Channel: Amoeba Sisters

Category: Education

Tags: ameeba sistersteacher appreciationamoba sistersteacher appreciation weekamoeba sistersameba sisters

Description: It's Teacher Appreciation Week. We so greatly appreciate our #teachers and because of that - we are concerned about the many issues that classroom teachers are facing. In this Short, we’re sharing a few things we’ve observed that need to be examined. While we outline three, there are so many more. We'd love to see them in the comments. Expand this description for more details. ------------- 🍎We show an illustration that shows several of many tasks that teachers have to complete that - more often than not - do not fit in contracted time and are also not compensated. Examples included before/after school tutorials, school events, staff development, parent calls, documentation, lesson planning and prep, club activities, PLCs, curriculum writing, grading, and various duties. These tend to be expected tasks that teachers must complete and are often tied into teacher evaluations (yet tend to not be specifically named tasks in teacher contracts), are there ways these tasks be defined and properly, financially compensated? If not, how might scheduling be reimagined? We've observed some districts trying to build in time for their teachers - here are a few below from our state. A) A district in our state gives late-arrival days for middle and high schools students. Their late arrival days permit built-in prep time for teachers. The community is given notice on a calendar beforehand of their late arrival dates. humbleisd.net/2020-2021calendar? B) A district in our state made a recent decision to go to 4 days a week which allows for an extra day in the week. usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/04/12/texas-schools-4-day-week/7293201001 As always, we want to remind everyone that change is hard. With change, there will always be obstacles- some anticipated and some not. Things outside of school will also have to adjust. But just because there are obstacles, doesn't mean change isn't worth it... -------------- 🍎Questions Pinky Has Heard Before Regarding This Topic🍎 When Pinky was a classroom teacher, she constantly heard these questions. So to address a few: QUESTION: But teachers [in our area] get summers off? PINKY🎙️: Yes, and if so, they aren't paid for summers. [The pay is only for the months they are contracted and many districts just pay it in equal payments so spread out throughout the year.] Even when teachers are not contracted (nor paid) for summer, they are still often required to attend many days of professional development, write curriculum, and plan for the new school year. QUESTION: But aren't there many jobs where you have to work outside of contract hours? PINKY🎙️: Some, but there are two major points to mention with teaching specifically. 1. Teaching is a job where a huge portion of the work you do (making lessons, prepping for them, grading, parent contact, etc) cannot actually be completed during the actual contracted worktime because you are actually teaching during that time. So you work on nights and weekends to even be ready to go work. These outside of work tasks are not a "sometimes" thing; they are a frequent thing. and 2. Teachers [in our country] are paid at a low salary for even the contracted time. QUESTION: But don't teachers get a "prep" time each day? PINKY🎙️: Many schools give teachers a single prep period each day. But it can also be taken up by an assigned duty [such as hall duty, lunch duty, meetings etc]. In our state, there are rules for how much planning time must be given to teachers, but it doesn't guarantee you get to keep a planning period every day - as long as the minutes add up to a certain number. And that number simply doesn't cover the amount of time needed. Here's something to consider. Let's consider a student lab write-up that takes about 5 minutes to thoroughly grade. If you have 30 students a class, that's 150 minutes to grade this assignment for ONE class. But wait! It's common in our area for a teacher to teach 6 class periods. If the class sizes contain the same amount of student, that'd be 900 minutes- 15 HOURS- to grade ONE lab write-up assignment from all periods. 📚📚📚📚 -------------- More about the Amoeba Sisters YouTube Channel? amoebasisters.com/press-kit