Well, I still don't have a flash card for my camera, but that's on hold for now. I'm awash in the dreaded "report card writing" part of teaching. I have 31 report cards to write. Each report card contains 37 grades plus comments. Half of them must be done in Spanish (my second language is French. Not much help). At least, this year, finally!, I can now do my report cards on my computer. I can't import grades from my school-provided grading program, but at least I don't have to laboriously hand write every one. Yay for progress!
The quarter ended Friday. Report cards are due in the principal's hands by this Wednesday morning. I work Monday and Tuesday, although he has graciously given us an hour off from the students on Tuesday, ostensibly to work on our report cards. A whole hour!
Teaching, at least in California, is the only profession I know of that requires, routinely, that teachers put in volunteer hours to carry out their job. And it isn't just a few hours, here or there. It's built into every week of the school year, and beyond. I got green with envy (and green isn't my color) when talking to a teacher from NC. She gets paid to come in 2 weeks before her students in the summer, to set up her classroom. In my district, we get paid to come in 2 days before the students, and the first day is an all day "staff development/welcome back" affair; the second day is a staff meeting with the principal, and then meeting the parents a couple of hours later (in your "has to be ready" classroom. What are they thinking? End of the year requirements leave our classrooms with bare walls, boxed books, empty shelves. At least in elementary school, there is simply no way you can go from that to ready to welcome new students in a couple of hours. (Oh, I forgot to mention that the summer cleaning crew moves all the furniture into a pile in the center of the room, and leaves it there. We get to move it back ourselves.) So, of course, I and my colleagues find ourselves hard at work in our classrooms weeks before the first paid day back. (For that matter, I stay long after the students have gone, at the end of the year, because I refuse to strip my room of all the student work, the posters, the books, etc., before the students have gone. And paid time ends the same day the students leave.)
I digress. And my break from writing report cards is coming to a close, so I'd better end this and grab something to eat before my breaktime ends. I'll be back with some pics by the middle of the week, hopefully.
2 comments:
Hi Christine,
I hear you, girl. I used to teach high school here (British Columbia). We all set up our classes, and prepped and coached and ran drama clubs and on and on... and don't even get me started on the HUGE quantity of marking, and reports, and phone calls home. All on my own time, and somtimes at my own expense. Sigh...no one goes into teaching for the money, but teachers are often unappreciated for the truly enormous job that they do.
Hang in there!
The Amherst scarf is lookin' good.
Spouse of Wisconsin teacher here, and you are not alone... There are some of us who really do appreciate all that dedicated teachers do. Good luck with the report cards.
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