Why are teachers absent on Mondays and Fridays? A retired school chief offers his theory and solution.
The always-thoughtful Clete Bulach has written an interesting response to the AJC investigation into teacher absences. (As I noted in my original post, this investigation was subscriber only so I cannot link to it. It appeared in the Thursday AJC.)
Dr. Bulach worked as a school superintendent from 1979 to 1990 at which point he retired. He is now an associate professor emeritus from the University of West Georgia. He has numerous publications in educational journals and is co-author of “Creating a Culture for A High Performing School: A Comprehensive Approach to School Reform, Dropout Prevention, and Bullying Behavior.”
Dr. Bulach says his purpose in life “is to change the way students and teachers are treated in their school… to help create caring learning environments in schools where teachers and school administrators give control to others without giving it up.”
Here is his response:
By Clete Bulach
The article on teacher absenteeism brought back some memories. As a school superintendent in Ohio, I tried to get it in the negotiated contract that teacher absenteeism on Mondays and Fridays would not be greater than for the other days of the week. There were days when there were so many teachers absent on a Monday or a Friday that you could not get a substitute because they had all been already hired.
The interesting part about their article is that there was a lot written about the problems caused by teacher absenteeism, but not much about the causes for it, and why it is higher on Monday and Friday. The answer is stress. The more stress teachers experience the higher the absenteeism rate. What causes stress?
There are many factors: demands from the administration, declining test scores, disagreements with other faculty members, etc. However, one of the leading causes of stress is the need to control the students. It is not uncommon for a teacher to have to correct students 150 times a day. That means that a teacher has to stop teaching and correct a student every 2-3 minutes.
Having to stop teaching, correct a student, and restart teaching is a lot of stress. This constant interruption of the learning process, whether caused by students’ misbehavior or other interruptions also reduces test scores leading to even greater stress and teacher absenteeism.
By the time Friday roles around, some teachers have had all they can take, so they are absent. Come Monday, some teachers don’t want to go back to work because they are mentally just not able so they stay home another day.
Compare that with a teacher who does not have to stop teaching to control the students because the students correct each other. Can that be done? Can you get students to control each other? Yes, you can, but not without changing the existing control culture.
Under the existing control culture, it is not okay for students to control each other. That is the responsibility of the teachers and the administrators. When a student is misbehaving, the other students often encourage the misbehavior in order to find out what the teachers and the administrators will do to correct the misbehavior.
If the existing control culture is to be changed to encourage students to control each other, a system has to be put in place where students get a reward for controlling each others’ behavior.
We have written a book on how to change this existing culture of control. One phase of the reform is to count the number of times teachers have to stop teaching to correct or redirect students’ behavior. This varies greatly from teacher to teacher. In our database, we had one teacher who had to stop teaching more that 100 times each day and others were in the 5-10 range.
Once a baseline of redirects is established, we asked the students to help with student off-task and discipline related behavior. We explained that if we could reduce the number of times teachers had to stop teaching to correct student behavior, we would give them a reward.
In research conducted on changing the existing control culture in four schools in Indiana and with 30 graduate students attending leadership courses at the University of West Georgia student discipline problems and off task behavior were reduced by as much as 86 percent
A description of how the high performing classroom concept worked in selected classrooms across the K-12 spectrum is the following:
• In a kindergarten class, there was an average of 51 redirects per day on average (pre-experiment). After implementation of the reform there was an average of 13 redirects per day. In order to make the class aware of their progress regarding the number of redirects, cubes were added to a jar for good behavior, and cubes were removed for redirects.
• In a third grade class, there was an average of 20 redirects per week (pre-experiment), and there was an average of less than 10 redirects per week (post experiment).
• At a middle school with four classes there was an average of 31 redirects per class per day and 585 per week (pre-experiment) to 13 redirects per day per class and 244 per week (post-experiment).
• In a middle school emotional disorder class, there was an average of 50-83 redirects per week (pre-experiment) to an average of 12per week (post-experiment). In commenting about what happened, the teacher wrote the following: “They were strongly motivated not to let each other down; I could not believe the improvement in their behavior.”
• In a middle school physical education class, the redirects ranged from an average of 63 per week (pre-experiment) to 25 to 10 per week (post-experiment).
• In a 10th grade English class, the average number of redirects was 35 per week and seven per day (pre-experiment and less than one per day (post-experiment).
• A science teacher teaching biology and chemistry reported an average number of redirects for science of 60 per week for chemistry and 55 per week in biology (pre-experiment) and 25 per week in chemistry and 15 per week in biology (post- experiment). This teacher commented that the students improved each week of the experiment, and by the last week, the chemistry class only had 10 redirects per week (84 percent reduction) and the biology class only had eight redirects (86 percent reduction) for the week. In summarizing the results of the experiment, the teacher wrote the following: “My students have really taken charge of their behavior; I have seen outstanding results, and many teachers have commented on the change in my class.”
In each of the above instances the students received a reward when the goal was reached. The selection of the reward is critical. It has to be something they really want. Let them choose it, but give them some examples: e.g., free time on Friday, a pizza party, get rid of a low grade, able to chew gum, recess, open book test, homework passes, etc.
If the high performing concept is implemented at the classroom level, a weekly reward works best. If it is implemented at the school level, a daily or a weekly reward can be used.
The best motivator is five extra minutes of locker time in the morning or five extra minutes prior to getting on the bus at the end of the day. Keep in mind that students can earn redirects during these extra minutes to socialize. At the elementary level, an extra five minutes for recess is a great motivator.
There are two basic reasons why this works: (1) students love the opportunity to socialize: and (2) having some control over what happens to you is a basic human need. All humans, whether students or grownups love the feeling of being in control. The opposite feeling of not being in control is an awful feeling. Imagine a time in the past when you had lost control and a time in the past when you were in complete control.
The difference in feeling is like night and day. By encouraging students to control each others’ behavior, the existing control culture has been shifted. Previously, it was not okay for students to control each other because that was the responsibility of the faculty and the administration.
In fact, if a student were to control another student, they would probably be accused of being the teachers pet of told “Who do you think you are?” or “What’s your problem jerk?” By shifting control to the students it is now okay for students to control each other. In fact, they are encouraged to do so. Teachers have more time to teach and the learning process is less interrupted leading to better test scores, less teacher stress, and less teacher absenteeism.
There is one other factor leading to teacher absenteeism and that is “caring behaviors.” How would you like to report for work believing that nobody cares about you and you are unable to control your students? The feeling is totally demoralizing, and that is why teacher absenteeism is so high. Strangely enough, students also feel this way. They are in a highly controlled environment and also believe nobody cares about them. This leads to a lack of motivation and high student absenteeism.
In my research, more than 50 percent of students and faculty report that nobody cares about them. Changing the existing control culture gives teachers more control and also creates a more caring learning environment.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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96 comments Add your comment
Dondee
March 31st, 2012
9:30 pm
I think I’m going have to stay off this blog. I never see anything uplifting or positive regarding teachers or the profession. I have taken days off on Fridays or Mondays. Sometimes I take days as a personal days, of which I’m allowed three. Sometimes it’s for doctor appointments for myself, mom, or children. I have taught twelve years and earn ten hours of sick pay each month I work. I have over three hundred hours which is nearly two months of sick time. Obviously I am not out even once a month and go into school even without a voice, which happens twice a year at least. Much easier to do than calling 40 people to secure a sub ON TOP OF writing lesson plans. BTW, though my work day should end before 4:00pm, I often stay until after 6:00 and even then bring work home.
You might ask why, since teaching is such a “cushy” job, you know, that job where we get “three” months off in the summer, which BTW is actually only two months. Oh and I spend a good bit of this getting ready for my next group of kids, on my own time. So sue me if I take 3-4 days off a year in order to save my dwindling sanity. Ugh…
tony
March 31st, 2012
10:00 pm
How about this for an idea if you dont work you dont get paid for the days you miss …. what a concept!! if you dont work then you dont get paid!!!
Anon Kindergarten teacher
March 31st, 2012
10:02 pm
This year, our district will not pay for a sub after 5 days of absences. I am not talking about 5 days consecutively, but 5 days total. They just split the kids up among the other teachers on the grade level or take the Kindergarten paras to cover the class.
I am rarely sick, but I do have small children and they get sick sometimes. I have never, in almost ten years of teaching, taken a mental health day.
I get chewed out when I make a doctor’s appointment on any day (Monday through Friday) so I just do my best to schedule them after school hours. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work, since we have so many meetings and evening activities that I am required to be at.
White Elephant
March 31st, 2012
10:05 pm
“By the time Friday roles around,”
“Roles around”? How about “rolls around”? Prof. Bulach is a professor emeritus and author of numerous publications in educational journals? If he is wise, hopefully he employs the assistance of an excellent editor. This should be an elementary school student’s mistake. No great secret why I choose private school for both of my children.
Ron F.
March 31st, 2012
10:22 pm
I might believe his “data” if it were compared to other professions. Even better would be to look at other public servants and compare numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar pattern in any high stress profession, especially one where you work with people. I can pretty honestly say that the treachers who take a lot of days off don’t last long in the profession. They tend to either leave or get pushed out. Most teachers retire or leave the profession with a lot of accrued leave.
In all my years of teaching, I have found that taking a mental health day is more stressful than helpful. By the time you plan lessons, leave notes about who to trust and who never to let out of your sight, double-check the plans and okay them with your colleagues, it’s just not worth the work. I had to be out the week my mom died, and thankfully my colleagues jumped in and took over my classes and lesson plans. We do that for each other when it’s needed. That also helps with the stress of the job. You have to teach where you’re part of the team, or you will end up stressed out. I would think that’s true of any profession.
I’ve taught with all sorts of illnesses, including strep. I got the shot in the hip and limped on in to work. I even took a field trip with the flu because there was just no way to get anyone else to do it. I don’t feel guilty on the days I have to be out because I’m there plenty of times I probably should be at home in the bed.
Ron F.
March 31st, 2012
10:24 pm
Anon: I’d check with your prof. assoc. legal department, but I think that’s not exactly legal. If they give you the days, they have to let you use them if you must. I could see having to provide a doctor’s note, which I do anyway. Most schools require them after five absences and that’s reasonable. If they charge you the day for being out, then they’re getting money from somewhere that will cover a sub. I’d check that rule if I were you.
ScienceTeacher671
March 31st, 2012
11:02 pm
The dentist is the hardest to schedule. She usually works only during school hours, and takes off school holidays, so that she can spend time with her children. She does work during the summer, but if you’re going to get your teeth cleaned twice a year, etc., it can be difficult to do it without taking at least a half day off.
Dekalbite
March 31st, 2012
11:06 pm
For myself when I was teaching and probably many teachers, Friday is the best time to take off if you’re sick. If I had a bad sinus infection or cold or bronchitis, many times I would go to see the doctor after I got off work during the week and often antibiotics were prescribed. Then I would teach until Friday. I would take off on Friday so I would have 3 full days to try to get better because I knew bed rest, low stress, plenty of water, and a lot of sleep was needed in addition to the antibiotics. It seemed better to try to make it until Friday rather than taking off 3 days in the middle of the week.
Former Middle School Teacher
March 31st, 2012
11:27 pm
Our district paid for no subs this year, we had to cover during our planning.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
April 1st, 2012
3:13 am
I will never forget the “words of wisdom” from a local school board attorney to a group of neophyte Special Education teachers at the close of a training session on SpEd law, “You’re on your own.”
With “friends” like him, do teachers need enemies?
meredith
April 1st, 2012
7:42 am
Reasons teachers are sick:
1. Any ailment involving the bladder or the intestine. We cannot go to the bathroom when we have to. This point cannot be refuted. In the corp. World one does not need to have someone watch her office to go to ladies room, nor does she have to fight 10 people to go in the one bathroom in 5 or at best 7 minutes.
2. Sick children(same in any profession)
3. To grade papers. In high school 5 classes of 35 eac
h equals 175 papers which must be returned in a timely fashion (1 maybe 2 weeks) with meaningful feedback at about 15 minutes per paper no fewer than 3 full process essays.
4. Family emergencies.
5. Cleaning and maintaining a home
6. Stress\exhaustion
7. (For women) a heavy period. Refer to reason #1
The solution…smaller class sizes and rethinking the schedule. I don’t need a whole summer off! I need.
Elizabeth
April 1st, 2012
8:15 am
“Redirection.” Wow. What a novel idea. We did that 30-40 years ago. Most of the time it worked– then. There were enough focused students that peer pressure worked and the few disruptive students were silenced. Today? Not a chance that this works in today’s classrooms. Last week I was teaching my 4th period class which had just returned from lunch. At lunch they eat, use the restroom, and get water.A student raised his hand in the middle of our lesson. Was he asking a question about my lesson? No. His request: to be allowed to leave and get water. My answer was no and not to ask again. Three more times he raised his hand and asked the same question, interupting me each time.. Finally I removed him from the class, assigned detention, and sent him to another teacher. Seven MORE minutes out of my lesson. When I returned to continue the lesson, another student began to demand a trip to the water fountain. Not one student said a word to these kids because they A. did not care B.were scared of the disruptive students. C. too intimidated to speak up D. all of the above. THE ANSWER: D.
I wish people would stop dredging up ideas and publishing them until they have talked to classroom teachers. What makes people think we have not tried these things?
As for absences on Friday and Monday. I worked out of education for 12 years, which is why I will retitre at 64 rather than 54. I can assure you that there weere far more absences on Friday and Monday in the private sector than in education. The difference: Many private sector employees could take sick or vacation days whenever they wished. We never have vacation days and we cannot call in sick the day before or after a holiday without bringing a doctor’s note. Personal leave is not allowed on these days either. Doctors and dentists, however, do not stay open on weekends and the last appointment given is at 4; the first, at 9. Children come to school sick, and we experience all the germs. Yet it is never a priority when vaccines are short to give teachers flu shots.Docotr’ appointments and wellness hecks have to be given a year apart; eventually, that means you can no longer do it in the summer because they will tell you ” it has not been a year” and insurance won’t pay.
As for mental health days.. I have taken only 1 in 32 years. That was the day after my mother’s funeral in 1994. I was too exausted to make the 6 hour drive home and stayed over a day. But I DO reme ber countless Saturdays, Sundays, and unpaid off time that was spent grading essays,projects, research papers, and just figuring up semester grades because we gave exams on Friday and grades were due the Monday morning we returned.
This whole article is ridiculous and should not have been included here. Just more teacher bashing.
Geogia and education not compatible
April 1st, 2012
11:13 am
@ Deborah is right… teachers get paid for 180 days ONLY
@ carlosgvv… no one did your job BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT TEACHING
@ Just saying… It’s not hard to get a doctor’s note, Once a doctor knows that a patient is a teacher, they will write whatever kind of note that they need…why? Because doctors see symptoms of illnesses that otherwise make no sense. So your solution to the problem is what exactly?
To everyone who compares teaching to every other profession YOU ARE WRONG
The comparison ends at the fact these are all occupations, careers, and/or jobs, whichever terminology that you prefer.
Now let me enjoy my spring break (for which I DO NOT GET PAID). My children DESERVE my full attention
Archie@Arkham Asylum
April 1st, 2012
6:52 pm
@hssped: Not all schools systems use ISS teachers. I have noticed lately that many ISS rooms are being manned by paraprofessionals. This is undoubtedly to save money, of course!
Archie@Arkham Asylum
April 1st, 2012
7:04 pm
@Dr. Craig Spinks: The good school board attorney was indeed right! Special Ed has become a hotbed of litigation in recent years. Special Ed. teachers don’t need enemies. It’s every man or woman for themself! In addition to “You’re on your own” he should have added “CYA.” Also remember; “if it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen!”
Another comment
April 1st, 2012
11:48 pm
On Friday, the day before Spring Break, 2 of my daughter’s 4 teacher’s called in sick. Including the 4th period teacher who made sure to leave a test for the students to take. Is this fair, he slips off early to Spring Break, but traps the students there to the last minute by leaving a test. I don’t think so. My daughter, texted me after she finished the test, and asked me to sign her out, so I did. Why should she sit there for an hour with a sub tapping her pencil with nothing to do. Instead my daughter and I went out to lunch. So do not complain teachers, when you play such dirty tricks the day before break. This is one of the reasons you don’t get respect.
Another comment
April 2nd, 2012
12:45 am
Denise Magee the underqualified principal at Campbell HighSchool needs to read his book. Especially the part about how students love the extra socialiation time between breaks and before school as rewards. Magee well into second semester of her 1st year as a high school principal after being a middle school principal decided to change the bell schedule from 7 minutes to 5 minutes. Not only that she decides to perform hall sweeps and have the teachers lock out any student who is even 10 seconds late. Only problem is you can not make it from some parts of this large 2,200 student campus in even the 7 minute time limit. ( I can’t make it in 10 minutes on an empty parent night). Her new policy, calls for Saturday School for the first unexcused trady ( being late to class even 10 seconds). Then on the second one a suspension of 10 days. The first day resulted in 400 students being sent to Saturday School. Magee and her Middle school administrators, stand around with whistles around their necks screaming at the “children” to hurry on to class.
Needless to say the students were not happy with this. Magee, is afraid to even show up to school the two days following issuing this idict. The Supt. Hinjosa comes over on the Friday to play principal. Their were two food fights in protest. Drug dogs and additional police officers were called to stem the protests over the Bell schedule. With the drug dogs their they made 28 arrests of students for pot.
One of the students arrested for pot in this incident over the protest of the bell schedules, was the student who was shot and killed by Cobb Police last Tuesday night. He had been an IB and AP student at Campbell High School in addition to being on the Football team. He had been in one AP class last year where not only he was the only black student, but he was the only boy in the class. But then his life changed forever over this punitive bell schedule thing and Denise Magee. As a drug arrest and conviction, exculudes one from receiving any Federal Finacial Aid and the Hope Scholarship. So it basically killed this boy’s college dreams. His family obviously did not have the resoursed to hire a lawyer to get him off, or pay the tuition. The students all said he was never the same. Did he smoke some laced weed, did he have a break down or was it suicide by cop? What ever it was, it was all set off by this stupid punitive bell schedule by an inept principal .
A Principal whose Math teacher she hired, was sleeping with a 17 year old. A fugly 55 year old. Then the 17 year old expected an A to keep quite, of course she did. Now she went overboard when she asked and got paid a couple of hundred dollars for keeping quite. But she didn’t she was a known hoe at school and bragged about it getting the A and getting paid, so she is arrested. But this happened last semester. Why wasn’t Denise Magee worring about this rather that the bell schedule.
She also had 5 students, breaking into and stealing stuff repeatedly from former Board Member Holli Cash’s house. These boys continued this reign of terror on the Cash’s. But then one was the starting catcher of the baseball team.
Needless to say that inept Principals try to enforce the wrong things. They don’t know the difference between what kids need as a reward, ie socialization to thrive. Treat them like they are Prisoners they will rebell. She is inept and has totally lost control of not only the students but her staff. Hinjosa needs to fire this promotion that was slipped through by Sanderson.
Another comment
April 2nd, 2012
12:57 am
I left out that Denise Magee also left voice messages on the parents of Campbell students on Wednesday at 6:00 that were very raceist that said “a student had been “Killed”" with emphasis. You could tell she was dying to point out that this black student had been killed by the cops, and put in her African American cultural perspective”. She could not keep this message professional, you should have heard her raciest voice infliction. She should have simply said ” A student has passed away in a tragic incident, that has been in the press.” The more I think about it and the more I talk to other parents who are educated, we are concluding that alot of this could have been avoided if Denise Magee did not go into the school and cause all of this chaos with the Bell Schedule. Treating High Schoolers like 2 year olds. Bringing in Drug dogs. Having students arrested for minor amounts of marijauna, that causes them to become ineligible for any Federal Financial Aid and Hope Scholarships. It really has a negative affect at the lower SES schools. At the Walton’s and Riverwoods the parents hire attorney’s, the kids are caught with perscription drugs, the parents say it is their drugs so the kids don’t get a drug record, or the Parents can pay the money for College. That doesn’t happen at a lower SES school. So you have to know what to prosecute and what not to. Sweeps don’t work! They just cause more kids to leave school. They ruin more kids chances! Arrest records ruin lives!
ScienceTeacher671
April 2nd, 2012
7:52 am
Another comment, when students make bad choices, it impacts their lives, and not for the better. Didn’t Oprah say that?
@anothercomment
April 2nd, 2012
10:48 am
You said, “So do not complain teachers, when you play such dirty tricks the day before break. This is one of the reasons you don’t get respect.”
In Cobb County, the day before Spring Break is a critical day – that means we aren’t allowed to use personal time to be out. If what you say about “2 of my daughter’s 4 teachers called in sick,” then that is an administrative problem, not a teaching problem. Trust me when I say that those teachers left behind likely weren’t supportive of their colleagues’ absences. Quit painting us all with the same broad brush, please.
stooge
April 2nd, 2012
11:15 am
@ Another comment- What a wonderful lesson to teach your child….she feels she does not need to be at school so she texts you during the school day(handbook violaton) and whines. You, playing the perfect role of indulgent parent, come to the rescue to take her to lunch. Outstanding.
teacher 57
April 2nd, 2012
12:29 pm
I would never remove my child from school because the teacher was not there…cell phones are not allowed for students to text parents and tell on the teacher….How did she know the teachers were not sick?You are the type of parent that undermine teachers and syour child in return has no respect for teachers’ authority…you really did your child an unjustice…If the CEO of a company is on vacation willl she call you to pick her up when her work is done?
Ole Guy
April 2nd, 2012
2:46 pm
You’re absolutely right, Dig…under the CURRENT set of circumstances, any attempt to straighten out these kids who don’t seem to give a damn would only lead to more woe.
Just about every comment I read…not only in this particular topic, but, as a whole, across the entire spectrum of the educational morass…centers on one of two human reactions to life’s travails: Fight or Flight. EVERY (presumably, teacher-initiated) comment, thus far, appears to be a FLIGHT reaction…flee the storm, hope to survive to retirement, and “oh, those poor poor kids…but, hey…I just love my job”!
People, this is what the Ole Guy calls…PACKING SAND! Another, possibly more-temperate means of expression…BLOWING SMOKE!
What can I say, folks? What can I say which hasn’t been said, commented upon, and summarily rejected under the banner of…NOT ALLOWED…I’ll GET INTO TROUBLE.
I know the problems…I’ve been there. I chose to pursue/re-acquire my life-long love of aviation. THIS is where professionalism prevails; THIS is where intense pride of association prevails. THAT was, and is, MY choice. YOUR choice, apparently, has been the HONORABLE (?) choice of remaining within a domain over which you HAVE NO SAY…NO CONTROL; and, apparently, NO PRIDE.
Another Comment
April 2nd, 2012
4:40 pm
Another Comment makes a funny comment.
“Arrest records ruin lives!”
Arrest recdords ruin lives, do they, Another Comment?
or do criminals ruin lives, including their own?
Juvenile crimes are off the record when they become adults.
When an adult commits a crime, they deserve to have a record.
so if you are very concerned about the lives being ruined by marijuana, tell your childrne not to smoke it. Tell your children not to buy it. Don’t give them money so they can buy it.
remember, arrest records don’t do anything. You are trying to remove the blame from the criminal.
Criminals commit crimes. Criminals ruin lives.
It’s simple. Obey the law.
Why are teachers absent on Mondays and Fridays?
April 2nd, 2012
4:48 pm
Why are teachers absent on Mondays and Fridays?
This indeed is one of the greatest mysteries of all times. Why would a teacher who loves teaching want to remove herself on the Friday BEFORE a two day weekend where she is not working?
Why also would she want to take off the Monday AFTER being off of work for two days?
It’s a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle, bundled in an enigma and put outside with head scratcher.
The world may never figure out this great mystery. i cannot even imagine why a teacher would want to take off the Friday BEFORE a weekend when they are not working and then jsut as mysteriously take off the Monday AFTER two days of being off work.
The world may never know.
An Outstanding Idea
April 2nd, 2012
4:53 pm
I think this is an outstanding policy – This year, our district will not pay for a sub after 5 days of absences. I am not talking about 5 days consecutively, but 5 days total. They just split the kids up among the other teachers on the grade level or take the Kindergarten paras to cover the class.
Yes, then the other teachers suffer when one of their colleagues is missing. It creates peer pressure. Oh Mr. or Miss So and So is out AGAIN and now I have to teach THREE more kids in my already overcrowded classroom…just might make some teachers get po’d over another teacher’s absences enough to put some pressure on the principal to do something about it. Of course, either way, our kids suffer.
You know what I do when i am sick? I go to work. If I have a meeting I sit away from the table and don’t touch anything if I’m contagious.
If I am very contagious i’ll go home and take my meetings via conference calls.
I bring my laptop on vacation with me. I’m off on Friday but I’ll still be calling into work to get a meeting. That’s life. i don’t complain like some government employees do.
An outstanding idea?
April 2nd, 2012
6:19 pm
Too bad teachers can teach by laptop, eh?
BTW – your last paragraph reads as a whine.
Tad Jackson
April 2nd, 2012
8:04 pm
WHAT TWITCHY TEACHERS DO ON THEIR DAZE OFF
She stood with her head cocked on one side in an attitude of disbelief. “Oh, boy,” she said slowly, “is he a case.”
—“The Comforts of Home,” by Flannery O’Connor
Hold on tight for this one. During the exam period, which started Tuesday and lasts until next Tuesday, you don’t have to come to school on the day your free period has an exam.
The school wants you to call it your planning period, but you’re actually free to leave the campus on a regular day and do whatever you want so I call it a free period. Say free period around Lurlene and she goes nuts. She’ll say you’re supposed to be in there planning for what’s coming. I always say I’ve already done that because I have. This usually leaves the woman speechless, and that’s always a big moment in the history of American education.
So guess what today is? My free period. I don’t have a third period. I didn’t get out of my nasty bathrobe until ___ o’clock in the ___.
Free to do what, though, I have no idea. You go four hundred miles an hour for almost ten months so it’s hard to slow it down and think about your own desires for too long. But do something healthy, maybe, like a long jog, followed up by weight lifting and some time with the heavy bag? Or something nutritious, like a long afternoon nap?
I performed one of the four aforementioned items and then I watched a DVD that new substitute teacher, Charla, who looks like Tammy Wynette, had given me a few days ago with a sticky note stuck to it that said, in her curly-girly letters, that there were people in this movie like people in our families. Charla is very, very much from Tennessee. I must give off a hillbilly vibe, too.
Anyway, the movie is called Sordid Lives, and it’s about a bunch of loveable and eccentric people with necks that are sun burned. The movie’s tag line is … A Black Comedy About White Trash.
In one scene an old woman named Sissy is hovering over the dead corpse of her sister while the corpse is laying in a coffin. Her sister’s got a dead mink or a ferret wrapped around her neck and the corpse is smiling. Sissy had already walked into the empty church smoking a cigarette and she says to her freshly dead sister as she’s waving smoke out of the way with her hand … Heyyyy! I guess you don’t mind if I smoke. It just wasn’t the right time to quit with you dyin’ and all. I only lasted for three days. I failed again, but after five husbands what else is new?
There I am late in the afternoon during my all-day free period, in my nasty bathrobe, laughing at the TV screen all by myself. I felt like a lunatic and it felt damn wonderful.
http://www.adixiediary.com
Another comment
April 2nd, 2012
8:47 pm
I find it absolutely amazing that the teachers sit here and count up their 1.5 days of sick leave per month and 3 days of personal leave per year. Do you all understand how utterly upsurd that sounds to most people.
I worked for several firms when I graduated from college with my engineering degrees, that did not have a formal sick leave policy. They told you in interviews that you just took sick leave when you needed it, since you were on a Salary and not hourly, in this great non-union State of Georgia. You also recieved two weeks of vacation after you had worked a full year. Maybe you got to take a week after 6 months, but you did not accrue any vacation time per month. You soon find out that that the reason at the interviews you are told that their is no set sick leave policy, is because you are expected to come to work no matter what. Unless you are on death’s door, or at least in the hospital you better be there. They don’t tell you that you have “x” number of days because they don’t want anyone to feel entitled to take them or feel like they own and sick leave hours. Of course it doesn’t matter that you have worked 50, 60, 70, 80 hour weeks. I had one client whose job was ending, a major Computer Company, they asked me what I was going to do next. I replied work on the major German Electrical Equipment maker project. Then they asked me if it was just starting up, I said no. I have been working on it for at least 6 months. They then said you are billed out on this job for 40 hours, I said yes and on the other project for another 40, I work at least 80 hours a week. The Contact from the California Computer Company was a little stunned. I told him, that I lived around the corner from their project and I started at their project at 7:00 in the morning. I did job site counts, inspected the project before I ever headed to the office. I had surgery over 4th of July weekend working for this company. I never took a sick day for this company, or for the one before it. With the company before it my ear drums burst on a plane flight going to a project. Even though it was work related, I still didn’t miss any work.
I could never imagine as an engineer, having a job that I could have from Memorial Day weekend until mid August off. Then have another week off in Nov., 2.5 weeks at Christmas. A week in April, and various other days off. Of course Cobb County teachers, wanted the more distruptive Balanced Schedule which gave them two more weeks off, but cause greater expense for working parents. Roughly 12 weeks off. It does not exist in the Private sector. Even when I went to work for the Federal government, you only get 13 days off for the first 3 years of annual leave and 13 days of sick leave no matter how long you have ever worked. With no maternity leave. No opportunities to even try to plan the birth of your child so you have them in May to coinside with the Summer off. ( My cousin did this). I only took 5 weeks of my sick leave off for my first child and was constantly called with work questions during the 5 weeks. Then I only took 4 weeks with my second child of my sick time.
I know you will all argue back about the low pay, etc.., but you knew that going in. Yes it sucks. But I too had my pay frozen, aka cut, because Obama doesn’t have enough guts to stand up to the Republicans. The rich Republican’s who keep voting themselves raises via tax cuts. But when is the rest of America going to get it. I don’t know. When this is the sad crowd we have teaching our children, I just don’t know. This is the crowd that voted against Roy Barnes, and their own self interest. What do they have with that Vote against Roy Barnes, classrooms double the size they were when he was in office. Pay decreases of 20-30% but most of you can’t think critically enough to know it.
Another comment
April 2nd, 2012
8:55 pm
So just how is the day before Spring Break in Cobb County such an important date in the school calendar. You have got to be kidding me. The French IB class went to France.
When teachers schedule tests to keep students in class, the day before break, then they call in sick or are not there, it is disrespectful to the students and the parents. In the private schools, they don’t schedule tests on this day, they know the parents are going to take their kids and skoot. Especially, at Christmas when the classes are scheduled up until the 22nd, this doen’t allow for people who are not from Georgia to get to their families. If Georgia wants to recruit business from outside Georgia, then this is a reality, the schools must be friendly to allowing families to make it out of town for the holidays. We only made it 1 hour before my mother’s Christmas eve party in New York State due to the late break.
Noticed
April 2nd, 2012
10:19 pm
After 5 years of teaching in public schools in Georgia, this is my last year teaching in the USA. I have accepted an international teaching contract. Prior to teaching in the States, I taught abroad for 4 years. Teaching in Georgia has been the most frustrating professional experience for me as this is the most disenfranchising system in which I have taught. My time teaching here has caused me to rethink my professional choice, and I sincerely hope that my time teaching abroad will permit me to fall in love with teaching again. I immigrated to the USA, so I had no previous experience with the education system here. Boy, is it a dog eat dog world!
I follow this blog religiously and the constant teacher bashing is alarming and disheartening. There are many exceptional teachers in your public schools. Unfortunately, these teachers don’t tend to be “in” with the ubiquitous cliques present in public education. Perhaps this is because they are too busy trying to keep up with the asinine new policies issued by County Office on a monthly basis (along with the multitudinous roles they play: educator, social worker, data collector & analyzer, playground & cafeteria monitor, ISS teacher, member of various committees, tutor, snack & stationary provider, etc.). The sorority/fraternity/good old boys’ club practice in the overly political climate of public education is a systemic disease that needs a hefty shot of penicillin. I think the abundance of money in public education is one of the major contributing factors to the cultivation of this disease. There are too many that should not be in education, in my opinion. Career administrators/directors/superintendents, who are more concerned with looking cute and driving luxury cars (public educators driving luxury cars??!), are not providing the much needed leadership for which they readily accept their ample salaries. I have never encountered such a top-heavy system that dishes knee-jerk, reactive policies to their minions (teachers), but then refuse to be held accountable for them after the fact, always blaming the teacher (this practice is why I joined MACE). I think you will find that honorable teachers will welcome accountability measures and making it less laborious to fire inadequate teachers, (there are too many in their positions because of their connections – teachers know exactly who they are in their buildings) if these policies and procedures are directed by honorable administrators.
I wanted to voice my opinion and share my experience, mostly for the other teachers that read this blog. I know I scour the internet for other teachers’ input, mostly so I can reassure myself that I am not imagining this horror. It is quite difficult to have honest conversations with my colleagues, most are terrified of being reproached for their thoughts about a system in which they are key players. It would seem that it would behoove policy makers to consult the people who are “in the trenches” (they like to say that a lot around here, too). Working conditions are deplorable; rife and inexcusable student misbehavior makes me think I am working in a last-stop juvenile detention center. I feel very badly for the students who are in school seeking a quality education, and I personally would not send my children to a public school here (thankfully, I don’t have any of my own yet).
Unfortunately, I do not have any easy answers. I feel a large part of the problem may be that education is not genuinely and intrinsically valued by too many key players: parents, students, administrators, politicians…how does one overhaul a failed cultural practice? How did education in America get to this state? The resources and funding available to the public school system here is staggering (on par or above with private education in many parts of the world), yet there is prevailing despondency, instead of a vitality, marinating the field.
When I return to the USA, I will not return to public education. I know my limits. While I adore my students, I do not have the stomach for the shenanigans that are prolific in this arena.
ScienceTeacher671
April 2nd, 2012
10:51 pm
Another comment, if you really have an engineering degree and you really thing teachers have it made, sign up for the TAPP program, and you too can teach. Science and math teachers are very much in demand, and as an engineer, you ought to be qualified for either.
I’d brush up on the spelling and grammar if I were you, however. You know how people are always complaining about teachers who don’t use the English language properly.
TimeOut
April 2nd, 2012
11:55 pm
How to keep the teachers and the students in the classroom:
1. Balanced Calendar=fewer teacher/student absences(empirical evidence)
2. Annual remuneration for perfect attendance
3. NO permitted interruptions, regardless of the ‘merits’ of the interruption, i.e.
ALL performances, field trips, AP testing, ice cream social/award picnic,
Model UN, college tours, etc.MUST occur outside of the regular school
day……..oh, and no ‘early dismissal for athletic competitions or any other
kind of activity’…..so we all now know that this is a ‘dreamers’ list.’
4. ALL teacher training activities take place on non-teaching days….. and we
all know that it’s cheaper to ‘rob Peter to pay Paul’ so, if before the Great
Recession there was no addition to contracts for this, we know it isn’t hap-
pening now.
In short, when the largest systems in the nation and state decide that the College Board and other entities cannot tell them to disrupt instruction for testing or anything else, then this will stop. When we reward instead of punish, we will see teacher attendance improve. When we demonstrate through our actions, that no competition, university tour, or counseling group is more important than class time, we will be making a much more effective use of our resources. Whether the interruption is of merit or not…….that is not the concern here. Classroom instruction/learning is supposed to be our primary responsibility……we are sending a very clear message that no class matters enough to merit missing a ball game, a field trip, a college tour………it is the wrong message. We need a systemic change that results in the placement of all such activities outside of the regular school schedule. Unfortunately, the resulting requirement for compensation of instructional staff for such time would cause many to back away from this idea and return to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
J. Wilburn
April 3rd, 2012
11:14 pm
DUH! It’s not stress per se that’s the problem. It’s that people in any other profession can put in for annual leave when they want to take it, but teachers ONLY get those holidays that all school kids have. Sometimes one wants to make a trip with family for an anniversary or reunion or birthday– the only way to get 4 days off other than during the summer or Christmas or Spring Break is to take a Fri. & Mon. I always take the Monday after Thanksgiving, because the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the worst day to travel and a usual 5-hr drive has on Sunday taken me 9 hours, and then I’m so exhausted on Monday I might as well not be at school! So I take Monday off and drive that day, which is a lot safer in terms of avoiding traffic accidents. Sometimes to be effective at your job, you have to think about what is going to help you be rested. And teachers, like other employees, need some personal time off that is not just during the summer or heavily traveled holidays.
Ole Guy
April 4th, 2012
3:10 pm
Noticed…and, I am quite certain, many others…has made reference to the ostensible practice of teacher bashing. Lets keep one thing in focus…Teacher bashing…or, for that matter, any other form of “proding”…is intended to (hopefully) cause folks (presumably) the leaders who really care…I mean REALLY care…about education, and the direction in which education will eventually direct a nation, a peoples, and, for that matter, our very way of life. While many seem to engage in teacher bashing for no other purpose than to exercise some form of freedom of speach, many others view the teacher corps as the backbone of this educational movement. As with many eras in our history, the educational experience has undergone many of these movements, primarily intended to meet the requirements of future demands. Those of us old enough to remember viewing Al Shephard in his Mercury Spacecraft as he (along with a “team” of tens of thousands, if not millions) ushered in…what has become known as…the Space Race. Besides National/International Prestige, these programs: Mercury, Gemni, Appolo, the Space Station, and, of course, the Shuttle, made possible many of the “toys”…the things which we take so much for granted in contemporary living…possible. I need to go into a disertation of these “toys” and the impacts they make on all of us today…only the importance of a GOOD EDUCATION. These “toys” would, in all probability, would be consigned, today, to the realm of science fiction if that generation/MY generation had received primary educations resembling that which passes for public ed today.
If shaming a specialized labor group…the teacher corps…to acquire, and adhere to, higher standards of performance is to be considered teacher bashing, we have problems one helluva lot greater than we discuss in this education blog section.
Archie@Arkham Asylum
April 4th, 2012
4:12 pm
@Ole Guy: Yep! I remember watching the old Project Mercury spaceflight blastoffs in the first three grades. The government indoctrination center I was attending (a.k.a. elementary school) only had one black and white television set but the powers-that-were thought Friendship 7’s mission to orbit the earth was so important that they herded the entire student body into the “cafetorium” to watch John Glenn become the first American to orbit the earth. This portable TV was on top of an unusually high library cart so everyone could try to see it and I remember how hard it was to hear it, even though we were being told constantly to be quiet. Educational media has come a long way since 1961!
Ole Guy
April 4th, 2012
5:00 pm
Arch, the very same method of library cart configuration was employed in our lunchroom. This here 10th grader was completely mezmorized by the very notion that man could actually leave terra firma to such heights and return in time for dinner. I had had my first flight at age 9; during the time span of Project Mercury’s achievements, I knew my future was in aerospace. It was never an easy road to navigate, but I realized, early on, just exactly why everyone: Nuns, teachers, parents, etc, had made such a big fuss over mastering…not simply getting by on the good graces of a hs football jock, but mastering the stuff. Were there social promotions? Where there people/graduates who probably had no business looking to those future goals with zeal. YES…and I was probably at the head of that line. However, both my teachers (most of em’, anyway), my Dad, and his profession, gave me the gift of fury…the “get it done” by hook or crook mentality. I realized, early on, that education, both in high school, college, and beyond could not be a passive game of “mental osmosis”. If I wanted something, I couldn’t wait for it to come to me…I had to grab for it/I had to be willing to compete.
I’ve had my share of “oh ohs”, but I’ve also learned to side step life’s landmines, achieve my objectives, and get home in time for dinner..
It is this very mindset which I see in great absents within the teacher corps, and, I fear, will not be passed on to the younger gens. The younger gens…and that includes many of those very teachers AND the parents of those kids…haven’t been challenged…truly challenged…by the harsh demands of war at an age when kids look back on their high school years as simply a few weekends ago. These folks…kids and adults alike…face new challenges/economic challenges. My gen faced the challenges du jour armed with discipline…the discipline gleaned from having to learn the academic stuff which, today, seems to have lost a lot of luster. The discipline gleaned from…much to our dismay…having to adhere to a standard of behavior which seems to have become about as accepted, today, as a case of hemorhoids on a bicycle seat.
ScienceTeacher671
April 4th, 2012
8:11 pm
@J.Wilburn, I always make the trip back on the SATURDAY after Thanksgiving, when traffic isn’t as bad, which gives me Sunday to rest up before going back to work on Monday.
Of course, in our system, if you take off the day before or after a holiday, it requires special permission or you get your hand slapped — or a letter in your file.
Prof
April 4th, 2012
9:20 pm
@ Ole Guy, Apr. 4, 5:00 pm: “The younger gens…and that includes many of those very teachers AND the parents of those kids…haven’t been challenged…truly challenged…by the harsh demands of war at an age when kids look back on their high school years as simply a few weekends ago.”
What are you talking about? The Gulf War of the early 1990s? The War in Afghanistan from 2001-present? The War in Iraq, aka 2nd Persian Gulf War from 2003-present?
When I first began teaching I had as students those back from the Vietnam War, with their young faces and missing limbs; and I still have undergraduates going off to combat as soon as the school year is over. I remember one told me that his job in Afghanistan would be to pick up the dead bodies of soldiers and bring them back to camp.
@another comment
April 5th, 2012
9:18 am
Good. Grief. I have one wish / curse for you: that, through some unfortunate events, you are forced to become a public school teacher. And you have classrooms with the max number of students. And your local BOE requests an exemption from class size limits, so you get 3 more students per class. And you have at least one student who has a parent like you. Then you decide to take a mental health day – you know, because you’ve counted days and you just need a little more break this week – and you are seen running an errand. And a “concerned parent” calls the BOE and reports having seen you driving around during a school day. And now you finally get it.
Dr. Clete Bulach
April 5th, 2012
10:46 am
Wow! I am amazed at all the comments. Regarding the price of the book–that was the first edition and the price was outrageous. I rewrote the book and removed 200 pages of print. The 2nd edition in paperback is only $26.95. The major problem in schools is a poor culture and climate and the main cause of that is student discipline. We have many excellent teachers and administrators. About 50% of students are highly motivated and have great test scores. The other 50% are dragging everyone down. If we can change that 50% teaching becomes a joy and not a stressful situation.
I describe four things that need to change if that is going to happen. 1) ask students to control each other (give control without giving it up); 2) improve school culture and climate, by using servant leadership techniques so administrators and teachers come across as servants instead of self serving; 3) change the way power is used to control faculty and students (there are nine forms of power described in Chapter 4 of the book); and 4) involve parents and community through use of a character education initiative described in Chapter 5 of the book).
J Wilburn is incorrect
April 5th, 2012
4:29 pm
J Wilburn where did you get the weird idea that
“It’s that people in any other profession can put in for annual leave when they want to take it”
That’s a ridicuouls notion. We non-government workers take vacation when our companies allow us to — and they cancel our vacations too when the business needs us to.
Take flight attendants. They can’t take off work when they want to — especially during the holidays when they need flight attendants most of all.
Retail managers are always working long hard hours during holidays when they WANT to be with their families but cannot be due to their jobs.
IT managers and workers take off at the whim of their project managers and project schedules — it’s when the business needs you there you have to be there.
I know people who could not attend funerals because of their jobs.
Teachers aren’t picked on. they aren’t singled out. they aren’t martyrs.
If we really want to talk about a government job with a lot of stress and no pay look no further than the US military. They can’t “take off” during the war — where would they go in Afghanistan? They see their families NOT at ll while deployed.
And police officers? Their lives are in danger too. THey also make little pay and get no 10 summers off and no two weeks at Christmas and so on.
prettygurl1908
April 5th, 2012
9:00 pm
Contrary to popular belief, yes, we do have sick days. However, we are not allowed to take them without penalty. Over a course of sixteen years, I have accumulated almost 60 days. Unfortunately, the present administration that I work for in a metro Atlanta county will not allow us to take more than six days. Now, if we use six of our days, we have to have a note from a doctor and the following can still happen: our contracts cannot be renewed; we may be written up; our sub jobs can be mysteriously cancelled; etc. Maybe our jobs are no more stressful than others; however, please note this job is not easy and the disdain of the public for our profession does not help. Spend a day in our shoes and see how you react to the constant BS that is thrown at you from all sides of this nightmare.
JunkMonkey
April 8th, 2012
8:09 pm
Mr. Jackson,
We are not subcultures, we are the culture of Georgia. And, yes most Georgian get up a 4 AM. Why do you think the local news—Atlanta News comes on a 4:30AM. That’s right so we can watch it, because at around 5AM we have already left the house. You see when you lay in bed to 7AM you have already missed a great portion of the day. And, thank God for those Radio Program you are condemning. Yes, hawks do swoop down and carry off small animals – even chickens (alot of animals under 10 pounds. That is how they get their meals. You need to go to the Capital and see a stuffed hawk or visit one of the State Parks and see one there. Or, you could go to the zoo. This swooping down to get their prey is not new in any county in Georgia or any other State.
You know it is a pitty that Lum and Abner is not on the Radio anymore. You need to listen to those episodes. Welcome to the Upper part of the State.
And, by the way. We may look stupid……but I would put the gentleman caller’s IQ up against anyones. There is alot to learn about Georgia besides navigating down I-85 or I-75 each day. By the way if you have never heard of Bow Fishing try it out. They say it is alot of fun.
JunkMonkey
April 8th, 2012
8:28 pm
I will tell you why teachers do not come to school on fridays or mondays. They have no backing from their Administrattors. Teachers are not allow to disciplline their students and when they are sent to the offcie nothing tis done to the student. Here is a principal who has his own secretary, bookkeeper, attendance clerk, a receptionist. For God’s Sake…what does he do all day….. Also, he has anywhere from 3 to 4 assistant principals to do his other work. If the assistant is the one who is to discipline, then get rid of him and hire someone else.
The Georgia Code– states that teachers can evaluate the administrators if the County Board of Education will allow it. So I say BRING IT ON. Have your Boards of Education to put a policy in place for the 2012-13 school year. Call you PAGE or GAE organization, if they say this is a bad idea you need to seek membership else where. If they will not stand up for you on this issue, it is possible they will not stand up on some other issue. Why should administrators not be evaluated? This should be check and balance situation. Right now, the scales are tilted in their favor. And, some of them do not do a very good joy. There are others who do an excellent job and they are the ones who do not mind being evaluated by their teachers. So, we need to weed out the bad administrators.
JunkMonkey
April 8th, 2012
8:41 pm
Mr. Wilburn, I could not help but laugh when I read your article. Teachers are no better than other workers. Youi probably get more days off. The State allows you one and a fourth days a month for sick leave which can be accumulated. (12 and 1/4 days a year – which three of those days can be used for personal days (no questions asked to why you are out) These days can accumulate up to the day youi retire. And, they can be used toward your retirement.
If you do not like the days schools are insession, maybe you need to find a new occupation,. This is not a set-up to reward you: but ,to make sure our students meet the alotted numvber of days to meet state regulations. Also, your contract states you are to be employed a certain amount of days inorder to recieve the amount of pay on the state salary and you county supplement. So, if you are traveling and you do not want to travel in heavy traffic, I suggest that you make some other arrangement. There are many teachers looking for employument who would love to work and be at school everyday.