Reply to Why can't MCPS get it together like the other MD school districts?

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Reply to "Why can't MCPS get it together like the other MD school districts?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am curious. Why do teachers need planning days? Aren’t they supposed to grade and plan before/during/after school. Most high school teachers teach 4-5 max periods in an 8 period day. The school day is only 6.25-6.75 hours long. So that gives you another 1-2 hours on top of your free periods before you even hit a full 8 hour workday.

I can’t remember ever working an 8 hours in one day.  Most salaried employees work 8.5-10 hours.

I guess I just don’t see why they should have days off for planning. They literally have every holiday and break and summer off. Plenty of off days to plan if you can’t manage your time weekly. Many people catch up at home and on weekends too. [/quote]

Speaking as an elementary school teacher, most planning days are (unless they're taken up by professional development/ all staff meetings, give you a chance to actually plan with other professionals (ELL teachers, special education teachers, the rest of the teaching team, literacy coaches, etc.) that is usually incredibly challenging to find during the school day. Yes, you may have 20 minutes from 9:40-10:00 to work on your planning but that's no guarantee that the person who you need to talk to, coordinate with, get ideas from actually has time during that chunk of the day to plan with you. Planning days give you a better shot at the sort of collaboration that is so helpful in actually improving curriculum and instruction.

Regarding the rest of your comment, unless you've lived it its pretty hard to conceptualize the ways in which time disappears during the school day. You may theoretically have time to plan during the day, but in my experience its very easy for IEP meetings, staff meetings, behavior challenges, being pulled to sub, tutoring students, meeting with parents, calling parents, paperwork, and countless other crises to make your 40 minutes (if that) that you theoretically receive in practice be pretty useless in terms of actually making progress on long-term planning.

Also, in a way that is very different from a lot of other professional jobs where you have time in between meetings/presentations to answer emails, practice, do research, drink coffee, discuss issues with coworkers, etc. so much of the school day is spent actively working with children (and pretty much unable to multi-task effectively beyond that) that some time in the building without students to regroup and plan for the future is frankly, essential. [/quote]

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