Teacher staff meetings that could have been an email
Schools use hour-long staff meetings to cover trivial issues like opening doors, renaming reading programs, or reviewing emails that were already sent earlier in the week. Rather than treating educators like adults and providing practical takeaways for the classroom, these redundant sessions just leave staff wondering how the meeting makes them a better teacher.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1leaving early
- 2making jokes about it
- 3Leaving schools with excessive meeting schedules
- 4Relying solely on email for administrative communication
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Literally, the meeting was about opening and closing the door. Sure is fun to be treated like an adult...”source ↗
“(yep, could have been an email.)”source ↗
“We had an hour long meeting after school yesterday about renaming silent sustained reading and why it's important for kids to read. I left after fifteen minutes, thank god”source ↗
“Does anyone attend a staff meeting where you actually walk away with something you can take back to your classroom that makes you a better teacher?”source ↗
“At our most recent meeting, one of the vice principals went over an email she had sent earlier in the week.”source ↗
“I found myself sitting there thinking, How is this making me a better teacher?”source ↗
Where this came up
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