Reply to Teachers, please describe your week

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have posted this before.  I have 45 minutes of individual planning time a day.  In that 45 minutes, I need to:
- plan lessons - I have three different classes, so I have to plan 15 different lessons per week.  We have a new schedule this year, so everything needs to be adjusted
- analyze curriculum that the county is asking me to teach to see if there is any bias/racism in it and if there is I need to figure out how to address that 
- can't use the lessons from last year, because school has a new initiative with a new focus, so need to adjust the lessons, sometimes have to just completely start over
- set up Canvas pages (I have three preps, so three Canvas pages)
- grade papers and provide feedback (if I don't get this, DCUM will call me lazy)
- complete IEP/504 paperwork (I teach 20+ kids with IEPs, that means 20+ quarterly reports that I have to fill out, so the week that those are due, means pretty much no planning/grading is happening because, well those are legally mandated)
- contact parents of students who are failing, if parent answers the phone, this could take up the entire 45 minutes
- contact parents of students who did not turn in their assignment
- respond to parent emails (again if I don't respond quickly enough, I am lazy)
- respond to admin because a parent emails them to complain that teachers are marking student late, when student tell parent they are always on time.
- send out reminders to student who didn't turn in assignments
- respond to student emails (a lot of them are 'I turned in this assignment yesterday, why haven't you graded it')
- respond to staff emails
- document parent contacts in Synergy
- hopefully there is time to use the bathroom
- try to find students who have turned in their major writing assignment
- talk to counselor of needs of students
- talk to IEP case managers
- sync grades to Synergy and hope that they actually sync 
- collect data/lesson that is needed for a team meeting/department meeting

[/quote]

This past week, I spent more than a combined 60 min on one parent who was infuriated that:
 I was following MCPS policy
I did not have a physical way to not follow MCPS policy.
I agreed with her that if I wasn’t going to do what she wanted, she should take it to someone above me. 
I was not afraid of consequences for following MCPS policy that I did not have a way to circumvent.

Four different times, I responded “Yes, you should escalate this. Here’s the contact info of people on three different levels above me. If they can’t help you either, maybe they can provide contact info for people above them. You may also contact the Board of Ed and the Superintendent.” Four different times, she threatened me with escalating to people above me.

That is 60 minutes that I could have done things for the other approx 120 students I serve. A policy that teachers must answer every email within a school day shouldn’t include parents beating a dead horse who have alternatives means of resolving their problem.[/quote]

That’s a parent you should have have nicely told, “ma’am/sir I’ve already agreed with you twice and provided additional means for you to redress your concern. I’d also be happy to let the team lead and admin know about your concern.  Is there something else you would like to discuss as I don’t want to waste either of our time.”[/quote]

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