A new year for school calendars
Well, another winter break is over and just as District 65 students were settling back into class, they were dismissed early today so teachers could participate in professional development training.
Don’t get me wrong, the way we’re organizing these sessions – seven half-days throughout the course of the year – is a huge improvement over what we had in the past and a major step in the right direction. However, scheduling one within 72 hours of children returning to school after they’ve been off for two weeks really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Fortunately, now is the perfect time to start a conversation about how things can be done differently next year, and beyond. While the tentative calendar for the 2010-2011 school year has already been approved, the work of preparing a final recommendation (which will be voted on by the school board in the spring) actually begins this month. One of the tasks on the table will be to select dates for teacher training which have yet to be determined. For many years, parents have urged that these sessions be held on Fridays, which tends to be an easier day to take off or arrange to leave work early. However, District 65 teachers and administrators have argued that the end of week is not conducive to learning and that attendance would be low, despite the fact that participation is mandatory. And, that’s how we ended up with Wednesdays. There also seems to be a sense that having early releases on the same day of the week and the same week of the month is somehow better for parents to keep track of. But, I’m not really sold on that one and, to my knowledge, we’ve never been polled to find out what we would prefer. So, perhaps this should be a topic for the satisfaction survey the District is planning to conduct.
In the meantime, in choosing early release dates for next year, I believe that our guiding principle should be to minimize disruption for students and working families by: not scheduling them immediately following winter or spring break; continuing to strive for as many full, five-day weeks of school as possible; and, considering the possibility of moving at least some to Mondays or Fridays. Additionally, with the recent state law change that allows districts to hold school, schedule teacher institutes, parent-teacher conferences, or staff development on certain holidays without having to seek a waiver, we have a unique window of opportunity to think strategically about how we can improve upon our current calendar and perhaps consolidate a few half days into a full day of training.
Another frontier long overdue for exploration is how District 65 and District 202 can better coordinate their calendars. Although there is no legal obligation for them to do so, the two districts have historically worked together in good faith to align key dates including the start and end of the school year, major holidays and breaks. But, this changed recently when District 65 applied for a state waiver to hold school on Columbus Day and District 202 decided not to follow suit. Another area where the two calendars have diverged is in the scheduling of teaching training. Aside from the one time each year when the staffs of both districts gather for what is called “articulation day,” there has been little coordination in planning their respective professional development activities. This has often meant different early release days and two different calendars for families with students in both districts to contend with.
There are many reasons why moving toward a more unified calendar would be beneficial. By reducing the total number of days working parents have to cover and freeing up high school students to care for younger siblings, it would ensure better supervision for elementary and middle school students when they are dismissed early. It would open the door for the creation of “school’s out” programs, which could be staffed by ETHS student volunteers as part of their community service. And, by having everyone on a similar schedule, it would help decrease absenteeism and increase opportunities for busy families to spend time together.
I urge parents and others who care about the quality of our public education system to attend the joint meeting of the District 65 and District 202 Calendar Committees which will be held on January 20th at 4:30 p.m. and to also share their views on these issues with school board members who will be having their annual joint session this coming Monday, January 11th at 7:00 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the JEH Education Center, 1500 McDaniel Avenue, and are open to the public.
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Training at the Front End, Please
Teacher training should take place in August, before the school year begins, so that the teachers can integrate the training into their lesson plans. The District should pay for the teachers to come in a week before the students start, not two days. Too many things are done "on the fly" in this District. New online grade books, but no training, being this year's example. How about some planning ahead. Everyone else is required to do it, how about the administrators in District 65.
District 65 should be spelled Ridiculous!
Two weeks of vacation then two days back at school then a half-day off for the children.
If it is true that the teachers are being trained on these days, let's see the schedule. What groups of teachers are meeting in what building to be taught what topic.
Basic educational planning. If the District 65 is providing this training, it already has this information. Post it on the District 65 website at least two days in advance so parents can have some information about what is being taught and that sessions are truly being held.
Right now, I suspect that these half-days of vacation for teachers. Here's why: I attended a School Board meeting when the school calendar was being discussed. The District administrations droned on and on about how important this training is for teachers and that teachers were insisting that they have it. Fine -- no problem if there is truly training being held.
Then someone suggested that half-day training for teachers be held on a Friday afternoon to help make the scheduling more convenient for parents. OH NO, the District administrators reacted immediately and very strongly. The following is close to a quote...if the training was scheduled for a Friday, no teachers would come.
HUH????? That statement told me: the District 65 administrators must offer these sessions but cannot make teachers attend them. So the administrators just slap something together, call it training, ask that teachers pretty please attend but then wink, wink when almost no teachers show up for the training. On this same subject back a few months ago, a teacher commented on this web site about the poor quality of the District 65 training.
Obviously, moving the training to Fridays would mean that no teachers would show up and the District administrators couldn't keep that total lack of attendance under wraps.
Half Day Vacations
Your comments are unsubstantiated and untrue.
I spent Wednesday afternoon (along with every other middle school math teacher) discussing the teaching of measures of central tendency and how to help student explain their problem-solving process.
It is not clear to me why the content of D65 professional development needs to be reported to every parent. To what end?
Have you asked about the content of the PLCs every Monday at ETHS?
More transparency from D65
Compared with D202, D65 has a history of fighting parents' requests for simple, basic information that should be part of the partnership it has with parents.
In my experience with both districts, D65 routinely places unnecessary roadblocks and barriers between parents and the schools. Getting to ETHS and having teachers and administrators willing and eager to share information fosters good relations and made me feel like we were part of a team, versus D65 administration's practice of opposition, distain and hostility.
A friend of mine teaches at the Latin School in Chicago. They have trainings on Fridays, and after school. She said if she missed a training with being seriously ill or having another emergency, it would be reflected in her review. Missing a couple would mean her job because it demonstrates a lack of professionalism. Why can't we expect the same level of professionalism from our teachers?
Untrue?
One teacher reports that he or she, along with other teachers in a small group attended a training session. So that makes my assertion that teachers routinely skip training untrue? Such weak reasoning is truly disappointing from a teacher of children.
I personally know that teachers skip training sessions so my statement that teachers skip these sessions is not untrue or unfounded.
And why should District 65 post what training is going on for the teachers? Because the parents and other taxpayers pay for those sessions. Then District 65 parents pay even more as they must arrange expensive childcare for teachers to be out of the classroom for a half day 8 or 9 times a year.
We are entitled to know that the training sessions are actually taking place and what is being taught to the teachers who should already be highly trained.
I do not have children at ETHS so have no need to ask for that information yet. But when I do have students there, I will be asking for the same information.
It's easy to post information if you actually have it. If you don't have the information, you can't post it.