The Hunk Alert

Some of the Responsibilities of a high school teacher

Some of the Responsibilities of a teacher

By: Heather Corti

Educator, creator of SIMPLY Shakespeare

 

1. Primary Responsibility—to assume supervision of all students in loco parentis. What does this mean?

First, it allows institutions such as colleges and schools to act in the best interests of the students as they see fit, although not allowing what would be considered violations of the students’ civil liberties.[1]

Second, this doctrine can provide a non-biological parent to be given the legal rights and responsibilities of a biological parent if they have held themselves out as the parent.

1. All high school teachers do some sort of “Duty”.  These duties include: (I’m only listing 32 of them).  Most are done on a daily basis, several on a weekly basis, and a few on a monthly basis. 
2. morning duty from 7:30-8:00
3. hall duty between classes
   1. standing in the hallway while students change classes—every class change.
4. lunch duty
   1. one lunch a week is donated to monitoring students in the cafeteria
5. at any given time the classroom board must contain the following real time information:
   1. the lesson that’s being taught
   2. the state competency both the teacher and student directed activities meet. 

                                                                          i.      If these competencies are numerous, all must be placed on the board and all must be explained

1. The ‘word of the week’ given to us by the PSRC
2. Make regular contact with parents
3. Planning period meetings once a month that use our entire planning period.
4. After school meeting for various sales pitches
5. maintaining all cumulative records
6. typing, grading, averaging grades

10.  maintaining a website with up to date lessons/activities/supplemental materials/necessary source material

11.  keeping in contact with parents and keeping records of contact

1. attendance
2. actions
3. academics
4. or what ever reason a parent determines necessary to keep contact

12.  keeping a record of potty passes/hall passes

13.  issue all source materials and keep records of materials issued

1. distribution of materials to students must be documented by student signatures/initials.  This documentation must be kept by the teacher for conferences including:

                                                                          i.      educational materials

                                                                        ii.      Progress reports

                                                                      iii.      Report cards

14.  enforce all rules in the  Student Code of Conduct Book and keep a record of all rules students break

15.  rent lockers to students, keep track of money for rent, keep track of the log book used in renting lockers

16.  coordinate all field trips including

1. collection of money
2. recording the collection of money
3. locate all sponsors
4. locate busses and bus drivers
5. keep record of all student field trip waivers
6. distribute a list of student participants to teachers and principal

17.  keep up with any and all e-mails from the principal and teachers

18.  listen to all announcements regardless of what’s happening in the classroom

19.  bond with the students

20.  keeping up with student attendance including:

1. classroom attendance

                                                                          i.      excused absences

                                                                        ii.      unexcused absences

21.  to provide opportunities for all students to develop self-discipline

22.  to provide opportunities for all students to develop respect for others

23.  to accept responsibility for the control and discipline of students throughout the school buildings and property

24.  to consider the physical development of the students

25.  to consider the social development of the students

26.  to consider the emotional development of the students

27.  to provide the appropriate learning opportunities for each individual student as they sit in a class of 30

28.  to know all the system-wide regulations for discipline

29.  to attend conferences upon request

30.  use positive reinforcement when dealing with students

31.  to always implement teacher-initiated strategies to de-escalate any and all situations that may arise when dealing with 100′s of different types of  personalities

32.  to initiate actions to remove  dangerous students

33.  to initiate actions to remove disruptive students

 

1. Health and Safety –
   1. It is the educator’s responsibility to foresee possible dangers and to set up preventive measures for these dangers.  The educator must keep the health and safety of all students in mind each and every moment of the day, including:
2. all those students assigned to the teacher must be accounted for at all times—could range from 40 students to 120 students.
   1. Monitoring all passes for the restroom and the water fountain
   2. Making sure all students are accounted during fire drills (outside)
   3. taking attendance/keeping up with tardies
   4. at no time can the teacher leave the students unsupervised for any reason (to go to the restroom perhaps)
3. responsible for proper precautionary measures such as filtering through all requests to go to the nurse and or guidance.
4. if a student becomes ill or injured it is the teacher’s responsibility to contact parents
5. if the teacher cannot contact the parents the teacher must contact administration and turn the matter over to them
6.  in case of an accident I must file a written report outlining in detail the incident which needs to include signed statements by witnesses
7. It is the teacher’s responsibility to follow the various procedures for the following:
   1. fire drills
   2. bomb threats
   3. natural disasters

 

1. Classrooms are the teacher’s responsibility despite having 100+ teenagers in and out of a class room all day long.  The teacher is:
2. responsible for all equipment in my classroom at all times regardless of the current classroom situation.
3. Responsible personally for the condition of the student desks.
4. responsible for the cleanliness of my room
5. responsible for keeping the students from littering

 

1. Lessons
2. a course syllabus must be submitted listing all required materials, course requirements, grading criteria
3. each student must be provided this syllabus
4. it is the responsibility of the teacher to provide each  student with opportunities for creativity and self expression including:
   1. a variety of meaningful activities
   2. challenging lessons
   3. their evaluation process
5. keeping up with those lessons turned in late due to absenteeism
   1. college day excused absences
   2. In School Suspension absences
   3. Out of School Suspension absences
   4. “Skipping” absences
   5. Unfinished work due to students leaving school early from class
6. teaching the state standard course of study
   1. each and every individual competency must be placed in public view, in real time, ready for any outside member of the community or for the administration to observe without notice.
7. lessons must be rigorous yet fun
   1. lessons must comprise of 15 minutes of teacher directed instruction followed by 15+ minutes of student directed activities.  This balance must occur for the entire 90 minute class period. 
   2. Lessons must have a direct correlation to the intended competency placed on the board written is such a way the student can understand the purpose of the activity’s tie into the competency.
   3. Lessons must engage the slowest student and stimulate the most intellectual simultaneously
   4. All lessons must be presented in such a way as to be modified for the 30% special educational students present at any moment in class. These modifications include special accommodations made for the 30% of our students who are on Individual Educational Programs (IEP) requiring special allowances.  All of whose IEP’s may differ per student.
   5. Source materials must include enough of a variety as to keep the students’ attention
8. lessons must include the following per day:
   1. starter activity
   2. objectives
   3. strategies specified with a time frame
   4. materials (handouts/worksheets) pre-copied and labeled
   5. homework assignments to enhance the day’s lesson
9. Emergency lesson plans must be submitted to cover three days of work in my absence

 

1. Grading  responsibilities
2. maintaining a hard copy of the grade book as well as a computer generated copy
3. verify all grades to be correct
4. keep up with grading all late work
5. keeping up with all missing assignments
6. all grades must be properly identified and open to evaluation
7. all cumulative records are the full responsibility of the teacher
   1. all pertinent data will be updated by the teacher
   2. this maintenance can only take place while there are no students in the classroom

 

About the Author

I am an educator with middle school and public school experience, both public and private, in three states.  I am also the creator of SIMPLY Shakespeare.  My education:  a BA in Literature and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Literature.   I, like most educators, high school in particular, struggle with the balance of creating rigorous lessons for apathetic students with high absenteeism rates.  So much goes into creating a lesson, layers upon layers to take into consideration.  I write my thought process to lesson creation as a medium to help those, not in education, understand what a teacher does.