Anonymous wrote:
"new thread please-- Contract negotiations as reported on the news...
Teachers are NOT trying to set their own schedules- which sounds like, hey I think I'll come in at 10 am. Teachers are trying to teach the classes they have taught for years ( ie 30 years in Kindergarten, but a spiteful principal could at various times placed that teacher in 5th grade-- doesnt benefit students!) Or when possible -when PD and preps are-- there are reasons for these things-- it isnt a whim! Union step up and clarify! "
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Currently teachers can decide which grade they will teach?
What if the teacher was tired of kindergarten and wanted to teach 5th grade- who would decide?
If there is an opening, i.e. 5th grade teacher retires, it is open to teachers in the building before posting to district. Someone in building may just want the change, and that is good. But it isnt "chosing your schedule" as the media suggests.
Ok, here's how it works from what I can tell. (I have been in the district 4 years at the same school.)
Teachers do not get to decide what grade/subject they teach. Every year, teachers put in a standardized schedule preference sheet, which is the same at all schools, which lists in descending order their top 3 choices of classes/grades to teach for the following year.
The form is only a preference sheet. Teachers who have higher seniority in their building should have first preference on what grades/classes to teach in their school. In reality, though from what I have seen happen in my building the principal just puts teachers wherever they want for the most part even when the teachers aren't too happy about it.
I think the district wants to get rid of the preference sheet altogether for teachers to turn in. This would give sole authority to principals to place teachers where they want without any input from the teacher at all.
I would guess most principals just put teachers where they need them or want them for the most part already. I am not sure how other buildings run, but it seems like principals really can do what they please.
8:05 says, "in reality though..." Well i just wanted to give some validation to her statement by saying that I have seen that first hand when my son was in first grade and his teacher retired a few weeks into the school year. A teacher who had never had a first grade class but was herself close to retiring was moved to grade 1. She was fabulous at grade 1, but not immediately, having been more accustomed to 4th and 5th grades. I can tell you she was not jumping up and down yelling for the principal to pick her but knew how unpleasant the school year would be under an iron-fisted principal with influence in other buildings and friends in high places. Parents can be pretty observant and can spot fake behaviors when we see them, including admins and teachers who are not BFFs.
This issue is BIG- bigger than they are making out-- again still making it sound like teachers want to "set schedules" --as opposed to the truth-- that vindictive principals will assign teachers to a distant grade level ,or subject. Parents - wake up-- if your child is scheduled with a 1st grade teacher who last year was a fifth grade teacher-- it may not be that the teacher requested a change
Post a Comment