Reply to Advice to Kaya Henderson

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Advice to Kaya Henderson"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would vote for teachers working All of June and July.  July can be for PD and for planning.  [/quote] And you know what?  Teachers might agree to it if it is PD that is worth their time and planning time that is truly theres. As it is they already do PD and planning in June and July (School goes through almost to the end of June now) and starts back in August so July is the only full month off during the summer. [/quote]

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis.   Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge.  The school year for teachers needs to be longer.  Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have.  Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.  [/quote]

The are several problems with your idea---

1.  In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.

I am commenting on this because I am both a DC taxpayer and I have children who attended a DCPS elementary school.  We are failing many of our children in the city and part of the solution is longer school days and a longer school year.  I agree with you - we need to change the working conditions of teachers in the city. It needs to be a full year job because of the enormity of it.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?[/quote][/quote] Listen, under the current contract if DC teachers are "forced" to work a full year you will be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find qualified teachers. I can guarantee that. The principals in many of the schools (not all) are horrible to work with and create mountains of unnecessary paperwork to try to make themselves look good in Ms. Henderson's eyes. On paper they look like they are doing big things but in their buildings they are an absolute nightmare. There are schools where teachers get physically ill from the stress and toxicity of the work environment - not from the kids but from the administrators and their unwavering demands on even the best teachers. Do you really think that only the ineffective teachers are leaving the classroom?  I wish we could get a complete picture of who is leaving DCPS and why. [/quote]

+1000 and is not just the bad schools, some schools principals pacify parents by passing their kids along if they are vocal, wealthy, or connected.  They no the other parents won't object. These kids aren't learning either, as is evident by the recent dismal PARC assessment. There is a culture of fear in DCPS from the top down. Most teachers are sick from the stress, young and old. Everything changes ever year, there are no books so there are mounds and mounds of copies made every day using the cornerstone and other DCPS curriculum that has to be downloaded and printed. It is a HOT mess, and unless you work in the trenches you wouldn't have a clue how bad it is because the spin machine is good!!![/quote]

As sad as it is, this post is spot on.

And some principals have the nerve to deny or harass teachers about taking leave. Idiots! The teachers are going to take their damned leave anyway!!!! They're just not going to submit the form for you to deny in advance. Their just gonna 'wake up sick' and call in. And your ass will be caught off guard and forced to find subs at the last minute!

Create a work environment that teachers want to work in. I know of two teachers who have to call and give each other a pep talk every Sunday just to be able to go in and work another week. One said he gets I'll thinking about what he has to return to.

It's sad.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics