Posts by Sarah Hall53

Honestly, you don't even need to worry about replacing it with something brand new. They’re just going to treat it like any other scratch or bit of damage—you'll probably just end up paying about 40% of the value and call it a day.

mystery: why even bother buying a textbook? honestly, you could just tell your kid to write directly in it—then at the end of the school year, you claim it’s "damaged" or "unusable" for the next grade, which somehow justifies getting 40% of your money back... and then you just keep the book for yourself. or, you know, return it and let it end up in some dusty old recycling bin.
it's way cheaper than actually buying a brand-new one just to have something else sitting in a storage bin somewhere.

The Vatican agreements are still on the books, and they basically dictate that anyone who qualifies for an equal electoral slot has to be squeezed into the morning schedule.
Since it looks like Biden isn't going to sign those treaty amendments that would actually ensure my German language credits get slotted into the regular semester—well, I guess I’ll just sit here and vent to myself while I deal with the kids pulling out of their classes.

quietviper22 said:Wait, how is dropping religion going to help you make it to practice? Or are you planning on pulling them out of German too? Because if German is at 2 PM, you're still stuck.

Oh, obviously she's dropping German—God knows. ☕
It feels like someone's schedule is always clashing with German class, and then German just ends up getting totally screwed over.

Nicholas King said:This isn't some grand failure of educational reform; it’s just pure, unadulterated incompetence from the principal.

Something this simple could be fixed with a relatively small budget, if anyone actually cared.

Exactly. It’s about those administrators who act like absolute monarchs—ruling over life and death in their schools regardless of how incompetent they actually are.
And then, instead of addressing that—like, maybe limiting a principal's unchecked power, for instance—or fixing those useless, outdated teaching methods, they go out and try to roll out tablets. They even want to keep the standardized testing schedule (which, by the way, is totally at odds with the thematic planning the new reforms are asking us to do... but hey, "just work some magic," as they told us during those training sessions 🙄).
All of this could be overhauled way more affordably. And honestly? It would do much more good for everyone actually working in the system.

Susan James said:What about the elective courses?
(that whole political standoff between the Mayor and the Secretary of Education🤔)

And the fact that they won't let them have atlases just shows they're banking entirely on Google Maps—which basically means assuming every kid has a tablet and high-speed internet 24/7.🤣

Even with the election stuff... I was actually stuck doing inventory this past Friday, counting up how many German textbooks we need to order for every single grade level.

Oh, Google Maps will be just great for them.
A) For looking at historical maps and
B) In a school where the first floor can barely catch a signal—I mean, I struggle just to log into the digital grading portal half the time.

All the textbooks are free this year. But honestly, when it comes to the workbooks... nobody has any clue what’s actually going to happen for the first and fifth grades—especially with that weird rule about limiting required materials to 100 items or $67. It’s just a mess.
My colleagues over in the history and geography departments are absolutely pulling their hair out right now—specifically because of those two atlases, $67. Since they can't list them as mandatory, they're stuck. I mean, how are students supposed to do any actual critical thinking or creative projects without an atlas? It just doesn't make sense...

Jason Morgan said:Not a single one of these specialists is actually an expert, nor do they act as any kind of support for the teacher; if anything, they constantly try to play boss, while being utterly useless in every other regard.

I’ll make one honorable exception for those dual-subject instructors who actually teach their second subject and have put in the hours alongside us in the trenches. To me, they’re the only ones who truly count as both specialists and collaborators. In fact, I’d love to see that turned into an actual legal requirement: you should have to teach your second subject for at least 4 to 6 hours a week. It would be a great way to build some empathy, don't you think? ☕
It reminds me of how things work over in Germany—even the principals there have certain obligations, like having to manage at least one classroom themselves, just so they don't lose touch with what's actually happening on the ground.

wanderingbadger44 said:Classic FBI mentality!
😬Officer Quote

and you run the risk of some John Doe or a parent calling for an inspection.
And honestly, they’d be within their rights to call. Imagine a kid who has spent all week studying, ready to tackle this exam today, only to have it pushed back because the schedule wasn't followed. It’s a violation of the rules. When students prepare themselves mentally for a specific moment, they can't just have that obligation shifted onto them later amidst a mountain of other schoolwork.
An exam scheduled by the district calendar isn't something you can just cancel or postpone on a whim unless you follow the official protocol.

Are any of my fellow FBI colleagues actually familiar with the regulations?

Because once an inspector shows up, the FBI will make sure to distance themselves from you in a heartbeat. In fact, before the inspector even arrives, they'll likely be breathing down your neck for bringing heat onto the school.

you call over a colleague to step in for you, basically asking them to keep an eye on the kids while you sort things out with a student.

By Telephone? Or via telepathy? While they are busy teaching their own classes? Am I supposed to leave a room full of tests, walk out of the classroom to find a colleague to supervise, and then come back?

It’s so clear you don't have a clue how this works, and you're doing a wonderful job confirming why people think the FBI just lives in a world of theory.

That’s usually how I handle it, too. I just stand there with the exams and won't budge until the environment is right for testing. And I'm constantly checking my watch or the clock on the wall.

I was just trying to paint a picture of the risk involved. If the students don't settle down and we don't start at a reasonable time, you're looking at complaints from parents who feel their child's precious study time was wasted. Personally, I don't want to deal with the wrath of John Does or angry parents.

Reading this totally gave me a flashback.

It wasn't even about tests, actually. It was maybe a month after I started working at the school when I walked into a classroom and found two students absolutely going at it. Like, full-on fistfight, black eyes, all that jazz.
I jumped right in the middle—bless my naive little heart—and managed to get them to stop trying to kill each other, but there was no way they were just gonna sit down and chill. One guy heads back to his desk, the other one shouts something at him, and then the first kid tries to hurl a chair at him... I ended up grabbing both of them by their shirts (using the very last atoms of my self-control to keep from grabbing them by the ears) and dragged them out. It was Friday during the last period, so naturally, the principal was nowhere to be found, but I figured I might have better luck at the counselor's office or seeing the dean.

I couldn't just send them back alone, obviously; they were still trading insults and would've just started fighting again in the hallway.

And hey, we have a counselor on campus! Salvation! I hauled them over there and left them for the meeting.
After an hour, the counselor is waiting for ME outside the door. Not to praise me for staying calm and handling a chaotic situation—since, you know, I had practically just started teaching the day before—but to give me a TEN-MINUTE LECTURE because, while I was escorting those two to the office, I left the rest of the class unsupervised (😲 the crows could have carried them off in that time!).

THAT is the "professional support" we work with. *clap clap* And that was my first lesson in how dealing with the administration at this school is basically like playing a rigged game of chance: pick a number, and you’re guaranteed to lose!

It really only works if you have a support staff that actually views themselves as a partner within that whole teacher-student-parent-specialist dynamic.
Unfortunately, what happens way too often is this triangle forms between the student, the parent, and the specialists—and they basically team up to act like they're at war with the teacher. It ends up following that same old pattern where school inspectors claim they're "acting in the student's best interest," which is really just code for saying "the kid is always right." Even when it would actually be better for the student to repeat a grade, they’ll just go ahead and wipe out all those failing marks instead.

Nicholas King said:The phrase "measurable criteria for candidate comparison" is just a joke—not only does it completely fail to mention the Director, but it’s as if he doesn't even exist on the horizon of this entire re-election process.

It's a total pipe dream within the current setup.
I've been stuck in this system for over 10 years now, and honestly, I'm pretty convinced that every single change they've made during that time has just... made things worse.
Have you seen what this whole candidate testing thing they rolled out this year has turned into? It's a complete circus. 🤦

Nicholas King said:There is a much more effective way to handle this: implementing a comprehensive performance review every five or six years, utilizing measurable benchmarks to compare candidates during the hiring process.

This isn't some revolutionary concept or anything—it's common sense. If an employee knows they can only be let go for a massive, undeniable blunder, they tend to get complacent. A structured re-evaluation process would make it significantly easier to weed out those who simply don't belong in the organization anymore.

But honestly, that doesn't work in today's climate. In our schools, the principal basically acts like a god—life or death, really—and without tenure, you're stuck. The only thing actually protecting you from them in the long run is having a permanent contract. If you're relying on a re-election every few years, principals will just become all-powerful dictators. They'll hire their own loyalists, who then vote to keep them in power... and if anyone dares to disagree? Well, suddenly some other candidate looks "perfectly suited" for the next opening, and just like that, you're out.

Any attempt to fix hiring, reward the high performers, or weed out the dead weight is doomed to fail from day one unless we address the elephant in the room: the autocratic, dictatorial power these principals have over "their" schools. And after a second term, most of them start treating the whole place like their own private kingdom.

At the end of the day, I feel like the entire system—from the top brass down to the ground level—needs to be hit with napalm, burned to the ground, plowed under, and salted. Then, maybe, we could build something new from scratch.
With as little political meddling and special interest influence as possible.
But since that's basically impossible, well... here we are.

nimblelynx7 said:This has nothing to do with labor law; it's an issue for the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Reddit

Come on, be a sweetheart and check the actual Labor Law, Section 205 (1)—just verify if it really says exactly what I told you it says.
It’s possible there’s some overlap with the Occupational Safety and Health Act too, I guess.
But even then, we aren't talking about a strike here; it's more of a work stoppage or a pause in operations.
I just want us to use the right terminology, you know? Just to stay precise.

Anyway, regarding those tablets in class—setting aside the whole "kids will always forget them" thing (and trust me, most of us have enough spare pencils, erasers, and paper stashed away for the students who constantly lose everything, btw)—or the issue of dead batteries—the real headache is how finicky technology can be. You lose so much precious lesson time because they're struggling to type in an address since the camera or scanning app decides not to work, or they mistype something, or they've forgotten their app login, or suddenly one tablet won't load a single link... and just like that, a five-minute activity eats up fifteen minutes of the period.
In those extra ten minutes, we could have been practicing, doing tongue-twisters, singing, playing games, or having a real discussion...
It's not that I'm against progress, it's just that the effort-to-reward ratio feels off right now. Once these technical "growing pains" are sorted out and things run smoother, I'll be more than happy to lean into tech wherever it actually makes sense.

nimblelynx7 said:Everyone has the legal right to refuse work if their health or life is on the line.

Sent from my Samsung using Reddit

Look, I don't usually bother replying to you, but I really feel like I have to jump in here.
Under the Labor Code, Section 205 (1)—

Labor unions have the authority to call for and carry out strikes to protect and promote the economic and social interests of their members—including cases where wages, partial wages, or wage reimbursements aren't paid by the due date.

So, basically, a strike can only happen for those specific reasons.

What you're talking about isn't actually a strike—it’s a work stoppage, which is covered under Section 95 (4) of the CIA regulations.

And honestly, what that guy is talking about—"striking over reforms"—is basically a one-way ticket to being blacklisted by the unemployment office, because that is completely illegal.

Jason Morgan said:To add to that:

Teachers are actual human beings, not just pieces of hardware. Of course, there are bad ones—terrible ones who really ought to be let go—but more than half of them are decent people doing an incredible job while being paid peanuts. I don't know what kind of deep-seated grievances you all have with educators (believe me, I have my own share of baggage), but there's no need to be this aggressive about it. The school system I attended back when I graduated in 2005 doesn't even exist anymore.
Would anyone care to share their experiences?

On top of everything else, acting as a homeroom advisor requires at least three, ideally four, hours of work throughout the year that simply isn't compensated. If we could just hand everyone a stopwatch every time they started working, it would be quite enlightening to see just how much unpaid overtime is actually happening.

Wait, are you saying 3 to 4 hours every single week of unpaid labor throughout the school year?

William Cooper11 said:And what exactly is the law, the Holy Bible???
So if some deranged parent storms into a classroom and attacks twenty teachers, those teachers are supposed to just show up for work tomorrow because "safety isn't something you can legally strike over"????
Every bad law needs to be changed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly, that's pretty much how it goes.
Man, even with the paychecks they get—which, let's face it, aren't great—people can hardly afford to strike because they're stuck wondering, "Wait, who's going to watch the kids while we're out protesting?" That's why strikes always seem to fizzle out. It's not that people aren't tough enough to handle losing a day's pay (that hasn't really been an issue since the 90s), it's just that they genuinely care about the students.
And those are the same parents whose opinions actually matter. ☕

As for the law itself? Yeah, it absolutely needs to change.
But until someone actually fixes it, the only legal way to walk off the job is to strike over pay and benefits.

Basically, property rights are the only thing that gives you a legal right to strike. At least, that’s what the law says.
Any kind of strike based on anything else is just straight-up Illegal.
Thanks for listening.

William Cooper11 said:A teacher who actually knows their stuff doesn't need anything more than a chalkboard and some chalk. Some people just refuse to accept that school isn't a playground—it's serious business.

And honestly? We could use a little more than twenty minutes to prep a lesson plan—especially since that's basically all we're getting paid for in our weekly hours. ☕

It might look like people are only speaking up because they're chasing a bigger paycheck—I mean, that’s what the unions focus on, right? Since the Republican Party laws basically only allow strikes over material rights, it can definitely seem that way.
But honestly, it isn't just about the money. People are making noise about other stuff too.
Back in December, there was this huge "Safe Schools" rally where several thousand educators stood up to demand better personal safety—for themselves and their students—and more effective ways to handle discipline in the classroom.
Right now, there's also a petition circulating to get rid of those anonymous tip lines used by inspectors and oversight boards.
It’s not that people aren't raising their voices; it’s just that these issues don't always grab the headlines, so the general public doesn't really hear much about them.

As for why the financial side matters so much... well, our friend Saša explained that perfectly the other day. It’s definitely worth a read if you want to see how everything actually connects.

Honestly, I was just chatting with a colleague from my university the other day, and she was saying how crazy it is that students basically hold professors hostage with those end-of-term evaluations. Apparently, if you actually stick to the syllabus and demand real academic rigor, you get hit with terrible ratings—it’s like they punish anyone who actually wants to learn something meaningful. On the flip side, if you turn your course into some kind of mindless social club or a dance class, you get nothing but straight A's.
And the kicker? Those bad evaluations can actually stall someone's career progression or even cost them their job down the line. It’s wild.
I’m seriously counting down the days until they implement that kind of system in K-12 schools. Once that happens, I’m going to give everyone straight A's right out of the gate, let them watch cartoons during class all year, and we'll all be the highest-rated teachers in the district!