We are nearing the point in the summer when teachers will be back to school. While many teachers are excited to return to work, much of this time is filled with things that the administration and state think are vital for a successful start to the school year.

Towards the end of my tenure as a teacher, things improved. This week can be brutal for teachers because of all the new things thrown at them, the need to plan out the year, and figure out new expectations placed on them. Teachers need more time to collaborate, plan, and prepare for the school year than the school or state offers.

Here are my complaints about the back-to-school week as a jaded former teacher.

Back to School with Waste of Time Faculty Meetings and Yearly Training

There’s no getting around the fact that each year starts with a faculty meeting. It needs to happen. Teachers need to know what the week will look like, what the new initiatives from the state or district are getting pushed on teachers, and more.

Teachers don’t usually need twenty minutes of new teacher introductions or icebreakers with teachers around them. Teachers typically get siloed in larger schools and rarely interact with other silos. We don’t need to introduce every new teacher on campus to the entire staff. Most of the time, I never saw these new teachers again unless they were in my department. If they were in my department, I would meet them during a department meeting later in the day.

Also, no new teacher wants to be introduced for the thousandth time. They are usually introduced at new teacher orientation, new to campus orientation, faculty meetings, department meetings, and coaches meetings if they are also coaches.

Also, while the intention means well, most teachers don’t need another inspirational video to get them going for the new year. These videos present more emotional blackmail for teachers than actual inspiration. Still, the administration usually feels like they have to inspire teachers for the year with a TED talk, a clip from a movie, or a YouTube video to make up for the fact that the district only gave them a raise that won’t even cover the rising cost of health insurance and the fact that the school won’t provide them with enough time to get what needs to be done done.

Also, during the week, he had to sit through safety, health, grading, social media, and Special Educational training every year. These rarely change but are state mandated. If schools could find a way to make these quicker for returning teachers, it could go a long way to helping with time during the week.

Most teachers want to get the new information and get out of the meeting so they can work with their limited time.

Team Building

Over my thirteen years in the classroom, the team building exercise rarely provided me with actual team building. For most years, the admin tried to make it harder to be with my team to create a whole school team environment.

Of course, these activities vary. In my first few years, we were made to do foolish Minute To Win It tasks, like carrying an egg on a spoon using only your mouth. I remember one where someone attached an empty tissue box to their lower back and shook ping pong balls out. No one wanted to do it.

During these games, students in the digital media class were asked to take videos of us doing humiliating things so that they could edit the film and show the entire school once the students all came back.

Our school transitioned to an Amazing Race-style game where we were given clues to places around town. We had to travel as a team to find these things and take pictures. I enjoyed this game and made lasting memories with my coworkers; however, it took up an entire work morning that could have been spent doing something else. And the game was mandatory.

Unfortunately, one of the teams got into a car accident in the school parking lot during the game, so the game would never be played again.

We transitioned to a “game” where we had to get on teams, go around the school, and make a video showing school spirit.

While there were some fun moments during these games, for the most part, it felt degrading. I rarely bonded with my team during these games. If you’re going to do team building, I would suggest limiting the time and effort it takes to get something done. I would also question if the games are designed to build a team or make someone look foolish for fun.

I’m not against team building, but being in the trenches and hanging out with my team builds more team morale than games like these.

As a coach, I would create opportunities outside of our sport for the team to hang out and do things they wanted to do to build team morale. Why not host a coffee bar and allow teams to hang out? Nothing brings people together like food.

Finally, Time with Teams

Towards the later part of my teaching years, the Powers-That-Be finally realized teachers don’t need a tightly packed learning week. No, what teachers need is time.

Unfortunately, they wouldn’t give us the time we needed when we needed it. The district gave us time to meet in content levels more than once, but this time would occur before a district planning day. This district planning day would provide us with all the updates to the curriculum for the year, often changing the plans from last year.

Having time with the team the day before offered us time to plan, but we couldn’t get much done because we didn’t know the updates. Of course, that didn’t happen every time, but it happened enough.

As a teacher, time with teams is the most valuable time to improve things. When we went into teams, we found new ways to teach and got to bounce ideas off each other. Someone might have done a lesson before with a unique style or idea, and others wouldn’t get to know that if they didn’t meet.

Teaching can be a solitary job. While you are around people all day, it can be rare when you get to work with someone else. New teachers need to be in these meetings to truly understand what is happening with the content because they have so much else to worry about.

While getting more time feels fantastic, there are still things that need to improve in education.

One Week to Plan it All

Team time is excellent but always mixed with faculty meetings, team building, and training. This time gives teachers less than a week to plan most of the year.

Think about that. Teachers aren’t even given ONE WEEK to plan an ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR. We don’t know who our students are until Thursday or Friday before school starts. So we can’t look at data to determine the areas we must hit during the planning stages.

Again, this has gotten better through the years, but one week isn’t enough to get things planned out. My district started offering us planning days throughout the year. At first, we got pulled out of our classroom for planning days, but in my last year, the district finally built a day each quarter for planning purposes (although often, my school would add an extra faculty meeting).

Teachers need more time to plan. Really, with everything they have to do during that first week, they don’t even have a week to plan out the entire year.

Get Your Classroom Ready

Finally, when are they supposed to get their room ready? At the end of the previous year, we are told to take all the decorations, posters, and whatever else we use down for the summer. The start of the year is filled with meetings, planning, and team building, and no time to work on your classroom.

Teachers have to use their own time to set up their classrooms, arrange desks, set up technology, and more. I used to go to my room several weeks beforehand to get everything set up. This route is risky because there’s a chance the AC in the building isn’t turned on anywhere, but the admin offices or you might not have been told that you’ve been moved rooms.

And I did this on my own time. As a coach of a sport whose season starts before school does, I wouldn’t have any extra time to spend in my classroom getting things ready.

We were given most of the last day before students came to use how we needed. Most of the time, I would use this time to plan one of my courses or lessons, print out work, or go over the required independent training we had. More often than not, though, I would start the year in-season with my sport and miss this day to take kids to competitions. This left me with no time to get things together before school started.

Good Luck With the First Week of School Teachers

With all that said, I loved the first week back at school. I would get into a routine I had lost over the summer. My teachers friends returned to my life. The lunches during the week offered team building and new details on friends’ summers.

But it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. I felt the impending deadlines I didn’t have time to meet all week. I felt like I could use more time with my team and classroom.

So, if you’re in charge, remember team building is great, but time is better.