Do all NBPS elementary teachers have planning time with the principal during their specialist times or is it just Winslow? Our principal told us all to pick one planning time during Music, Phys. Ed., or Art to meet with her. She now claims these are "voluntary" meetings. Who would voluntarily give up the meager planning time we have? One teacher was busy setting up her computers during her time--and the principal came by to get her for the "voluntary meeting"...our union tried to stop this practice--the principal has refused to stop. She claims that none of the teachers have lost personal planning time. This is hogwash! A few have now been asked to select a new meeting time if they don't like the current one. She seems to be running out of options/times--so some people have just had to continue losing planning time. Please post your situation. Are we the ONLY ones going through this?
37 comments:
This isn't the first time this principal has violated the contract and now that queen pia is encouraging principals to violate the contract we can expect more of this anti-teacher behavior.
My principal told me that Dr. Durkin had a Boston Lawyer give a Semminar at the last principal's meeting on how to fire teachers.
^unf-cking real...as if that's what's going to solve this systems major problems. Fire the teachers and watch how quickly this district falls apart. I really don't think the people in charge realize how much the teachers of New Bedford do for this city...but they will find out once all of that extra pro bono work ends!
When does Dr. D think we should plan our rigorous lessons? Before school, after tutoring, after common planning, after parent conferences, after staff meetings, after Galileo updates, after death?
that is ridiculous! How can we plan our' rigorous' lessons without planning time?
That's ashame...and unfair..I wouldn't meet...if it happened once..that's ok..but not all the time.
That is not acceptable, if we need our principal we invite her to our common planning. That's the culture the new superintendent is trying to impose- collaboration, working as a team! Some principals are taking their own approach and killing the meaning of the educational changes that we are suppose to be optimistic about!! The only reason I feel optimistic is because I'm trusted that I'm doing my job! I would hate to be at Winslow right now!!!! So sorry for the teachers working under such unpleasant circumstances!
As a sped teacher I don't have to worry about that. I don't have any planning time during my school day.All of ny kesson plans, IEPs, etc get done st home on my time. Occasionally I call in sick to get caught up
Principal: I want to meet with you during your Art, Music, or P.E. to discuss data. Since this meeting is voluntary, please tell me which one you are voluntarily willing to give up.
Teacher: I really need my planning time and I only have art, music, and p.e every other week.
Principal: These meetings are voluntary. Which one are volunteering to give up?
Teacher: Can you please schedule this meeting for another time?
Principal: These meetings are voluntary. Which one are volunteering to give up?
Teacher: I volunteer to give up which ever you want me to give up.
Academic freedom - Pia Durkin style.
Once again she goes against things that the union has fought to give us teachers to help us get through all of our demands. Believe me, that principals are looking at teachers and deciding who to fire or force into retirement. I feel for all those at Winslow and hope it is solved soon. Can't believe how bad this system has become in such a short time....
This is just the kind of situation that makes us feel powerless, brow beaten and like "lambs to slaughter".
How long will we accept this without standing together and saying, "ENOUGH"? Seminars on how to fire a teacher? Well, that's comforting! I'll just take another anti-anxiety pill and go to my chosen career,which has become my nemesis! Now that there is no seniority in our contract for transfers, I guess "the bees" are stuck working under a principal who couldn't care less about their time, families, mental or physical health! Summer cannot come soon enough! For the Winslow staff I am thinking there will not be a summer break, of sorts, because you will have more "voluntary" meetings scheduled during this time as well.Hope is a feeling that is all but a past memory.
You guys crack me up....keep complaining.....go make golf balls on third shift at titleist if you don't want to do the job. Dont take any involvement or ownership in the problem. How many of you make copies in your "planning" time or do other stuff other than planning. Have you peer reviewed your colleagues planbooks. Thought not! And I love how the blog moderator has to approve this.....this will never make it to the public, so just keep posting all the negatives. It' so refreshing and eye opening to see some honesty
Take ownership of the problem? The problem of meager planning time? Peer Review a colleagues planbook? That's your best retort? How trifle.
I would like my child to be taught by a person that is treated like a human being. Insults, labels, blame, and constantly changing expectations will not make my child's teacher more effective. I want to know that his teacher has planning(alone) at times to focus on the needs of his class. (Even if that means copying important stuff!)
To the poster that posted about making copies during planning time. Making copies during planning time IS part of planning lessons. Our planbook is not for peer review. How many administrators sit behind closed doors and are not visible in the school unless they are doing observations? Please be well aware that if Durkin is looking to fire teachers, that she is looking at YOU too!!! She will drop you to save herself. Do NOT kid yourself.
I love my planning time! I stand next to the copy machine waiting for it to warm up, then I unjam it, load paper (must bring your own), copy a few, unjam it again...then I....oops that's your 30 minutes of music...get back to rigorous instruction. Don't worry, you'll have music again in 2 weeks!
This "complaint" goes out to all the people out there who are not educators and have no idea what it takes to educate children today. Let me make something clear, we want our jobs, we love our jobs and we love educating the children of New Bedford. We are involved in the education of these children more than the community can see. When a person makes golf balls for a living goes home, do they continue to make golf balls? NO! Your job is left at your job. Our job is taken home with us. We have to correct papers on a nightly basis, look up resources for our upcoming lessons because our resources at school are either not there or outdated. We then have to come up with ways to differentiate our instruction for the following week or sometimes day. We have to work at home on our computers because ours at school either dont connect to the internet, dont print because there is no ink, or simply dont have any computers that work. When we are done with that, we are then free to enjoy our families. Our planning time is our time to prepare our classrooms for lessons, yes run copies off of something we need, make phone calls to parents, or at times have meetings with parents or principal. When do you want us to make copies? If we do it during the day then that is time on learning lost to the children. We are no longer allowed to bring children to the bathroom because of the time on learning factor. God forbid we get caught sitting at our desk for a minute throughout the day because then we are not being rigorous. No matter what we do, someone out there is going to criticize us. Do you have any idea what the MCAS requires young children to do? Have you ever seen the test questions? If you are interested you can see samples of them on the DESE website. Feel free to take a sample test and see how YOU do. We are asking a lot from these young children. For what? I grew up without MCAS and I made it through school and I am very well educated. What makes anyone think that passing the MCAS will produce more intelligent children? My performance as an educator is based off of 4-5 days of testing in the school year. That's a fair assessment of my ability as a teacher? Have you ever taken a test and not done well because you were feeling ill, had something on your mind, or just couldnt concentrate? There's so much to being a teacher that if you are not an educator, you have no idea. I invite anyone that is not an educator to sub in a classroom for a month. Not a day, because you won't get a full grasp as to what it takes to teach. You will have the same expectations as we do and see how you fair. I guarantee you wouldnt do it. It's so easy to blame the teachers for students not doing well but it's not just the teachers responsibility to help kids succeed. It takes their family, a supportive community, appropriate resources, knowledgeable teachers who are allowed to teach. We are being bogged down with mastery objectives, rigorous teaching, data meetings, common planning, benchmarks, and MCAS that New Bedford is losing sight of the people who suffer the most with all this uncertainty and low morale: the students. Thats honesty!!
I am in shock at the ignorance of the last post. I do agree that some of the complaints can go a little too far. I think that is due to the frustration levels people are feeling. As to the "go make golf balls on third shift at titleist if you don't want to do the job" comment, I am disgusted. Unlike you I believe that all jobs are important for different reasons. I would never use a comment like that. Apparently, you enjoy putting down hard woking people just because of where they choose to provide for their family. As to taking ownership for the problem, as teachers we do this everyday in our classrooms in order to hone our craft. This is something you apparently know nothing about. As to making copies in during "planning" time, when exactly would you like us to reproduce the books that we are expected to make for ourselves since the district has not provided them for us. I have to reproduce everything I use because we don't have any consumable workbooks. Making these is part of planning, but I forgot, you don't really know anything about teaching. Hmm, actually I have peer reviewed my colleagues planbooks, when they asked for my assistance with planning units. I see my colleagues put in more hours for their students than you could imagine. We do it for the kids, or we wouldn't work in New Bedford. I do not know of any elementary school in the surrounding towns that do not have a specialist period daily for planning. We would have plenty of time to meet with principals, gather and interpret data, and plan "rigorous" lessons. Unfortunately, New Bedford does not believe our students are important enough to have gym, art, and music every week. The district is not providing these basics to our students or providing its teachers with the necessary time to become better at our craft. I hope that this has enlightened you. This way, when you talk in public, you will no longer sound so ignorant.
any principal that would intentionally hurt one of their teachers deserves bad Karma for themselves and their families .
Taking work home is a reality for a lot of people. I (not on the government payroll) work 8 to 9 hours and still need to log in from home quite frequently. Plus I'm asked to work numerous Saturdays throughout the year with no extra pay (I'm salary). Teachers, for example, work 7:30-2:30 (or 8-3). That's 7 hours, less half hour lunch, we're talking about 6.5 hours a day?! Of course it makes sense that you take work home; it's the only way you can get close to resembling an 8 hour work day! Teachers are so not aware of the reality in the private sector.
That is part of the ongoing problem....people only see "school vacations and summers off" when they think of teaching. Whatever job you do (and kudos to you for working at all and not sitting home "on the dole"), you hopefully understood the parameters before taking the job. But I also doubt that you would stand by - in any job - and allow higher-ups (and I use the term positionally, not necessarily intellectually) to break the terms of your contract.
We have spent our time in higher education, passed our Mtels, paid our student loans, and tried to make a niche for ourselves whilst dong the job we love and feel called to. And we have a contract that was agreed to by the parties involved. What ever career choice YOU have made, I hope that you entered it with your eyes open, with a contract that spells out your benefits and liabilities AND that you would speak up when the terms of that contract are being violated.
She is violating all our given union rights as she does not support or respect unions. She is looking to weaken, challenge, and dismantle it. This leads up to bigger climax of eliminating the union altogether. And, be aware, Durkin is versed in this due to past experience and coaching!
Pia Durkin lacks empathy. She has a vision and will bring it to fruition. If you are a hindrance in this process, you will be removed from the equation. Her principals are minions. Everyone is looking out for their own best interests. This is a cut-throat environment vs. a district that collaborates and fosters achievement. It's kill or be killed. Not a positive message, but it's the truth.
Can Lou bring in the higher ups in the union! They need to step in ! Let's lawyer up the teachers!
People in the private sector seem unaware that their situation would be even worse without the existence of unions to set the example for worker treatment. It amazes me when people don't wonder if perhaps they should be treated better instead of pointing at those that fight for fair treatment.
Until the Winslow teachers toughen up and file a grievance against Paula Bailey every time she violates their contract, she will continue to walk all over them. Don't complain unless you're ready to stand up for yourselves.
I agree with the last comment. Every teacher - para- clerk - specialist need to stand in unity now. It is of benefit for a Principal to "stroke" a few teachers in the building making them feel special. It keeps a team split. This is unhealthy dysfunctional management. If we take a breath and step back - we all would enjoy our jobs and each other if we stand together in union against the Principal and Durkin who is violating contracts. Together - not afraid. Powerful to stand together. Let's not allow our peers to stand alone. Let's all take a public stand if we have an issue.
I would like to address the blogger that says stop complaining and find another job. You'll hear teachers say, it's a passion, it's a calling, it's my purpose in life, and so on. I would like to counter and call it a job. A job that we received a degree in, stating only that we are certified to do a specific job, a job that we applied to do, a job that supports our family and offers us a quality of life that makes sense to us. The reason why we do it is no different why you do yours. We want to succeed, see our customers (students) succeed, and work in and environment that is healthy and rewarding. Certainly if the superintendent didn't think of it as a job she would not have negotiated her contract, and taken whatever was offered.
Like you, the longer in a workplace the more money you make, which may afford an even better quality of life, and some prestige if that is important to you. A sense of purpose if you will. As time goes by, all these things make it difficult to just leave. Given comparable paying job opportunities in the area it makes job change more difficult. Young teachers have difficult decision about their futures. I couldn't do 30 years, even with the spoken and unspoken perks. Having schedule time off as teachers do is great, and yes it is a perk of the job. There are other things that are perks too, I'm not saying they don't exist, and not taken advantage of. This is the profession and how it is nationwide and worldwide for the most part.Please understand that many teachers are very active during that time doing many school related activities, and we do not take advantage of all the perks. Please don't think that everyone is just living large. Teachers complain, just like you complain about your working conditions, we just have a blog, you have the phone, twitter, and facebook...and we do too
The only time this principal comes out of her office is to observe teachers and give them a "needs improvement". She's the one who deserves the biggest "needs improvement" in her leadership.
to all the ignorant people in the private sector, I once worked for the private sector as many others who have now made teaching their second career. I have now taught children for 18 years and let me just say it is the second most important profession in the world (first goes to parenting) and our country does not respect the profession. when all is said and done I average about $5.00 an hour when counting all of the hours in and out of school spent on my job. I also spend thousands of my hard earned dollars on supplies and resources because our city doesn't believe in truly supporting education. The city council needs to know MY elementary school did not get one new textbook after they replenished the 1.5 million dollars. I would love to know where that went. We have unreliable internet access, ancient computers, no workbooks, or decent classroom libraries. We have to spend our weekends not only doing paperwork but shopping for gradebook supplies, chapter books, pencils, whiteboards, resources to create our own workbooks and the list goes on. New Bedford has implemented the daily 5 this year with NO training or resources. It is strictly left up to the teacher and we have no choice in the matter. What private sector company provides their employees with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to get the job done and tells them you are on your own and if you don't perform with 40% improvement you are fired??? Daily 5 requires a classroom library with all books leveled and labeled by genre, record keeping on each child using binders, recording sheets, dividers, a CAFE board labeled as the year progresses, activities to provide independent learning while the teacher works with small group and the list goes on. This is to be successful with no training or even observations to see it working!!! The teachers in New Bedford work harder than any surrounding town thanks to the lack of support from the school committee, or the city. We are the scapegoats for the district not performing at a proficient level. No one blames the school committee for hiring superintendents who are not qualified or have gotten fired from their own districts. I guess it is easier to just blame the teachers. How about the student population??? Students who are coming to school daily inappropriately dressed, showing a total lack of interest in learning who will not even complete h.w. or hands on learning projects because they say they are too busy. And planning time is the biggest issue. Every other district provides daily specialists to reach all learners. ARt, music, health, library, computers, drama etc. Not New Bedford because our kids don't need it. This is the reason why teachers do not use their 15 minute break to even go to the restroom or even have their 30 minute lunch. We are too busy creating our lessons, running off practice sheets, making field trip phone calls or calling a parent. How many of you in the private sector do not take a break, lunch or even use the restroom??? Stats have shown new teachers are leaving the profession within 5 years hmmm I wonder why?? 6 yrs of school making less than minimum wage and being scrutinized on a daily basis! Something is wrong with this country when professional sports players can make millions a year and we have teachers starting out making under $30,000.00 a year and buying all they need to get the job done! Anyone want to take my job???
Where does Durkin think she's going to get certified teachers to replace teachers in New Bedford? Everyone knows the mess this city is in and the tyrant running it into the ground. Good luck getting qualified applicants.
I am so glad I am at the school I am at. My principal values what we do and none of this nonsense is going on. I think principals are using Pia as an excuse to be asses !!!!!!!!
Pia did instruct the principals to stop using her name when they give directives. Perhaps your principal is just more accountable and trusting.
"To all the ignorant people in the private sector"?! We are not ignorant; we think about these things very well. We also know that most teachers really do believe that most parents are stupid, so don't expect much respect from us. If you don't like the job and pay, leave. There is no dire shortage of teachers out there. We in the private sector also have our expenses that do not get reimbursed. Please stop complaining. I've heard the same stuff for decades. We are not your serfs, working 40+ hours with 2 or 3 weeks off just so you can have your demands met. Unions only exist(pretty much) in the public sector because the people can be held hostage for just about anything. We've all had new bosses who've been very demanding, but we don't complain like school children .
"We also know that most teachers really do believe that most parents are stupid..." That IS the stupidest thing I've read here about teachers. I don't think the parents of my students are stupid. I do think you may be.
I am at another school and I have also lost planning time and once a lunch so that I could talk with the principal. There is so little planning time and we are doing way to much at home right now. We are spending more time assessing and trying to put out fires in workshop than actually teaching.
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