My school district thinks that teachers don't have enough paperwork.......

[Smarmie Doofus]

... to do so they want us to complete a "chemical inventory."

The idea is to make a record of hazardous or potentially hazardous chemicals in the room. NOT TO *REMOVE* THEM, you understand; to make a *record*.

Simple, you say? A twelve column wide "rubric"(ahem; they do like their rubrics.)-style document. Example:
1. Product name
2. Manufacturers name and address ( their sample includes phone numbers also).
3. Exact storage location. ( Example : for wite-out you would enter, "In the left side desk drawer.")
4. Warnings on Label.
5. Other Identifying information
6. Physical state
7. Quanity
8.Container type
9.Units of measure
10. # of employees routinely exposed
11.Frequency of use.
12. MSDS on file ( one has to go to the company's website and download a Material
Safety Data Sheet and attach it to each listed item)

Items 6 thru 12 are coded. Example "in a bottle" for Q. 7 would be letter "M".

Due next week. I really don't have anything better to do during school hours so it's really no big woop. In fact it's *fine* by me. But who do the educrats think is teaching while all this 'data collection' goes on ?

A few years ago a colleague told me to load every conceivable chemical product into a wheelie ( i.e. shopping cart), push it out of the classroom into the hallway. Fill out the top of the form and leave the twelve columns empty ( i.e. implying no dangerous chemical products in the room at the present time); sign the form , submit it, go back to the wheelie and return everything to it's original location in the classroom.

Can't say whether I did that or not. Frankly, I don't remember. Might be the fumes.

[JackintheGreen]

1. Frankly, its a leagal issue according to OSHA regs

but it really shouldn't be your responsibility. You aren't responsible for the MSDS, you employer is. If you want to make a stink, refuse to do anything until you see the MSDS and have all the required safety gear. YOU don't know what these chemicals can do, so YOU simply cannot put yourself at risk until you know for certain. Then, of course, you'd be happy to help.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. One makes a stink these days at some risk.

>>>>If you want to make a stink, refuse to do anything until you see the MSDS and have all the required safety gear. YOU don't know what these chemicals can do, so YOU simply cannot put yourself at risk until you know for certain. Then, of course, you'd be happy to help.>>>>

The union here is pretty much gutted... i.e. sold out... and one can't expect any backing on something like this.

Thing is... we do this every year; far as I know , no chemical agent has ever been removed or stored in a different way as a result of the inventory.

So really... what's the point?

[msedano]

2. Hazmat makes a lot of sense

when there are reportable quantities. Highly unlikely a classroom has anything reportable. I suppose you could mau-mau the school by demanding they immediately comply with your state's RTK laws. You have a Right to Know the harmful contents of substances in your environment. One way for the school to fulfill this is the exercise you're doing. If you demand your RTK, the school would be required to come into your classroom, take the inventory itself, gather the MSDS, thereafter report to you the various health hazards you face, advise of fire suppression, disposal and spill clean-up procedures. The school also has a responsibility to train you in how to read an MSDS if there are sufficient quantities of hazardous materials. I'm sure if the union got behind a demand to comply with RTK laws the school would suddenly decide there are unreportable quantities of chemicals and abandon the entire foist the job off on teachers strategy. Remember, your right to know is immediate, irrespective of the requirement to complete the survey.

Inform yourself. Do the Google on RTK laws. Open the can of worms.

mvs

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. But is this a pedagogical task?

I'm a pedagogue. I do believe that is my official job title and description. What they want me to do is decidedly unrelated to pedagogy. Putting aside the mammoth time- suckage for the moment. And the pointlessness ( see my reply to post #1).

This is clerical work unrelated to pedagogy. Which wouldn't bother me so much 'cept that I'm always knee deep in redundant, superfluous, *egregiously* excessive paperwork of at least an *arguably* pedagogical nature..... ALL OF THE TIME.


>>Highly unlikely a classroom has anything reportable.>>>


Their examples include bottles of ammonia. Got to be reported.



>>> I suppose you could mau-mau the school by demanding they immediately comply with your state's RTK laws. >>>

As much as I like that imagery ( sweeeeet!) I think I'm past that level of energy at this point.

>>>> You have a Right to Know the harmful contents of substances in your environment. One way for the school to fulfill this is the exercise you're doing. If you demand your RTK, the school would be required to come into your classroom, take the inventory itself, gather the MSDS, thereafter report to you the various health hazards you face, advise of fire suppression, disposal and spill clean-up procedures.>>>

Food for thought. The school should be collecting data; I agree. But not the classroom teacher. ( I took my own kid out of this system because of crap like this. I want my kid's teacher *teaching*; not wasting class time trolling internet sites for MSDAs while the kids are parked in front of a TV.)

[msedano]

5. be a pedagog then...

lead the children, the literal definition. write a letter requesting RTK information on hazardous materials. have the kids each write their own letter, in a lesson on civic responsibility and environmental protection. do put in a modicum of effort to research your local hazmat requirements. call the fire department, they're on the receiving end of the school's report.

[Smarmie Doofus]

6. Quite so. There *is* that. Turn it into curriculum. Yet... not so simple.

The kids are multiply handicappped and no one can really write such a letter, in any real sense, independently. ( i.e. I can write if *for* them and they can participate in *aspects* of the project. ( We run into that dilemma all the time.)

>>>write a letter requesting RTK information on hazardous materials. have the kids each write their own letter, in a lesson on civic responsibility and environmental protection.>>>


Plus: I made other writing plans for them for the near future. They more closely address what I perceive to be their needs at this time. Should the curriculum be driven by the needs of the students... or should the the requirements of the bureaucracy drive it?

Again: is it a "pedagogical" or "clerical" task?

Practical diffculties also: it's due next week and there are lots of other things required of me in the meantime. What your're suggesting is a months-long project for my charges. I'm willing to work overtime; I'm not willing ... or able... to work 24 hrs per day.

And if I were, it would be pedagogically, not clerically.

[LWolf]

7. I don't have much in the room.

A spray bottle of district-approved cleaner, kept full by the custodian.

A bottle of illegal white board cleaner, a bottle of store-bought spray cleaner, and a bottle of garden-variety dish soap. Plus the soap the custodian puts in the hand soap dispenser by the sink.

I use the white board cleaner every friday after school, giving it the weekend to air out. I use the dish soap to wash my tea cup and paint supplies after school. I don't use the commercial spray cleaner; it was there before the custodians supplied me, and I've just never taken it home.

My kids often ask me to use "air freshener." Middle school rooms can get a little stinky in the afternoons, lol. I don't, because air fresheners are illegal and not smart for people with allergies.`

I tried leaving open boxes of baking soda around the room in places I thought were "safe," but they weren't enough to absorb all the teen-age fug. ;)

I'd take my dish soap, commercial spray cleaner and white board cleaner home for the night, and put "see custodian" for the custodian-supplied spray cleaners and hand soap, since we don't have a label to read for those, and be done with it.

I've never had to do paperwork like that.

We DID get assigned two online "courses" to take the place of trainings our districts are legally required to do every year. One on sexual harassment in the work place, and one on recognizing and reporting abuse. Each took an hour, to be done "at our discretion," with a two-week window to get it complete.

Saved us having to do a half-day "training" in some big room, but they didn't exactly offer us our hourly rate to get it done during our own time. I don't know about you, but I don't have any free MINUTES, let alone hours, during my contractual day.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. Near as I can tell it's a federal requirement.

>>>>I've never had to do paperwork like that.>>>>


Someone's gotta fill out the damn form. But that's why god created school aides and secretarial staff, seems to me. It has NOTHING to do with teaching.


One year they assigned me a homeroom that doubled as the Art room. If I had written up every item according to specifications ( a walk in closet full of oils, acryilics, etc etc etc etc.) I'd still be writing.

That was about ten years ago.

[LWolf]

12. Maybe my district

has the custodians do it over the summer, when we are all at home, lol.

Or maybe they just inventory what's in the custodial closet, since we aren't supposed to have anything else on hand. ;)

[Nevernose]

8. I got into a screaming match over that.

We were reading aloud, and Winston was just about to be dragged off to Room 101 for his reeducation/torture, and my 12th grade honors kids were deeply involved in the book. Kids who normally try and sleep were on the edge of their seats -- anyone who's ever been in a classroom knows what the feeling that a roomful of rapt students is like, it's what you struggle all year for.

Some district putz walked in and demanded my CCF-3904 (or whatever the form was -- it sounds identical to yours), itemizing my hand sanitizer and the Windex I use for cleaning the whiteboard. I freak out, of course, with a general stream of "Are you kidding me? I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to be teaching. What am I doing? TEACHING? Get out. Get out, and let me teach! I don't have time to report every bottle of windex! No,you CAN'T inspect my room for chemicals! Get out!"

Ten minutes later, the guy's back with my assistant principal and a school AP in tow, and one of my hooligans in the front row yells, "Get the fuck out! We're tryin' ta read the motherfuckin' book here!" The kid may have been in an honors class, but he's also a Blood from the proverbial ghetto. The three of them just sat there for the last ten minutes of class, watching. When the class let out, my principal dismissed the other two guys and congratulated me on my mastery of class discipline (most of our admin sucks, my AP is one of the few who puts students first). The district guy was told by admin not to come back.

In retrospect, I feel bad for the district guy; he was just doing his job. I just wish they'd shut up and let the teachers teach.

[Goblinmonger]

9. Your last statement is my sentiment about admins in a nutshell.

"I just wish they'd shut up and let the teachers teach."

I'm pretty good at what I do; now let me do it.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. Thanks. That's what I was trying to say:

>>>>>Some district putz walked in and demanded my CCF-3904 (or whatever the form was -- it sounds identical to yours), itemizing my hand sanitizer and the Windex I use for cleaning the whiteboard. I freak out, of course, with a general stream of "Are you kidding me? I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to be teaching. What am I doing? TEACHING? Get out. Get out, and let me teach! I don't have time to report every bottle of windex! No,you CAN'T inspect my room for chemicals! Get out!">>>>>>>>>

And they don't get it. And I don't get why they don't get it. And they don't get why I don't get why they don't get it.

Merrily we roll along.