Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 19:15     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
It is astounding how much time teachers already take off.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 18:55     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Why wedensdays and not Friday? Seems better to have a long weekend for kids
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 10:34     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
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.


Sick burn bruh
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 10:01     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
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.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 09:58     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
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.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 09:17     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Anonymous wrote:If they do this the other school days would have to be longer to make up for missing hours from weds


they’d have to add an extra week of school
actually. that would be ok by me, as long as the schools provide care for the early dismissals.
Anonymous
Post 05/23/2021 07:10     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
If they do this the other school days would have to be longer to make up for missing hours from weds
Anonymous
Post 05/22/2021 13:30     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
OP here. Thank you for this really interesting discussion/debate. Only two posters have heard of this initiative so far. Please if anyone else has heard of this or knows if it is likely to happen please let us know.
Anonymous
Post 05/22/2021 10:20     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
I loved this at Mundo Verde because it meant many fewer random PD days off during the year. They also had Wednesday afternoon aftercare available to everyone so I honestly just signed up for aftercare and then forgot Wednesdays were half days.
Anonymous
Post 05/22/2021 10:01     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
My children have been only to schools with half days on Wednesdays. It is good. Gives teachers time to connect with one another and compare notes in curriculum, student progress, meet with parents, etc.

The on site after care provider works w/ the kids
Anonymous
Post 05/22/2021 09:56     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:IF teachers were to receive high quality and meaningful professional development geared to help them manage the extreme differentiation needs they will be seeing next year, it could be worth it.

That is a very big IF.



On the last pd day our facilitator couldn’t work teams and then had us read one poem out loud 3 times. This took 2 hours. I was so upset to miss the time with my students.


To add another story, most of the PDs I’ve attended are ‘ work sessions’ where we talk through the order we teach curriculum which took one hour. The rest of the time was outside vendors pitching tech programs that our individual school would have to buy.
Anonymous
Post 05/22/2021 05:54     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Anonymous wrote:IF teachers were to receive high quality and meaningful professional development geared to help them manage the extreme differentiation needs they will be seeing next year, it could be worth it.

That is a very big IF.



On the last pd day our facilitator couldn’t work teams and then had us read one poem out loud 3 times. This took 2 hours. I was so upset to miss the time with my students.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2021 22:46     Subject: Half-days on Wednesdays!?
IF teachers were to receive high quality and meaningful professional development geared to help them manage the extreme differentiation needs they will be seeing next year, it could be worth it.

That is a very big IF.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2021 14:28     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Does anyone else feel like this year has just been about actively encouraging parents that would normally be very involved in the education of their children to NOT be actively involved? Every step of the way it seems like schools just want to do less and less. Maybe this is what DPCS wants? To have disengaged students and parents?
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2021 14:25     Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's very unclear how it will result in better learning. The stated purpose (according to one poster) of Bias training and training to "accelerate learning" would be great, but they can do it on the pd days they already have. Of course catching kids up who need it would be great but those kids will be with "external partners" rather than their teachers. Time with their teachers is what the kids need. On a personal note, in another country we experienced full Wednesdays off and it felt like a total loss. The kids lost their sense of routine mid week. Naturally a half day is better than no Wednesday. Also the majority of kids may not be labeled as struggling but that does not mean that they don't need instruction and specials (specials would be cut under this system). Aftercare is not a substitute for school. It is also already difficult to find enough time in the week for all the specials classes. Science would probably be the one to go. In my opinion what DCPS needs is more/better science, more experiential learning and field trips to keep the kids engaged. A field trip on a few of those Wednesday afternoons would probably be more beneficial than this idea.


Yes, I totally agree. Taking an afternoon a week to do a different type activity that is **part of the curriculum** and overseen by classroom teachers could be great. Field trips, labs, projects integrated into the curriculum. But just throwing away an afternoon a week (adding up to a whole week of school time) for some vague plan is not that.


I was the PP talking about how fewer hours can lead to better learning and I completely agree with what your saying. Just remember that setting up all of these things does take time and teachers currently get only 45 minutes a day for grading, lesson planning, parent communication, student check ins (particularly necessary for kids dealing with trauma/peer conflicts). At some point, something will have to kid to make the programming you are recommending, which I think is an awesome idea, possible.


I would support additional teacher planning time, but giving elementary school kids a few more minutes of lunch and recess per day or more frequent P.E. would be a more child-friendly approach. Having the same routine each week benefits children. In middle and high schools they could actually build in field trip half-day blocks into the schedule to recoup more teacher planning time. Typically field trips remove up to 100 children from the school with only one classroom teacher and a bunch of parents attending. Currently the kids just miss all of their classes to attend these field trips, and thus the number of field trips must be limited, whereas middle and high schools can really stand to benefit from the field trips.