Fairfax county and Alexandria city schools (Reston, Herndon: teaching jobs, transfer to, to buy)

[Ranae319]

Teachers - does anyone have knowledge of the workload for ESOL teachers in either of these school districts? I'm currently in PWCS, and teaching/accommodating second language students can be challenging enough without extra tasks/duties (mostly meetings nonstop) that have little to do with academics. I know discipline needs to be in place for optimal learning to occur, but constant admonishing in high toned voices has the opposite affect. Too much yelling builds up an immunity....like water running off a duck's back; it's ineffective.

The paperwork and data as case managers for your ELL students take a huge amount of time from lesson planning, so extra non-academic meetings become burdensome and cause fatigue. Any information would be appreciated as there would be no point in transferring/leaving if the situation is the same all over the area.

[ESOLTeacher]

I am an ESOL teacher in the Reston/Herndon area and my caseload is really big. Basically the caseload is not manageable and we are not able to see many of our students. But it is not the large caseload that bothers me but the lack of teaching materials. All we have is a subscription to ReadingA-Z and Guided Reading books that we share with all the classroom teachers. Most of my time I am busy printing out and making books for my 9 guided reading classes per day. And...even though I'm an ESOL teacher, my main task is to do guided reading with the ELLs. I've been told not all of FCPS are like this and you just have to choose the 'right' school.

My previous teaching jobs were up North and much, much better. VA does not have a Teacher's Union so we have meetings before school that we are required to attend plus lot's of paperwork including giving the VGLA to ELLs that can't take the SOLs. I've never been so inundated with collecting forms and completing forms plus being asked to give presentations to the rest of the staff and interns while also making lesson plans and teaching. Oh I forgot we also have to create annual goals (including a portfolio with artifacts).

Please consider before you transfer to FCPS. It is not what it seems.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by ESOLTeacher

I am an ESOL teacher in the Reston/Herndon area and my caseload is really big. Basically the caseload is not manageable and we are not able to see many of our students. But it is not the large caseload that bothers me but the lack of teaching materials. All we have is a subscription to ReadingA-Z and Guided Reading books that we share with all the classroom teachers. Most of my time I am busy printing out and making books for my 9 guided reading classes per day. And...even though I'm an ESOL teacher, my main task is to do guided reading with the ELLs. I've been told not all of FCPS are like this and you just have to choose the 'right' school.

My previous teaching jobs were up North and much, much better. VA does not have a Teacher's Union so we have meetings before school that we are required to attend plus lot's of paperwork including giving the VGLA to ELLs that can't take the SOLs. I've never been so inundated with collecting forms and completing forms plus being asked to give presentations to the rest of the staff and interns while also making lesson plans and teaching. Oh I forgot we also have to create annual goals (including a portfolio with artifacts).

Please consider before you transfer to FCPS. It is not what it seems.

The new regulation for elementary teachers limits the number of before/after school meetings to two and they can be no longer than an hour each.

[car54]

The other day, Transportation announced that they are going "paperless".

However, their definition of "paperless" is that they e-mail us correspondence which instructs US to print it out.

I guess they mean THEIR paper (and toner)...not OURS...LOL.

Peons that haven't had a raise in years are now supposed to buy this stuff themselves!

They're getting crazier by the day!

[Ranae319]

Does the new regulation just refer to elementary teachers? What about secondary? Can they require unlimited number of meetings before or after school? It seems there are many meetings which sometimes doesn't make your school look efficient and on top of things....too many meetings can have the appearance of incompetence!...makes you look like you don't really know what you're doing and need to meet to try and figure it out continuously.

[Ranae319]

ESOLTEACHER: All you speak of is happening triple-fold at my school....its crazy busy and everyone seems to be in RUSH MODE constantly. Planning is unheard of and isn't happening due to the number of meetings that take up that time. While Florida has its problems, as does every state, planning times are protected because lesson planning is what drives instruction, which is what garners your best chance at passing standardized test scores, which is what the bottom line usually is anyway.

[tgbwc]

Originally Posted by Ranae319

Does the new regulation just refer to elementary teachers? What about secondary? Can they require unlimited number of meetings before or after school? It seems there are many meetings which sometimes doesn't make your school look efficient and on top of things....too many meetings can have the appearance of incompetence!...makes you look like you don't really know what you're doing and need to meet to try and figure it out continuously.

Good question. I know prior to the end of Monday early closings there were no regulations protecting elementary planning time. Now we have them. I seem to remember Dr. Garza saying the secondary teachers had regulations about it, but I don't know what they are.