Teachers Need Their Time Back

Fall of 2017 I switched to a new (to me) school. I was part of a highly anticipated pilot program. An old school from the 50’s that had asbestos and a bad reputation was being rebuilt. New building, new administration, new teachers. The district was giving out $20,000 – $25,000 bonuses to incentivize teachers to work there. 900 teachers interviewed for 60 positions, which is unheard of in the Southeast. Even the current teachers had to reapply for their positions, of which only 6 were allowed to keep.

It was a life-changing experience. Many teachers didn’t make it, and the ones who did were better for it.

What stood out to me was one of the policies from our principal in the first year. With great intentions, she was trying to curb tardiness amongst students. So she told all teachers we had to call home for every student that was late, each time.

Now, I had an unusually high-class size. Almost 40 students per class. Times 6 classes. So even if only 10% of my students were late daily, that’s close to 24 students per day.

I need to call 24 parents every day?!

Now, I was getting paid extra, so I figured out a way. But the point of the article is this. Teachers are asked to innovate new teaching methods. Keep their classes engaging. Be teachers, social workers, advocates, creators, counselors, nurses, big brothers and sisters, moms and dads. Sports fans. Teachers do it all. So when they are teaching classes 6 hours of the day, making calls for another 2, and then supposed to attend meetings, mine data, and maintain great communication with the community, something has to give.

Teachers need their time back. When are teachers supposed to be creative? Sometimes fitting the lesson into the lesson plan template takes more time than innovating the lesson itself.

Here at EduThemes, we want to step in and help with the creative side. You shouldn’t have to be staying up all hours completing a million tasks, and then having creative energy for lessons.

Let us handle that.