Saturday, June 9, 2007
Protected Elementary Teacher Planning
In class on Wednesday, we worked on our position papers for our Advocacy Wiki. Working on this paper really got me feeling the excitement for our advocacy. As our group found more and more research, I felt myself wanting, more and more, to make this real. I listened to other elementary teachers discuss how they had no planning during the last week of school, but in the same breath list the myriad of task that HAD to be completed by the end of the week. All these feelings were reinforced when I lost my entire afternoon on Thursday with meetings. I was given 10 minutes to eat before I was in an IEP meeting from 1:00-2:45pm. Then I was visited by an attorney for a student at 3:00 pm and that lasted until 4:30 pm. I was never helped by administration. This just reinforced the feeling that my time is not valued, nor my family's time, since I had to complete the work that should have been done during that time at home. New thoughts began to surface in my mind...Could I really be someone to start an advocacy for this in Spotsylvania County? Or join forces with those who have begun on this journey already?
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3 comments:
I agree that teachers' time is not out own. I don't believe that the time teachers spend is counted or appreciated. I have noticed that the emergencies that happen at the end of the year seem to be in areas requiring more of teachers. In terms of advocating for teachers, maybe we could use more volunteers in the school at the end of the year... one eye proctoring is as good as the next, right? We could also support the administration in planning the end of year activities so as to allow more time for the teachers to do what they must. Maybe we need to start these end-of-year tasks earlier... spread them out.
Shannon, it is amazing to read your post today and see that you are feeling the same way I do about our advocacy. We are focusing on the need for an Instructional Coordinator at the elementary level. Both issues are very important. It would be exciting to see something positive happen with these.
I believe that each teacher is a advocate and that you already are speaking out for our profession. I've noticed that for some of us who have been teaching a long time we tend to say "well, that the way it always been...". It often takes young teacher to say "Why?" "How can we change this?" So you go girl - keep on asking and questioning and helping our county grow better.
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