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All in a day’s work

September 22, 2015 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 06:51 AM

GUEST BLOG BY MARJORIE GANN, RETIRED TEACHER

I'm assuming that teachers are not supposed to stay late  under a work-to-rule, and likely are not supposed to take students' work home.  If I'm wrong about this, then you can ignore what I wrote, but here's my two cents.

As a recently-retired elementary teacher, I listened to Matt's interview with Sachin Maharaj with interest. What no one has touched on in the debate over the elementary teachers' work-to-rule is the essential role that assessment plays in good instruction. Are teachers allowed to take work home to correct under this work-to-rule? Are they doing prep (which includes marking) outside of their official prep time? Why isn't entering report card comments part of the basic job description for all elementary teachers?

I would like answers to these questions because I believe that the work teachers do outside of the hours actually clocked in the classroom isn't supplementary, and isn't done out of the goodness of their hearts: It's indispensable and absolutely essential to good teaching. If I don't stay after school to mark spelling dictations, or take them home to mark, my students won't get the necessary feedback to learn what they did wrong and won't learn from their mistakes. If I don't take home 25 stories to mark and make suggestions for changes, the next day's creative writing lesson won't build on the improvements I suggested to my students. I plan Wednesday's reading lesson on the basis of what I observe from marking my students' work on Tuesday, and that means either staying late to mark or taking the notebooks home with me. Teachers can't teach well unless they do a lot of work after the students leave -- either in their classrooms or at home. I have no idea what work-to-rule means, but my rule, over a 35-year teaching career, was that what I did after school was part of my job.

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Comments

While I’m glad to hear some honesty from a teacher, I’m continually disappointed that union people in teaching, police, hydro etc. don’t speak out until they retire with a comfortable pension.

We need public service employees to voice their opinions BEFORE they retire.

Posted by Ken on 09/27 at 10:11 PM

I agree Ken!

While they’re employed they are all cowards and hide behind the union, some claiming privately to disagree with the union stance but always quietly going along for the ride.

If you don’t speak up, you are as guilty as the person at the top - regardless of your position.

Regarding Marjorie’s point, I agree with her completely. It’s beyond me how all of those duties aren’t written in the contract as core functions of the job for all teachers.

Posted by Tym Barker on 09/28 at 09:28 AM

I think the reason teachers don’t speak out publicly is their vulnerability. Teachers know that the union is there to defend them against wild and unjust accusations by parents. (Yes, these are made; there are parents for whom their child is never wrong, and the teacher is never right, in disciplinary matters, for example.) They want to stay on the side of the union because they never know what may come their way. Of course, this cuts both ways; unions defend good teachers, but they also defend bad teachers. But teachers are indeed very exposed, and sometimes parents are unfair and unreasonable; if the teacher does not get support from the administration, he or she sometimes needs the union for support. I assume that teachers are, for this reason, hesitant to alienate the union.

Posted by Marjorie Gann on 09/29 at 08:33 PM

Fear is the reason that most people won’t speak up.

Is that a good reason for losing our individual integrity?

If we believe we are right and stand up for the truth who can take away our integrity?

Posted by Ken on 09/29 at 10:36 PM

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