How far Zero Tolerance goes these days.

[AccountingDrone]

Remember, this is cafeteria food.

I've been to cafeterias that served scrambled eggs in cubes.

Way back in 77 we went to some HS level chorus competition at a school in Buffalo NY for our regionals. They served butterscotch pudding [or maybe spackle, could go either way] that was so inedible - we set one cup of it upside down propped on a pair of milk cartons and left it. It hadn't schlorped out of the little cup in the hour it took to eat lunch. If we hadn't had to clear the table it might still be sitting there 30+ years later, lurking in an upside down paper souffle cup...

[daleduke17]

um, how do you get twice as many admin staff as teachers? my secondary school had a LOT of non-teaching staff ( 1 school headmaster, 1 school deputy head, 5 faculty heads, 5 faculty deputy heads, 1 first-aid lady (who was very nice, unless you were trying to pull one over on her. put it this way-she had access to find out what % of the time you were off school. be off too often, and you'd better be able to prove you were ill. She took me at my word, because I was so rarely ill) and ~ 10 technicians in science, possibly less ( I never saw more than 3 at the same time) we had about 10 teachers per faculty, so 50 teachers. 2 receptionists IIRC, and two janitors. so 27 admin staff. an american school of the same size apparently has 4 times as many. How?

Because God forbid a teacher does something outside of their "responsibility area" or get too overworked by fucking teaching their class.

[fireheart17]

Because God forbid a teacher does something outside of their "responsibility area" or get too overworked by fucking teaching their class.

I think my mentor teacher from my previous prac would throw a conniption fit if she heard that.

Down here, the responsibilities for teachers (in addition to actually teaching and the extras that come with it) can include:

-Taking on leadership roles. Usually this results in the teacher team-teaching with another teacher (so the "leadership" teacher might teach a class 2 days a week while another teacher takes 3 days or a 4/1 split) but the position is offered through the education department. You also need to actually be registered as a teacher for these.

-Forming part of a school's governing council or sub-committee of some description. You can be involved as much or as little as you like, but usually it involves you taking on some aspect whether it's fundraising, uniform, special needs etc.

-Taking on 1-2 days a week as a classroom teacher and spending the other 3-4 days as a specialist teacher (language, Arts, PE, Science/Tech or library tend to be the usual culprits).

-Taking part in some inter-school or professional group that requires you to do meetings, workshops or something of the sort. (this usually links with the leadership roles)

My mentor teacher wound up taking on the role of the curriculum coordinator at the school for an extra 3 years. She still teaches, but only 4 days a week. Her kids ADORE her though.

For high school teachers, the deputy and assistant principals (if the school is big enough to have those) may end up teaching a class or two as well as organising extra curricular projects. Our school's deputy principal taught Physics (I didn't have him), one of the assistant principals taught drama (and organised our school play, she got given a standing ovation during one of our rehearsals ) and the other assistant principal taught English (and was a complete wanker).

That said, I do feel that in some cases, with teachers, they are asked to teach stuff that doesn't fall into the curriculum and should be left up to the parents or at least reinforced by them. Driver safety, dog safety, goal-setting...there are a few more things that are EXPLICITLY required to be taught and it's irritating. (there are a few other programs out there, the only two exceptions that I can think of are sex education and drug/alcohol education)

[Kheldarson]

Because God forbid a teacher does something outside of their "responsibility area" or get too overworked by fucking teaching their class.

*twitch*


Let's see, not only does a teacher have extra requirements such as meetings and committees, like fireheart said, but let's take into account those classes too. The average American classroom has about 30+ children in it. The ideal student to teacher ratio is around 20. On top of that you have multiple classes with multiple lesson plans (less if you have overlapping groups, but I have met teachers who literally teach a different class every block).

Then, since we're in this age of making sure everything's graded, I have to do that once the day's done, for at least 120+ students. And we have to be available for students and parents to talk to us.

Oh, and if your school district is cutting funds, substitute teachers are often the first to go, which means now you're being called to help cover classes in your planning period. Which means later days for you to finish your work.

[HYHYBT]

One way to get that ratio high is to count as "administration" people who aren't.

[fireheart17]

*twitch*


Let's see, not only does a teacher have extra requirements such as meetings and committees, like fireheart said, but let's take into account those classes too. The average American classroom has about 30+ children in it. The ideal student to teacher ratio is around 20. On top of that you have multiple classes with multiple lesson plans (less if you have overlapping groups, but I have met teachers who literally teach a different class every block).

Then, since we're in this age of making sure everything's graded, I have to do that once the day's done, for at least 120+ students. And we have to be available for students and parents to talk to us.

Oh, and if your school district is cutting funds, substitute teachers are often the first to go, which means now you're being called to help cover classes in your planning period. Which means later days for you to finish your work.

A couple of things that differ between what I said and you said:

-I'm primary, not secondary, so for me it's more 1 class, up to 7 different areas of learning I have to cover-usually a second language is taken by a separate teacher. This may become less if some of those other topics are taken up by specialist teachers (and are usually done either as a schools "focus" or to give the teachers more NIT time to plan/mark. The lessons covered are usually The Arts in some form, Design/Tech, Science or Health/PE. Usually the Health/PE aspect is split up with a teacher taking the PE side and the class teacher taking the Health side)

-Some of this in my case can be accomplished by having the students mark (which cuts down on the marking), but the marking is generally more subjective these days (unless you're doing a quick mental maths or spelling test)

-Substitute teachers down here are put into a pool, but every school usually has a few specific teachers that they'll contact as regulars (the kids adore them or they have specific skills). The "pool" covers a particular cluster of schools in a particular area, but the funding is done by the state government as a whole.

Most of what you've said DOES apply to specialist teachers in some shape or form. For a primary school especially, one second language teacher could end up marking the work of 500+ students.
For special education teachers (which I'm going into), our extra responsibilities could involve:

-Creating an intervention program/learning plan for students or monitoring it.
-Advocating for programs for a specific student.
-Creating a student's NEP. (one of the things that I've been told is that in some cases, a student does not get involved as much with negotiating their NEP, I plan on allowing students who are capable of doing so, to negotiate some aspects )
-Meeting with a student who's transitioning in, or meeting with the new school/new teacher to transition that student.
-Preparing resources for those students (this could include PECS cards, braille writers, braille readers, speech-to-text machines....)

[Kheldarson]

Fireheart, I was speaking from my experience teaching 6th grade and from my student teaching time. And believe me, you get mad props for being in primary but also special needs. I definitely could not do both. I can barely handle one of those categories

What I meant with subs, though, is a lot of school districts, in order to save money, are cutting the pool of subs. So, for example, in two districts I worked for as a sub, I'd only be called in if it was for a full day. Half days were covered "in house". The school I was a full teacher at didn't even have a pool of subs. Everything was in house.

Since, of course, district funding comes from various taxes dispersed in various ways that end up making no sense to actually helping schools. But that's a different rant.

[HYHYBT]

Since, of course, district funding comes from various taxes dispersed in various ways that end up making no sense to actually helping schools. But that's a different rant.

You mean stuff like the state *quietly* not sending school districts all the money it owes them, then loudly trumpeting a new fuel tax exemption for buses?

[Kheldarson]

Oh my yes.

Or, in that particular state, they were supposed to equally divide property taxes to all districts (so taking money from a growing district, like where my mom works, but giving it to a poorer district, like where I worked), and we all know how well that goes over

[HYHYBT]

Yes, that was the money they wouldn't send districts here too. As I understand it, when the affected districts got together and sued the state, the attorney general declared that they couldn't use tax money for that purpose.