No point to this post other than to complain. Yesterday, 6 teachers were pulled aside and given furlough letters. I'm lucky enough to not be one of them. But two of my close friends are. And one of them is 34 weeks pregnant. So sad. I can't imagine what she is going through right now. They don't know for sure who will be cut so its a waiting game. Boy, talk about loving your job! Imagine coming to work, pretending to love your job, totally putting on a show for the kids so they don't know what's going on, knowing that today might be the day you get the final word you are losing your job...
Re: Depressing day at work
I had that at my last job... it happened right before spring break to about 20 of us. It was rough working for another 2 months.... the kids all knew about it though since it was all over the district.
Never a good day....hope there can be some good news in the future for everyone! Every spring is tough in education!
Hopefully all will work out for them. I'm a teacher too and it happened two years ago when I was expecting our first. The biggest fear was the loss of insurance right before I was due. Ugh, I sobbed far a couple of days (although not of front of the kiddos). Fortunately all worked for my group - another one was expecting at that time also...there really should be an exception to keep the preggos from having to go through that
This. Also, can I ask what on earth happens to classes when teachers get furloughed? Do their classes get switched to another teacher? What exactly does it mean? I'm not really familiar with the system at all.
I did my student teaching at Pittsburgh Public! Yes, that district is always furloughing teachers. I have a friend who works at one of the middle schools but she is farther up the ladder and should be safe. Definitely a scary time.
Furlough is sort of like laying off, except its not definite. For example, with me at my last school, I was furloughed so I knew I was laid off temporarily. Once they get a final schedule and know numbers of kids in each grade, they may have to add classes and bring back some teachers. That's normally what happens, but I have a feeling with 15 jobs on the line, that won't be the case this year in my district.
The science teacher in question teaches 8th and 9th grade. I'm certified to teach middle and high school science so I would take her 8th grade classes and drop my Earth and Space Science classes (which we don't need to teach since the state no longer has that on the standardized tests - yes, everything is test driven these days and it sucks). As for the other teachers, they have already eliminated a bunch of elective classes, which is a shame for the kids. So we cut classes, cut teachers, and then cram the remaining classes together so they are large. Last year I had 3 Earth and Space classes and this year only 2 - same number of kids, larger class sizes. There is absolutely not benefit to students, teachers, etc. The only perk is saving money for the district.