To The Interim Superintendent, Administrators and Members of the Board of Education of the Minneapolis Public Schools

We should have more class room set up and lesson preparation time during workshop week (August). Instead we get too many meetings with too much repetition. Meetings need to be short and sweet and to the point. Thank you!

We have way too many meetings and way too much paperwork.

There needs to be more paid classroom preparation time at the beginning of the year. I shouldn't have to come in a week early to do my preparation unpaid to ensure that I have enough time to prepare for kids.

There is too much on our plates and not enough time to get it all done.

11 years ago Featured

As a special education teacher with a large caseload I do not have time to thoroughly prepare curriculm and complete due process requirements in the time allotted. As a result I work EVERY evening at home and on weekend.!!!!!

I am a special education teacher trying to and believing in collaborative co-teaching, how can I do that without time within my works hours to meet to plan with my colleagues? I'm already here 1 to 1/2 hours PAST duty time on average 3 days per week, completing Due Process paperwork. I have meetings up to the end of my duty time MONDAY - THURSDAY and that DOES NOT COUNT IEP/Eval meetings.

I especially agree with the workshop week statement. When I was a new teacher in MPLS two year ago I had almost no time to get my classroom ready for the year.

Due to the increased time needed at school to follow-up with procedures that we are required to do for any discipline - calling parents, documentation of referrals and requests for behavior intervention, documenting calls in Classroom for Sucess, my one hour of preparation time is spent. I then need to take all my work, such as correcting papers and entering grades and preparing lessons, home with me. There, I spend at least 2 hours preparing lessons because I need to create engaging lessons that integrate technology. I only teach part-time (.6), but I work full-time plus on this teaching position. That doesn't include going to extra meetings and community events for school.

In addition to all that was mentioned in the petition letter, adding "optional" (code for unpaid) work days next year that all teachers NEED is very big act of disrespect towards teachers.

The key to student achievement is highly engaging, well-planned lessons. This is impossible to do given all the meetings, the number of new initiatives, staff development and paperwork generated by 1) the PDPLCs, 2) Focused Instruction Benchmark data entry and 3) the large number of Teacher Observations and the paperwork and meetings (pre and post) that accompany each observation. If you want high student achievement, give teachers more uninterrupted planning time. Cut the time wasted on all this Benchmark, PDPLC and Observation Paperwork. In addition the Benchmarks are poorly written, are not good assessment tools and are not differentiated. Who looks at that data anyway???

I also will have another teacher in my room during my personal prep, so I will have to go elsewhere during the class period, therefore not really being able to prepare what I need to for a hands on class. This is happening because we do not have enough space and the need for the students to go to a 7th period.

The proposed expanded middle school day will eliminate half of before/after school staff collaboration and consultation time.

Teachers do want to change the world for the better.

too many websites to navigate everyday!

too many after school trainings, pds, etc. etc.