Summer PD

After two weeks of posts about travel, Walt Disney World, family, and our engagement anniversary, it's time for a post about teaching.

could not agree more

I had six hours of professional development today. I have more tomorrow and more on Wednesday.

I looked at my calendar and during my NON-CONTRACT time in June, July, and August, I have 60 hours of PD scheduled.

When I add in a very conservative, lowball 10 hour estimate of the number of hours I will also have to spend reading as part of those PD sessions, the total is 70 hours.

70 hours is equivalent to TEN full days of teaching.

I can count two of those days as my two required flex days that are part of next year's teaching contract.

But that still leaves eight full days that I will be working but not being paid.

What do I get? Recertification points.

But guess what? I don't need them, which, for all intents and purposes, renders them useless for me. Throughout my entire teaching career, I've always taken enough college classes to cover the state requirements for recertification many times over.

Let me be clear that this is very important professional development and all but ten of those hours are by my own choosing. Specifically, all of the morning sessions this week are part of a year-long project that I am super excited about!

I'm not complaining about the PD. Not in the least.

What I do take issue with is not being paid for my time. Based on my salary, those 8 days are worth a tidy sum. The fact that rather than a paycheck, I'll get 60 recertification points I don't need makes me feel as though my time is incredibly undervalued.

I'm committed to my profession and happy to take classes to improve my craft and deepen my understanding whenever possible. I just don't like thinking about the fact that after I've willingly dedicated those eight days of my summer, I'll have nothing tangible to show for it.

Will I still attend of the PD and will I still enjoy the learning? Yes! Without a doubt!

That's not the point.

Teachers already spend too much of their personal time and too much of their own money, but just because it's common practice doesn't make it right. It's not greedy to want to be paid for my time. There's an attitude out there that teachers should just want to do their jobs because they love kids. I cannot roll my eyes far enough into the back of my head whenever I hear that nonsense. I certainly knew that becoming a teacher would mean earning less than I would have in other fields. And yes, of course I love working with kids because I wouldn't have chosen this profession if that weren't the case. But to expect teachers to just give and give and give is ridiculous.

I fully understand that school budgets are limited and that I don't work for a Fortune 500 company! 

However, I will not apologize for believing my time should be valued more than it currently is.

Happy Tails to you!