Two Sides

(This right here is how most of the public seems to view teachers.)

At the faculty meeting last night there was an issue brought up of an institute day that somehow got left off of the official school calendar. Now, the administration was apparently going to make the teachers come in extra hours here and there to add up to the eight hour day. Personally, I hadn't heard of any of this until last night and I think I'm lucky I hadn't or I'd have been drug into the whole thing. There was a wave of teacher protest in the form of petitions and angry emails to our superintendent and I'm certain the union was involved which means it was an absolute miracle I wasn't contacted about it.

So anyway, my principal is explaining what is going to happen with this "lost contractual day" and he's showing his irritation at the whole thing and I know just from dealing with him before that he is annoyed with the teachers on this one. At the same time he's barely veiling his annoyance, the teacher next to me is telling me that she signed one of the petitions since "We all put in so much extra time as it is, it's completely ridiculous for them to make us come in for one extra day... as if we don't put in enough over time as it is!"

Oh right. So there are two sides to every coin and I have to admit that I see both sides of this one. Now normally, teacher institute days are staff development days and we do things other than lesson planning and grading papers so these days aren't exactly equivalent to those extra hours that we spend. On the other hand, I'm fairly certain that instead of having us all come in for an extra day at the end of the year (which would be pointless), they were just going to have us stay for an hour here and there after school.... something we ALREADY do. Telling us we must do this and account for our time IS a bit of an insult. For example, I am here every morning at 6:45 am. That is an hour before school starts. I am also occasionally here after work as well although I prefer to do extra work in the morning. For the administration to tell me I suddenly have to write down what I do every morning until I fill eight hours just seems to be nitpicky.

The letter we got from the superintendent stated he hated to lose a staff development day. I agree with him on that... however, the way in which they were going to have us make up for this day wasn't going to be productive and I understand why so many teachers got upset. What I don't understand is why the administration and seemingly a lot of the general public seems so eager to take our offense in the wrong way. I almost guarantee my principal saw it as us being lazy. I almost guarantee most of the administration saw it that way. I just don't understand this perception. I'm not saying there aren't exceptions to the rule but most of us work our butts off day in and day out and on weekends too. We care too much to do a poor job. Not only do we teach these kids and try to make the lessons engaging and entertaining, but we try to ensure each child gets individual attention. But wait, there is more. Each time we give a homework assignment, we give ourselves more work because we grade each one and give personal feedback so that too can be a learning experience. I work with teenagers and I have 135 students this year. That is 135 teenagers I have a personal relationship with. When is the last time you dealt with 135 teenagers and tried to cater to their interests and understood when they were having a bad day and asking about their lives so they know you care and are invested in them? It's tiring.

We are not lazy. We are not trying to cheat the system. We just want to be treated like the professionals we are.... which is something we just don't get.