Are you on an "on time" teacher?

We have a teacher who shows up to work 5 minutes late at least three times a week. While I am out there greeting my kids in the morning he comes walking by after the bell has rung and his kids are lined up waiting for him. It drives me nuts.

I think being on time is vitally important. If you ask me to a meeting at 8:45 I'll be there by 8:40. You are a professional and I respect your time. I'm not going to make you sit there and wait for me like I'm the Emperor.


Also, for the sake of full disclosure I am in fact not an American flag in real life. I apologize for misleading anyone.

 

As a classroom teacher, my kiddos were always at specials on time, except for the very few occasions where we were running behind by a minute or so. In the same vein, I always was on time to pick them up as well.

Kev~I worked with a teacher that would do that too, in elementary. The bell would ring, and about 5 minutes later she would come in...in no hurry either.


And my secret is out too....I am in fact not a shamrock.

 

Here the specialists pick up the kids, they are not delivered by the classroom teacher. Usually the classroom teacher is teaching another class (or substituting for a coworker-- no external subs here) or giving classroom support while his/her class it with a specialist. So in the time between when I leave to teach another class and the specialist arrives at my class, they are left unattended. Usually it is less than a minute, but we have no leeway-- up until 10:30, for example, I am responsible for my class, but starting at 10:30 on the dot, I magically become responsible for the next class I am teaching, with no transit time from one to another.

Luckily usually the classes one teacher is responsible for are very close together, but not always.

 

I agree with these (the former one being that teachers need to be on time to work...especially when that means being there when the kids arrive) situations being times where being on time is vital.

 

I think it is vitally important to model on-time behavior to students also.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a recovering tardy-holic. I have worked very hard in my personal life to change my ways, and be on time.

Having said that, I see students every day who don't respect others' time. I had a college student stroll in 15 minutes late for a test last week, coffee in hand. Her excuse?

The drive through was very busy.



If you make a commitment to be there at a certain time, be there. I understand that it may be important to you to finish up those last few minutes, but that is not sending a good message. It is saying that your time is more important.

 

I agree. I think that it comes down to good time management. Your lesson should be wrapping up in the minutes before heading to specials, so there shouldn't really be any need to interrupt a student or whatever example was given earlier in the thread. If you know that you need to be finished with the lesson by 9:20 or whenever, then you need to manage your time well enough to accomplish that. I think it's just so incredibly rude to say that an extra couple of minutes in your class is worth more than those minutes in another class.

 

Usually I'd just sit back and accept that I'm going to disagree with someone...but again, I feel like words are being put in my mouth and thus a picture is painted of me that isn't fair.

Never did I say that those couple of minutes in my class are worth more than those in another class. Yes, you try to wrap it up so that by 9:20 (I love that that actually is one of the times :lol: - fun when examples do that!) you are at the specialist. And yes, I darned well try to hit that point as close as I can each day. The kids understand that if their behavior is not up to par and it is taking them longer than it should have to get down there (perhaps they couldn't line up quietly), then the onus (I think that's the right word?) is on them for us not being there on time. They learn the importance just as much as was being mentioned a couple posts ago.

(And the example about interrupting a student - I mis-wrote a bit...obviously that wouldn't be happening until the exact time, as there'd be the transition time to the specialist)

 

Thus reminds me if a time the school where I was working had a PD Day, and we would often get together to have breakfast beforehand at a really nice breakfast place. I met with everyone there, and then afterward had enough time to stop at the new Starbucks in the same mall that a friend of mine had just opened and was manager. I stopped in got my coffee, had plenty of time, then went to the elevator to go up to where my car was parked and a fire alarm went off... Elevators were if course shut down, and I had no idea how to get to my car without the elevator! I showed up late and felt absolutely awful showing up late with my coffee!

 

Debating aside...after DST hit last weekend, I think our school is in about 4 different time zones -- our computers say one time, smartphones say a different time, clocks say a third time, and then the bell doesn't match any of them :lol:

 

But it's not something that has to be said, it's the actions that are speaking loudly.

It's demonstrating to the kids that the last 2 minutes of what you have is more important than the first 2 minutes of what Mrs. Music has planned. What if Mrs. Music had an activity that was timed down to the minute? Should she then be able to bring them back late, which makes the next class late, and so on, and so on...

I promise I'm not trying to pick on you...it's just a disagreement, which is ok to have, right?? We're all so sensitive to this around here nowadays, I just want to make sure you know that I respect your opinion, I just don't agree with it.

 

Oh no, I totally understand (regarding the disagreement) And honestly, I still think we're agreeing, but just mincing around with slightly different understandings of the situations. I would never plan to be late, but as a previous post mentioned, sometimes [four letter word that is an anagram of this ] happens (in or outside of school) and the kids are horrible and we get there late. Even if I do run a bit past the time I expect to with a lesson before we clean up to transition, I'm telling them that they need to get themselves transitioned that much quicker, in an attempt to get there on time. Students never get the idea that our time is more valuable than the specialists' time, and the specialists have always been fully understanding of those moments. I completely and utterly respect the time of all my colleagues and vice versa.

 

See, that makes perfect sense to me! I was still kinda referring back to the OP who said a certain teacher was ALWAYS late, and maybe making too many assumptions. I took it when you said something about 'I'm not gonna quit just so they can be on time' (paraphrased heavily) that it was something that happened all the time in your school also.

Yeah, poop happens-how we as adults react to that poop is huge though. If it's not a habit and it's clear that we're late, and we care, and we're sorry, then that teaches a valuable lesson also.

Aren't we all awesome, disagreeing civilly and all? :lol: We should really hold ourselves as model AtoZers, and all others should take note. KIDDING, kidding! But seriously, we disagreed, talked it through, and no one even had to get all up in someone's bizniz.

 

I hate slovenly people...and lazy people...and late people LOL That covers a lot I'd say!

 

I used to be on time all the time, but now I've learned to be on "tico time". For example- a few Saturdays ago we were told to show up at 6:50am at a park for a family day. I showed up at 8:30am and I wasn't the last one to come! The Germans were the only ones who showed up on time and they had to wait 30 minutes before the park even opened! And no one was there! haha!

So yes, I come to work on time and I expect my students to get to class in time. But when my school says be somewhere at a certain time, I show up at least an hour later with no problems.

 

But remember, the late, disrespectful, unprofessional teachers should make the same as the punctual, respectful, professional teachers according to the union

Couldn't resist.

 

When I was a classroom teacher I made every attempt to be on time. Sometimes we were early, sometimes right on time and sometimes a minute or two late. I've had specials teachers get mad because we were early, um you don't need to take my kids early. I've apologized when we're late.

What I find frustrating is when someone is consistently late. One year I had a special at 8:13a.m., school started at 8:10 and we had a morning staff meeting at 7:40. The specials teacher was almost always late, walking into the building at 8:15, 8:20 or even late. That's my planning time. Sometimes she'd make it up & sometimes she wouldn't. I got into the habit of taking my cell phone with me so I could call the office when she wasn't there.

 

Being a specialist teacher, it is certainly easier when classes are dropped off and picked up on time. There is a teacher here in second grade who is ALWAYS late. Everyday, every year. I mean I plan on it now but I don't understand why she's like that. It's her prep!! Her kids are behind.

I'll tell you what I HATE as a specialist is kids trickling in. We have gen ed classes and then kids are included from up to three programs (behavior program, one for kids with severe physical handicaps, and a life skills program) actually there are some gen ed teachers who are TERRIBLE about trickling their kids in. I'll stand out in the hallway and wait and 5 kids show up from the gen ed class, they say the rest are coming they need to finish their work or the teacher let 10 boys go to the bathroom or something utterly ridiculous like that, then 3 behavior kids show up - ok if we wait they're going to start misbehaving so we go inside and start the lesson, 3 boys come in from the bathroom, 2 kids come in from tutoring, one more kid from the behavior program...oh my god. I can't tell you how frustrating that is. It makes me feel so unorganized when it wasn't ME being unorganized in the first place!!!

I've spoken to classroom teachers about it and the vice principal so it has gotten better but it was so bad at the beginning of the year for so long it definitely affected one of my 5th grade classes and we still haven't completely caught up/gotten back on track. AND the behavior is TERRIBLE in that class. gosh I wonder why.

 

I always try to be on time, however I've found that a few minutes can be explained by the differences in clock setting and not always intentional disrespect of other teachers.

I think we should be flexible and work with each other. For example if I need to talk to one student after class and send a note to the next period teacher, I don't expect that teacher to become overly upset about it.

however, I did find it disrespectful when one teacher wanted to take one of my students out of my class so they could do something they didn't get to done because the teacher was absent the previous week.

 

This thread has been an eye opener to me. Our schedule is crazy in 2nd grade. We go to lunch which is never ready because we are the first ones, it dominoes to us starting our math lesson late, followed by P.E./library. I try to get through math in a reasonable time, sometimes I go a few minutes over but I will definitely work on that. We have tried talking to cafeteria manager because we have to wait anywhere from two to five minutes for them to start serving, but she always has an excuse.

 

Yes, I am usually on time, and it bothers me when other teachers (who affect me when we have students who rotate through) are consistently late because I either a) know that being late to a resource will reflect on me not the other teacher and b) if it's lunch I want my whole lunch period (or as much as possible lol). That being said, I know there are times where we just don't realize the passage of time

 

This conversation seems similar to MANY I've had in the past about being on time (both in the school setting and elsewhere).

You should be on time. It is the polite thing to do. Of course, life happens and sometimes things are out of your control. I've found that most people are reasonable and understand this. However, no one is going to believe that "life happened" to the person who is always 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes late. If that is the case, it's clear that something out of your control didn't happen - you are just late. It is rude to keep others waiting. ESPECIALLY in a work environment.

However, if it is a rare occurrence.... it seems only fair that others be understanding.... as time doesn't stop if an elevator is broken, a child is sick, a child is injured, a door is jammed.... etc.