Previous articleSilence is more expensive than money: teachers puzzled by the idea that communication in chat rooms work
We are used to working chats – the scourge of our time, but still used to think that this problem concerns mainly office workers
To include any remote communication of school teachers on work in the calculation of hours of their workload proposed by the Public chamber: they say, it is the same working time! The authors of the idea propose to allocate for chats and personal communication with parents of students for an hour and a half, which will allow teachers to finally free their evenings.
- Recently, for the first time in many years, I took a classy guide and I was impressed by how the spread of instant messengers affected us all. The expectation that anyone should be connected at any time has penetrated into the school reality, shared a mathematics teacher named Zhanna Karenovna. Now it is expected that the high school student will immediately write to the class leader that he is late, that the classmate himself will immediately write to parents that the child is not at school, that any documents will be filled out and sent instantly, that you can always ask the teacher about homework. A steady stream of messages.
- For example, I, in principle, turn on the phone only after I finish teaching the last lesson on this day, supports Svetlana Alexandrovna, a colleague of the Russian girl. But that doesn’t mean I’m starting to rest. We also have teaching advice, reporting, checking homework, preparing for the next lessons and so on. And to such an extent that the last two items often remain for the evening, which is like our free time. And then the parents just got home from work, had dinner, asked the child about how his school day was, and let’s write, or even call the class teacher. You never know when a dispatch from another worried parent will arrive. But, on the other hand, taking on the cool leadership, each of us knows that this can not be avoided. The most experienced educate their parents themselves: you can persuade them to take them to communicate outside the working hours just 1-1.5 hours in question. But only by yourself, not by decree from above.
- But why?
- I won’t speak for all my colleagues, but mine, when discussing this proposal, saw a trick in it that could load us even more.
In general, according to the authors of the idea, it was said that the official fixation of communication in chat rooms as part of the work will help protect the teacher from the notorious “digital burnout”. At the same time, it will give the teacher at least some limits, because now many teachers work almost 24/7: parents can write even at midnight, demanding an immediate response. If the communication becomes part of working hours, it will allow the teacher with good conscience to turn off notifications after 18:00 or 19:00. In some schools, it is stipulated in advance that after 20:00, class leaders will not respond to messages, but not all parents are deterred by this: someone, not contacting the class leader late in the evening, could dial the head teacher and even the principal.
Remuneration is the same: many teachers, by their own estimation, spend 1 to 3 hours a day answering chat rooms – and that’s unpaid work. Recognition of this activity by work gives the right to demand either additional payments or direct inclusion of these hours in the calculation of the pedagogical load. Lawyers add that in their practice there were precedents when parents bullied teachers in chat. If such a chat becomes an “official workplace”, it will simplify the legal protection of the teacher, since an insult in the official channel of communication is no longer a “personal opinion”, but a violation of professional ethics.
What's bothering teachers? Many people are not ready to talk about doubts on their behalf, but here are the collegial concerns for us:
