Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op, we are at a private and I do take teacher attendance. I do it because when the kids say teacher wasn't there today, what follows is a description of a pretty bad school day. The kids want a routine. Teachers want days off.
You do this kind of thing and think "teachers want days off" and I'll bet you're one of the people who complains teachers are not very good anymore. It's because the good ones have quit to take jobs where they are respected as professionals and where they can take sick days and not have to spend hours preparing sub plans for your grubby little brats.
Hit a sore spot here I see. Kids actually clean and well behaved, but appreciate your concern. The teachers are very good. Administration pulls them from class frequently. They do get sick sometimes. They have training days and half days where school is closed to students. My childrens well paid very capable teachers are in the classroom for 70% of the class hours blocked out for them. Somethings wrong. The responses on this thread remind me of the NEAs freak out to the idea of actually testing students and rewarding schools and teachers who outperform. If the teachers are skilled professionals then it matters that they be present to provide continuity and depth of understanding. Otherwise it's just a rotating group of automatons delivering today's assigned impersonal lesson. [b]Why can't teacher development be a week program before the children's first day of school? Cuts into their family vacation time? [i]
No, it cuts into not covered by their employment contract and schools don't want to pay them for an extra week of labour time. The teachers don't come up with professional development schedules - the school boards do.
In case you hadn't figured it out - the teachers are not accountable to you, personally. They are accountable to their employers. Just like every other job in the world, leave is a benefit bound by the terms of employment. Some people like to use their leave throughout their contract year. Some like to back it and use it at retirement. Some of the leave may not be leave at all, and actually be time used for professional development, meetings, and non teaching related functions.
You don't work, do you?