Reply to How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?

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Reply to "How is FCPS teacher/staff shortage?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s really hard to compare teaching situations.  Some elective can be way more work and stress than a gen-Ed room.  You have 35-40 kids in most electives these days.  I knew a chorus teacher with over a 100 kids in one class.  It was just endless crowd control.  Electives are also expected to put on performances/shows/exhibitions during school and after school as well as run clubs.[/quote]

I think the PP was talking in ES terms. It is different in high school. [/quote]

In ES, specialists work with every kid in the school--including kids who are considered to have too significant special needs for gen ed and English language learners still doing intensive language support.  Specials are their chance to be mainstreamed--and the specialist teachers often have to do a lot of accommodations with little support. So they basically have to know and keep track of every accommodation in the school--and manage safety issues (e.g., what kids can't have scissors, sharpened pencils, xylophone etc.).  And grade everything, display work, organize performances etc.  And in FCPS the art, music and PE curriculum are sequenced and have high standards--it's not free play time.  It's how they end up with award winning and robust arts programs in high school.  Again, my experience as a principal raised my awareness of the workload of these teachers in ways that I was not aware of as a classroom teacher.  Sure it may vary, and there isn't the testing pressure, but there are other pressures.  I'm not at all an advocate for differentiated pay.  I think it should be on level of education and years of experience. I do think there could be "signing bonuses" for hard to hire areas as an incentive though.

(And actually we have a lot of specialist vacancies in FCPS right now--some are still open, some have been filled with students still getting their degrees and long-term subs.).[/quote]

I’m sorry but I have worked in several ES schools in FCPS. With the exception of Spanish (or other language) the specialists really aren’t grading. They give 3s to every student and then change some kids to 4s and 2s [b]based on what they observe, not grade[/b].[/quote]

That's grading in a performance-based classroom.  Also individual reflection sheets, artworks, exercises etc. are graded. 
[/quote]

Gmafb. My kids have never brought home grades work from specials. [/quote]

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