THE MULTIPLYING DUTIES OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL TEACHERS 
TEACHERS AT INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS HAVE ALWAYS HAD THESE RESPONSIBILITIES:

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES: 
  • Prepare for classes in two or more different courses of instruction. 
  • Teach classes -- which means engaging creatively, emotionally, and intellectually with one's subject and with different groups of young people, many times a week.
  • Thoughtfully design, read, and mark paper assignments, tests, and homework. 
  • Prepare for and conduct academic conferences with students. 
  • Develop a strong and, if possible, warm working relationship with each student.
  • Assess student achievement, track student progress, keep records. 
  • Write midterm and end-term comments for each student's parents and permanent file. 
  • Do academic research and keep up with developments in one's subject area. 
  • Work on improving teaching strategies. 
  • Update and refresh course content. 
  • Post and publish student work; put up classroom bulletin board displays. 
  • Deal with minor everyday exigencies -- e.g., send assignments for sick or absent students, or cope with missing student homework, late book arrivals, a shut bookstore, or minor technology snafus. 
  • Catch students up after absences such as illnesses, family crises, school trips, and e.d.'s for school sports or performances. 
  • Track attendance in one's classes. 
ANCILLARY EXPECTATIONS:
  • Design and lead special schoolwide projects. 
  • Check with advisees daily; connect with each advisee's parents; be liaison for advisee, teachers, and parents as needed.
  • Attend advisees' school sports events, art performances, and other exhibitions.
  • Chair a department, be a college counselor, or lead a major faculty committee or student activity.
  • Chaperone some student social activities. 
  • Supervise 1-2 library study halls per week. 
  • Prepare for and attend Back-to-School Night and other parent nights as required. 
  • Help move rummage into the sale area and guide groups of students doing the same. 
  • Write recommendation letters for students. 
  • Be an active adult presence on campus and share in ad hoc disciplining of students. 
  • Spend informal time with students. 
  • Spend time with alumni - letters, calls, conversation during their campus visits. 
  • Have phone conversations with parents. 
  • Respond to deans and directors' demands.
  • Attend monthly faculty meetings. 
  • Attend department meetings. 
  • Attend student review sessions on demand.
  • Meet with parents, administrators, advisers, counselor, and/or skills staff when asked. 
  • Occasionally supervise a student's course of independent study or a senior project. 
  • Contribute to the summer reading list.
How many of the above responsibilities do classroom teachers fulfill less effectively
because additional duties* are now required of them? (*read on)
DURING THE PAST 25 YEARS THESE DUTIES HAVE BEEN ADDED:
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES: 
  • Teach a mix of long & short class periods. 
  • Design and implement collaborative and other student-centered learning experiences in the classroom. 
  • Explicitly address issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
  • Infuse multicultural topics and materials into curriculum and instruction. 
  • Infuse environmental topics and materials into curriculum and instruction. 
  • Address the different learning styles of students in general. 
  • Address the diagnosed learning disabilities of particular students. 
  • Teach students whose prior schooling consisted of miscellaneous "projects" instead of coherent curriculums of study. 
  • Teach students who read less now and who have read less in the past.
  • Teach more students who are emotionally needy because more families are under stress and fewer parents have time for parenting.
  • Teach students who are distracted & confused by a chaotic, media-driven culture, and who are not held to standards of ethics or civility at school or elsewhere. 
  • Use constantly changing new technologies.
  • Deal with major technology problems -- e.g., lost files due to program failures; viruses; nonfunctioning servers; e-mail failures; hardware malfunctions; idiosyncrasies and incompatibilities in the system; confusing or contradictory training; overworked & unavailable tech staff; machine shortages on campus. 
  • Write an annual self-assessment for division director.
ANCILLARY EXPECTATIONS:
  • Participate in extended, formalized teacher evaluation processes. 
  • Conserve paper, and guide students in paper conservation. 
  • Recycle paper, cans, plastic, and glass, and lead students in recycling them. 
  • Lead or otherwise participate in student-led days of special activities. 
  • Nurture student leadership, participation, and initiative by involving students in major aspects of decision-making. 
  • Attend one more faculty meeting monthly. 
  • Attend Student Court hearings on demand. 
  • Attend the 9th-grade family Saturday or chaperone a class retreat in the fall. 
  • Help newly admitted 10th-12th-grade advisees and their parents sign up for an appropriate course load.
  • Respond to dozens of daily phone and e-mail messages and requests. 
  • Share in responsibility for increased campus security and disaster readiness. 
  • Enlist a colleague to co-chaperone every off-campus student activity. 
  • Respond to requests from parent groups. 
  • Respond to directives from increasing numbers of administrators. 
  • Respond to directives from the Board of Trustees. 
  • Serve on major task forces, on urgent focus groups, and on increasing numbers and kinds of committees. 
  • Hold an individual conference and attend a dinner with new advisees' parents.
  • Attend regular meetings of department members from both divisions, 5-12.
When you make a new "minor request" of classroom teachers,
which of the above responsibilities do you want them to give up or to perform less well?
--Judy Lightfoot (Revised 8/16/00)
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