Thread: The way we were............................

In our school, it is left up to each individual teacher to avoid burnout themselves. Some people do a better job of it than others; I have some colleagues who seem to lead perpetually stress-free lives who come in at 7:30 and exit promptly at 3:15, whose desks are never cluttered, etc. Then I have some colleagues who seem perpetually burdened (like myself) and who are pretty much the opposite. I'm only 33 so I'm still operating at more or less peak efficiency, and I seem to have more patience than some of my older colleagues. I try to avoid burnout by leaving school-related things at school- if it is work related, I try never to bring it home. Having an hour commute before and after work helps decompress me, especially after those "they are dumb as a stump" days. But again, nothing is done schoolwide, even though in a lot of ways the faculty at my school is more like a large extended family.

<sigh>

At my school, burnout is encouraged, expected, and inevitable. Let me explain.

We have a job. Our contract tells us what expectations we are required to fill within our working day. Our classrooms, K - 8th grade, are at 30 + students each. I have 32 this year. Our contract also includes a little clause: "extra duties as necessary." So here come the extra duties.

I should preface this by mentioning that planning, teaching, assessing, grading, and paperwork for my class takes me ten hours a day. I've done a lot of things over the years, but have never found any way to do it right in less. That does not include the 2 staff meetings a week I attend; all staff meetings, grade-level meetings, Student Study team meetings, parent conferences, etc., are in addition to that ten hours a day.

Now comes the "extra duties." First of all, every certificated staff member is expected to sit on at least 2 site committees, and district committees. Site committees might include school site council, student study team, and a plethora of others. District committees include the GATE committee, Language Arts Committee, etc.. Right now, our district is operating on a skeleton staff because of severe budget cuts. Most district functions are run by committees of teachers after their regular working day. Most for no extra pay; some for a token hourly rate that does not approach what "overtime" should look like.

Then there is the school calendar; my district added days to our contract in 03/04, for no extra pay, and made the days shorter to "balance" it so that we are supposedly not working more for the same pay. Then they decided that, since the school day is shorter, we should all be offering extra "classes" for an hour before school. Voluntary, of course. Most for no pay, unless you take at least 25 kids and drill them on phonics or timestables; then you can get the token hourly pay. Any teacher that does not "volunteer" will find her/himself with the worst lunch/recess/pe schedule, extra criticism in the yearly evaluation, more high maintenance students than other classes, and everything else that administrators can legally use to "punish" us.

Then there is the fact that, because of those budget cuts, we have a skeleton crew doing playground supervision at our only off-duty period; our 35 minute lunch. This and the overcrowding has led to constant lunch time discipline problems. But....there is no administrator on campus. There are no more VPs (budget cuts), and our principal is on campus for 2 days a week. The rest of the time he is....at the DO, doing more "committee" work. When he is on campus, he is doing evaluations and taking care of necessary paperwork. We can no longer do office referrals for behavior problems. And, because suspension can only be done by an administrator, we can no longer suspend students for violent or dangerous behaviors. All discipline is in our lap; no administrative support at all.

And we get to spend our afternoon instructional periods handling all of the discipline problems brought to us by the understaffed noon-duty supervisors.

Add to this the constant drumbeat of mandates; what you have to have on your wall during random compliance checks to make sure you are complying with the scripted programs and the pacing schedules, the new paperwork and tests you must complete for each trimester, etc . etc. etc.....

Is burnout a big surprise in this climate?

Kelley, that sounds soooo familiar! I taught in North Texas and retired after 27 years. Looking back at the big picture, I don't see how I survived!! UnaPaloma