I Wanna be "special" too!

[newoldteacher]

I've written before to express my displeasure with having NO lunch break from children. We are required to sit "elbow-to elbow" with our children during lunch. There's NO down time. So.... on to today...

When we leave the lunchroom, my children wait in a line right outside the workroom while I go and check my mailbox. In the workroom, sitting four to a table are the special area teachers (spec. ed., reading,) quietly enjoying their lunch, the newspaper, and adult conversation. I nearly said what I was thinking "Maybe I should be "special", too!".

Am I totally whiny? Why should some teachers have the freedom to "do lunch", while classroom teachers can't swallow their food without being ON the entire lunch period? I'm ticked beyond measure.

 

[Penny]

maybe I'm spoiled

I know I'm a middle school teacher and maybe as such I'm spoiled, (four minute breaks between hour long classes--we can actually use the restroom and get back for hall duty during that time), but we are REQUIRED to have a 30 minute duty free lunch every day. Even if we WANT to do cafeteria duty during lunch, they won't let us unless that's also our off period. I'm in a non-union state, but it's one of the nonnegotiables. Administration does cafeteria duty.

You need time away from the kids and adult conversation is vital to staying sane in a school environment.

I'd be frustrated too in your position.

 

[Beateach]

I Know What You Mean

No, you are not being whiny. Although we have duty free lunch, the time scheduled for lunch is very short. By the time my kids get through the lunch line and get settled down to eat, I have 15 minutes or less to eat my lunch. Many is the day that I end up eating part of my lunch and then finishing the rest sometime that afternoon. Meanwhile, the special area teachers have over thirty minutes to eat lunch and relax. I would be grateful for just a few more minutes to finish my lunch.

 

[Gail]

No, not whiny...

I worked at a private school and had no duty free lunch. It's hard. At the public, I ended up with 20+ minutes on a good day, but usually somewhere around 15-18 minutes. Having experienced both, I savored my duty free lunch. You aren't going to change anything, but your specials teachers better be appreciating it, too.

 

[lydia]

i hear ya!

I work in a private school where i had to fight for four months to get a lunch break. Now the idiot that does lunch duty - sends them to my classroom while I'm eating if they do not listen at lunch. Each time I pick them up, she whines and whines and whines and whines about how they didn't behave. (Did I mention there are only 10 students in my class?) I am sick to death of hearing about it. ARGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I didn't realize the teaching profession treated teachers like such crap! I am sick of being asked to go above and beyond while most other teachers I work with sit on their behinds!

 

[Kim/4th/SC]

Me,too!

No, you aren't being whiny! My feeling is that we are all on the same salary schedule, so we should all have the same duties/responsibilities. If special area people are going to have perks like no lunch duty, no permanent records, etc., they shouldn't be paid as much as a classroom teacher. I have been a special area teacher and now am in a classroom (No special area jobs available in my area.) and special areas is MUCH easier.

Kim

 

[newoldteacher]

Thanks...and today

Thanks. Today, we were told that NO MORE could we try to sit within earshot of another teacher. *You know how creative teachers can be!*
We MUST be IN, AMONGST, AMID, NEXT TO, and crowded, with no chance of our own conversion. I dared mention the inequality of special area teachers, only to be told that it would create a scheduling nightmare to try to arrange for them to EVER relieve Gen. Ed. teachers.

I LOVE my principal, and haven't had any disagreements with her (SHE WORKS SO hard and is SO dedicated!). However, this issue is sticking in my (and others') craw. I see no solution. ;(

 

[Tounces]

lunch

Ok, I read the posts, but I'm still confused. Why?? Why are you required to sit that close to your students at lunch? Does the principal take his/her turn too? "Do as I say, not as I do?" The picture I'm getting of you crammed into those lunchroom tables, not to mention the noise would make my stomach churn. Kids that chew with their mouths open, kid talk while eating etc. Sounds like a nightmare. I feel so bad for you all. Can't you at least sit at a "teacher table" together? Hire lunchroom aides, volunteers? This would probably make me lose weight anyway. The headache I would get would be awful all afernoon. I do have food allergies, so I guess they would have to find an alternative for me? For example, I can't even be near strawberries. Sorry. BTW you're not as whiny as I would be.

 

[NCteacher]

I know EXACTLY what you mean! I am also required to eat with my kids- not beside them or at a teacher table. It is deafening, makes me crazy and then I dread the afternoon. I can't make people outside the profession understand that I am "on" from 7:45 in the morning until 2:40 in the afternoon. No breaks, planning only 2 times a week, no duty free lunch...only to see the special teachers arriving just as the bell rings to enjoy 30-40 minutes in the morning while we have homeroom before their specialty classes....then to watch them come to the cafeteria, get lunch, then go outside or to the lounge to eat. AAAAGGGHHHH!!!! Ever notice that regular classroom teachers NEVER use the teacher's lounge? We have 2 in our school.....the one downstairs in primarily the one that the special teachers use....we ended up turning the one upstairs into a classroom! It was never getting used anyway.....my principal is totally opposed to duty free lunch for teachers (or at least classroom teachers). It helps us 'to get to know the kids'. It is infuriating.

 

[Bonnie gr. 2]

Check the law

We used to have to be in the lunchroom on a rotating basis. Not eating, supervising. We used to have to spend the whole time there. We found out that we were entitled to a certain amount of time for a duty free lunch.

This changed as a reult of negotations. My building has 2 "volunteers? who are paid to do it daily. But other buildings do not. So they rotate being on call. Aides are in lunch but a teacher is available to handle problems.

 

[Carolyn]

duty-free lunch

I have to agree that now I'm a special area teacher, I don't have to sit with kids and struggle to eat and watch them eat and keep out of trouble. My heart goes out to the kindergarten teachers who spend a good portion of their lunch "break" opening milk cartons.

One of the reasons I left the classroom was because of the demands. I believe it is a lot easier being a special area teacher. I don't have to do all of the things I used to do--grade tests, get angry phone calls from parents, threatening notes, permanent records, etc. I guess parents aren't as concerned about their child's PE, art, music grade, so why bother.

My husband is a hard-working science teacher in a high school. I tell him that teachers who work in classes where there is an end-of-grade test should be paid more because they have more responsibility.

 

[newoldteacher]

How do we "fix" it without alienating the

principal? I'm at a loss. I don't know what, if anything, I ate today. The kids manners are atrocious. Yes, some might say that's why I'm at the table to teach them better manners. I say let someone else do that.

What recourse do we have?

Thanks!

 

[apple_annie]

Lunch bunch

We have to sit in the lunchroom too, but at least all of our grade level sits together at the end of one of the kid's tables. So we do get a chance to talk a little in between tattling, milk carton opening, jumping up to clean up spills, and get kids settled down. It's not as bad as my last job though, at a middle school. Kids and teachers got 20 minutes for lunch. The school had a great salad line... You could get a big chef salad for two bucks, but the lounge was a hundred miles away from the cafeteria, and you had to save time to walk back to the cafeteria to pick up kids. On our weekly duty day, the teacher had to go straight to the basketball court and supervise kids during the entire lunch shift, so you either brought a sandwich to eat standing up while you broke up the fights, or you just went without.

Ok this is not a helpful post, but sometimes it's just fun to share horror stories.

 

[REB]

Wow...I never realized...

so many people hated specials teachers?

Geez....make me feel real good about the profession I chose?

P.S. I have 49 sections of music, by the way...do any of ya'll have to try to get to learn that many students names, behaviors, BIPS, and parents? (I teach over 600 kids a week, by the way.) AND...I have duty three times a week, when some of the other specials teachers do not have that much duty, and I AM THERE LESS...because I am also located at another school as well.
I would love to be posted at just one place, but since that hasn't happened in the past couple years, I live with it, and try to learn as much about the students as I possibly can.
And, yes, I have had to help "track" students, and do IEP meetings in my time...my fair share, and extra duties for sports, and one year, when I was a teacher in another state, the principal decided that ONLY specials teachers would do duty, for the ENTIRE school year...and I HAD DUTY every morning, the first semester, and lunch duty, might I add, and the second semester, I had duty every afternoon, and lunch duty everyday, while the regular teachers, only had to do duty, if there was a basketball game, or football game, and even then, that was few and far between.
So, in response to having time to yourself, yes...the few minutes, of no extra afterschool rehearsals, or programs at night, or meetings, or faculty meetings (like everyone else), or Open House (like everyone else), or awards programs, or other activities going on in the school, yes those few minutes are greatly treasured. I can appreciate the fact that regular classroom teachers have a lot more stuff on their plates to deal with during a day, but I, too, make a difference, everytime I see a child's eyes light up, because yes, they realized that math and music have a connection, or art and music have a connection, or that literature is a very important part of music, and that poetry can be set to music, or that many of the great composers have a vast history, that is interesting and unique...that to me makes each day fun. Some teachers say I'm way too happy in my classroom, and I say, maybe so, but when you're doing something that you have a passion for, it makes each day worth it.
As far as getting to eat with the other specials...I wouldn't know anything about that...I sit and eat with the other regular teachers...(they also get duty free lunch in our schools...lucky us.)
REB

 

[Carolyn]

agree with you REB

Yes, I think that basically our demands are different. As a Spanish teacher in an elementary school, teachers come to me to ask if I could write letters to Spanish speaking parents and sit in and interpret at PTC's. In addition, we are supposed to create active involvement in an after-school Spanish club, and yes, we have morning duty each morning in the hallway to keep the little buggers from speeding there. Also, I don't have textbooks as I did when I was a classroom teacher to fall back on, so I have to surf the web quite often looking for worksheets and materials to buy. That takes a lot of time. Materials are expensive, so I end up spending many hours creating them. I might get a duty-free lunch, but I generally eat it while I am working, since I teach 9 classes a day and have a very short break on four of the five days. Sometimes the mustard gets on a paper I am creating. Oops. Gotta do it over again. I guess you could say that it's work for us, but different work.

 

[cH]

Thanks, Reb!

Thanks for speaking up for those of us out there who are part of the obviously-much-hated "specials" group! If the classroom teachers in my building are as negative about me and our other specials as those on this board, I'm thankful they keep it well-hidden.

As for classroom teachers getting paid more than specials because they have more responsibilities and work harder, that fits right in with the 50's attitude that men teachers had to be paid more than women because the men had to support families. In our district, *all* teachers are degreed, certified, and contracted under the same master contract. If there is a beef with the terms of the master contract, this is a matter for the negotiations team, not for blaming those we feel are "lesser teachers."

BTW, I do feel for the classroom teachers who have to eat with their classes, but it is not *my* fault, any more than my particular subject problems are *their* fault.

 

[newoldteacher]

NO...Not my intent

to denegrate the special area teachers.... I simply think we all deserve the same rights, responsibilities, and respect. Didn't mean to get this going as an US against THEM. AFter all, we are all on the same team. My beef is with the system that sets things up unfairly between the two.

Nuff said.

 

[dramacentral]

Our specialists are all assigned to outdoor recess duty. No one gets a "free ride". Even the principal was downstairs in the cafeteria making the kids sandwiches until the maintenance staff agreed to do it.

Frankly, I agree with some of the other posters here that specialists routinely get slammed on these boards. I think there is a huge lack of communication between regular classroom teachers and other teaching staff. I'm fortunate to have developed friendships with many of the specialists in my school, so I know what their workload is like and the unique challenges that they have. I'm sure people look at normal classroom teachers and think we have so much free time and wonder what we do all day, and we resent it - yet we turn around and do the same thing to others. I don't think it helps anyone.

 

[NCteacher]

Sorry!

I am sorry if it seems the special teachers are getting slammed and appear hated....I truly don't think that is the case. I think that the system is set up to divide us. The classroom teachers don't know what the duties and stresses of being a specialist are (unless they have done that as well) and vice versa. It is just demoralizing to spend my 20 minute lunch period supervising 20 2nd graders in line, opening ketchup packets, mopping the floor when things get spilled and I forgot- washing the tables when we leave the cafeteria. Yesterday the PE teacher walked by me with his lunch, as I stood with peaches splattered on my clothes from a kid dropping his tray.....the PE teacher turned to me and said, "You're wishing you were me right now, huh?" I really wanted to say something mean or pinch him....that kind of attitude does not help anyone. At my school, I am required to attend the same meetings and practices after school as the specialists....as a matter of fact, I often have to stay after school for district meetings that the specialists do not have to stay after for. It gets extremely frustrating as you sit through an hour long meeting, only to go back to work in your classroom til dark, then cart a half ton of work home to do- to watch the art teacher get in his car at 3:30 and go home. So to those special teachers who feel insulted- I am sorry- it is frustration and stress speaking.

 

[Paul S.]

Unbelievable

Even when I worked in private schools where they did not believe in teachers being happy, we had 30 minutes every day to eat away from the kids on days that we had to supervise lunch.

In public school, it was a rule that we had to have time away from kids to eat. In fact, it was enough time to go get something quickly from a hamburger place down the street or a Taco Bell several miles away. Right now, I walk the kids to the lunch room on my way to the teacher's lounge and even though many teachers choose to do work in their room or to help kids who need it, there are several of us who simply want to enjoy our lunch. We have 40 minutes to do what we want.

I mention all this because it is ridiculous htat you don't have the same. Yes, it may be difficult to make the change but the administration has to know that find all new teachers would be even more difficult. Your situation has got to be a work code violation or at least should be part of negotiation. My union is the worst I have seen, until yours.

 

[NCteacher]

The union

in my county/state is a professional organization that does not wield any weight for making changes. I researched labor laws for the nation and state of North Carolina. I was very surprised at what I found on the department of labor websites. There is no law that legislates breaks or lunch. Employers are not required to give any kind of break or lunch time. Most employers do provide those- unless you are a teacher. I was very surprised- another teacher and I researched it after having 3 days out of 5 with no planning time. Apparently there is nothing we can do about this- except switch schools. My principal is a very demanding perfectionist who does not mind having us miss our planning time 2-3 times a week for meetings. Sigh......

 

[Paul S.]

Then Switch

If your principal does not make the change then switch schools or districts and make sure that everyone knows why you are doing so. Life is too short to be in a job you hate, although I know how hard it is to make a change.

Good luck!

 

[bamateach]

lunch

The better solution to this I think is what happens at my school. All teachers are required to eat in the lunchroom. Noone has a duty free lunch.

 

[Paul S.]

Why is that better?

No offense but better for whom? Why is it better to have everyone eating in the cafeteria? Yes, it is equitable but is that what the people on the Titanic thought? "Hey, at least it is equitable!"

It is not right that we work all day and take papers home at night with no time for ourselves. I never thought that ANY districts did that because none of the 5 districts or private schools that I have ever worked for thought that such a situation helped the teachers teach well.

I feel that those of you who get no lunch break are much more likely to be unhappy or get burned out. Don't settle for such a work environment.

 

["Special"]

A Special Area Teacher

My apologies for your dlimena. I read your message and chuckled. Every school district is definitely different. I am a special area teacher in Science and I do nearly the same work as the regular classroom teachers except that I have the pleasure of managing 560 students compared to their 17 - 30 students. My pay is significantly less than a regular education teacher ($14,000 a year compared to the $32,000 of a first year teacher).

Now...I would say that the importance of time away from the children is important. It truly will give you a time to exhale and to put those axons and dendrites back together. Our regular classroom teachers have prep times as well as time to take a lunch. Somewhere there is leadership or an administrator who has been out of the classroom too long and does not see this as a need.

As a special area teacher I don't often feel so "special". Particularly as it relates to my duties and my pay as comparable to the work I do like the regular classroom teacher.