Come on School...

[KrisM]

In my district (in New England) the issue isn’t teachers opting out - it’s kids. More than 30% of my class list opted for fully online. They couldn’t recruit and hire online teachers fast enough. So many people anticipated that teachers not wanting to work in person would create a problem, but it’s the exact opposite. Most teacher DO want to work in person and they need more to be online.

Here too. About 25-30% of kids transferred to our online school full-time. Our seated classes are under 20 at elementary now and our middle/high classes are mostly under 25. I know a few online teachers have 40-50 kids assigned to them now while they were anticipating only about 30. They appear to have enough teachers for seated, but can't get enough for online.

[Peaches Keane]

Chiming in to say that my district offered parents a choice. The deadline for the choice was after the first week of school. Originally they only needed two e-teachers. That quickly changed. A couple of weeks in, they decided to have a position for “e-school principal”. They also went from full day instruction 5 days a week to half days on Fridays so e-teachers can have trainings and district meetings. Students are provided various lessons and things to practice to work on their own.

[niccig]

As a teacher, I got my teaching assignment at 9pm on a Saturday night, when we started on the next Monday. We got our class list the night before and were sending out zoom codes the night before. It’s crazy this year. Many changes have been made since the start of school with kids moving around, etc. My district is 100% virtual.

And then norm day is next Friday and classes can change depending on actual class numbers. My assignment probably won’t change, but I’m hoping the extra staff member I’m working with stays at my school, or I’ll have to absorb her students


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[PZMommy]

And then norm day is next Friday and classes can change depending on actual class numbers. My assignment probably won’t change, but I’m hoping the extra staff member I’m working with stays at my school, or I’ll have to absorb her students


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Thankfully they adjusted the norms a bit, as we were 1 kid short in our upper grades, and had the exact amount in our lower grades. Now we won’t lose any positions, as opposed to possibly losing two teachers. Norm day sucks. I’ve been that teacher either displaced or having to change grades at norm day. The district needs to get rid of norm day.

[belovedgandp]

Hope your first day went well.

We started a week ago so today is Day #5. My HS/MS students had schedules released on Friday morning when class started on Tuesday after the holiday weekend. Had general district wide communication but nothing concrete. Then I had 27 emails in six hours that Friday. It was all too much to process.

[Kestrel]

What is norm day, exactly? Are they re-balancing class sizes?

[PZMommy]

What is norm day, exactly? Are they re-balancing class sizes?

The 5th Friday of the school year determines how many teachers can be at each school. There is a formula for K-3, and another for 4th -5th. For x number of students you get y number of teachers. So if your school is under the required number (even if just by 1 student) the school loses a teacher and they have to reorganize the classes. Just losing one teacher could cause 5 or 6 classes to reorganize as they have to shuffle a lot of kids around. Sometimes school have a larger than expected enrollment and they can hire another teacher to help elevate over crowding. Teachers that lose a spot are "displaced" and assigned to help out at another school while looking for a permanent spot. There are already several thousand displaced teachers, and very few open positions. It is a ridiculous practice and it doesn't save any money as the displaced teachers get their full salary, but basically work as a TA or a sub at the school they are assigned to.

This year they are making an exception and if you are with 10 kids short of the K-3 or 5 kids short of the 4th-5th norm number, you will not lose a teacher spot. That helps out my current school as we were 1 short in the upper grades, but a lot of schools are 30+ kids short due to families moving out of the area or Kinders not enrolling.

[Kestrel]

Thank you for explaining, but that sucks! Take kids that are a few weeks into a new school year and switch their class? Goodness, that just sounds insane for the very small benefit of - maybe - getting that teacher to a more-needed place?

[PZMommy]

Thank you for explaining, but that sucks! Take kids that are a few weeks into a new school year and switch their class? Goodness, that just sounds insane for the very small benefit of - maybe - getting that teacher to a more-needed place?

The thing is there are no more needed places as there is already a huge excess of teachers, so it is an outdated policy that needs to go. Years ago, there was a huge shortage of teachers and it made slightly more sense, but it is awful for the students and teachers too.

[niccig]

Thankfully they adjusted the norms a bit, as we were 1 kid short in our upper grades, and had the exact amount in our lower grades. Now we won’t lose any positions, as opposed to possibly losing two teachers. Norm day sucks. I’ve been that teacher either displaced or having to change grades at norm day. The district needs to get rid of norm day.

One of my schools is losing a special Ed teacher. Because of IEPs, you can’t change classes around as much. One teacher will have 4 grades in the class to teach. It’s going to be a mess. And these students need consistency. The displaced teacher is still at our school as the sub teacher, so no salary savings.


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