One of the school system's goals is selling parents on why adding more planning time for teachers is worth all the schedule changes planned for the upcoming school year.
As noted in today's article, school board members and the committee that recommended the schedule changes realize it's going to be a tough adjustment for families.
You can expect to hear a lot more about professional learning communities and why strengthening them in Wake will help teachers and students.
Here's the quick rundown on the changes that got tentatively approved Tuesday.
Barring the board doing a 180 next week, all schools will add an extra 10 minutes to the day beginning in July. This will create 30 more hours of instruction that will help offset releasing students one hour early once a week and increasing the number of early release days.
On those early release days and weekly early dismissals, teachers are supposed to meet and discuss how to do their jobs better.
"One of greatest gifts for teachers is not more money but more time," said Jennifer Lanane, president of Wake NCAE and a member of the committee that recommended the changes.
School board member Eleanor Goettee, a retired teacher, said the changes will show that the school district places a high value in professional learning committees.
School board members realize that some parents are skeptical of what teachers actually do with the planning time.
“We’re asking parents to do a lot so it puts an obligation on us to use the time wisely," said school board member Lori Millberg.
School board member Patti Head suggested sharing with parents the agendas for the weekly PLC meetings. She said it will show parents that teachers aren't just doing whatever they want.
Sarah Martin, a member of the committee that recommended the changes, told the board she's putting her faith in the educators who pushed for the extra planning time.
"As a parent I trust that this community of learned scholars will be able to educate my child using whatever methods they feel are necessary," said Martin, also president of the Wake County PTA Council, at the board meeting.
Click here to view Tuesday's meeting handout about the changes.
Comments
I can't wait...
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 08:06 — gunfam...to get some family-friendly board members in there!
Why do they do everything they can to mess with family schedules?!? I have nothing against helping teachers (we need to start with more pay and more supplies, BTW), but I *do* have a problem with changing family schedules! What about the family who has worked their job hours around the school schedule. Having kids home 1 hour earlier once a week may not sound like much on paper, but it could be huge for a family! Let's not even go into the silly early release days. If you are not in an afterschool program you are on your own! And, heck, the kids might be. Sure you could rely on neighbors, but wait, they are on a different track and have different plans.
Oh, and why must it start this July??? Isn't the schedule already set?? There are soooo many other things going on in our lives, why do they insist on more changes???
Why Can't the Teachers Just Arrive Early or Stay Late?
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 07:01 — ForCryingOutLoudWe have all made a lot of adjustments in our jobs to deal with change (technology, market, climate, etc). Why can't this need for more planning time be solved by changing the teachers' schedules rather than the bus drivers, the parents, the children, the daycares and all of the companies in the area to accomodate this latest brainstorm? Why can't the teachers just have protected time on Wednesday afternoons AFTER school? Or have THEM get there an hour earlier? I know, they have kids -- but everyone with a JOB has to make changes.
This is all assuming that this is really necessary, by the way.
Families are losing jobs, getting paycuts, some parents are returning to work ... and we have to accomodate more time for WCPSS to do it's job? Why can't they do that internally???
I don't doubt the teachers
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 06:55 — rr77rr99I don't doubt the teachers need more planning time, especially with the cards they are dealt... many IEP's in the class, children who have a variety of emotional and behavioral disorders that are now mainstreamed, and just huge class sizes. But, yet again, it comes down to WCPSS just jerking around families in their off the cuff decisions to all of a sudden do stuff like this. Wasn't the discussion last week about longer school days, adding more school days?
Everyday it's just something different and that gets really annoying. It just continually looks like poor planning on the part of WCPSS.