Half-days on Wednesdays!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher and people on here saying teachers work 10 months a year and get only 12 days are being disingenuous. We do get those benefits but that is on top of every federal holiday ( yes I know this is a fed town but lots of people don’t get all federal holidays, including my private sector DH), the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday after, 1.5-2 weeks for winter break, February break and spring break. That’s 4 weeks of time off where you don’t have to use your leave. So really it’s not comparable to other jobs in that regard.

Teachers are paid for 192 days. 185 of those days are instructional. Contrary to popular misconception we aren't being paid for federal holidays nor any of the breaks. and we didn't get a februrary break. Now if you wanna go into the amount of labor that is done outside our working hours and working days we work a lot more than 192 days but I digress.

If you want to count up the number of hours or days you work and be paid accordingly, go get a job at McDonalds. If you have a salary, stop being such a crybaby and do you job. No one cares about your bellyaching.

Nope. They don't have to go work at McDonald's, and they don't have to work one second over their contracted hours.

You pathetically whiny parents are the "crybabies" who are "bellyaching."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. We have definitely had this discussion at our academic leadership team meetings. From what I understand this is a serious proposal being discussed at central. There has not been any formal decisions, but we are putting plans in place so we are prepared. We have been told it is for select students to receive “acceleration” learning from outside providers. Teachers will be receiving anti-bias training and more training on “accelerating” the learning of all students.

This is jaw droppingly absurd.

Honestly, this sounds fake since DCPS generally doesn’t care about “accelerating” students since so many are below grade level. Unless “acceleration” is another word for remediation (since we know DCPS is Orwellian when it comes to language.)

Are they planning on wasting their federal money on this? On "outside partners" providing "acceleration" (likely: computer programs overseen by minimum wage non-union employees) while teachers get some other training that's a boondoggle for consultants?

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher and people on here saying teachers work 10 months a year and get only 12 days are being disingenuous. We do get those benefits but that is on top of every federal holiday ( yes I know this is a fed town but lots of people don’t get all federal holidays, including my private sector DH), the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Friday after, 1.5-2 weeks for winter break, February break and spring break. That’s 4 weeks of time off where you don’t have to use your leave. So really it’s not comparable to other jobs in that regard.

I agree, but only 2 of those 12 are personal days. The other ten are for sick leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this thread was about PD on Wednesdays?

I am the teacher who posted above and yes this is. My two cents, for what little they are worth, is that we don’t need half day Wednesdays and schools would be left to fend for themselves in terms of planning for those half days.

I also think that while this might benefit elementary school students, a large portion of high schoolers will not come to school on Wednesdays at all. So DC would essentially be losing 20% of instruction for the year at the HS level.

It’ll become “crime Wednesdays.” Great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this thread was about PD on Wednesdays?

I am the teacher who posted above and yes this is. My two cents, for what little they are worth, is that we don’t need half day Wednesdays and schools would be left to fend for themselves in terms of planning for those half days.

I also think that while this might benefit elementary school students, a large portion of high schoolers will not come to school on Wednesdays at all. So DC would essentially be losing 20% of instruction for the year at the HS level.

It’ll become “crime Wednesdays.” Great.

Gross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought this thread was about PD on Wednesdays?

I am the teacher who posted above and yes this is. My two cents, for what little they are worth, is that we don’t need half day Wednesdays and schools would be left to fend for themselves in terms of planning for those half days.

I also think that while this might benefit elementary school students, a large portion of high schoolers will not come to school on Wednesdays at all. So DC would essentially be losing 20% of instruction for the year at the HS level.

FWIW, when I taught HS at a charter that had this type of schedule, we didn’t notice any dip in attendance so hopefully that wouldn’t be the case. I hear the concern though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

What a pointless digression. Kids are STILL stuck online - everyone knows that is low quality instruction. We don’t need to be experts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

What a pointless digression. Kids are STILL stuck online - everyone knows that is low quality instruction. We don’t need to be experts.

From a WaPo article about low demand in charters.

“Do we want to be inconsistent in the instruction quality or do we want to develop a really high-quality virtual instruction?” Hodge said. “Many schools made the decision to develop high-quality virtual learning this year and focus on reopening next year.”

Link below
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-charter-schools-online-learning/2021/05/23/7e5816d2-ba2f-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html?outputType=amp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

There is a relatively deep and rigorous evidence base that suggests online instruction is not effective, with the exception of some very (very) rare circumstances. This has been studied for years. To think DCPS or DC charter schools would have been able to, on the fly, figure out what very few -- if any -- have figured out over the past 10-15 years simply isn't in line with what we know about this mode of learning. And, then there were schools that barely tried. Calling 2 youtube videos a sufficient day of learning.

[Anonymous]

"high quality virtual" is probably still worse than "any in person"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

What a pointless digression. Kids are STILL stuck online - everyone knows that is low quality instruction. We don’t need to be experts.

From a WaPo article about low demand in charters.

“Do we want to be inconsistent in the instruction quality or do we want to develop a really high-quality virtual instruction?” Hodge said. “Many schools made the decision to develop high-quality virtual learning this year and focus on reopening next year.”

Link below
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-charter-schools-online-learning/2021/05/23/7e5816d2-ba2f-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html?outputType=amp

and those schools that focused on “quality virtual instruction” when it was safe to get kids back in the classroom were totally in the wrong. We know even for college students, online is worse. It’s a complete joke to think virtual instruction can have any sort of quality for elementary school, or for MS and HS kids who were already struggling. nobody needs to be an education expert to know that, and any “expert” trying to claim that young and at-risk kids can be taught effectively online and hence in person should be disfavored is completely nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a charter teacher and half days are common the charter world. We need them in order to do all the many things necessary in order to have consistently high-quality instruction. We wouldn’t have time otherwise without having an entire day off every month.

Get back to me about “high quality instruction” when you are actually teaching all kids in school 5 days/week.

Oh so you mean right now?

right now would be good.

NP but allow me to digress for a second and talk about the lunacy of non - teachers defining high quality instruction. On this thread alone, there are several posts where teachers are called entitled, but I can’t think of too many fields where non experts think they are qualified to judge and assess the quality of somebody’s work.

What a pointless digression. Kids are STILL stuck online - everyone knows that is low quality instruction. We don’t need to be experts.

From a WaPo article about low demand in charters.

“Do we want to be inconsistent in the instruction quality or do we want to develop a really high-quality virtual instruction?” Hodge said. “Many schools made the decision to develop high-quality virtual learning this year and focus on reopening next year.”

Link below
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-charter-schools-online-learning/2021/05/23/7e5816d2-ba2f-11eb-a6b1-81296da0339b_story.html?outputType=amp

why is that posed as an either/or choice
? not in a charter, but from conversations with a neighbor who is relatively happy with their charter, the charter invested early on in delivering good online instruction (mainly by having small groups) and then when vaccines became available, pivoted to in person. I think they should have gone in person earlier, but to claim that schools had to choose one or the other is just incorrect.