Teacher bargaining

[LordEd]

The last 2 weeks of our August are the time when we get our classrooms ready for the fall.

Then do it (pro-d) the last week of July.

[rustled]

Rustled - What part of my previous post don't you understand? I gave you several reasons why moving ALL 5 of our Pro-D into summer would be detrimental and yet you ignore them all and jump on one aspect? You don't make any sense.

The last 2 weeks of our August are the time when we get our classrooms ready for the fall. Since we started doing 3 days of Pro-D the week before school starts, I began coming 2-3 weeks early, instead 1-2 weeks early. The week before school starts is a busy, hectic time. While it is challenging to do 3 days of Pro-D during that time, I willing do it.

I need those other two days of the last week to work in my classroom. I often don't have my grade assignment until the last week of August and there are always last minute, time consuming things to do that can't be done earlier in the summer. I have a yearly family commitment on Labour Day weekend so I cannot spend my entire long weekend in the classroom either.

We can't do our prep during the summer months because the custodial staff is in there cleaning and our desks and materials are all in a pile in a corner. We can't laminate our materials because the support staff is on vacation. Many of the supplies we need, don't get distributed until the secretarial staff return to work.

Unless you have been in a classroom for the week before school, you don't understand what you are talking about.

How can the relatively inconvenient time at which the teachers currently hold their Pro-D be the "main" reason not to do a 5-day Pro-D?

I don't doubt it's poor timing for you to do even the 3 days of Pro-D during the last week of summer vacation, while you're in the midst of getting everything ready for a fresh new year. But is it necessary to make it sound so self-sacrificing that you're willing to do it anyway? Why tell us how you personally can't come in over the Labour Day weekend? In the real world, many of us accomplish difficult tasks at awkward times and under pressure of too-tight deadlines. In the real world, many of us must choose between family commitments over any given long weekend, and preparing for work.

You could post in a way that allows teachers to be seen as the committed professionals most of them actually are:

"Some of us find the timing for the 3-day Pro-D session problematic, since it falls during the last week of summer. We can come in ahead of that to do most of our classroom set-up once the custodians are done and the support staff is back (to laminate, distribute our portion of the materials, etc.) But our class lists are often finalized during that last week and we really value having some time to deal thoughtfully with any last-minute changes, so we're properly prepared for start-up. (Personally, I'd love it if my colleagues would agree to move those 3 days of Pro-D to another week in the summer, but unfortunately that doesn't work for many other teachers, so it's what we have agreed to.) Those last-minute class list changes mean going to a full 5-day Pro-D session really wouldn't be ideal at what's already a very hectic time of year, but even if we shift it to another week we'd still have the issues of information overload and the very real need for targeted training during the year."

PS: I have been there. That's where I've seen teachers behave like the professionals they are, doing what it takes to get the job done. So when I read posts that make teachers seem like incompetent fools, as yours so often do, I feel it's unfair to them to let it go unchallenged.

[KGT]

You're right rustled. I'm just an incompetent fool.

[Static]

^^^^ at least your honest! :)