4 ms·
> what's to plan? If you're teaching mostly the same thing year after year, wouldn't you have an established plan that doesn't require significant modification?
by fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
> what's to plan? If you're teaching mostly the same thing year after year, wouldn't you have an established plan that doesn't require significant modification? What does "get ready for the next school year" entail?
I’m bookmarking this as a delightful example of “begging the question,” wherein the question is actually begged. You correctly identified and ran past the fundamental underlying assumption: teachers teach virtually the same thing each year.
In reality, curriculum changes can happen as a result of (1) changes in the underlying textbook and course material, precipitated by publishers (2) changes in student and teacher KPIs precipitated by school administration, (3) changes in technological education-delivery platforms, precipitated by school IT, (4) personal changes, precipitated by experience and personal/professional motivation, and (5) changes in professional best-practices, precipitated by scholarship and professional organizations; to name a few.
These things happen regularly, and often simultaneously.
- DangitBobby 4y agoI thought it was a good question, and I didn't really believe your answer. I wanted to see if any statistics support what you said, and the reality is a bit different. Teachers put in fewer hours than other workers, and they work on average 20 hours a week during the summer [1]. To be clear it's more nuanced than "fewer hours" in the article, but the average teacher works 40ish hours a week. If you're a teacher, I'm sure you're tired of hearing people wonder whether teachers are working all summer, but the fact is it's a great fucking question and you shouldn't be offended when someone asks it. It beggars belief, and it's a question that should be asked over and over again until the answer is "no". 1. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/06/12/do-teachers-work-long-hours/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2019/...
- fleetwoodsnack 4y agoI address what work if any teachers perform during the summer to prepare for the upcoming semester. Your link attempts to quantify the hours teachers work during a work week. Your statement is unrelated to mine, did you mean to reply elsewhere?
- DangitBobby 4y agoMy mistake. When you responded to someone asking what teachers did all summer, you responded in a way that made me believe you thought they did. But now the question is, if you weren't saying that teachers work all summer, what was the point in itemizing the things they have to do each summer? Maybe you responded to the wrong comment? To make things easier, I'll bring back some context from earlier in the thread: > Teachers are still required to plan and get ready for the next school year over the summer. . . I thought this was more or less the entire topic of interest. That, and how much teachers work. What do you think the conversation is about? Pretty confused how you could think it's not relevant. You were needlessly combative earlier, so I guess I could chalk it up to that.
- tejohnso 4y ago> These things happen regularly, and often simultaneously. Yes, I think my assumption is common. Thanks for the list. The entire thing consists of events I would have expected to happen very infrequently. "KPIs precipitated by school administration" - sounds horrific. Way too easy to screw up.