A few of my favorite things

Teacher Team

After some time off for conferences, conflicts and cranberry dressing tomorrow we are back at it. At last night's membership meeting some insightful questions were raised as well as some encouraging and provoking comments. It was great to see a membership room packed with SPFT members who care, even as they worry about the lack of tangible progress and express fear at potential disappointment. One great suggestion amidst our discussion of workload was for me to post the list of typical duties we have given the district in our workload discussions. Please feel free to add to it because I am going to go off the top of my head, and perhaps when we're finished we can get Julie Andrews or Barbara Streisand to set it to music for us. Here's to a contract settlement with blue satin sashes, folks, and the vigilance that assures we can afford to wrap our packages in more than brown paper and string.

Current typical planning period work to do:

• choose books for author study
• re-shelve books in classroom library
• copy work for absent students
• copy work for next lessons
• post current standards in the classroom
• post student work with applicable student-generated rubric, highlighting work to standard
• run random sweatshirt, purse, mitten to the lost and found
• check in with school nurse about medication, observation, student sick last period, or vaccinations
• secure bus, chaperones, permission slips for field trip
• count out field trip, book order, school photo order, school fundraising order money
• check off field trip permission, homework completion note home
• return phone calls
• read, send, manage email
• update Parent Portal, Campus grades, attendance, IEP records
• get volunteer for career day, assembly, community organization, tutoring program
• meet with grade level/subject area team, parent, special education teacher, ELL teacher, principal
• wash off desks, empty pencil sharpener, dust room, vacuum carpet (if you have it) and wash black board/dry erase board
• sign up for library or computer lab time
• analyze student data from most recent standardized test
• go to the bathroom

I know Denise Rodriguez did a great job adding to this list during the negotiations meeting so please add to what I missed, although you obviously won't have time during your planning period.