so effective on cast iron, but they are.
And yeah, stir fry is at very high heat, so expect smoking oil. Can also help lessen the sticking/burning if you make sure your ingredients are not fridge-cold. Closer your are willing to let the ingredients get to room temp before cooking, the less things stick.
And yeah, stir fry is at very high heat, so expect smoking oil. Can also help lessen the sticking/burning if you make sure your ingredients are not fridge-cold. Closer your are willing to let the ingredients get to room temp before cooking, the less things stick.
Anonymous wrote:Isn’t a math teacher supposed to teach the kids the math? If it’s not happening, why? Is there something wrong with how it’s being taught or the expectations? It’s not true that other professions don’t work extra. I’m an attorney and I’m asked to deliver x product (the equivalent for you would be teaching x concept). I work until it’s done, even if it means working weekends or staying late.
I feel your comparison is off; being asked to reteach a student that didn't put in the initial effort is like being asked to represent a client who no shows at a hearing AND ALSO doesn't pay you. Do you continue working for that client for free, especially when the client refuses to take your legal advice?
Anonymous wrote:Student had 3 different teachers last year in one subject, and today it was announced another teacher is leaving this week after starting around late Oct. is this normal? Obviously private matters, but no explanations offered for swift transitions.
Was it science last year? If so, regular teacher had serious medical concerns; then long term number 1; teacher returned briefly only to need further medical leave; so long term number 2; and then regular teacher returned toward end of year. Far from ideal for all concerned.
Anonymous wrote:Can anyone give me the breakdown of the various feeders into BCC? How do they compare?
We are considering Silver Creek, Pyle and Westland and will be renting for our first year(s) so have some time to explore.
Have taught at both Pyle and Silver Creek; very different beasts. Pyle is one of the best run schools I've been at, Silver Creek, not so much. Students fine at both, teachers fine at both, difference was the priorities of the admin teams.
Can't comment on Westland, never taught there.
And, as other mentioned, Pyle feeds into Whitman, not BCC.
Anonymous wrote:To improve morale, the solution isn’t to micromanage everyone, it’s to give everyone more flexibility and autonomy. I came to MCPS from another field and knew it was a bizarre way to treat adults, but it wasn’t until I left for another school system that I realized it wasn’t a “school thing” per se, but an MCPS thing. Other systems are managing people in a much more professional way. So many of the principals in MCPS are homegrown, they have no ability to look at all of this with fresh eyes. It’s all they know. It’s a shame so many good teachers are fleeing, but I don’t blame them.
Please, what school district? Are their sane districts out there for a teacher to work for in the DMV? DCPS and PGPS seem just as bad as MCPS, at least that is the feeling I get HERE from DCUM, LoL.
How about VA? Other MD counties? How do they compare?
I am in MCPS as a career changer and of the MANY jobs I've had, some with good bosses and management structures, some with less competent bosses and management structures, non have stunned me with the absolute level of incompetence MCPS has shown. MCPS blows the socks off anything I've ever experienced up until now for sheer managerial - not just incompetence - by downright hostility and mindblowing disrespect for it's teachers. I am trying to figure out if I should run screaming from just MCPS or public school systems in general. Do all public school district use Kafka's "The Trial" as an administrator training manual?
I want to dump MCPS like a hot potato, but fear other places are just as insane. Any suggestions?
(My students have been fine, usually great; heck even the few that did crazy things like throw desks at me are "just kids doing what kids do"; it is MCPS' refusal to hold them accountable in any way for their actions that drives me to distraction)
Anonymous wrote:The teachers in our cluster have been wonderful. I know it’s hard, but I am an attorney and would love to switch over to teach (maybe part-time) for a few years before I retire. But not possible because of licensing.
actually, you CAN be hired with out a license. It's called a contingent license. A J.D. is an advanced degree, which could help, especially if you can claim any STEM background. Back in the day, most pre-law students I knew had pretty rigorous undergraduate course loads, including things like calculus and statistics. Depending on your situation, you might just have enough math/stem credits to pull it off. (Other fields, social studies, etc, don't have quite as high a demand as STEM). Anyways, usually mid summer school districts have the "we don't need no stinking license" cattle call to fill all the unfilled positions they couldn't find licensed teachers for.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:If the kid can't return to school unless parent shows up, parent will show up.
I wish. I've had kids suspended whose parents don't show up for the in-take meeting. Parents either send the kid in on the bus or drive up to a neighboring corner and drop them off. I then have the kid sit in the office for hours while trying to get the parent to answer the phone. It's reached points where I've had to have grandparents called so that SOMEONE comes in and meets with us and the student. Sends a terrible message to everyone involved.
And this is where Admins fail by not doing what they are legally required to do. Dropping off your child like that (the child has been suspended from school and so the parent is legally responsible for them that day) can be argued to fall under the definition of child abuse. At that point, what MCPS should be doing is what they are legally required to do; namely call Child Protective Services and reporting the parent.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: I have personally been abused by students and have been told by admin that I must have done something to provoke them and also that what happened probably wasn't as bad as I thought it was and just needed to sit down with the child to work out why they felt angry enough to throw something at me or call me derogatory names.
I concur a million fold! Have had this happen to me on several occasions. Student threw a desk at me, assistant principal's first question wasn't "are you ok?" but "what did you do to provoke the student?" Another time a student "cross checked" me out of his way; principal wanted to do nothing, gave me the "kids will be kids" excuse. I managed to get a one day in class suspension for that incident when my question back to the principle was "so you are saying you cannot provide me with a safe work environment?" The principle (correctly) read that for the legal threat it was.
So by MCPS standards, neither a student throwing a desk at me, nor another shoving me out a door were considered serious. These are the sort of "minor" infractions MCPS lets slip. My read of the article is just because one "Byron Johns, chair of the Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP Parents’ Council" CLAIMS the events are minor, doesn't necessarily mean they are minor. Or maybe he just used to pistol-whip his teachers back in the day, sees nothing wrong with these little angels tossing desks, breaking chromebooks, and so forth.
Anonymous wrote:
A few days ago we got our MCEA rep to come in and listen to our concerns. The rep listened for a bit and told us that what's happening in our school is not unique and it's going on throughout the county. There's nothing in the contract that states anything regarding staff's right to a safe working environment. He also told us that there's nothing MCPS central office will do about it and we just have to handle it at the school level. When we asked why there is nothing central office will do we were told that positions in central office were cut and there's not enough money to fund extra personnel to help support at the school level. We just have to "think outside the box" to figure out how to handle these mental health issues with the resources we have. Somehow we need to suddenly become mental health professionals overnight.
Which gets to my suspicion that MCEA is in fact a "company union", that is one that is actually run by and for the MCPS admins. I've noticed that being a UNION rep is often considered a stepping stone on one's way from teacher to administrator. I am always floored how often this so-called teacher's union just says "live with it" to the members it is supposed to be advocating for.
Anonymous wrote:Meh. I taught school younger than that and it was the easiest job I ever had. It’s not rocket science people.
True. Rocket science is pretty cut and dried in comparison.
So how old were you when you got your teacher certification and became the teacher of record? 15? 18? Or the ripe old age of 21? Or by "teach school" do you mean you were a CIT at Camp Castaway one summer?
I notice you used the past tense for your teaching experience. Good.
OP here. Thanks so much for each and every suggestions, especially the first one. I will update.
Several kids who graduated from the same magnet program told us that once the group projects start, kids start to love the program more, and make friends more easily too. I will also observe the school at lunch time during open house to see if it is really that rough as DC described.
Actually ... show up on a non-open house day. On open house day, admin will double down to make sure YOU PARENTS don't see the typical lunch room behavior. Same in the classrooms.
Another hint. When you visit your school on that non-open house day, DO NOT go into a classroom immediately. Wait outside a few minutes, maybe up to ten minutes - unannounced and unobserved. Listen to what you hear the teacher doing, the students doing.
Once you walk through that door, everybody's behavior changes. Usually for the better. And that may not be what you need to see.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I know it is hard for some people to believe but there are plenty of average kids who do not have learning disabilities.
Exactly my thought and I have been teaching for almost 2 decades.
Public schools have a guide to follow. Teachers make their own worksheets/ activities. Direct teaching is minimal, and emphasis is on Independent work which does not work for every kid. There is also a lot of pressure on teachers to prepare students for the frequent tests which is not necessarily an exact measure of competency.
OP, find a school that uses good textbooks and transfer your kid there. This way you can know that things are being done in a certain logical way.
With textbook-based instruction, your child may memorize more, but not necessarily be able to apply what they “learned” to new problems or scenarios. There’s also the issue of privates either using very outdated sources or switching to cheap (and sometimes low quality) online textbooks to keep down costs. We’ve done a mix of public and private. I see a clear difference in my daughter’s longtime friends regarding who can develop their own science fair research projects or analyze a never seen before primary source.
Very much a double edged sword. Sure, they "may" memorize more but be unable to apply it. On the other hand, not having a text book can mean the child's only resource is whatever worksheet the teacher cobbled together the night before, rather than a textbook reviewed by dozens to hundreds of reviewers. And it's a good day there is a worksheet to look back at, no matter how bad, to fall back on.
Indeed this is a large part of the criticism leveled against MCPS curriculum 2.0, and why the current replacements are rolling out; how unvetted C2.0 was. The small number of staff that put it together did a herculean job throwing together 12 years worth of curriculum in a short order with few resources. But doing it right required ten times the staff and 20 times the budget. MCPS did not provide.
Outdated sources? Maybe in a high school "politics of the 21st century class" one need the most current latest and greatest. But for many subjects, textbook updates mainly are for increasing textbook publisher profits, not more current knowledge or better pedagogy.
Anonymous wrote:I have become increasingly concerned about my 4th grader getting what she need from MCPS. Would like to consider private for middle and/or high school. Test scores are below Average - Average but a hard worker. Anyone have similar concerns or suggestions on where to start? We are in lower Montgomery county.
My biggest advice would be to prioritize what you and your 4th grader feel she needs and is not getting. Individualized attention? More interactive projects? More drill and rigor? Or less drill and rigor? From your post, hard to tell what you feel is missing.
Sadly, from what I've seen the "average but hard working student" often gets the least attention. They aren't the rock stars of the class, and they aren't the discipline/drama focus. They are the "silent majority" and often end up getting little "extra" focus. Not that they are ignored, but.... But if something like that is going on, then a situation (probably private school) with smaller class sizes and more individual attention could be a benefit.
Also, things like that do improve as one moves up the school system. At the elementary level it's really hard for a student to effectively self-advocate; usually you have the same teacher almost the entire day and individual and undivided attention can be difficult to obtain. But at starting at the middle school and definitely high school levels, self advocating can help - a lot. Teachers have office hours, provide lunch help, etc. So there are opportunities for the hard working student to actively get more one-on-one time with a teacher. Again, assuming that is a relevant issue for you. Not sure that can happen effectively at the ES level, given the way most ES are structured.