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Comments/suggestions:-- Teaching is a strenuous job. Constant changes in learning, resources, expectations, mandates, students, etc. require a great deal of energy. I am very busy and I love it. Our new curriculum director has assumed many of the duties that are time consuming and frustrating. I am thankful for that. I have never been denied of any materials and/or training if I had a solid rationale. I feel very fortunate for my administration.-- The amount of work I am asked to do is reasonable because I am a very resourceful person. There was not a lot of information given to me about the responsibilities of the job and I had to do a lot of leg work on my own. Communication was lacking on many aspects of my position at the beginning of the school year. -- While it is wonderful that the students all have laptops and ipads to work with, it would be beneficial to all if they had someone who would teach them how to use this technology. It should not be up to the classroom teacher to teach the students how to type or how to navigate a web browser. There should most certainly be a technology teacher for this. As for the amount of work I am asked to do, I find it completely unreasonable that I have to write my own curriculum. While I believe all of the teachers are doing their best, this should be a job for a professional. This is especially true due to the lack of appropriate compensation for the teachers who complete this job. -- Teachers are over worked with initiatives without the appropriate support/ resources, taking away from their primary job of teaching students. -- In our contract aides are supposed to be given one plan time a day. This is never the case because we have bus duty at 8:40 and resource and team meetings which start at 8:15. We need plan time to prepare for any pull out time with our kids. -- For a district as financially solvent as this one, I continue to be amazed at how little is spent on resources, supplies and technology--for both teachers and students. We always seem to be behind on what we need, especially for technology. I truly think we are doing our students a disservice when it comes to technology. There is no training for teachers, no technology teacher for students, no technology able to be brought home for students, no cloud to encourage collaboration and no attempt to look outside our little microcosm to see what might be working elsewhere. Our district is afraid to take this step and therefore, our students are losing. Teachers cannot be experts at everything! When students already know more than the teacher, the district is failing. Getting laptops and a cart of ipads was a step, but only a step. No attempt has been made this year to continue to more forward. -- At the elementary school, we keep asking for books and resources for language arts. Haven't seen them. The carpet in my classroom is over 20 years old. It is filthy and stinks. The laptops and computers my students use in the classroom are old and falling apart. Since the district tried to implement the "Marzano Standards" thing, we have been writing and rewriting curriculum and assessments without any training or guidance. The guidance we were given was poor and wrong. -- Amount of work reasonable? I work through lunch most days, taking home work most nights and a few hours of work on the weekends. I am asked to wear many hats in my position and not compensated for it. -- When I started working here, my area had a budget of $2000.00 or more. Currently the budget is $500.00 and includes more grades to use that amount. Our maintenance workers do a great job with our classrooms. In the area of technology I feel more pre-planning is needed and prior and on-going training. As for the amount of work I am asked to do, in a day I have one 40 minute period to type homework, copy materials, grade papers(if lucky), put grades into the Skyward, check emails and send emails, plan (if lucky), and do other tasks as asked. It is not uncommon for me to stay to 5:30 or 6:00 to complete what I need for the day. -- I do wish we had a larger selection of guided reading materials. Our budget is awesome, however so I feel like I can order things for my classroom without difficulty!! I am not satisfied with our technology, however. Problems with laptops working or old computers down in the Prek-K rooms make it difficult to use all the wonderful resources and software programs out there. Judith often appears angry or put=out if we ask her for help and John is so busy with administrative stuff that often it takes a while to get help from him and get off his "list". When John can help us, he is very clear and helpful in giving us the skills necessary to learn ourselves. The maintenance staff is fantastic!!! Our schools or always clean...although, it's probably time to replace some carpet at the elementary building that has now been in place for 20 years! YUCK -- Considering other comparable districts I feel that the availability of tech resources (e.g., I Pads) is lacking. Compared to previous districts I've worked in, the emergency response plan does not appear as thorough and clearly understood by all as it should, in my opinion. -- The work requests are never ending---creating assessments, implementing CC, reviewing materials, reporting to meetings, agendas, commitments....then add in teaching, grading, and reporting in Addison to communicating with parents. -- I believe the maintenance crew do a good job, but the carpets are old and could be updated if not replaced completely. The computers do not support any new software for the children to use. They are old. -- We should have a technology teacher. We used to have one, and it was much more beneficial to students. The classroom teacher stayed in the room to assist with a lesson planned by someone much more qualified to teach this subject. Students are lacking in technology skills because of the loss of this teacher. As far as the work we are asked to do, our classroom responsibilities are fine, but we are expected to do so much more than be TEACHERS. We should not be in charge of curriculum. -- To deliver services with integrity requires additional teacher support. Pleasantdale has so many aides that could be eliminated if one or two more resource teachers were hired. -- Out personal budget amount has not been raised for 12 years. It's difficult to get the basics we need. Most of us buy them ourselves at back to school sales. -- We need a technology integration specialist to help us prepare the students for these new online tests. -- There is not enough training and support for the technology. I feel there is only one person available to assist me when I have problems. That person does the best to his/her ability to fix the problems based on their availability. -- I feel that each middle school classroom should have a minimum amount of technology, a standard amount, so that teachers could move from room to room and have the same items available to them to teach their content area. I know that staff are not all at the same comfort level with technology, but we have attrition. When a new teacher comes into that room, they will not the use of a smart board or class set of computers. Each time a new piece of equipment is added, it is a different "model" and has different specs. The use-ability from room to room may not be so seamless. This is true for students as well with computers. I believe that there should be a minimum standard of equipment and then special needs would go up from there based on content area. I am more comfortable with our response plan now that an fob access has been added to the back of the APR. It has been a concern in the past for teachers on outside duty at lunch. -- I am very troubled that we have rooms with old carpeting that foster mold growth. Classrooms should not have carpet. Not having access to an ipad in my room on a permanent basis and a means to print from it is outdated. Other than an ipad, I have been given everything I have needed and requested for instruction, thank you Pleasantdale! -- 1. There is no support for technology in our building. We need training or go back to having a computer teacher that is versed in all programs we have. 2. We are asked to do more busy work than work that directly benefits our students!! We need to quit having meetings about things that ALL must attend even when it does not impact their teaching or students. -- I do not feel equipped to write assessments that are valid and have statistically strong measures. I also feel that technology for science needs to be improved. I wish our building had IPADS. I do not understand why we are solely a PC devoted building. -- I have a brand new printer in my room, from day one of this year. Still has not been connected. -- When will we have time to focus on making our teaching better. There are too many new initiatives being thrown at us monthly. Let's focus on the kids. -- In order to meet the needs of our children we must do more work than teaching day to day. I am here early and stay late and work through lunch in order to achieve that. -- I know our district is very lucky to have all of the resources we have, although we are behind regarding Common Core and resources for that. I am satisfied with the amount of classroom work I have, although all of the extra work asked of me is overwhelming. Especially writing curriculum, assessments and not having the proper training or TIME to properly complete all of these tasks. Administration and the board are not realistic in regards to any of these tasks. -- In terms of materials, we have had the same $100 budget for classroom supplies for over 20 years now. I've always felt like the spending of money was discouraged instead of encouraged. It almost feels to me that we approach our budget as if we are a corporation focused on having more in savings than what we spend. As a school, I would hope that our goal is to use the money we bring in on making the school a better place for students and staff. -- I have not eaten in the lunch room this entire school year, and I come in 40 minutes early and stay 40 minutes after school. We have had so many new duties added to every day that every teacher feels overworked and never feels as competent as they truly are. Always being asked the impossible and never being given credit for accomplishments. It's not a good atmosphere for teaching. -- I am not one of the teachers in the high pressure areas, so my added work load is fairly reasonable. However, I feel that the district needs to consider the long standing pattern of curriculum and assessment writing that go beyond teaching, planning and classroom responsibilities. It impacts the daily creative energies of the teacher that should be directed toward planning great things for the students. | ||||
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