Um, would it be wrong to inquire as to just what work they do, whether in the 4-hour days, or the generously supplied 7.5 hour days?
“There are many educators who are also taking care of their own children, as well, as parents and other relatives, and their own health,” Susan Solomon, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, told the Chronicle. “There may be challenges in their households if two or more adults are working from home, meaning there are limits in terms of physical space, sound and internet bandwidth, for example.”
In Oakland, the “Distance Learning Team” released a YouTube video on April 5, the union’s labor agreement stressed an “absolute” maximum of 240 minutes of working a day, including two hours of instruction and two hours of flex time. Instruction means teaching students on Zoom or holding virtual or telephonic office hours. The Oakland Educatio Association’s deal also dictates that teachers not be “mandated to sit nor be on screen for more than 90 consecutive minutes at a time for ergonomic and vision safety.” And they will not work on May 8, calling it a “Wellness Day.”
Other “big wins” of the Oakland deal, the union said on a video, are strong protections against students receiving no credits during school closures.
The four-hour day is a minimum, chief negotiator Chaz Garcia told the Chronicle, and is “protective of people’s emotional well-being and state of trauma.”
Claudia Briggs, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association, said that teachers are likely spending way more than four hours trying to learn the “new normal” and adjust to distance learning.
Several parents were in support of the new contract.
Josh Brinjal said on Facebook that it’s much harder for a teacher to teach from home with their own young kids at home “so they very well deserve all pay and benefits.”
Syndney Cronister Smith wrote that she’s sure her childrens’ teachers are putting in more than four hours while also schooling their own children. “I know these teachers are worth every penny and more!” she said.
Other parents, however, have complained that it seems like their children are not getting ample instruction during the day. One mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said her student in Oakland spends seven minutes a day on lessons and seven hours on Minecraft. “I don’t know what they’re doing,” she said of the teachers.
Meanwhile, there are some parents in Marin County, who are criticizing the Novato Unified School District’s decision to eliminate letter grades during the pandemic.
Novato is turning to credit/no credit grading for middle and high school students.
The district says online classes put low-income students, who don’t have internet access, at a disadvantage.
But some parents say Novato should give students and their families the option of a letter grade, as suggested by the Marin County Superintendent of Schools.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/deal-gives-teachers-full-pay-adjusted-hours
I have six classes, all 9th and 10th grade English. I have to make sure they have at least one graded assignment a week (but 2 is better.) For the Honors classes, we are working on a novel (one for the 9th graders, one for the 10th.) They are classic novels, British, one from the 18th C and one from the 19th C. They are online, but they are too dense for the kids to read straight, and require a lot of knowledge of the culture that they don't naturally have. I had been teaching them about it as we went, but now that we are all at home, it's much more difficult.
So I am copying portions of the text from online (Gutenberg.org) and creating questions to go with them. I upload them on our school's website and the kids upload their responses in due time.
Most mornings I get up and open my email to find 30-50 emails from students with their assignments. I spend about 3 hours checking them, and entering the grades. Today I spent 4 hours just making the next assignment. So much of what I used to be able to explain, or show in a portion of the movie, I know have to find other ways to get across.
My non-Honors kids are not participating very much, so I upload articles (often conservative ones) with questions to answer. I also have an online reading program that they are supposed to log into and take quizzes on. It's just for practice reading, as most of them hover around the 5th grade level.
So I'd say I spend about 15 hours a week creating assignments for Honors, 5 for non-Honors, and 12-15 grading papers. Once a week we have a faculty meeting on Zoom. I put wine in a coffee cup to get through it.
It's definitely easier than teaching in person. No commute, no power struggles over their smart phones, no "Miss can I go to the bathroom?" It's definitely easier.
More of them are failing, but the district has told us we can't fail them, so really, it all feels like a big fat joke. I'm glad to still be getting my paycheck, but I am 95% determined to retire in June. Frankly, being away from the kids has really made me realize what I already knew but had kind of forgotten: I don't like being around large groups of kids for hours every day. I like 17th-18th century British novels.