Career Venue > Contract, and Job Related Issues

50% of my classes cancelled

(1/9) > >>

cornflakes:
So it's mid-may and 3.5 months into the new school year and my english classes are still getting cancelled left right and center!

I thought at first since it's the beginning of the new school year it would just be like that for the first couple weeks as the school gets
organized and schedules get settled, but it has kept up at this constant rate right up until 5 minutes ago when 2 more periods of my
english class was cancelled due to "eye exams/check up" today.

I'm not exagerrating when I say 50%.  The way they scheduled my english classes this semester is they put for example my grade 6 class
back to back so I have them for 2 gov't curriculum eng. classes in the one day and then I dont see them as often for the rest of the week.  If a day is cancelled, we dont miss 1 class but now 2!  So if two days are cancelled, we've missed 4 classes and not just 2.

Some of the reasons why I've had my english classes cancelled so far:
-school assembly
-school video of a disabled child with no arms
-sports event practice rehearsal
-school field trip
-then class cancelled the next day cuz the students have to discuss what they learned or saw on the field trip lol
-eye exam
-children's day .....they stayed in homeroom classes and did some games i guess?
-another school assembly that ran overtime and cancelled my english classes
-cheese factory (morning only....thats when i had my english classes so cancelled).
-homeroom class teacher had open class so they cancelled english class
-english classes cancelled due to kids having to clean up their homeroom classes.

and there's a few more which I can't remember off the top of my head.....but I'mean WOW.
I've never had these many classes cancelled before in previous years.  Some of my classes we've already missed 6 classes
so I'm about 2 units behind! I cant teach them anything if i have to skim through lessons to catch up.

I'm sure this happens all the time to English classes as they are probably treated as "unofficial" classes and more "extracurricular" so it can be expendable or the first thing to be cancelled if more time slots are required by the school or homeroom teacher.

It just sucks to feel so unimportant and kinda a "joke" class that everyone takes for granted and can cancel it at anytime cuz "other" things are more important like cleaning up the school, or extra art class or extra outdoor activities.

jbaile:
Yeah I hear you. At first it's like, "oh sweet, I can chill instead of teach" but if you've prepared and it happens consistently you miss creating connections with your students and feel like your lessons are very trivial.

Keep your chin up, bring a good book, listen to some music and remember this is just a job, we're not changing the world here.

ignatmc:
but u are getting paid right?

cornflakes:
agreed with both responses.

Sure, I'm getting paid, but honestly, to me, happiness is not just about the paycheck, but I find most of my fulfillment in being able to teach, connect the with students, be respected and respect others, and basically know that I did a good day's work with an honest effort.

It does suck when you prepare and anticipate good lessons coming up and then find out for the 20th time this short semester that the class has been cancelled yet again because the kids need to clean the classroom.

vw08:
Sorry to hear about your school's scheduling policies- it is a very unfortunate situation for both you and the students.  I think at one point or another all PS teachers have their classes cancelled at the last minute for random/pointless reasons, but your school takes the cake! 

At my school, when we have classes cancelled, sometimes we are able to make them up in the afternoon so that the students don't fall too far behind or go too long without having an English class.  Is it possible to ask about doing this?  You won't be able to make up for all the classes you have missed, but perhaps you can make a dent in the backlog of lessons.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page