Yeah, I'll be that obnoxious teacher

[Backroads]

Two bills being pondered

The first one, eh, I don't have a real problem with. It's superfluous to me as I never thought it was too hard to look up a district's scope and sequence and I've even attended community meetings.

The second. Nope. No way. I read the bill to make sure I was interpreting it right, and I can't see another way to read it other than having to wildly guess a month in advance what my students will need each day. Having to let students flounder in knowledge gaps for an entire month before I can give them targeted help.

And the time to post everything a month in advance. Nope. My hours are contracted. Of course I go over them now and then, but I do not have the extra 2-3 hours a day, probably unpaid, this would honestly take 

[LDSGator]

I know you don’t speak for every teacher out there, but do you think most teachers generally share your point of view? Strictly curious. 

[Backroads]

12 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

I know you don’t speak for every teacher out there, but do you think most teachers generally share your point of view? Strictly curious. 

If social media and my teacher neighbors/friends/family are to be trusted, many do. Extreme unpaid extra hours are a burden. I have my own kids to take care of at the end of the day.

I'm also in elementary. My whole thing is quickly adjusting lessons for student needs.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Backroads

[LDSGator]

Just now, Backroads said:

If social media and my teacher neighbors/friends/family are to be trusted, many do. Extreme unpaid extra hours are a burden. I have my own kids to take care of at the end of the day..

Oh, don’t blame you at all. 

[Just_A_Guy]

They should call the second one the “Leah Kinyon Memorial Bill”.

[Jane_Doe]

This sounds terrible!!  

Functionally what this is: requiring teachers to publish things a month in advance to then allow parents to micro-manage their lessons.  Which you know is only going to be done by that one super aggressive helicopter parent with a soap box.  No!!!  Let the teacher be the teacher.  If you want to micro-manage your child's education, then home-school your kid!  Teachers don't need more work, and the month delay will prevent them from pivoting and having those lessons that come up unexecptectedly.  

A super obvious example: this week my daughter's teacher came down with covid.  Hence, there was a spontaneous lesson very pointing going over pandemic stuff again and "reminders on how to be good for a sub for an extended period".  There was no month forewarning on this- he got a positive test over lunch & then left the building.  Other time spontaneous lessons some up are with bullying, etc.  

[Just_A_Guy]

So, I looked up HB 234.  There’s no polite way to say this:

When KSL alleges that “The bill would require all Utah public school teachers to post all learning materials and syllabi for each day of instruction”—they are lying to you.

The bill applies the syllabus requirement to middle school and above (not elementary ed), the required syllabus is only a calendar outline of general topics plus a general list of learning materials used through the course (which I imagine most organized teacher would have already prepared for private use), and the requirement about “learning materials” means third-party prepared materials (not materials prepared by the teacher or the school or the district).

Read the bill for yourself at https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/HB0234.html.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Just_A_Guy

[Backroads]

56 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

So, I looked up HB 234.  There’s no polite way to say this:

When KSL alleges that “The bill would require all Utah public school teachers to post all learning materials and syllabi for each day of instruction”—they are lying to you.

The bill applies the syllabus requirement to middle school and above (not elementary ed), the required syllabus is only a calendar outline of general topics plus a general list of learning materials used through the course (which I imagine most organized teacher would have already prepared for private use), and the requirement about “learning materials” means third-party prepared materials (not materials prepared by the teacher or the school or the district).

Read the bill for yourself at https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/static/HB0234.html.

I concede KSL may have impacted how I originally read the bill. Though I'll be frank, I swear this bill has some different phrasing than the last time I read it. I don't know how editing works on their end. 

Edited January 28, 2022 by Backroads

[Backroads]

I also just saw the bill has been scrapped.

[Just_A_Guy]

12 minutes ago, Backroads said:

I concede KSL may have impacted how I originally read the bill. 

They did for me too, frankly.  I’m getting increasingly skeptical of *all* journalists; but I’ve kind of kept a special place in my heart for KSL; and even I was shocked by how cavalier the dishonesty in the article is.

[scottyg]

44 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

They did for me too, frankly.  I’m getting increasingly skeptical of *all* journalists; but I’ve kind of kept a special place in my heart for KSL; and even I was shocked by how cavalier the dishonesty in the article is.

Even the Deseret News has changed somewhat over the last 2 years or so. The prophets words about having the Holy Ghost with us to seek truth, and not getting all of our information from media become a bit by bit truer day by day.

[Backroads]

No intention to drag this in, but journalism and the process of the bill weren't in sync. It's nice to know I'm not completely crazy. It does explain the original hostility toward the bill that hung around even after changes were made, if people were clinging to things they had heard:

https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/hbillint/HB0234S01_ComparedWith_HB0234.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3iZ7Qf4GqF8a1Vwz5VzqJXMjXqOuT6mb0bwtcc52LYrPtKqsCQlQMZhM

 

Tl;Dr: changes shown that can explain the uproar even though the end result is fairly tame.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Backroads

[Grunt]

Teachers work for the tax payers.  This is where we see what the tax payers want.