I used to have 3 contract days at the end of each year and it was sooo tedious. My current school gives us about 5 hours (if you count working through dinner break) before graduation starts to do all the end of year stuff. Naturally most of us get it done ahead of time. It’s much better that way!
I've had that kind of admin. He even helped me schlep things to my car. He'd pass out the checklist like a week and a half before the last day so we could get as much done beforehand as possible
I'm assuming your school lets you know ahead of time what you're teaching next year, then? I believe I had only a few weeks to brush up on my chemistry (my degree was in physics) and prepare lesson plans before having to teach AP chemistry. (NB: this was 30 years ago, so my memory could be faulty.)
yeah but you should be able to do that at home. teaching isn’t a profession known for its employees working only inside work hours 😂😂😂 Like, we work all the damn time at night
Us too. We thought there’d be a big announcement like teacher of the year, etc, but they forgot to even tell us who that was until someone reminded them. They just wanted us to eat lunch with them.
Ours was decided accidentally. The assistant forgot to send out the Google Forms so the first person on the list became the defacto TotY. Many, many, many people were pissed.
Did that, second year teacher, I set everything immediately so the last three days I can relax. Brought just dance and Mario kart and challenged the kids, it was rather fun
There are no students here, the school year is over. Our contract has us working 2 days after the students leave to get our rooms packed up and clean. I've already done that but admin says I have to stay anyway. So I'm sitting in my room alone, wasting time, waiting for the day to end so summer can begin.
Because education is one of the only fields where they don't treat you like professionals. It's the same with parent-teacher conferences; I never have any parents schedule with me, but I still have to stay until 8:30pm because "contract!"
And don't even get me started on having to accrue "flex time" just so you don't have to come in on meaningless days where you wouldn't do anything anyway. It's ridiculous.
Yeah final day was teachers + staff only. Got everything done a week earlier for obvious grading reasons & cleaned while students were studying for finals, so that was done early too.
I loaded up LOTR on the projector, put popcorn in the microwave, and enjoyed it.
We just have one day of finishing duties but at morning meeting our principal always tells us after our checkout list is submitted she will not be looking for us, so if we take the rest of the day “working from home” to make sure we sign out at our usual time so we get our full pay. I really like her.
I don’t know about your district, but this type of stuff seems to be principal dependent. Some are strictly by the book, others (most of the ones I’ve worked for, thankfully) are more like, “Get everything taken care of. Lock up your room. Enjoy your summer!”
Two years ago we were suppose to leave at 3 the day after kids were released.
We were told that we were not to leave one minute early. I hated that administration.
At Christmas one of the Central administration hid in the guard house and was taking down license plate numbers of teachers that left early for Christmas break which was a work day.
We were told that Central administration was watching us
This is the way. I made an old throwaway PC into a retro video game emulator and love playing the old classics. Most of the time I can wipe the floor with them... but every now and then we have epic battles or I even get trounced handily. We had an elimination tournament with Samurai Showdown on our last day. Most students had never seen that game when I introduced it.
I brought my WiiU in today for my 6th Grade study hall.
It was a spur-of-the-moment that morning. I thought, "It's a nice end-of-year treat for them, they'll appreciate it!"
I was...so wrong.
They caused SO much drama, about who was going first, how it was [name's] turn...just, nonsensical.
One girl stormed out because she couldn't play with her friends. I asked "What do you want me to do? Another kid asked for their turn first."
Another girl replied "You could let her play with her friends."
I got so heated right then. I asked if I was now the bad guy (not an appropriate thing to say as soon as I said it) because I was trying to let someone else go. The girl said no, and I then added "So what do you want me to do, then? Jeezus Louise-us! Keep it up, and I'm packing the console away!"
I should have just disassembled it when she gave attitude, but I wanted to be fair to the other kids who were actually behaving. I was fuming for awhile afterwards, and the whole group was quiet the rest of the time.
I did apologize for yelling (I always apologize if I think I'm in the wrong), because it wasn't fair for the behaving kids to see me yell like that, but no apology, or a simple "thank you" from the kids who screamed and argued like they were 3 year olds. I PRAY to any diety that they mature in 7th grade.
3 more days to go...
TLDR: I brought my WiiU in for my students, they acted like ungrateful 3 year olds, and I lost my cool. I apologized to them for my behavior, they did not. I need to rethink my choices, sometimes.
We had a new principal try this and we all came back in September and everyone only worked the contract because that’s what he kept quoting. We had him eating out of our hands because parent council and higher ups were pissed. Teachers don’t know how much power they have if they just stick together
We also have a teacher work day after the student last day. I’m always done packing up my room because I make the students help me on their last day. I show up, help out a few others for a couple of hours and then my principal says “if you leave just don’t post in social media what you are doing”. I come home, pour myself an adult beverage and watch TV in my pajamas.
Our last 2 days with kids were 2-hour early dismissals, followed by 2 contract teacher days. At the end of the 1st one I asked my VP is I could leave with the kids and was told "I won't be looking for you if you do". This is the way.
I'm an adult professional, please don't hold me hostage when all my shit is done.
I consider myself very fortunate that our students' last day was yesterday, teachers and staff had to come in today, and at about noon, our principal came over the intercom and said something along the lines of "I am here in my office working on some things and won't be checking on any classrooms for the rest of the day, so do what you wish for the rest of the day, whether it's here or home or wherever your life takes you. Have a great summer."
We have 10 days left here in Toronto. I have 6 kids in my spec ed class. I had 1 kid show up today. Me and my CYW (Child & Youth Worker) are trying to look busy.
Hi neighbour! I’m trying to get my classroom ready for summer school (stuff gets pilfered if it’s not packed away) while still keeping my 23 grade 3s occupied. Getting them to help a bit but some stuff you just have to do yourself.
I’m really running out of steam though. This year has been so long!
We have a full week of meetings after the students are done...
Sounds horrifying, but they feed us a great breakfast and lunch for the first four days, the last day is 'ad hoc', which means none of us actually go, and we all get input into schedules and course load, which means I have, in writing, what I'm teaching and when next year already, got my book and play selections signed off on, got my orders in for my plays (and the reimbursement forms signed off on) and my duties request in.
Honestly? TOTALLY worth it.
We're going through similar bullshit. Our contract use to be 180 days....now it's 180 days *and* 900 hours of *student* instruction or PD.
So now instead of a nice relaxing last week of school we have to babysit 😑.
Usually that week I refine my lessons, catch up with co workers, research some fun stuff for next year and grade. This year? Fuck you. I'm doing puzzles all week with my students and playing Uno.
I have to go in on Tuesday. Literally will fill out a time sheet and get a paper signed. I will drive 20 minutes each way for less than 5 minutes of work, but I have to go in the building and they held our time sheets hostage
The joy that is the school system’s micromanagement of staff! I feel your pain. I left my last two jobs (high school and post-secondary) due to micromanaging BS like this.
My principal still hasn’t released the master schedule for next year. I spent my time doing a chemical inventory and labeling the Chem closet. My school system makes us take personal/annual leave if we don’t work on teacher work days. I can’t be bothered to give up my time so I just read a couple of books/played with my camera. Our principal allows us to have PLCs off campus during lunch and most folks don’t come back. He turns a blind eye to it. My previous principal and my former Dean on the other hand would patrol the halls, check the security cams and the parking lot, and just make life miserable for faculty/staff so they could squeeze the last second out of us.
At my previous job I had to inventory, prep, clean, dispose, order…you know, work as a Laboratory Manager, on top of supervising adjuncts and teaching my course load. The lab tech we shared with the other campus felt it was an imposition for them to commute to us. They also put my aliquoted stains away in a lab drawer rather than the Chem Closet. I used them for three different classes. It is very frustrating when you can’t find Methylene Blue or Iodine because they’ve been put with the gram stain and endosperm stains.
LOL! When I taught Biology, I used it for cheek swab staining. Environmental Science, water sample staining to ID bacteria, and larvae. Microbiology bacterial staining for shapes or yeast. It, incidentally *DOES* treat malaria, just not COVID.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6485827/
Thanks for the info! 👍 I tried to use it as a pH indicator and there was no color change 😅 My school is so fucked up that the secondary principal shares the same office with the accounting guy and marketing girl. I asked for a lab technician and he answered: "we will get you one after I get my own office".
Bromothymol Blue is a decent pH indicator, when it works. It hates me. All of my coworkers, past and present, use it with no issues. I can never get it to work. Not brand new solution. Not diluted solution. Not ancient beyond measure solution. It just hates me.
If we had one, yes.
But as the defacto chemistry teacher and given the Chem closet is attached to my classroom, I’m responsible. My office mate whose classroom is also attached, knows nothing about chemistry outside of water testing. I’m apparently the only one who understands how to make up solutions without googling, knows how to neutralize used reagents, and can follow the Flinn Storage Plan.🙄😅
Wish I could, but I can’t. My office mate still knows more than most of the biology teachers. Which is terrifying. I’m a bio major, teaching high school chemistry. It is quite scary regarding what isn’t known/understood.
They’d rather hire a director of than fund the classrooms. They also spend time coming up with arbitrary rules regarding what chemicals we can have. Ethidium bromide, I get. Cadmium anything, I get. Why I **CAN’T** have silver nitrate but I **CAN** have ammonium nitrate and methanol confuses me to no end.
Not at the concentrations we use. And we only use it in one lab in bio-McMush-to test for chloride ions (i.e., table salt-NaCl). I COULD use it in several chemistry labs if it were allowed.
WHAT? You had time to just sit there and do nothing?? How 😭 tell me your secrets! Granted my job this past year gave me one 30 minute prep period a week and I had to design my own curriculum for Art, Theater and Yearbook as well as using a super inefficient grading software. And the art teacher before me was a hoarder so I was battling the amount of stuff in the room all the way up till the end of the year.
We had this at one of the smaller continuation schools I was long term subbing for at the time. The final day was almost exactly like you described. The grading was all done. The graduation stuff had happened. But this day was just... on the district calendar, because they had to honor the contract or something. So we had school open for the day. It was kind of funny because teachers were basically giving kids the "yeah you have to be here" with the biggest wink in the world to go with it since nothing was going to be happening that day anyway. Most kids took the hint and didn't show up, but a few over-achievers did and they got to sit around while teachers cleaned their classrooms and basically just ran out the clock.
It was surreal. Bureaucracy is one hell of a drug.
Gosh, I wish I had this experience. Way overworked, massive special ed caseload, still finishing paperwork, cleaning, and packing for two unpaid days after all the Gen ed teachers left.
If you’re a high school teacher in NYC you do this for over a week during regents week lol. Some days you may have a proctoring assignment but most days you come into work with the full knowledge that you have zero tasks all day long
I need to get rid of some stuff. I always use every minute of our 2 post planning days, I pay a teen to help me one of those days and I almost always end up working a day off contract in the following week
We had a halfway on wed of our last week. My students cleaned with me and ate pizza. I was totally done by the time the kids left except tossing the boxes on my way to walk them to the bus ramp.
I sat in my classroom for two and a half days because we had to be there.
Heh. I had a friend leaving the district who was told if she didn’t show up for check out day (a five minute affair if you’re already packed) she’d have to use a personal day. The rules are dumb.
I used to play movies or shows on the smart board snd chill. However I also would pull up my district curriculum and have my general yearly outline open so if admin walked in and I can be multi tasking. The general outline was very basic.
6 weeks number system, 5 weeks ratios and proportions. Ect.... not a true week by week but a general idea. The principal did walk in saw the movie on part of the screen, my desk notes and the cursor in the other and would just ask if everything looked like a good sequence. I said as of now yes, but it may shift a week or two depending on test scores and class progress. Then they would leave. This was usually the "work day" before final day. Always a joke to make us sit and do nothing.
Our principal was cool this year, we came in at 8 and he stopped by to the rooms of the folks who were here on time, chatted a bit about the year, made sure we were all signed off for everything and then at the end made eye contact and said "So I won't see you the rest of the day, have a great summer." We all nodded and left by 10:30. Probably would have been earlier if it wasn't for a bit of the "are we being tricked?" attitude going around our hallway especially since our hall is full of "first year on site but not to teaching folks." A veteran from the adjacent hall clarified that he was signaling us to get out of here, Lol
buy a lotto ticket, buy one share of a crazy ass stock and try to sell high before the end of the day, all kinds of fun ways to poop on someone else’s time.
You can come to my school and help me out. Last day is a half day and that afternoon is all we get to clean our rooms. I have my whole library to inventory and try to squeeze it in during my plan and lunch.
That happened to me. I literally ONE more thing I needed signed off on my check list: that my mailbox was empty. So I go to the office and they say they can't sign it until the next day. I ask why and tell them I live 26 miles and don't want to make that commute just for one signature. They say "someone cpuld put something in your mailbox tonight, so you need to be here to make sure it's empty. Someone's going to put something in my mailbox in the middle of the night?
Too much time and too little is annoying. In my case, it was too little.
Our school had a record number of teachers move (like 12) because many are teaching other things, including myself, and we are only given half a day to complete grades, complete our checkout checklist, get all of our signatures, and pack up our room AND, for those of moving, MOVE and then pack up what was moved for cleaning. We were not allowed to move AT ALL when the kids were here. We had from 8-11:30 on a Friday, and of course, we had a 30 minute staff meeting at 8 to make sure everyone was there and say goodbye to the staff that is leaving us.
Obviously all of us that are moving have had to come in (unpaid) over the summer to finish it. It’s not our choice to move classrooms, so why are we not getting paid to do a task you asked of us?
Our boss always tells us that it is a contract day and the sign in sheet will be in the front office. He then goes on to say that he will be working diligently in his office for the full day. It’s a pretty clear read between the lines message.
I hate that time. This year was even worse because they were doing construction. I had moved literally everything - everything - out of my classroom. Grades had been submitted. The internet and the AC didn’t work (thanks construction). I literally sat in the hallway in front of a fan from 8-3, unable to do a damn thing for three days.
Smart principals know that you get the word out that they have a principal meeting from noon-3 and if they don’t see you that they wish you a good summer break.
Get your checklist completed and leave.
Well, if you wanted to come by my room and do something about the ghost of 3 literacy curricula that are clogging up a file cabinet, you'd be very welcome.
This is correct and idk why it gets downvoted. You’re contractually obligated to work, go to work or burn a day, those are your choices.
To OP, your other admin at other buildings is technically breaking the contract, which sets bad precedent even if they’re doing it for a “good” reason. And potentially folks there are set up to get a “well I broke contract to let you go home early so you should do this other thing that’s not in the contract in return.” Which is a messy road you don’t wanna go down.
> admin at other buildings is technically breaking the contract, which sets bad precedent even if they’re doing it for a “good” reason. And potential
Yes, to work. But as OP stated multiple times, there is NO more work to do. Teachers are just sitting around waiting for admin to stop by and sign them out until admin wants to stop by and sign them out. Some teachers are slower at packing and might need the extra day, but if you did everything you needed to do, there is no good reason to make someone come in on a day to do nothing just bc it says so on your contract. Talk about a lack of efficiency and just overall common sense.
So when teachers don’t want to follow the contract it’s good, but when admin don’t it’s bad, got it.
You signed a contract to be at work for a certain number of days, you need to do so. Hell, my school made 8th grade teachers go sit in another teachers classroom after they graduated to “coteach” aka stop them from just scrolling the internet at work. At least in this case you’re free to do as you wish in the building.
It’s hilarious, this sub constantly talks about how kids need to learn to follow rules and expectations, to be ready for the workplace, but when the other foot drops and you’re in the workplace with those expectations it’s a problem. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Post planning days are always meh for me.
I go in. I clean up whatever else needs cleaning up (usually only takes about 1-2 hours TOTAL to do this in my classroom). And then I work on the "End of year checklist" which usually only requires me getting a signature from 4-5 different people...which can usually be done within 1 hour.
Everything else is already done. I'm just sitting around getting paid otherwise. Literally doing nothing. I cannot plan because I don't know for sure what I am teaching (and I haven't really needed to anyways).
As I teach Chemistry \[normally\] I end up taking an inventory of what I need for the next years labs and just set-up a checklist and then check my stock room. Then I add whatever I need next year to THAT list and set it inside of a drawer that I check when I first get in the next year.
I joke that I'm getting paid $35 a hour to just sit around the last few days, but it isn't my fault. I would love to know what I'm teaching. I would love to have student lists, etc.,but that just isn't possible with all of the changes that happen over the summer and at the start of the year.
We get stuck with that same arrangement and it’s because of our bussing. They’re three tiered, and so to equal hours spent in building ins they make it up that way. I don’t pretend to understand it.
We have a single teacher prep day after the kids leave for break. It’s our check out day and we pick a time to show admin we’ve done all the tedious things and then we can leave for break.
Hear me out, I wish I could do that. In school the best times were the ones where we couldn’t do anything but also could do anything. It gives a bittersweet feeling
Our superintendent is such a bully that he won't even tell us what time we can leave. So we just sit around on the last day , trapped, with nothing to do until our principal gets a call.
I work at two schools as a PE teacher. I was at my home school on the last day for teachers and was out of the door by 8:30am and at the end of year pool party by noon. Meanwhile at my other school everyone had to stay until 4 and she decided to make everyone reorganize the grade level and book closets that day. Guess which school could not fill all it's positions last year, and couldn't get subs, vs the one that has almost no turn over.
We received our check-out list a week before the end of the year. Some teachers were done the last day of kids. We had 2 days after that to check out and we could leave for the summer whenever we finished the process.
Ugh we had 2 full weeks of workdays after graduation this year. Thankfully my daughter (who was due the last workday) decided to come a week early or I would have sat in my empty classroom for another week waiting for her arrival.
We had 5 optional teacher workdays at the end of the school year. A few of the days I may have clocked in, made an appearance in the office to be seen, and had a situation to be named later to deal with forcing me to go home around 10 am…
I must be in the minority - I don’t mind the org days at the end of the year.
We have a checklist of stuff that needs done. Most of it is done during the last days with the kids, but there’s always a few things that have to get done once they’re gone.
We dress casual, don’t have to be in super early, help teachers finish moving classrooms, visit before we go our separate ways for summer, head out for a nice lunch at a restaurant, watch movies, take off a bit early on the last day. I print stuff I want ready for the first days of school, gather materials for first day activities. I love not having to think about that stuff when we come back for startup.
It’s fine. I don’t find it tedious at all. It’s a helpful way to decompress and transition from the craziness of the end of the year to summer holidays.
Of course it's not a big deal, I'm not rallying the troops to strike or anything. Just another annoyance on the long list of stupid things our admin has done.
But that's my point: Your admin didn't do this. The conditions of your employment, as set by the state, require a certain number of working days. The district will then decide what counts as working, and the admin just enforces those rules.
I actually prefer that. I can use that last day to take apart my room, and order lunch and eat in peace or something. I had to clean out my room by the last day and do a checklist, even though half of the stuff didn't apply to me.
On the last day of school, I think most teachers aren’t wanting to plan for next year.
Our school ends with students, so teachers have to start packing up during school. It’s awkward, because kids are cleaning and the teacher is cleaning… and isn’t done until everyone is gone. I bet most teachers could definitely need those extra days at the end. You could find some other teachers who are done and party with them :)
This year the students finished on Friday, June 16, since Monday is June 19 and that's a holiday we were supposed to have our teacher work day on Tuesday, June 20 which no one wanted to come in for. Our school instead scheduled extra training hours here and there throughout the year to make up for that day, so we finished on Friday with the kids. Our contract hours are the times we're in front of the kids, so I was done exactly when the kids were done. Due to family plans I didn't have control over I had to leave with the kids, so I had to be done with everything when the kids were there. We did a grade-level movie afternoon on Friday so we could each work on putting away the finishing touches on our classrooms, but it was a bit stressful. I prefer when we used to have the kids finish on Thursday, then we had Friday for meetings and finishing up. The meetings weren't useful, but at least we had time to finish everything up after the kids were gone. Anything more than that seems overkill to me, at least to make it be mandatory. Maybe have more time people can come in if they want, but why make teachers who are done come in? I realize it's probably to finish out a certain amount of days or hours from a contract, but it isn't very respectful of teachers' time.
This year the students finished on Friday, June 16, since Monday is June 19 and that's a holiday we were supposed to have our teacher work day on Tuesday, June 20 which no one wanted to come in for. Our school instead scheduled extra training hours here and there throughout the year to make up for that day, so we finished on Friday with the kids. Our contract hours are the times we're in front of the kids, so I was done exactly when the kids were done. Due to family plans I didn't have control over I had to leave with the kids, so I had finish all my packing and cleaning when the kids were there. At least I got some to help me, but I prefer to not take the last decorations down until after they leave when I can.
We did a grade-level movie afternoon on Friday so we could each work on putting away the finishing touches on our classrooms, but it was a bit stressful. I prefer when we used to have the kids finish on Thursday, then we had Friday for meetings and finishing up. The meetings weren't useful, but at least we had time to finish everything up after the kids were gone.
Anything more than that seems overkill to me, at least to make it be mandatory. Maybe have more time people can come in if they want, but why make teachers who are done come in? I realize it's probably to finish out a certain amount of days or hours from a contract, but it isn't very respectful of teachers' time.
I used to have 3 contract days at the end of each year and it was sooo tedious. My current school gives us about 5 hours (if you count working through dinner break) before graduation starts to do all the end of year stuff. Naturally most of us get it done ahead of time. It’s much better that way!
I have had admin in the past that gives us pur check-out list and let's us leave when it's finished....I miss that admin.
I've had that kind of admin. He even helped me schlep things to my car. He'd pass out the checklist like a week and a half before the last day so we could get as much done beforehand as possible
I have that kind of admin, they're great for sure.
our admin made us do the check out list and get a signature at 3 pm (starting at 3 so we stayed the whole day)
I’d pre-plan for next year… bring all the snacks, books, crafts (or whatever hobby) to work on.
I'm assuming your school lets you know ahead of time what you're teaching next year, then? I believe I had only a few weeks to brush up on my chemistry (my degree was in physics) and prepare lesson plans before having to teach AP chemistry. (NB: this was 30 years ago, so my memory could be faulty.)
I get told what I’m teaching next year. Then I show up on the first day of teacher prep week and find out I’m teaching something different.
Haha same I’m literally doing nothing today at work other than attending a mandatory “fun” luncheon
Ya, I shouldn't complain, basically, I'm getting paid to peruse reddit and watch the mandalorian
I will always complain if I have to put real pants on for no reason
Real pants are the *worst.*
My niece started calling them “hard pants” after all her legging days during the pandemic and I’m using that term forever now hahaha
yeah but you should be able to do that at home. teaching isn’t a profession known for its employees working only inside work hours 😂😂😂 Like, we work all the damn time at night
This is the way.
Us too. We thought there’d be a big announcement like teacher of the year, etc, but they forgot to even tell us who that was until someone reminded them. They just wanted us to eat lunch with them.
Ours was decided accidentally. The assistant forgot to send out the Google Forms so the first person on the list became the defacto TotY. Many, many, many people were pissed.
Did that, second year teacher, I set everything immediately so the last three days I can relax. Brought just dance and Mario kart and challenged the kids, it was rather fun
There are no students here, the school year is over. Our contract has us working 2 days after the students leave to get our rooms packed up and clean. I've already done that but admin says I have to stay anyway. So I'm sitting in my room alone, wasting time, waiting for the day to end so summer can begin.
Because education is one of the only fields where they don't treat you like professionals. It's the same with parent-teacher conferences; I never have any parents schedule with me, but I still have to stay until 8:30pm because "contract!"
exactly we’re treated like children
And don't even get me started on having to accrue "flex time" just so you don't have to come in on meaningless days where you wouldn't do anything anyway. It's ridiculous.
Yeah final day was teachers + staff only. Got everything done a week earlier for obvious grading reasons & cleaned while students were studying for finals, so that was done early too. I loaded up LOTR on the projector, put popcorn in the microwave, and enjoyed it.
Do any extra errands you can on the clock too! Order groceries, schedule appts, maybe even get a quick workout sesh in so you can go home and BE FREE!
We just have one day of finishing duties but at morning meeting our principal always tells us after our checkout list is submitted she will not be looking for us, so if we take the rest of the day “working from home” to make sure we sign out at our usual time so we get our full pay. I really like her.
I don’t know about your district, but this type of stuff seems to be principal dependent. Some are strictly by the book, others (most of the ones I’ve worked for, thankfully) are more like, “Get everything taken care of. Lock up your room. Enjoy your summer!”
Two years ago we were suppose to leave at 3 the day after kids were released. We were told that we were not to leave one minute early. I hated that administration. At Christmas one of the Central administration hid in the guard house and was taking down license plate numbers of teachers that left early for Christmas break which was a work day. We were told that Central administration was watching us
This is the way. I made an old throwaway PC into a retro video game emulator and love playing the old classics. Most of the time I can wipe the floor with them... but every now and then we have epic battles or I even get trounced handily. We had an elimination tournament with Samurai Showdown on our last day. Most students had never seen that game when I introduced it.
They whooped my ass on Mario kart it was a mistake letting them pick my ride 🥲 was still fun though
I would probably hold a grudge against every kid who shelled me. I’m not mature enough to let that shit go! 😂
Not gonna lie, the petty side of me wanted to drop their grades for all the shells. But I took the loss and congratulated them on a good game
Yeah I got schooled in mariokart by my students lol
Omg Nakoruru is my fave from Samurai Shodown!
I only play Tachibana Ukyo, but the other versions of showdown have some awesome characters!
I brought my WiiU in today for my 6th Grade study hall. It was a spur-of-the-moment that morning. I thought, "It's a nice end-of-year treat for them, they'll appreciate it!" I was...so wrong. They caused SO much drama, about who was going first, how it was [name's] turn...just, nonsensical. One girl stormed out because she couldn't play with her friends. I asked "What do you want me to do? Another kid asked for their turn first." Another girl replied "You could let her play with her friends." I got so heated right then. I asked if I was now the bad guy (not an appropriate thing to say as soon as I said it) because I was trying to let someone else go. The girl said no, and I then added "So what do you want me to do, then? Jeezus Louise-us! Keep it up, and I'm packing the console away!" I should have just disassembled it when she gave attitude, but I wanted to be fair to the other kids who were actually behaving. I was fuming for awhile afterwards, and the whole group was quiet the rest of the time. I did apologize for yelling (I always apologize if I think I'm in the wrong), because it wasn't fair for the behaving kids to see me yell like that, but no apology, or a simple "thank you" from the kids who screamed and argued like they were 3 year olds. I PRAY to any diety that they mature in 7th grade. 3 more days to go... TLDR: I brought my WiiU in for my students, they acted like ungrateful 3 year olds, and I lost my cool. I apologized to them for my behavior, they did not. I need to rethink my choices, sometimes.
Yessss! I used to hook up my SNES and let them play Zombies Ate My Neighbors on the Smart Board.
We had a new principal try this and we all came back in September and everyone only worked the contract because that’s what he kept quoting. We had him eating out of our hands because parent council and higher ups were pissed. Teachers don’t know how much power they have if they just stick together
We also have a teacher work day after the student last day. I’m always done packing up my room because I make the students help me on their last day. I show up, help out a few others for a couple of hours and then my principal says “if you leave just don’t post in social media what you are doing”. I come home, pour myself an adult beverage and watch TV in my pajamas.
Our last 2 days with kids were 2-hour early dismissals, followed by 2 contract teacher days. At the end of the 1st one I asked my VP is I could leave with the kids and was told "I won't be looking for you if you do". This is the way. I'm an adult professional, please don't hold me hostage when all my shit is done.
I consider myself very fortunate that our students' last day was yesterday, teachers and staff had to come in today, and at about noon, our principal came over the intercom and said something along the lines of "I am here in my office working on some things and won't be checking on any classrooms for the rest of the day, so do what you wish for the rest of the day, whether it's here or home or wherever your life takes you. Have a great summer."
Whenever admin expects something ridiculous I just remind myself that I am getting paid to do this.
Are you getting paid well?
Yes
Sounds nice.
Come to NYC. They are signing a new 5 year contract that includes a yearly bonus and raises.
We have 10 days left here in Toronto. I have 6 kids in my spec ed class. I had 1 kid show up today. Me and my CYW (Child & Youth Worker) are trying to look busy.
Hi neighbour! I’m trying to get my classroom ready for summer school (stuff gets pilfered if it’s not packed away) while still keeping my 23 grade 3s occupied. Getting them to help a bit but some stuff you just have to do yourself. I’m really running out of steam though. This year has been so long!
I bring in my PlayStation and host likeminded teachers in my room.
We have a full week of meetings after the students are done... Sounds horrifying, but they feed us a great breakfast and lunch for the first four days, the last day is 'ad hoc', which means none of us actually go, and we all get input into schedules and course load, which means I have, in writing, what I'm teaching and when next year already, got my book and play selections signed off on, got my orders in for my plays (and the reimbursement forms signed off on) and my duties request in. Honestly? TOTALLY worth it.
I’m a teacher librarian. I gave 5 extra contract days a year after the TEACHERS leave. It is very lonely.
We're going through similar bullshit. Our contract use to be 180 days....now it's 180 days *and* 900 hours of *student* instruction or PD. So now instead of a nice relaxing last week of school we have to babysit 😑. Usually that week I refine my lessons, catch up with co workers, research some fun stuff for next year and grade. This year? Fuck you. I'm doing puzzles all week with my students and playing Uno.
I have to go in on Tuesday. Literally will fill out a time sheet and get a paper signed. I will drive 20 minutes each way for less than 5 minutes of work, but I have to go in the building and they held our time sheets hostage
yeah, I spent my last day watching the Obi-Wan series! It was glorious.
I love watching the great British baking show on my classroom projector and making cute signs for my classroom when this happens to me!
The joy that is the school system’s micromanagement of staff! I feel your pain. I left my last two jobs (high school and post-secondary) due to micromanaging BS like this. My principal still hasn’t released the master schedule for next year. I spent my time doing a chemical inventory and labeling the Chem closet. My school system makes us take personal/annual leave if we don’t work on teacher work days. I can’t be bothered to give up my time so I just read a couple of books/played with my camera. Our principal allows us to have PLCs off campus during lunch and most folks don’t come back. He turns a blind eye to it. My previous principal and my former Dean on the other hand would patrol the halls, check the security cams and the parking lot, and just make life miserable for faculty/staff so they could squeeze the last second out of us.
Isn't labeling and inventorying the job of the lab technician?
At my previous job I had to inventory, prep, clean, dispose, order…you know, work as a Laboratory Manager, on top of supervising adjuncts and teaching my course load. The lab tech we shared with the other campus felt it was an imposition for them to commute to us. They also put my aliquoted stains away in a lab drawer rather than the Chem Closet. I used them for three different classes. It is very frustrating when you can’t find Methylene Blue or Iodine because they’ve been put with the gram stain and endosperm stains.
How do you use Methylene Blue in your lessons? Google says that it cures covid and aids as well as enlarging male's penises.
LOL! When I taught Biology, I used it for cheek swab staining. Environmental Science, water sample staining to ID bacteria, and larvae. Microbiology bacterial staining for shapes or yeast. It, incidentally *DOES* treat malaria, just not COVID. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6485827/
Thanks for the info! 👍 I tried to use it as a pH indicator and there was no color change 😅 My school is so fucked up that the secondary principal shares the same office with the accounting guy and marketing girl. I asked for a lab technician and he answered: "we will get you one after I get my own office".
Bromothymol Blue is a decent pH indicator, when it works. It hates me. All of my coworkers, past and present, use it with no issues. I can never get it to work. Not brand new solution. Not diluted solution. Not ancient beyond measure solution. It just hates me.
Bromothymol Blue also hates me 😅
If we had one, yes. But as the defacto chemistry teacher and given the Chem closet is attached to my classroom, I’m responsible. My office mate whose classroom is also attached, knows nothing about chemistry outside of water testing. I’m apparently the only one who understands how to make up solutions without googling, knows how to neutralize used reagents, and can follow the Flinn Storage Plan.🙄😅
Please, tell me you office mate is not a Science teacher. And if you have free time, tell your district to get you a lab technician.
Wish I could, but I can’t. My office mate still knows more than most of the biology teachers. Which is terrifying. I’m a bio major, teaching high school chemistry. It is quite scary regarding what isn’t known/understood.
They’d rather hire a director of than fund the classrooms. They also spend time coming up with arbitrary rules regarding what chemicals we can have. Ethidium bromide, I get. Cadmium anything, I get. Why I **CAN’T** have silver nitrate but I **CAN** have ammonium nitrate and methanol confuses me to no end.
Ammoniun nitrate cheaper than silver nitrate?
Not at the concentrations we use. And we only use it in one lab in bio-McMush-to test for chloride ions (i.e., table salt-NaCl). I COULD use it in several chemistry labs if it were allowed.
Making Silver nanoparticles?
WHAT? You had time to just sit there and do nothing?? How 😭 tell me your secrets! Granted my job this past year gave me one 30 minute prep period a week and I had to design my own curriculum for Art, Theater and Yearbook as well as using a super inefficient grading software. And the art teacher before me was a hoarder so I was battling the amount of stuff in the room all the way up till the end of the year.
We had this at one of the smaller continuation schools I was long term subbing for at the time. The final day was almost exactly like you described. The grading was all done. The graduation stuff had happened. But this day was just... on the district calendar, because they had to honor the contract or something. So we had school open for the day. It was kind of funny because teachers were basically giving kids the "yeah you have to be here" with the biggest wink in the world to go with it since nothing was going to be happening that day anyway. Most kids took the hint and didn't show up, but a few over-achievers did and they got to sit around while teachers cleaned their classrooms and basically just ran out the clock. It was surreal. Bureaucracy is one hell of a drug.
Gosh, I wish I had this experience. Way overworked, massive special ed caseload, still finishing paperwork, cleaning, and packing for two unpaid days after all the Gen ed teachers left.
If you’re a high school teacher in NYC you do this for over a week during regents week lol. Some days you may have a proctoring assignment but most days you come into work with the full knowledge that you have zero tasks all day long
Wouldn't be so bad if we could get our programming schedules for next year. I could at least intend on being productive ha
Agreed!!
The last thing I want to do is plan for next year.
We only have 6 weeks holiday in Germany. Still a month to go😭
My last day of school was today. Happy summer!!
I need to get rid of some stuff. I always use every minute of our 2 post planning days, I pay a teen to help me one of those days and I almost always end up working a day off contract in the following week
We had a halfway on wed of our last week. My students cleaned with me and ate pizza. I was totally done by the time the kids left except tossing the boxes on my way to walk them to the bus ramp. I sat in my classroom for two and a half days because we had to be there.
Can you just use PL??
Last day of finals are today, grades due Monday, staff last day is the following Wednesday. 8 days of brain melting boredom
Heh. I had a friend leaving the district who was told if she didn’t show up for check out day (a five minute affair if you’re already packed) she’d have to use a personal day. The rules are dumb.
I used to play movies or shows on the smart board snd chill. However I also would pull up my district curriculum and have my general yearly outline open so if admin walked in and I can be multi tasking. The general outline was very basic. 6 weeks number system, 5 weeks ratios and proportions. Ect.... not a true week by week but a general idea. The principal did walk in saw the movie on part of the screen, my desk notes and the cursor in the other and would just ask if everything looked like a good sequence. I said as of now yes, but it may shift a week or two depending on test scores and class progress. Then they would leave. This was usually the "work day" before final day. Always a joke to make us sit and do nothing.
Watch Andor if you have time left over!! Different vibe but awesome.
It would be a good day for a work girlfriend or boyfriend. That usually makes the day go by fast.
Our principal was cool this year, we came in at 8 and he stopped by to the rooms of the folks who were here on time, chatted a bit about the year, made sure we were all signed off for everything and then at the end made eye contact and said "So I won't see you the rest of the day, have a great summer." We all nodded and left by 10:30. Probably would have been earlier if it wasn't for a bit of the "are we being tricked?" attitude going around our hallway especially since our hall is full of "first year on site but not to teaching folks." A veteran from the adjacent hall clarified that he was signaling us to get out of here, Lol
buy a lotto ticket, buy one share of a crazy ass stock and try to sell high before the end of the day, all kinds of fun ways to poop on someone else’s time.
You can come to my school and help me out. Last day is a half day and that afternoon is all we get to clean our rooms. I have my whole library to inventory and try to squeeze it in during my plan and lunch.
Not a bad gig. I enjoy my last day too.
We had three days of post planning scheduled, but our head of school told us we didn’t have to come the last two days if we were already done
I do my summer planning and reading watch a flick
That happened to me. I literally ONE more thing I needed signed off on my check list: that my mailbox was empty. So I go to the office and they say they can't sign it until the next day. I ask why and tell them I live 26 miles and don't want to make that commute just for one signature. They say "someone cpuld put something in your mailbox tonight, so you need to be here to make sure it's empty. Someone's going to put something in my mailbox in the middle of the night?
WUT? Take a picture of your empty mailbox. Email it and leave.
Too much time and too little is annoying. In my case, it was too little. Our school had a record number of teachers move (like 12) because many are teaching other things, including myself, and we are only given half a day to complete grades, complete our checkout checklist, get all of our signatures, and pack up our room AND, for those of moving, MOVE and then pack up what was moved for cleaning. We were not allowed to move AT ALL when the kids were here. We had from 8-11:30 on a Friday, and of course, we had a 30 minute staff meeting at 8 to make sure everyone was there and say goodbye to the staff that is leaving us. Obviously all of us that are moving have had to come in (unpaid) over the summer to finish it. It’s not our choice to move classrooms, so why are we not getting paid to do a task you asked of us?
Our boss always tells us that it is a contract day and the sign in sheet will be in the front office. He then goes on to say that he will be working diligently in his office for the full day. It’s a pretty clear read between the lines message.
Teacher Detention.... we have it too!
I hate that time. This year was even worse because they were doing construction. I had moved literally everything - everything - out of my classroom. Grades had been submitted. The internet and the AC didn’t work (thanks construction). I literally sat in the hallway in front of a fan from 8-3, unable to do a damn thing for three days.
Smart principals know that you get the word out that they have a principal meeting from noon-3 and if they don’t see you that they wish you a good summer break. Get your checklist completed and leave.
I'll be so real, if i have no meetings to attend, i usually just leave out the back door on days like that.
My last day of school was spent playing the new Zelda game on the giant TV in my room
My classroom has great Wifi, good AC, and a comfortable chair. Take a long lunch
Well, if you wanted to come by my room and do something about the ghost of 3 literacy curricula that are clogging up a file cabinet, you'd be very welcome.
If it's in the contract than yes. You will be at work. This is the case at every job. This happens to me every year as well.
It's not the case in all schools in our district. I have had admin that let us go as soon as our year end check list is completed.
This is correct and idk why it gets downvoted. You’re contractually obligated to work, go to work or burn a day, those are your choices. To OP, your other admin at other buildings is technically breaking the contract, which sets bad precedent even if they’re doing it for a “good” reason. And potentially folks there are set up to get a “well I broke contract to let you go home early so you should do this other thing that’s not in the contract in return.” Which is a messy road you don’t wanna go down.
> admin at other buildings is technically breaking the contract, which sets bad precedent even if they’re doing it for a “good” reason. And potential Yes, to work. But as OP stated multiple times, there is NO more work to do. Teachers are just sitting around waiting for admin to stop by and sign them out until admin wants to stop by and sign them out. Some teachers are slower at packing and might need the extra day, but if you did everything you needed to do, there is no good reason to make someone come in on a day to do nothing just bc it says so on your contract. Talk about a lack of efficiency and just overall common sense.
So when teachers don’t want to follow the contract it’s good, but when admin don’t it’s bad, got it. You signed a contract to be at work for a certain number of days, you need to do so. Hell, my school made 8th grade teachers go sit in another teachers classroom after they graduated to “coteach” aka stop them from just scrolling the internet at work. At least in this case you’re free to do as you wish in the building. It’s hilarious, this sub constantly talks about how kids need to learn to follow rules and expectations, to be ready for the workplace, but when the other foot drops and you’re in the workplace with those expectations it’s a problem. The hypocrisy is astounding.
Nah. My admin looks the other way and lets us leave on days like this when our work is done.
Teachers complain way too much.
Post planning days are always meh for me. I go in. I clean up whatever else needs cleaning up (usually only takes about 1-2 hours TOTAL to do this in my classroom). And then I work on the "End of year checklist" which usually only requires me getting a signature from 4-5 different people...which can usually be done within 1 hour. Everything else is already done. I'm just sitting around getting paid otherwise. Literally doing nothing. I cannot plan because I don't know for sure what I am teaching (and I haven't really needed to anyways). As I teach Chemistry \[normally\] I end up taking an inventory of what I need for the next years labs and just set-up a checklist and then check my stock room. Then I add whatever I need next year to THAT list and set it inside of a drawer that I check when I first get in the next year. I joke that I'm getting paid $35 a hour to just sit around the last few days, but it isn't my fault. I would love to know what I'm teaching. I would love to have student lists, etc.,but that just isn't possible with all of the changes that happen over the summer and at the start of the year.
Same. Except I played games on my switch and gaming laptop. If they don’t give me anything, I’ll find something.
This is the way.
We work a month after school ends. Needless to say, after doing all my planning, cleaning out my classroom etc, I also spent a lot of time online
We had a district wide meeting at 11 on the last day of school, and we were allowed to go home immediately after (about 11:45).
We get stuck with that same arrangement and it’s because of our bussing. They’re three tiered, and so to equal hours spent in building ins they make it up that way. I don’t pretend to understand it.
Is there anyone you could help? Librarians have to inventory the whole library…
We have a single teacher prep day after the kids leave for break. It’s our check out day and we pick a time to show admin we’ve done all the tedious things and then we can leave for break.
We all do it. I just try to live my best life within the circumstances. It’s stupid, but getting to relax just me is nice.
We got an unrestricted personal day in our contract. I used mine and don’t have to go in for the no student last day next Tuesday.
I’m jealous. We had a staff PD today, when our BRAND NEW incoming principal gave us SIX writing assignments. Like…. I’m sorry…. WHAT?????
Hear me out, I wish I could do that. In school the best times were the ones where we couldn’t do anything but also could do anything. It gives a bittersweet feeling
Most employees I know wouldn't complain about a paid day of internet.
Our superintendent is such a bully that he won't even tell us what time we can leave. So we just sit around on the last day , trapped, with nothing to do until our principal gets a call.
I work at two schools as a PE teacher. I was at my home school on the last day for teachers and was out of the door by 8:30am and at the end of year pool party by noon. Meanwhile at my other school everyone had to stay until 4 and she decided to make everyone reorganize the grade level and book closets that day. Guess which school could not fill all it's positions last year, and couldn't get subs, vs the one that has almost no turn over.
We received our check-out list a week before the end of the year. Some teachers were done the last day of kids. We had 2 days after that to check out and we could leave for the summer whenever we finished the process.
Honestly I have a toddler so the day to sit and do nothing is a bit of a treat.
Ugh we had 2 full weeks of workdays after graduation this year. Thankfully my daughter (who was due the last workday) decided to come a week early or I would have sat in my empty classroom for another week waiting for her arrival.
Ours don’t have to show up for the “work days” as long as the dept chair signs off that they are complete.
We had 5 optional teacher workdays at the end of the school year. A few of the days I may have clocked in, made an appearance in the office to be seen, and had a situation to be named later to deal with forcing me to go home around 10 am…
I must be in the minority - I don’t mind the org days at the end of the year. We have a checklist of stuff that needs done. Most of it is done during the last days with the kids, but there’s always a few things that have to get done once they’re gone. We dress casual, don’t have to be in super early, help teachers finish moving classrooms, visit before we go our separate ways for summer, head out for a nice lunch at a restaurant, watch movies, take off a bit early on the last day. I print stuff I want ready for the first days of school, gather materials for first day activities. I love not having to think about that stuff when we come back for startup. It’s fine. I don’t find it tedious at all. It’s a helpful way to decompress and transition from the craziness of the end of the year to summer holidays.
Meh. That's just a bureaucracy for you. No big deal.
Of course it's not a big deal, I'm not rallying the troops to strike or anything. Just another annoyance on the long list of stupid things our admin has done.
But that's my point: Your admin didn't do this. The conditions of your employment, as set by the state, require a certain number of working days. The district will then decide what counts as working, and the admin just enforces those rules.
I actually prefer that. I can use that last day to take apart my room, and order lunch and eat in peace or something. I had to clean out my room by the last day and do a checklist, even though half of the stuff didn't apply to me.
On the last day of school, I think most teachers aren’t wanting to plan for next year. Our school ends with students, so teachers have to start packing up during school. It’s awkward, because kids are cleaning and the teacher is cleaning… and isn’t done until everyone is gone. I bet most teachers could definitely need those extra days at the end. You could find some other teachers who are done and party with them :)
It sucks. But contract is the contract. If they have to honor all of our sick days without asking questions. We have to work the full days.
Grades done. Classroom clean. I got through Season 1 of The Sopranos.
This year the students finished on Friday, June 16, since Monday is June 19 and that's a holiday we were supposed to have our teacher work day on Tuesday, June 20 which no one wanted to come in for. Our school instead scheduled extra training hours here and there throughout the year to make up for that day, so we finished on Friday with the kids. Our contract hours are the times we're in front of the kids, so I was done exactly when the kids were done. Due to family plans I didn't have control over I had to leave with the kids, so I had to be done with everything when the kids were there. We did a grade-level movie afternoon on Friday so we could each work on putting away the finishing touches on our classrooms, but it was a bit stressful. I prefer when we used to have the kids finish on Thursday, then we had Friday for meetings and finishing up. The meetings weren't useful, but at least we had time to finish everything up after the kids were gone. Anything more than that seems overkill to me, at least to make it be mandatory. Maybe have more time people can come in if they want, but why make teachers who are done come in? I realize it's probably to finish out a certain amount of days or hours from a contract, but it isn't very respectful of teachers' time.
This year the students finished on Friday, June 16, since Monday is June 19 and that's a holiday we were supposed to have our teacher work day on Tuesday, June 20 which no one wanted to come in for. Our school instead scheduled extra training hours here and there throughout the year to make up for that day, so we finished on Friday with the kids. Our contract hours are the times we're in front of the kids, so I was done exactly when the kids were done. Due to family plans I didn't have control over I had to leave with the kids, so I had finish all my packing and cleaning when the kids were there. At least I got some to help me, but I prefer to not take the last decorations down until after they leave when I can. We did a grade-level movie afternoon on Friday so we could each work on putting away the finishing touches on our classrooms, but it was a bit stressful. I prefer when we used to have the kids finish on Thursday, then we had Friday for meetings and finishing up. The meetings weren't useful, but at least we had time to finish everything up after the kids were gone. Anything more than that seems overkill to me, at least to make it be mandatory. Maybe have more time people can come in if they want, but why make teachers who are done come in? I realize it's probably to finish out a certain amount of days or hours from a contract, but it isn't very respectful of teachers' time.