The Texas Education Code States:
§ 21.404. PLANNING AND PREPARATION TIME. Each classroom teacher is entitled to at least 450 minutes within each two-week period for instructional preparation, including parent-teacher conferences, evaluating students' work, and planning. A planning and preparation period under this section may not be less than 45 minutes within the instructional day. During a planning and preparation period, a classroom teacher may not be required to participate in any other activity.
Alief Federation of Teachers addresses School board on issues of respect, support & communication in the workplace, Planning and prep, ALC issues
ReplyDeleteThe April 17th School Board meeting was quite exciting and there were patron presentations a-plenty! As you can expect, The Alief Federation of Teachers was present and addressed the school board on several issues affecting employees in Alief ISD.
AFT Co-Chair Veronica Thibideaux addressed the board with this statement:
“I stand before you today with an issue of concern and importance regarding the level of respect expressed to teachers and support staff in schools across our district. Granted, this may no be the case in all schools, however, the Federation has been inundated with concerns from employees in reference to a lack of support for administration. As you know, a lack of support can surface in many ways, from lack of administrative availability to staff members, using the PDAS tool as a punitive measure rather than prescriptive, lack of support regarding teachers’ decisions in the area of discipline, unprofessional behavior exhibited by administrators towards employees (which is absolutely unacceptable), to disrespect of teachers’ planning time. As an example, just today many teachers arrived at school to find that they were being denied a planning period for the day, which is becoming a common practice as of late. This practice is in clear violation of Texas Education Code 21.404 as well as several commissioners rulings on the subject. Our district spends a great deal of resources on the professional development of its teaching staff. When one experienced teacher leaves Alief, hundreds of students are affected. The level of disrespect that the Federation has seen this year is affecting the overall morale of the staff throughout the district. Many experienced teachers have indicated that they will be leaving Alief ISD due to issues of poor administrative support and respect in thier workplaces. The Federation asks that the district make a resolution to address these issues with Administrators in an effort to bring a healthy professional climate back to Alief schools. When employees feel respected where they work, the students ultimately benefit.
I'd like to speak to this. In Katy ISD, we are being required to spend between 3-5 days per week meeting with an instructional coach for planning.
ReplyDeleteFor the primary (K-2) teachers this is VERY stressful because they don't get any preparation time. What is the best approach to this problem? We have a 50 minute planning period each day.
No one, including me, will speak to administration for fear of retaliation during our evaluations. Also, if only one person complains, they are labeled a trouble maker. Most teachers just keep quiet and go along with the requirements and complain later. Also, many teachers "work" around the system and do their planning period work during instructional time. They get "the kids busy" so they can do their paperwork, etc. Either way, the students are the ones that are suffering. They either have teachers that are exhausted and demoralized or babysitters.
Is this at every school in Katy ISD?
ReplyDeleteCall TCTA. We are in the same situation at my school. The perception is that we sit around and do nothing during our prep time. They must have forgotten about grading, calling parents, modifying for sped, making copies, taking work to iss, creating spiraling warm ups, writing lesson plans....
ReplyDeleteI worked at a school near Houston that required group planning 3+ days per week during the state mandated planning period, and no additional planning period was provided. The group "planning" was essentially an interrogation / compliance check (the purpose was not planning, sharing or collaboration). It was insanely exhausting to not only have no personal work time during the day, but to take that stolen work time burden home amidst the exhaustion. The law is blatantly violated, on paper, in scheduling, but no one dares speak a word... I'll never teach again, and I am deeply sorry that current and future teachers will continue to burn out under these conditions.
ReplyDeleteI work in Cy-Fair ISD, and does anyone know if it is appropriate for the administration to make a teacher give up her conference period to "babysit" a class because of a sub shortage?
ReplyDeleteI work in Cy-fair ISD (elementary). We are required to meet as a team twice a week with the instruction specialist. They record what time you arrive and kick you out if you do not have the next week lesson plans already written. You then have to write a letter as to why you were not prepared. This letter with a write up will then be placed into your file.
ReplyDeleteThey also scheduled IEPs during planning. They ask during the start of the year if you want the IEP before, during planning, or after school. It doesn't matter what you choice its always during planning. Twice last year, I didn't get a "free" planning. I had 3 IEPs and 2 days of mandatory "group" planning.
I never get to grade papers, plan lessons, complete sped paper work, fill out data collections, or call parents during planning. I complete these items on my own time before or after school.
We are also told we are required to have tutoring before or after school twice a week minimum (We do get paid).
We got a letter that state if we do not do these things we are not compliant with an administrator directive.