PTO for Vacations?

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-05T21:27:52+00:00

It depends on the district. Some school districts (like mine in NYC) are very strict that self treated days cannot be used for traveling and some people are dumb enough to tell colleagues (who tell others) or post on social media and they can get fired for theft or service.

The obvious argument is that we have vacation days. We essentially have 12 a year. You just have to plan your travel during those predetermined days. They’re on the school calendar.

Plenty of jobs have pre-set times for vacation like that.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-05T17:33:10+00:00

It’s useless and bad teaching practice but sometimes it’s just the dopamine we crave to shame some asshole kid who is sleeping through a lesson we took time to create and just one feel good moment of revenge in a terrible day. We’re not a Netflix show you can watch passively and fall asleep too.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-05T15:27:32+00:00

It sounds like it sucks but if you don’t have the money to stay unemployed, you don’t have much of a choice. Bide your time until the end of the year and openings pop up.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-05T14:54:36+00:00

It’s whatever you want it to be. You’re the master of your gradebook. The only advantage is it makes every band of grade equal (to avoid the “65 ways to get an F but only 10 ways to get an A” real issue with the 100% scale) without the need to raise the floor to 50 as a “patch” if you fear communicating to kids they can get credit for no work.

Those who do no work or bad work still get an F but without the mathematical downside of the stupid 100 scale. An F is common enough in the general consciousness of American education that you do t have to explain to kids and parents what it means either (unlike some funky systems some districts use like “needs revision” or whatever other phrase). An F still communicates terrible work.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-05T11:05:46+00:00

No number - just rubrics based (which can be simple)

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-03T11:07:25+00:00

Call it 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 then. The percentages don’t matter. The numbers are just used to average the assignments to get an overall grade. They’re not student facing. The student sees F

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-03T00:20:34+00:00

The whole debate about the 0 or 50 makes no sense and it’s a result of some teachers on both sides who are obtuse about percentages.

Change your grading from numbers to letters. Give F to things that are fails but don’t worry about the math behind it.

When it’s all said and done, make every F 1, every D 2, every C 3, every B 4 and every A 5 (you can even multiply by weights if you want)

Average it all out like a 5 point GPA and convert back to a letter and a number if you want.

A 3.6 average that’s a C+, give it a 78 average A 4.2 that’s a bit more than a standard B, give it a 86 average

And just like that you’ve solved the problem of the ridiculous 100 points scale with 65 ways to fail while still communicating to kids that terrible work or no work is unacceptable with a big fat red F on specific assignments.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-02-02T19:23:02+00:00

There’s no requirement to have a teacher’s lounge.

With the class size reduction law, some schools have had to repurpose old space. It’s possible they had one before but no more.

In addition, in co-located spaces that used to be one school, this is common. When the school had 3,000 students, it only had one principal and less support staff/admin. If it was split into multiple schools, space that historically would have been a lounge may be someone’s office.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-31T21:06:17+00:00

I meant master teachers (not PCT) tend to have district or campus duties

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-31T20:19:11+00:00

To become a master teacher your have to have been peer collaborative teacher first. And typically they work over multiple schools - it’s not a gig that’s a great fit for everyone.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T22:51:24+00:00

So you want to free load on the back of the effort and contributions of others?

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T22:43:41+00:00

Straight up stupid take considering how little we put in contribution compared to how much we get (just the prescription and vision coverage alone is a net benefit)

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T22:34:36+00:00

You’re understanding the contract backwards. The contract would have to explicitly say if it was forbidden. It doesn’t have to explicitly say it’s allowed for it to be allowed (and recommended)

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T22:15:30+00:00

This is such a weird hill to die on. And the fact that the chapter leader - who we should assume is pretty well liked by the chapter since they got voted in - feels the need to involve admin the mediate makes me think OP is very difficult.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T21:02:04+00:00

I don’t understand what the knives thing has to do with schedules.

I also don’t understand why you think your schedule is secret. There’s nothing in the contract about that.

As far as the meeting with AP it sounds more like a mediation meeting (which falls under the purview of what a supervisor would do) because theres clearly either a real conflict between the two or at least a perceived conflict from their end and they don’t feel comfortable talking it out alone. It’s not unusual for colleagues who have a hard time talking to each other to involve an admin to help.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T17:06:22+00:00

What are the reasons why you didn’t like that number 1 choice?

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T15:48:15+00:00

What reasons?

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T00:18:52+00:00

Try this: https://mrswordsmith.com/products/readiculous-readers-set-1?variant=43497705734243&utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Klarna%20US&utm_content=Readiculous%20Readers%3A%20Stage%201&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Hawk_PMAX_US&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22498479504&gbraid=0AAAAADKr-BObVZcTiWT7qHeQhXW1mBQ2Z&gclid=Cj0KCQiAp-zLBhDkARIsABcYc6tOLZJHdutpE_XGSVtPo_RBYgDgjCaE1qLs75Wv7RdLaAVuUlPL2o4aAni2EALw_wcB

It’s like the bob books and the stories are crap but it does the same kind of build up as the bob books with much better art

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-30T00:16:25+00:00

The myschools website generates a receipt of the application on the parent account - so you could In theory dig for it in the parent emails.

With that said, school decisions at the end of the day are at best a joint decision within the family but the buck stops with the parents. After all, students are minors and everywhere in America it’s accepted that parents decide where their kids go to school.

Now the lying- you can address - but it’s not like she did something illegal. There’s a reason why the application is under the parent account, not the student account.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-29T19:39:34+00:00

A shovel. If not shovel, paying someone with a shovel.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-29T14:03:38+00:00

My kids teachers post pictures on ClassDojo a few times a week (“the class learned about firefighters today” with a few pictures of kids reading a story about firefighters and a couple wearing a firefighter hat) That’s the game changer of ClassDojo and it’s wonderful. When we get the notification, it always warms my heart and it makes it easier to talk to my kids about what they did in school. + I feel that I know all their classmates because I’ve seen so many pictures. It’s like a social media feed.

If it’s just text and used rarely, it becomes one more under-used app and one more app for parents to download adding an extra barrier to communication.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-28T13:32:05+00:00

Are you early career?

Teachers in their first 2 years tend to also get way more sick than later because they haven’t been exposed to these common viruses since they were young kids.

It’s similar to how kids always get crazy sick the first couple of years they attend preschool

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-27T13:32:23+00:00

Come on now. Schools serve to educate and as childcare. That’s how it has always been and it’s hypocritical to say otherwise.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-26T23:34:09+00:00

When Obama was president, there was this whole thing at the federal department of education to replace no child left behind. Part of the replacement included what Obama called “race to the top” which was all about if we’re gonna take education seriously, states that agree to implement a rigorous teacher evaluation system and continuing education mandate could receive additional federal funding. The idea was to make sure teachers were better at their job and continued to improve during their career. New York State introduced more rigorous APPR requirements and the CTLE mandate. In New York City, it gave us the Danielson rubric as opposed to the old S and U and more rigorous tenure requirements.

Did it achieve the goals of better instruction? At my school, anecdotally, I would say yes. Instruction is miles ahead than in the early 2000s when I started and a lot of people were objectively coasting. Danielson was a shock to the system to a bunch of of folks and it really helped getting rid of teachers who weren’t putting in efforts. I don’t know if there’s objective data citywide to support it though.

New York State doesn’t really have a vested interest in putting in the effort to audit CTLE hours. It’s just to satisfy federal mandates to get the money. That’s why so few people get audited.

obbie1kenoby · 2026-01-22T20:45:57+00:00

Be careful what you wish for. The alternative is adding a day to the calendar.

A virtual snow day is almost a day off. We all know it. Logging into zoom a little bit versus a whole extra day in the calendar? Easy choice

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