Teachers being the "worst students"...

I think my background in the business world gives me a different perspective. In the business world, if you miss deadlines without a verifiable excuse, you don't have a job. Therefore, my mindset is that when an admin gives me a deadline, I have to meet it. I can honestly say that in 5 years of teaching, I have missed one deadline. My husband was having major surgery, and my boss asked for an emailed "wish list." I missed it. I wasn't the only teacher who missed it, however. Our P drove it home, though - the 2 people (small staff) who did send lists (one was HUGE) got everything on their lists, and the rest of us got nothing!

The way I figure it, if for no other reason than karma, if I want people to respond in a reasonable amount of time to my requests, then I need to do the same.

I have coworkers, however, who do NOT feel the same "sense of urgency," regarding these requests.

 

At my first school, there were a lot of these teachers especially if a task/request wasn't in the Union contract - they weren't doing it. According to our contract, schools could hold teachers once a month, afterschool, for an hour for staff meetings. Our P could be mid-sentence, but once the clock struck 4 pm, these people would always get up and leave even when asked to stay for a few. This was my first year and I was too scared to be so bold.

 

If I feel that people are asking me to submit things on a regular basis such as weekly lesson plans, quarterly data reports, discipline logs, etc. and they never read or check these items; it makes me not want to submit anything on time because it seems to be a waste of my time and my IL time.

 

Yeah, we have to submit lesson plans every week online. I usually just copy and paste what I submitted last year with one or two small changes since no one reads it, and I don't use them.

We also have to do attendance notices that we give to the secretary who sends it to the parents after 7, 9, and 11 absences. They are supposed to lose credit after 12 absences, but no one's ever actually lost credit for this it seems. Just useless paperwork.

 

In NJ this year attendance policies are changing. More than 19 absences defines a student as chronically absent...those absences affect state funding.

 

I love book studies. I think there are a lot of great things out there that teachers wouldn't read unless it was "required" of them, which is a shame.

I don't think I work with anyone like that JustMe. I know personally, I will try to get it done right away because I am pretty forgetful. If anything's ever been late, it wasn't intentional and I think most of our staff is the same way.

 

I think it doesn't help that my principal is also very disorganized and forgetful, so I know she is very understanding when I am. A lot of the time, she loses the stuff we do turn in. I would never lose my job over this, not at my school. I like to think if I was at a stricter school I would be better, because I was never like this at my other jobs. It is still 100% my fault for being like this though.

I have tried to get in the habit to answer emails right away or else I will forget. I need to do this with other things. Oddly enough I am super organized when it comes to all my medicine. Why can't that transfer to other parts of my life?!

 

I'm good with deadlines that are given to me in a reasonable timeframe. If I want people - students, coworkers, whatever - to respect any deadline I give, I need to make sure I adhere to the same principle.

Sending me an email at 7:30am after my prep is over and telling me I need to complete some paperwork and return it to the office by 11 the same day because someone forgot to send it to me two weeks ago? Is not going to happen.

 

The most frustrating thing is that there's one grade-level team at my site that (notoriously) submits things at the very last second.

 

Those teachers are the reason people have such a big problem with unions and teacher contracts; if the rest of us would stop justifying their rudeness and lack of professionalism, we'd all be a lot better off.

 

I generally do as I am told, when I am told to do it.

I have had two problems with directives that I admittedly just did not do. I am HUGE on following rules, even if you don't agree with them. Fight within the system and all of that jazz. But sometimes a wild hair gets up my butt and I just draw a line in the sand.

One was when our brand-new principal stated in a faculty meeting that absolutely NO communication to parents was to be sent out without at least two people proof-reading it. No syllabus, no email responses, no website updates, nothing. AND, we were supposed to respond to parent emails within 24 hours. It would have been impossible to find two coworkers to come over and read the ten-plus emails that I send out daily to parents, within 24 hours of me receiving questions. I made the decision right then to not comply.

The other thing is something a department chair has mandated. She wants to be able to brag to the other dept chairs that our dept does more for our students than theirs do. I have no doubt that it is a competition spawned from some argument (English works harder than Math) kinda crap and our dept chair wants to prove herself right. We are to continuously update a file stating what we do and how many hours we spend on it. No other dept is doing this. We are only to consider tasks related to our subject matter (can't include coaching team sports, being on the school improvement team, etc.). I've asked several times why we are to do this and only get "Because I want you to." So I don't. I'm not into playing games nor am I interested in being someone's pawn.

 

How would you address the multitude of correspondence that goes out with very basic errors that make the teaching profession look less than intelligent?

 

To me, that seems like it's bordering on macro-managing. Yes, I could see advising my teachers that if they have an email that could be misconstrued to get a couple of colleagues to proofread it (that's just professional common sense in my opinion); however, to ask for EVERY email/letter to be proofread is just not plausible (especially since there is a mandate for a 24-hour response).

 

I always do as told unless I honestly forget to. teachers can be so bad at this. I gave a workshop a few years ago and there were two teachers sitting in the back chit chatting. Teachers don't always listen well nor do as told. My friend told me that a teacher last year would sign in to meetings and then leave! I can't imagine ever doing that!

 

One of the things I'm working in is turning things time when asked by the principal. She rips teachers to shreds if things aren't turned in on time.

 

I just do it immediately or as soon as possible (like on my next planning period). That way I won't forget and I won't be late.

 

This is me. I always get compliments from the secretaries: "You're so fast!"

"Actually, it's just because I don't want to forget to do this... I want to get it over with."

 

Address? As in address the problem with other teachers? Well, I wouldn't. I'm not the boss for a reason.

If I was crazy enough to become a principal I would respond to errors on a case-by-case basis. It should be pretty easy to tell if a teacher routinely has problems communicating effectively by the emails he/she sends out to the school. When this becomes evident with the handful of teachers with issues, I would address it with those teachers and only those teachers.

I received an email from a very popular plastic surgeon last year. In it he used an incorrect form of "there." I assumed that he made a simple error and that he actually knows which form to use. We all make simple mistakes here and there.

 

His job is a surgeon, not a teacher. Wouldn't you be more concerned if he had trouble with cutting in the wrong place every now and then or sloppy stitches, choosing wrong medication, etc? That is why teachers are held to a higher standard in written and spoken communication to the students, parents, and within the school system. Teachers are supposed to be academically sound and detailed oriented because that is what they teach. The public has the belief that all teachers, regardless of subject matter, are competent in the basics of education which would include spelling and grammar. So, even with the math or physics teacher, proper communication in English is expected.

 

One of my evaluations dinged me because I had a typo in my introduction email to students. It was mortifying, but it definitely taught me to double check EVERYTHING before the students or parents see it. We expect editing and proofreading of our students. Perhaps I am a decent student, because I have learned to demand that of myself after losing points on a walk-through.

 

I don't want to live in a way that doesn't allow for myself and others to make simple, harmless mistakes.