----- Original Message ----- From: "Shoshana Ben-Yaakov" <aryeben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: RE: is this common practice Shalom, Dan, The common practice is for school staff to sit together and decide upon common working days and working hours. If it does not suit a certain member, than he/she could/should be replaced for a specific grade by another teacher. On the other hand, it is not common practice to cut hours unless (as is in your case) the class being cut is a native speakers' one. Schools do not get any additional budgets for native speakers' classes, thus the number of hours such groups get depends on the ability of the school to cater to their needs. It can also happen that a specific teacher has been given all the hours he/she are due and such a class is actually beyond what is due. All the best, Shoshana Ben-Yaakov Dan wrote: >I informed my school last that for the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 I am unable to work on Thursdays because I am taking a tour guide course and that is the day we have our field trips. They were informed of this again this year. Instead of respecting this they cut sheduled two hours on Thursday for my grade 10 and informed because I cannot work that day my English speakers will only have two hours of English. The principal told me he could not accomodate me because the other two teachers cannot work any other day. Is this common practice or just a complete lack of respect for a senior teacher of 10 years on the staff who made a special request? I welcome any opinions. I simply did not how to respond to this warped logic. It seems to me that this is one more example of how well we are treated in this country. ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------