We have school from 8:00-3:25 and have early release every Wednesday at
1:42. I have worked for two districts in California that have early
release on Wednesdays. We call them collaborative Wednesdays. We use
the time to meet with grade level teams, fine arts team, leadership
team, etc. with objectives that we decide as a school throughout the
year.
I love this schedule. Because it is every Wednesday, my elementary
classes are planned around the schedule. I have K-5 students once a week
for 45 minutes. I also teach a middle school elective which doesn't
meet on Wednesdays but I get them for an hour four days a week.
We are a very cohesive and productive group of teachers because we have
weekly time to meet and plan. Because we are a charter school we don't
have any bussing for students, but in the other district I worked for,
buses just came earlier on Wednesdays. We have an after school program
that is run by college students for the kids. We start the teacher run
academic intervention program after the collaborative meetings.
Hope this helps.
Cheri Lloyd
Art Teacher/ Beginning Teacher Mentor
Whitmore Charter School of the Arts and Technology
3435 Don Pedro Road
Ceres, CA 95307
209.556.1610
-----Original Message-----
From: hollingsworth005@bellsouth.net
[mailto:hollingsworth005@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:37 PM
To: TeacherArtExchange Discussion Group
Subject: [teacherartexchange] scheduling related arts classes-early
dismissal
I was interested to read the post about scheduling since we are looking
at an interesting situation for next year in our district involving
early release days. Currently we have school from 7:50 until 2:25 (this
is an elementary school - 5kdg through 6th gr) Next year our day will go
until 2:45. (Some parents are already complaining that is too long) The
district officials are having conversations with the PTO, SIC (school
improvement council) and other groups about having 7 Fridays built into
the schedule next year when students will dismiss at 12 noon - lunch
will still be provided to all ( bag lunches) and teachers will have
training or meet with other teachers district wide in the area ei, all
1st grade teachers, all science teachers,etc. We only have 3 elem, 1
middle and 1 high school. Do any of your schools do that now? How do you
like it? What do you do during your release days. Does the school
provide anything for students who are bus riders, etc or do they all go
home? I
think some schools do clubs or enrichment then- but how do the teachers
have time for training or to do endless paperwork. I am thinking about
my Friday afternoon students that will miss 7 days of art. They come to
me once a week for 45 minutes. The Friday kids would miss a lot and we
already have several inservice days on Fridays. Do any of you have
students everyday for a quarter or several weeks at an elementary
level?Of course they chose Friday because the high school athletics
wanted that day so students wouldn't have to come back for practice on a
Monday or other days. Do any you have early release time now? I'd love
to hear from you. I have the ear of one of our board members who has to
vote on this issue and I told her I would consult my network!
thanks,
Jeryl in SC
