Kudzu Queen
As a long-time first grade teacher, I am used to breaking complex and not-so-complex concepts down into the simplest possible terms. When first grade teachers ask, “What part of ‘sit down’ did you not understand?” we are not being sarcastic. We honestly want to know, so we can provide the needed clarification. I am accustomed to taking big ideas like “Keep your hands to yourself,” and “Wash your hands after you go to the bathroom” and expressing them in very, very simple terms. I figure this is part of what the Mobile County Public School System pays me for.
What they don’t pay me for, and therefore I don’t understand why I have to do this, is breaking simple ideas down for adults. Adults who are college-educated. Adults who can presumably read the state statutes.
State law absolutely guarantees that for each full teaching day, teachers will receive one 30-minute planning period. Period.
The statute is beautiful in its economy of language. Nowhere in this statute does it say, “Except for when the school is having a round of testing,” or “Except for when the school is PRACTICING for another round of testing,” or “Except for when the school is having a week of registration,” or “Except for when the administration has not adequately planned for the number of personnel needed,” or “Except for when the planets are lined up all funky.”
Nowhere are these exceptions listed.
At some schools, teachers’ planning periods are treated as a privilege, rather than the absolute right that they are. Some teachers have to beg and wheedle for the planning period that our state legislature has already decreed is theirs.
On the whole, teaching is a great gig. But we do not get breaks. In my school and many others, there is no recess. We eat our lunch with the children. We do not even get bathroom breaks. Some semesters, our children will be visited by an itinerant art or music teacher, and we can count on a once-weekly 30 minute break. Other semesters, no such luck.
I’m not griping about the job. I’m griping that some administrators feel free to play fast and loose with both the letter and spirit of the statute. This 30 minute planning period is the only break teachers actually are supposed to get, so I personally hold it near and dear to my heart. Teachers are not permitted to leave campus during this time, but that’s fine. The 30 minutes flies by, between visiting the bathroom, calling parents, grading papers, writing lesson plans, and completing paperwork. I wouldn’t have time to leave campus during the 30 minutes even if I were allowed to.
When I worked as a construction clean-up gal, I got a 10 minute break both in the morning AND the afternoon, as well as a 30 minute lunch. When I worked in restaurants and bars, same deal. When I worked as a retail clerk, same deal. When I worked scam telemarketing (we had to pretend we were handicapped), same deal.
Actually, teaching is the ONLY job I’ve ever had where we get only one break, and that is at the whim of the administration.
I don’t understand why teachers don’t get absolutely up in arms about this. I don’t understand why entire grade levels don’t protest, adamantly. Instead, we teachers tend to whimper pitifully amongst ourselves, and hold resentments. Resentments poison the vessel that holds them.
Administrators used to be teachers. How can some of them forget, so quickly, where they came from?
One cannot be treated as a doormat unless one lies down, first. Administrations’ cavalier handling of teachers’ planning periods will continue until we teachers take responsibility to respectfully, appropriately, but FIRMLY remind them that 30 minutes of our workday, each and EVERY day, is protected time. This means no parent conferences during this time, unless the individual teacher chooses to schedule the conference. This means no meetings with reading coaches or math coaches or textbook consultants. This means no data meetings.
What is there not to understand? I am honestly puzzled. I am not asking for anything special. I am merely pointing out what state statute REQUIRES. Not requests, REQUIRES.
I don’t teach for the money or the luxurious lifestyle. I’m in it because I followed my heart, not my brain. I am grateful to be able to teach in an inner-city setting where I know good teachers are needed. My colleagues and I face daunting behavioral challenges. We are blessed to be here. Because this community’s need is great, so is the opportunity to be of service. We have an opportunity to do meaningful work each and every day. And I’m not asking for the moon, here.
I don’t want a 10-minute break every morning and every afternoon, like almost everyone gets. I don’t want to be allowed to go to the bathroom during the workday, like most working people can. I only ask that administrators treat me at least a little bit as a professional, by acknowledging that I work hard enough to deserve the 30 minute break the legislature saw fit to give me. During the “break,” I am of course generally doing other aspects of my job.
Teachers, this 30 minutes of protected time is our RIGHT. We shouldn’t have to ask for it, and we shouldn’t allow administration to guilt-trip or intimidate us into sacrificing it.
Every teacher I know brings home hours and hours of paperwork. The idea that we can get all of our paperwork done in 30 minutes per day is pretty funny, actually. But every day that we actually GET our mandated-by-law 30 minutes, there’s a little bit less paperwork we have to take home.
There are lots of reasons for the current teacher shortage. You’ve read them, already. But here’s one you may not have read: When your own administration tramples on your rights, routinely, you just may become disenchanted with the teaching business.
Contact Tamara Ducote at TDDucote6@aol.com.
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