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Friday Night Rewind It doesn't matter which team you cheer for. We've got video previews of every high school football program in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando County.
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These themes are probably going to make some of you have flashbacks to wasted mornings or afternoons spent sprawled in front of the TV.
TAMPA — After being forced to teach a longer day this year, Hillsborough high school teachers are feeling pressed for time and are worried they are shortchanging students, a new survey shows.
Two-thirds of the teachers surveyed said they have less time for students outside class. Most are staying later and arriving earlier to get their work done.
Almost half thought the quality of their instruction had eroded.
Officials heard a loud outcry last year after announcing the change, which affected teachers at high schools and magnet middle programs. They were required to teach an extra class period.
The teachers union surveyed 4,000 teachers affected by the change, receiving responses from 57 percent that largely validated reports of exhaustion.
"It has been really, really, really drastic," said Celeste Sanchez, who teaches anatomy and physiology at Riverview High School.
The teachers union sees the survey as ammunition to take into contract negotiations. In a bleak budget year, school officials may not undo the change, which was expected to save as much as $28-million. But they could take other steps to help teachers.
"Let's look at some ways to make teachers' lives easier and make their jobs more doable," said Yvonne Lyons, executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.
She suggested eliminating the two extra school days on the Hillsborough calendar and guaranteeing planning time for teachers.
The union is waiting to see whether the scheduling change affected areas such as student test scores and teachers taking sick and personal days.
The district helped administer the survey but didn't get involved in it. Testing director John Hilderbrand said he thought it was biased.
"You're dealing with a group of people who have been asked to work an extra hour without pay," he said. "The answers are going to be somewhat negative."
Letitia Stein can be reached at lstein@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3400. Visit the Gradebook at blogs.tampabay.com/schools.
>>Fast facts
Teachers sound off
In a new survey, high school teachers reported doing less of the following activities after being forced to teach a longer day:
67% Interacting with students outside class
61% Including open-ended questions on tests
44% Updating lesson plans
52% Sponsoring clubs
[Last modified: May 12, 2008 07:43 PM]
Comments on this article
by richard
May 12, 2008 7:43 PM
The SB and Elia needs to leave this county and ruin another school district and take Hilderbrand with them. They are so clueless. Thank be to God I'm leaving this district in a few weeks and changing my profession.
by Concerned from St. Petersburg
May 12, 2008 7:39 PM
Hi--Teachers in Tampa, please don't feel like you are the only ones--now Pinellas is trying to make up for lost time by getting only the MIDDLE SCHOOL teachers to teach 2 EXTRA classes a day!!!! And the way they plan to do it is via a block schedule
by upset parent
May 12, 2008 10:31 AM
Trust our educators. Our children's education has been downgraded once more due to this new "more is more" schedule. SpringBoard curriculum will further ruin things next year from what they say.
by pam
May 12, 2008 10:08 AM
Hilderbrand is an idiot!! If course the results will be negative!!! Betcha we don't see HIM working an extra hour each day and bringing home more to do on nights and wekends!! Come on, Hilderbrand--you couldn't handle a day in the classroom, now!!!
by bias???????
May 12, 2008 10:07 AM
I don't think he knows what bias is. The district polled all teachers affected by the change. Many answered. That's called DATA! Is he insinuating that teachers are lying about conditions? So typical of the SB.
by Tom
May 12, 2008 9:39 AM
John Hilderbrand is clueless. He would last 1 day in a classroom. He would not even have time to eat his usual meal in the 30 minute lunch break we get. The people at ROSSAC need to go back to teach. LOL
by David
May 12, 2008 9:03 AM
add up...it is a farse. Students are not counted, others are moved into different homerooms. It is the FCAT shuffle at its finest and it is being fine tuned every day, of every year! Remove the test! Find something real like the Regents in NY.
by David
May 12, 2008 9:03 AM
Of course the district wants to look at test scores. They can manipulate them to say anything they want. Just look at the writing scores, they are higher then ever, and ask any teacher about student performance, it is worse then ever...the two dont
by Toad
May 11, 2008 10:58 AM
That's not 'bias' - that's a given. Don't wanna cross Elia, though... and to the bashers - if your boss told you to work another hour for no pay, what would YOU do? (This is the part where you claim to work harder than anyone else in the world).
by Chip
May 11, 2008 10:50 AM
The remarks made by John Hilderbrand are idiotic and devisive. Maybe the district could remove him from his position and put him in a high school classroom for two years. That pansy would sing a different song when he had to do some real work.
by Lynn
May 11, 2008 10:04 AM
Of course we are worn out. This was the district's way of conforming to the class size amendment. Lower the number of student's in each class, but give us an extra class of 25 more students to teach. Well done! How about that for quality education?
by Chris
May 11, 2008 10:03 AM
"work an extra hour without pay". That says it all for the district administration, doesn't it? I bet the Superintendent doesn't even draw a breath without getting paid for it.
by John
May 11, 2008 10:03 AM
You better believe asking me to work an extra hour without pay, we used to get T payroll, affected my responses on the survey. I, for one, will improve education by retiring and saving the system my salary. 30+ years of experience down the drain.
by Timmy!
May 10, 2008 2:57 PM
"The answers are going to be somewhat negative."
DUH! That's the best they could come up with?!
Sounds like the district expected these results from the get-go.
So just how are they going to mollify their employees? To ignore 'em will embolden 'em.
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