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Thread: Subversion and insubordination

  1. #1
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    Subversion and insubordination

    So, the schedule is out for next year. The publication of the schedule is how we learn how many hours and what classes we will be teaching next year and when. Sometimes it’s also when we learn some of our collegues will not be returning or that new people have been hired. Incidentally the schedule has informed me that I have 24 hours to come up with a syllabus for a class that my boss apparently invented for me by combining a subject I offered to teach to 6-8 year olds with an age group I also teach, but other subjects (high school).

    i do not like my schedule. I like it as far as it goes, but I do not like that I am teaching only two days (effective pay cut) and that I did not get to offer several of the classes I wanted. I do not know if any of that is because my room is in use, as the version of the schedule we got does not have room assignments. It may be because my boss did not want me to compete with certain other teachers because we would split enrollment - resulting in smaller class sizes and two teachers being paid for that period instead of one, or creating a need to cancel one because both were too small.

    my primary “career” guiding questions:
    1 is this good for the kids?
    2 will this get me fired?

    so I am planning to use my (paid) time standing at the table at information night to talk to parents of existing students and collect information that will hopefully allow me to do an end run around the current schedule and offer some additional classes under the guise of exercising my option to “tutor”, instead of pitching the classes I already have (goal of event) because 1 no, and 2 unlikely.

    i will also have a kickass syllabus for the new class, and my classes will fill anyway, but if my plan works, I may create competition for someone else that results in their class not filling. And I don’t care. The only specific someone else I see at risk is a new teacher.

    so worst case - my boss is angry, I make a new enemy, and I still don’t get my classes and can’t serve my kids as well as I would like.

    best case, the information I collect is so compelling that I take it to my boss instead of using it to subvert the schedule and she gives me my classes (if I “tutor” a large number of students it undercuts the school financially - I don’t want to do that if I can avoid it) and my kids get what they need.

    i feel good about all of this except “stealing” my pay for the event. But I can’t exactly say “don’t pay me, i’m Freelancing on your time.” And I will fill my classes - which is the goal for which I am being paid to attend. And I will also be promoting that amazing new class i’m about to make up.....

  2. #2
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    Oh yeah, will it get me fired is a question I often have.

    I love data and I use it effectively all the time. I think it is fine to compete honestly, but then how it is seen by others is another story. I often don't have a clue how to read these things.

    Education is kinda crappy isn't it? There is a sense that if we love kids then we will offer things up cheap, like we don't have bills either.

  3. #3
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    My boss may be both smarter and meaner than I think. I just saw the set up plan - that new teacher whose time slot I want to compete for - is setting up on the other half of my 8ft table.

  4. #4
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    Or maybe you are both the "specials" teachers and he puts you there for the convenience of the parents? CL, are you planning to privately tutor but use the time at the desk to get the private tutoring students? This sounds like not such a good idea? But I don't know, maybe it is standard in your industry?

    My son's music teacher at high school recruited him for private singing lessons and I really could not afford it, I was a single mother at the time. But I felt pressured to pay since it was my son's teacher.

  5. #5
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    The director creates the master schedule of classes. Any rooms that are empty during any part of the school day are then available for $5/hr first to those teaching classes, then to those with an already established tutoring presence in the school, then to outside tutors - example, there is a piano in the room used for music classes. If the room is empty after lunch, the music teacher has first claim to rent the room for teaching private piano lessons, then the woman who does private voice instruction in our building but does not teach classes, then “can I rent the room so my child can practice during study hall?” or “can my child’s piano teacher rent the room so that my child can have his lesson during study hall?”

    the math teacher currently rents rents her classroom three hours a week to offer tutoring to students who have fallen behind (small group that changes) or private instruction for students who need one on one instruction (iep issues).

    as the pottery instructor I would have first claim to my room because my equipment is there. (Official policy)

    I have ten students who need a class that is not being offered. The director’s choice may be that they simply fill their schedules with another subject. Alternately, they can take up spaces in the instructional class and be allowed to work on their own, which has been done before for two or three students, but is not optimal. Classes only have 12 slots.

    currently I believe I have 15 returning students. 5 of them belong in the class being offered - which is a minimum. The class being offered is appropriate for new students, who choose classes after returning students. So, there would be no slots available. (So I see no reason to promote the class)

    my intention is is to speak with my parents and students, find out if they do in fact wish to take the missing class next year, and find out which time slots would work for them. If 6 of them ask for the same slot, I will have a pretty good case to add the class - it is most likely to be during the new teacher’s class, so I will be standing next to her all evening offering a possible alternative to the class she needs to fill. (Ouch!) if the director refuses to add the class, or there are less than 6 strong requests, I will ask to rent the room during that time for tutoring and teach the class anyway. This is likely to draw students out of other classes and cost the school a small amount of lost revenue as my “class” will be generating a flat $5/hr and not a tuition based profit.

    also, this will effectively be the opposite of promoting my class.

    i can set my own tutoring rates, and it is likely I will end up barely making my gas money if I go the “tutoring” route, as I know at least two of my students are scholarship students, and scholarship money does not get paid out for tutoring. But, I would be spared ALL the parts of my job I don’t like for the “tutoring class”, and both groups of kids (tutoring and existing class) would benefit - so I am ok with it.

    as an aside, the director actually always pairs me with a new teacher, so I should not have been surprised and doubt there was any deep plot. I don’t really know why, except perhaps because a lot of families come to talk to me even if their child is not taking my class, and so it gives the new teacher many introductions?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chicken lady View Post
    The director creates the master schedule of classes. Any rooms that are empty during any part of the school day are then available for $5/hr first to those teaching classes, then to those with an already established tutoring presence in the school, then to outside tutors - example, there is a piano in the room used for music classes. If the room is empty after lunch, the music teacher has first claim to rent the room for teaching private piano lessons, then the woman who does private voice instruction in our building but does not teach classes, then “can I rent the room so my child can practice during study hall?” or “can my child’s piano teacher rent the room so that my child can have his lesson during study hall?”

    the math teacher currently rents rents her classroom three hours a week to offer tutoring to students who have fallen behind (small group that changes) or private instruction for students who need one on one instruction (iep issues).

    as the pottery instructor I would have first claim to my room because my equipment is there. (Official policy)

    I have ten students who need a class that is not being offered. The director’s choice may be that they simply fill their schedules with another subject. Alternately, they can take up spaces in the instructional class and be allowed to work on their own, which has been done before for two or three students, but is not optimal. Classes only have 12 slots.

    currently I believe I have 15 returning students. 5 of them belong in the class being offered - which is a minimum. The class being offered is appropriate for new students, who choose classes after returning students. So, there would be no slots available. (So I see no reason to promote the class)

    my intention is is to speak with my parents and students, find out if they do in fact wish to take the missing class next year, and find out which time slots would work for them. If 6 of them ask for the same slot, I will have a pretty good case to add the class - it is most likely to be during the new teacher’s class, so I will be standing next to her all evening offering a possible alternative to the class she needs to fill. (Ouch!) if the director refuses to add the class, or there are less than 6 strong requests, I will ask to rent the room during that time for tutoring and teach the class anyway. This is likely to draw students out of other classes and cost the school a small amount of lost revenue as my “class” will be generating a flat $5/hr and not a tuition based profit.

    also, this will effectively be the opposite of promoting my class.

    i can set my own tutoring rates, and it is likely I will end up barely making my gas money if I go the “tutoring” route, as I know at least two of my students are scholarship students, and scholarship money does not get paid out for tutoring. But, I would be spared ALL the parts of my job I don’t like for the “tutoring class”, and both groups of kids (tutoring and existing class) would benefit - so I am ok with it.

    as an aside, the director actually always pairs me with a new teacher, so I should not have been surprised and doubt there was any deep plot. I don’t really know why, except perhaps because a lot of families come to talk to me even if their child is not taking my class, and so it gives the new teacher many introductions?
    Then I completely misunderstood; it sounds like you are supposed to offer tutoring, and this is expected and part of the whole set up. Maybe yes, the director just wants you to lend support to the other new teacher by putting her at the same table?

  7. #7
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    Omg, the lunch room is boiling like a pot of crabs. This schedule may not make it to next week.

  8. #8
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    Got my class. Went to see the director with my information (including all the maths my kids are taking next year because there are many science, writing, and history options, but only one of each math) and she agreed to do it but said “but it will have to be 4th period.” I said “tell me calculus is 4th period” (the only math I have no students taking) she ran her finger down the chart and said “it is.”

  9. #9
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    Oh, and that is not the new teacher’s time slot.

    and I like her.

  10. #10
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    Sounds like it is looking up!

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