they want my curriculum - WWYD

enneamom

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 3:14 pm

1387 wrote:

The chutzpah is for the school to send her away & then ask her to hand over hours of work!
From what I understand, she was not paid to write a curriculum or develop lessons & stencils to be filed & re-used by others.

Yes. ITA. This is a major chutzpah, and "chutzpah" was the first word that crossed my mind on reading the OP. You are not good enough for them, but your curriculum is. Sounds like they are expert at taking advantage of their employees.

OP, please DO NOT guilt yourself into giving your curriculum. You are doing yourself a disservice: devaluing yourself and your hard work, subliminally giving yourself "shmatteh" messages. You're doing the new teacher a disservice: cultivating a dependency that will be detrimental to her career and skills. And you're doing the school a disservice: enabling this despicable treatment of their staff, which will only backfire sooner or later. Stand up to them. It's about time somebody did.

mommyhood

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 3:15 pm

Squishy wrote:

Faigy86 wrote:

Squishy wrote:

The question is who owns your work product? Do you have the ability to sell it to them; or was it developed as part of your responsibilities which you were paid for? Arguably, you could not have done your job without a curriculum. Also, might you want to get a good referral.

I feel very bad for you.

Hatzloucha.

If developing the curriculum was part of her job, then this new teacher should be doing the same thing or she should have been paid a much higher salary, which it doesn't seem like she was.

How can a teacher teach effectively without a curriculum? I am not trying to be argumentative, I don't understand. If I hire an employee and they developed a protocol how to do their job, then they own the protocol?

Do you think the admin will see it the way most posters in the thread do? I liked the answer the poster above you gave. She is giving a valid principled reason not to give up something she will resent doing.

If your employee resigns it would be fair for them to train the new employee but if you fired that employee I don't think you can expect them to give you any information.

amother

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 4:16 pm

I think since the school let you go you have no obligation to help the school out by gifting them your work as a parting gift, so you cant be in the wrong not to.

But to be nice to the teacher you can talk to her, she did nothing wrong to you if you want to, offer to sell her your work? For a price, maybe the school can pay for it or she can if its worth it to her? You would be going above and beyond nice to just give it over for a chessed to the new teacher and the incoming students, but some people I guess are that nice but-I dont know when to apply "im ayn ani li mi li?" versus chessed is one of the 3 pillars of the world. gl. Where is the line between doormat and kindness? I dont know.

Temilia

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 5:48 pm

Generally speaking, the laws regarding intellectual property is such that anything an employee created, develops or works on as part of his job by default is the intellectual property of the employer.

In addition, absent any written agreement, the Copyright Act of 1976 statee that materials created by teachers in the scope of their employment is owned by the school.
I agree that the school treated you horribly, but from a purely legal stance I am not sure what the situation is. Don't know how not having a contract would work into this, I am not a lawyer.
But generally worksheets, tests, homework etc. created by a teacher by default belong to the school, that is the legal reality.
(This was as of 2010, it was subject to intense scrutiny then and perhaps the law has changed, I am not sure?)

Happy18

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 6:10 pm

Temilia wrote:

If any school enforced this they either wouldnt get teachers or would have to pay teachers more.

agreer

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 7:49 pm

I would not hand it over.

I taught for several years at a by-high school. my first year, I had NO IDEA what I was doing. the principal arranged for me to talk with a more senior teacher, but she wasn't helpful at all. when I specifically asked her about assignments and planning, I could tell she did not want to share with me. I made do and built my own curriculum.

when I was more experienced, I told myself I wouldn't be like her. I offered to share my curriculum with other new teachers. but guess what. assignments that worked beautifully in my class were disastrous in theirs. they couldn't understand - but I could. as I often told my students, when you don't do your own work, it shows. this is especially true for first-year teachers!

so don't withhold your curriculum out of cruelty or being jealous, chV (although you sound very, very gracious and very forgiving; kol hakovd to you). offer to speak to her and guide her, but encourage her to create her own curriculum. it will be best for everyone involved.

amother

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 8:57 pm

Wow, thanks for your responses, mothers!!! I never realised my post would be so interesting, thanks so much for the concern!!!!!!!

No where in my contract was it stated that any curriculum I develop would be the school's property. This is because there's no contract for any teacher in this school. Teachers don't have any rights in this school! I'm used to being protected by a union and general workers' rights, most of which seem not to be existent in this school. Maybe in the whole heimish system or maybe in the whole America this is the case, for all I know, as this was my first job in this country and in a frum school, after many years working abroad in public and private schools. I do remember once working in a private, non Jewish school, and it was written in my contract that on leaving, all of my worksheets, etc, would be the school's property but hey it wasn't so hard to make photocopies for myself of the worksheets I made. I was certainly not paid extra to work on a curriculum. I do B"H finally have all my paychecks for the year, so they can't withhold them.

My tayna with this school is the way that management USES its staff and how some of the staff let themselves be walked over, as their children go to this school (the only one of our hashkofa in this city and schools of other hashkofas don't readily accept children of our hashkofa). My children aren't yet school age and no way am I sending them to this school anyway, after all this rot!

I DO need the school as a reference as all my references are from a different country AND from quite a few years ago. I DON'T have a contract for my new job as it is more of the same. Same sort of school. You ask why? Because I was sacked AFTER the school year had finished, what choice did I have? There were no positions advertised in June! So I have lined up more of the same and I know exactly what to expect!

All through my career I've shared my work. That's what I do and that's what most of my colleagues always did. If I was in a 2 or 3 form entry school and made a worksheet or a game for my class, the other teachers would get a copy - I'd get copies of their work, too. I don't understand not helping other teachers out, because at the end of the day, we're trying to make sure that the students are getting the most out of their time in school AND within the teaching profession there's a certain camaraderie that develops, as far as I've experienced anyway.

Considering what you've all advised me, and what I've contemplated, if the new teacher herself calls me, I'll probably give her my curriculum. I mean, it's really not her fault, I am sure she has no idea that I was booted. As any of you mentioned - my curriculum might not even work for her, so she might not even benefit from it! But if the school principal or any of the other high ups call me, I might have a good, deep and meaningful chat with them about ethics and workers' rights!

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR RESPONSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Smile

spinkles

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 9:50 pm

In terms of intellectual property laws, teacher-created worksheets and materials are generally the teacher's property unless the contract stipulated otherwise.

Schools should already have a curriculum, it's ridiculous that they didn't and now expect OP to hand hers over.

OP, your materials are something you put a lot of creativity and effort into, I would definitely not give them up. I'm a former teacher and have tons of old materials, believe it or not my old principal at my last job called me from time to time for more than two years asking for advice for how her new teacher should teach various topics. Ridiculous. Of course you'll help the new teacher out, point her in the direction of chinuch.org. Save the materials that you poured so much effort into for yourself. You're going to be teaching in other schools, you'll use those materials again. You could also consider organizing them as an ebook that other teachers (and homeschoolers) could buy.

There's a real lack of respect for intellectual property, it's important to stand up for yourself. You will be respected for it. I found that the teachers who didn't allow themselves to be walked over, ended up getting paid better and being wooed by other schools.

familyfirst

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 11:38 pm

I'm thinking about the way I would balance these two opinions:

I remember starting to teach a new grade, a new subject and would have LOVED for the past teacher to give me some direction. It really would have been helpful.

Therefore...I would tell the new teacher (should she actually call...not sure I'd do reaching out) that you'd be happy to guide her in which books to use, which discipline systems work, how to pace your year, where to find resources, etc, but I would NOT give her any handouts or specialized projects that you put in hours to create. However, a general overview of what should be accomplished during the year should give her enough of a guideline. She can take it from there.

That should take care of the guilt...and your self esteem!

Just my two cents...

spinkles

Tue, Aug 07 2012, 11:40 pm

Google "work for hire teachers' exception" if you want to read more. Basically this issue of who owns teacher-created materials is somewhat controversial, but in academia it's generally accepted that the professor owns his own lesson plans/worksheets/etc.

Works made for hire means things like newspaper articles written by newspaper reporters. The situation with teachers is very different. A teacher is hired to teach a certain subject. She has to cover the topics that are outlined in the curriculum. But, she is given a lot of leeway to teach things in her own way. She can choose to give dry, dull lectures straight from the book, and as long as she covers the correct material, she's doing what she was hired to do. Now, if she chooses to spend extra time and effort coming up with fun, creative activities to teach the same curriculum, those materials are not intrinsically part of the job in the same way that writing a newspaper article is if you're a reporter. That's why this is a gray area.

Until recently, no school district tried to claim ownership of a teacher's materials, it was always understood that these are the teacher's intellectual property, she went above and beyond her job because she cared, and they are thus hers. But now with the development of websites where teachers sell their lesson plans and materials to other teachers, some stinky schools are fussing that the teachers shouldn't be making money off of something that the school owns. Most schools aren't making that claim, though. In general there is a pretty strong tradition of teachers owning the materials they've created, unless the materials were created for a specific collaborative project within the school, or unless it was only possible to create those materials because the school gave the teacher access to resources she didn't otherwise have.

OP's situation is a little different, we're not just talking about specific lesson plans and worksheets, we're talking about the actual curriculum. The school never having had a curriculum, and expecting her to supply one, is patently ridiculous. Even the stinky schools that try to reap the paltry profits from their teachers' online lesson plan sales know better than to try that. Creating curricula is the principal's job. It's completely not in the scope of what a teacher is expected to do. Any teacher who's asked to do curriculum development is also supposed to be compensated fairly for the extra work--and it is a lot of work. So this request from the school is completely out of bounds, and OP should feel free to politely but firmly refuse.