Reply to Changes to grading for all MCPS high school students

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How about a rule where teachers and admin need to respond to parents within three days.  We have teachers and admin who clearly read the messages and don’t respond.  How about teachers needing to consistently post assignments online so parents know what’s going on.   How about teachers grade within a week so kids know how they are doing?   We have teachers who still have not graded or posted in a month.   Not ok.  Kids can only be successful if teachers also put in the effort. [/quote]

Most teachers are putting in the effort.  But that effort requires time.  We’ve done this math multiple times but here it is again: 
150 students x 5min an assignment =750mins / 60mins in an hour = 12.5 hours .  Thats the total time to grade one assignment.  If a teacher got one class period free per day let’s say 47mins x 5 days =235 mins /60 =3.9 hours.  That’s how much time they had in their work week to potentially grade. There other 8.6 hours comes from their personal life.[/quote]

Out of seven teachers, three are putting in effort. Getting a month behind on grading and not responding to parents is not ok. [/quote]

Thank those three. They gave up their weekends and evenings for you.

The other four are giving you what they are paid for.[/quote]

Some, yes, some no. It’s their job.  Not ok to not grade.  As of today still no grades posted for the past month.  [/quote]

I’m a DP, but I’m happy to repeat the math for you:

I have 150 students. A writing assignment can take 15 minutes to grade. That’s 37.5 hours of grading. I get approximately 3.5 hours a week of time to get my work done.

And that’s just one assignment. Just one. That doesn’t include emails I need to respond to, reports I have to update, plans I have to revise.

So literally half my job has to be done on my own time. Over 30 hours a week.

So… SHOULD this be my job?

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How do you think your students will improve without written feedback? I get that it takes time, but isn’t this a huge part of learning and the job?[/quote]

I am a middle school teacher.  My students do not read the feedback.  They look at their grade and come up to me and say 'why did I get a B/C?'  I ask them about looking at the feedback and they say nope.  [/quote]

As parents, we are going in and reading it.  And, if that many kids are struggling, maybe you need to take some more time to reinforce the concepts they are struggling with. [/quote]

Yep, keep blaming the teacher.  At what point does the student have any accountability.  [/quote]

“Please read my feedback and if you have additional questions, we can meet at x time.”

The teacher mentioned middle schoolers. She needs to train them in the way she wants to behave. You get tweens to be accountable by telling and holding them what the standards are. 
[/quote]

I know that it is difficult to believe, so I will ask it again, what time during the day do I have to meet with 150 middle schoolers to go over their feedback?  I don't have office hours.  If I am not teaching a class, I am in a meeting or planning or grading.  If I open up time to meet individually with students, what should I not do?  Plan or grade?  Oh, you want me to be like the PP who works 70 hours a week.  I am not going to do that.  And you can continue to assume that I am a bad teacher, but this is a job.  Until MCPS can give me the appropriate time to do my job, things won't get done.  The only reason the public school system is not failing is because teachers are giving up their lives to hold it together.  And for what?  For parents to still not value what we do.  I will say it again.  Please fight for teachers to have the time to implement this new grading policy with fidelity.  Demand MCPS gives us time to do this.

[/quote]

If the idea that you would meet with a kid before school, at lunch, or after school is so unfathomable to you, you are worse than I thought. My children are in high school and fortunately we have yet to encounter a teacher who is so extreme. [/quote]

DP here.

I’m genuinely curious. How do you think the teacher above is going to meet with 150 students individually?

Let’s say she meets with 2 students before school each day, 2 at her lunch, and 3 after school. That’s 7 a day she can meet with if she gives up any and all available time she has. (And that’s assuming that time wasn’t already taken up by other requirements.) She can meet with 35 students a week. It’ll take her 5 weeks to meet with all 150 and that’s by giving up ALL the time she has.

Did you think this through, PP?[/quote]

Did you read what I wrote? My kids have always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it. Do you really think all 150 students are trying to meet with the teacher outside of class? Did you think through the assumptions in your math? How many kids do you think are going to ask to meet outside of class? Do you think every meeting is one-on-one. Do you even know any high schoolers? You need to post that goblin math to excuse lame teacher like the one above who posted. [/quote]

Your rudeness is beyond unnecessary. You are responding to a teacher who has over 7 hours of meeting time A WEEK for students. I am available before and after school every day. You even said yourself that you have "always had teachers who meet with students who ask for it." So I'm not sure why you need to be rude.

And, as a teacher, I'm very aware of how many students ask for help versus how many don't. That's simply not the point of this subthread. If you follow the conversation, it started with the suggestion that teachers meet individually for verbal feedback. That, as I stated above, simply can't be done.

Once again: no need to be absolutely rude with your "lame teacher" and "goblin math" comments. Some of us are working extremely hard FOR YOU and don't need to be put down at every chance. It gets old, you know?[/quote]

I am responding to the poster who tried to defend you while insulting me. I am perfectly aware of how this subthread started — I helped start it. Do you think it’s helpful for the conversation for the poster to pretend it would take you 5 weeks to meet with each individual students on every individual assignment? I don’t. That poster is not serious and need not be taken seriously. If you are the teacher above who defended your decision not to meet with their students outside of class because it’s just a job, then you are indeed lame. 
[/quote]

In middle school there is no 'outside of class' time to meet with students. This is what we call a toxic relationship.  Teachers tells you they do not have enough time in the day to do their job. Parents say if we just did more or were better organized or gave up our lives we could do it. That one teacher who works over 70 hours a week does, so we should too.   You call us lame when we don't do agree with you.  Keep blaming the teachers.  This is what MCPS wants.  If parents actually wanted things to change they would demand that MCPS gave us time to implement these changes.  [/quote]

Middle school has 2 20 minute blocks per week for students to meet with teachers. It’s “mascot time”.[/quote]

Your middle school has that.  Every school is different and ours did not.  Nor does our hs. [/quote]

Name a middle school that doesn’t.[/quote]

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