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LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

My oldest had three teachers absent today...

Geometry A: Hill, J
World History A: Moore, T
World Literature A: Johnson, L.

It's not even Memorial Day and attendance is optional.

Is this an epidemic or is my kid just lucky?
_________________
"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

AnotherTeacher · Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 31

Perhaps these teachers are ill just like the many students with strep throat right now. I just took my first sick day in four years this week. I certainly hope that a parent doesn't list my name on a site like this so that others will jump to the conclusion that I am out often.

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

This is a matter of public record. A school board member told me that the average number of sick days used by a TRSD teacher is twelve -- the same as the number of paid sick days.

Teachers get sick -- everyone does. And they have personal business that has to be done during school hours. Exactly how much sickness and personal business keeps the teacher out of the classroom matters, though, because 1) this is not an uncommon event at Timberlane, and 2) the quality of the learning on these days is so poor.

The average of twelve absences per 180 day school year (7%) and the fact that one student had three teachers out on a Monday are evidence of how common the absences are. When we sit down to dinner, I ask each kid what they did in school, what they have for homework, and what projects they are working on. If you have missed one day in four years, you are not one of their teachers -- unless you teach orchestra.

This, of course, is in addition to development days that take teachers out of the classroom.

The problem is that if you do not provide for continuity of teaching during these absences, the student loses a teaching day. Movies, copying notes from a powerpoint presentation, and review sheets are not valuable learning experiences, in my opinion. In my opinion, these are lost teaching days.

When you start with 180 days, lose ten to teacher development days, lose twelve to illness, lose five to weather, lose five to testing, and lose five to other nonacademic events, you end up with 143 teaching days. If you lose another five or ten days to a conference or a trip to Russia, you are talking about 133-138 teaching days. That's a quarter of the legally mandated teaching days!

Now subtract 195 minutes (five teaching days) from a class for watching Schindler's List or one class a week to watch The Apprentice.

Do you smell what I'm cooking?

I have proposed adding five paid days to the contract so that the ten days lost to development go away. I would extend the school year by five days and preceed five holidays/vacations with a full development day, OR have five development days on Saturdays, OR a combination of the two. How do you feel about these options?
_________________
"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 309

Len:

While I haven't asked any SB member, I doubt the avg. sick time = the contract sick time.

But be that as it may: I have to agree with Another Teacher that you're painting with a broad brush here and naming names without personally knowing their circumstances doesn't seem to be appropriate to me at least. Yes, I know it was a statement of fact, but you know as well as I that you strongly implied they were out inappropriately.

Now before you blow your top at me;
A) I didn't censure your statement, I merely offered my views
B) The reason I write this is because I believe you'd welcome critique and you'd want to know that someone else who cares deeply about this district believes that your comment about several particular teachers diminished your other very intriguing ideas contained in that same note.

So how do we get them considered by the powers that be??

Peter Bealo

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

I'm not going to blow my top at you, Peter. It's your forum and you are entitled to control things as you see fit. *I* believe anonymous claims and generalizations are less credible and, as such, less impactful than fact filled posts by real people. Many scoff at such things as fabrications or exagerations (does anyone believe an anonymous post by someone claiming to have only had one sick day in four years). That's why I use my real name in these forums and on my web page. These same scoffers, btw, do not want budget committee meetings televised and resist pressure to make other town meetings available to a larger audience via the internet or retain permanent records other than sanitized minutes.

They hate accountability.

So, I take copious notes and provide detailed accounts. I post videos of town meetings and keep them online forever. I use names and dates. This makes the serial scoffers think twice before denying my claims.

You can't change the culture, Peter, by politely asking for improvement. I tried that. Half days, conferences, and personal time are perks of the position. The 'average time off' factoid came from a school board member during a discussion of the progress of contract negotiations as part of a response to my request to ask the teachers to consider five additional paid development days so the kids would get back the ten nonteaching days. There simply is no interest. (It is my understanding that the teachers are compensated for unused sick time. I'm not sure there is a price we can pay to keep them in the classroom.)

I put the names in because this is not anecdotal. I have no axe to grind here. Mr. Hill is in the school at 6:30 each morning doing his 'homework' and available to help the kids. My kid gets extra help from him in the mornings and afternoons and he has helped in the evening via email. Ms. Johnson actually attached meaningful (only a little; I have to email her for details) criticism to a progress report, and Mrs. Osborne (out a half day before April vacation and off both makeup days) has been a favorite teacher since she had my youngest in kindergarten.

The fact is that half my kid's teacher were out on this particular day. The next day was a testing day for some grade, so he had math only three days that week. There is a culture at the TRSD that sanctions nonteaching days. If the district planned for this and put qualified teachers in the classrooms to dispense the planned lesson, I'd still be annoyed, but that is a fantasy. The SAU puts baby sitters in the room who have the kids do homework or review work or watch movies or otherwise kill the time.

If it *is* possible to rectify the situation, then that would have to come through public awareness. And by that I mean that the SAU believes that the public is aware of the situation. When Mr. Woodworth became aware of the teacher with an offensive myspace site, the teacher was made to make it private. When Mr. La Salle became aware of The Apprentice being a staple of high school economics, it came to a stop. The SAU is sensitive to public criticism (note the reaction to the strategic plan following the coffee with the principal sessions and the back pedaling following the calendar outcry).

If I had time, I'd collect and post time missed for every teacher. I think most parents and taxpayers would be shocked to know exactly how few days each year our students are receiving instruction from their assigned teacher.

If you watch the 5/21 sb meeting, a member asks if actual student and teacher attendence on the makeup days could be included in the minutes. The answer was...NO. They hate accountability.

Finally, high schoolers and instructors will be pulled out of classes next week for teacher appreciation activites. Middle school kids were pulled out of classes last week to serve meals to the teachers. I was invited, but could not get time off from my job. I have to let them call this an academic activity as many of our students will be waiting tables for a living.

Keep the faith, Peter.
_________________
"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 309

Len,

One correction only:

This is the Parents' forum. NOT my forum. I really look at my job as just providing a location to chat, question and compare notes and to ensure some level of civility in the discourse. Thankfully, in over a year that this site has been up I have NEVER felt compelled to remove any comment or ban any legitimate user (I have however nuked hundreds of "users" from other countries pushing drugs, cigarettes and all kinds of junk). I am sssoooo thankful that everyone has made the job easy.

I'm constantly suprised at the number of teachers and administrators who occasionally view this site. I just wish more parents were online, I do think there is lots more potential here than any of us are using.

Maybe the next time an opportunity arises to buy an ad in something in the PAC I'll do so and use it to try and get more readers and contibutors.

Peter Bealo

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 323 Location: Danville, NH

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