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I'm in the middle of a "tale of two school years." First, the students are OK, they are doing great. It is the crap going on outside of my classroom which is frustrating me to no end. The fire code changed and now we can't have any props to keep our doors open. This includes the doors leading into the cafeteria. Everyone is frustrated with it.
Our first grade team decided it was too difficult to leave their rooms when their lunch is over to get their students from the cafeteria and deliver them to specials classes, even though the time is built into their schedules. That wouldn't be so bad if the first grade teachers would pick their students up on time!
Second grade teachers are just letting students come into my room and the teacher goes away before even checking to see if I am in the room! Today I was in the bathroom and crossed paths with the second grade teacher in the hallway, her students were in my classroom. UGH
Finally, we have such congestion in the hallway near me. I'm in the same hallway as the cafeteria, so as I'm having a class leave, classes are leaving and entering the cafeteria. The noise has been incredible and I'm losing my lunch time just getting these kids out. The art teacher is also severely effected by this and we both lost it at our PLC today.
We've been dealing with that doorstop issue for two years. They always enforce it hardcore at the start of the year but then.... At first the fire marshal even wanted the bathroom doors shut and we were like NOT SAFE!
The first few weeks of school are always nuts around the cafeteria for us. The teachers are required to eat with the kids the first week or two, grrr.
We've been dealing with that doorstop issue for two years. They always enforce it hardcore at the start of the year but then.... At first the fire marshal even wanted the bathroom doors shut and we were like NOT SAFE!
The first few weeks of school are always nuts around the cafeteria for us. The teachers are required to eat with the kids the first week or two, grrr.
I'm in the middle of a "tale of two school years." First, the students are OK, they are doing great. It is the crap going on outside of my classroom which is frustrating me to no end. The fire code changed and now we can't have any props to keep our doors open. This includes the doors leading into the cafeteria. Everyone is frustrated with it.
Our first grade team decided it was too difficult to leave their rooms when their lunch is over to get their students from the cafeteria and deliver them to specials classes, even though the time is built into their schedules. That wouldn't be so bad if the first grade teachers would pick their students up on time!
Second grade teachers are just letting students come into my room and the teacher goes away before even checking to see if I am in the room! Today I was in the bathroom and crossed paths with the second grade teacher in the hallway, her students were in my classroom. UGH
Finally, we have such congestion in the hallway near me. I'm in the same hallway as the cafeteria, so as I'm having a class leave, classes are leaving and entering the cafeteria. The noise has been incredible and I'm losing my lunch time just getting these kids out. The art teacher is also severely effected by this and we both lost it at our PLC today.
If teachers are not making sure that you are in the classroom and leaving that is a good time to get in the habit of always locking your door if you leave your room. If a child got injured because someone threw a guitar or a piano fell on them or something like that it is likely that you would be the person reprimanded, charged or fired because you "allowed" the children to be in your room unsupervised (even if it actually was the other teacher's fault). At least that was what would happen in my school district.
Frankly, it is pretty irresponsible for the classroom teacher to leave without making sure that you were in the room.
Good luck.
Last edited by germaine2626; 08-11-2016 at 07:10 AM..
If teachers are not making sure that you are in the classroom and leaving that is a good time to get in the habit of always locking your door if you leave your room. If a child got injured because someone threw a guitar or a piano fell on them or something like that it is likely that you would be the person reprimanded, charged or fired because you "allowed" the children to be in your room unsupervised (even if it actually was the other teacher's fault). At least that was what would happen in my school district.
Frankly, it is pretty irresponsible for the classroom teacher to leave without making sure that you were in the room.
Good luck.
This was a constant problem for me last year too because I switch rooms. Sometimes I needed a few minutes for a group to finish up in the chem lab so I'd be late to my math class. The teacher before me had a habit of leaving the door unlocked even though I had asked her repeatedly to lock it.
We do too, but the first week or so the cafeteria is nuts and we have to eat in there to help the kids out. All the kids forget their numbers over the summer, the third graders don't know the drill, there aren't enough seats for everyone, I could go on and on.......
I'm in the middle of a "tale of two school years." First, the students are OK, they are doing great. It is the crap going on outside of my classroom which is frustrating me to no end. The fire code changed and now we can't have any props to keep our doors open. This includes the doors leading into the cafeteria. Everyone is frustrated with it.
Our first grade team decided it was too difficult to leave their rooms when their lunch is over to get their students from the cafeteria and deliver them to specials classes, even though the time is built into their schedules. That wouldn't be so bad if the first grade teachers would pick their students up on time!
Second grade teachers are just letting students come into my room and the teacher goes away before even checking to see if I am in the room! Today I was in the bathroom and crossed paths with the second grade teacher in the hallway, her students were in my classroom. UGH
Finally, we have such congestion in the hallway near me. I'm in the same hallway as the cafeteria, so as I'm having a class leave, classes are leaving and entering the cafeteria. The noise has been incredible and I'm losing my lunch time just getting these kids out. The art teacher is also severely effected by this and we both lost it at our PLC today.
The couple of years I taught elementary school one of the things I hated was that my 35 minute plan time whittled down to 25-30 minutes because of escorting the kids to and from class. It was even worse the day they had art as that teacher was never in her room when we arrived. There were times I was hanging around up to 10 minutes while he did whatever. One day he was 20 minutes late for me, I was none too happy to be left with a 10 minute plan. Our principal finally told us to call her and she would wait on him to return. She finally put him on a work improvement plan. I am not saying that's what's going on in your case, but man, that gets frustrating. It was but one of the reasons why I think teaching middle school is far better than teaching elementary.
I'm surprised they let the teachers piggyback the plan and lunch. Do you go get the kids?
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We do too, but the first week or so the cafeteria is nuts and we have to eat in there to help the kids out. All the kids forget their numbers over the summer, the third graders don't know the drill, there aren't enough seats for everyone, I could go on and on.......
Our duty free lunch is from day one. I guess they could ask us to eat with them, but nobody would.
The couple of years I taught elementary school one of the things I hated was that my 35 minute plan time whittled down to 25-30 minutes because of escorting the kids to and from class. It was even worse the day they had art as that teacher was never in her room when we arrived. There were times I was hanging around up to 10 minutes while he did whatever. One day he was 20 minutes late for me, I was none too happy to be left with a 10 minute plan. Our principal finally told us to call her and she would wait on him to return. She finally put him on a work improvement plan. I am not saying that's what's going on in your case, but man, that gets frustrating. It was but one of the reasons why I think teaching middle school is far better than teaching elementary.
I'm surprised they let the teachers piggyback the plan and lunch. Do you go get the kids?
Last year I had a day on which I had a two hour planning block. Another day was 1.5 hours. Each block consisted of two back to back specials. The specialists were in charge of getting the students from one class to the other.
Every day I had at least a one hour planning block.
Last year I had a day on which I had a two hour planning block. Another day was 1.5 hours. Each block consisted of two back to back specials. The specialists were in charge of getting the students from one class to the other.
Every day I had at least a one hour planning block.
Fairfax County is one of the few school systems I have encountered that seems to actually understand the value of adequate planning time. Hmmm.... Aren't they one of the highest performing school systems in the nation also? Gee, wonder if there is a correlation?
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Am I the only one who doesn't have a duty-free lunch?
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