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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]MS teacher here.

I think a lot of this debate comes back to what you believe about your role as a teacher. For me (and many others), that role extends beyond the bell. If a student needs extra help and is willing to stay after school to seek that help, many of us are happy to provide it. The one-on-one or small group time allows opportunities to better get to know our students and build relationships, and it helps build in our students a sense of responsibility and ownership of their learning.

IMO, those who seem to see teaching as strictly bell-to-bell and feel the need to consult regulations for something like giving an hour of time once a week to support struggling students really make the rest of us look bad and should re-examine why they're still in this profession.[/quote]

What you describe, being willing to stay after school and tutor, sounds like a choice not a requirement. Few teachers I know go bell to bell. Many of us put in “extra hours”. I teach in an elementary school and left st 5:00 today. That was nine hours of being busy, take away lunch. Usually I leave around 4:00. I go in for the occasional morning meeting, help with an after school event, etc. I met with a parent after school yesterday. My role extends beyond the bell, but I am choosing to do what I do. I’m not being required to do things after school on a regular basis. That’s different. Some people have their own children to pick up from daycare after work. Are they making us look bad because they have to leave at 3:45 to pick their kid up from daycare?[/quote]

When the day ends at 2:15 and they're unwilling to stay once a week to help struggling students? Yes, yes it does make the rest of us look bad.

There is a different culture in middle and high school vs. elementary schools. I had a hard time understanding this when my own child was struggling in ES and needed extra help, but there was no time embedded for him to receive it. In middle and high schools, we have study hall-esque time for students to seek help during the day, and after school activities allow for students to take part in clubs and activities (MS) as well as sports (HS only). When you sign up to teach in a middle or high school, part of the expectation is being willing to work with students -- whether for remediation, extension, or activity -- after school every so often. An every day requirement would be excessive; once a week is not.

That being said, I do know of some teachers who had outside obligations that did not allow them to stay after school, so they offered their lunch time twice a week to work with students instead. It's not ideal, as students and teachers might eat at different times and thus not be free at the same time, but it was a compromise to be available to help students who need and are seeking it. I mentioned this in my previous post, but that's a big part of the mentality -- if kids are seeking help, if they want to own their learning and develop their responsibility, it's important for educators to support them.

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