Note to Radford teachers (and to anyone else interested in issues pertaining to school bell schedule): Although the state has downsized our EES obligations, the increase in instructional minutes per week at many schools, ours included, is going to make a significant dent in the amount of time we have during the school day to attend to the various components of EES. (Its more or less IMPOSSIBLE for me, for instance, to meet the 9/19 SLO deadline.) Has anyone else done the math? Assuming a 6-period line, we are all spending 210 extra minutes with our classes per week than we were last year (3 1/2 hours - 1290 vs. 1080). Of course, we also have an extra 35 minutes of prep, which if you subtract from the previous figure gives you 175 (2 hrs. and 55 minutes). So, we have approximately three hours less time that we can prepare, collaborate, or help students outside of class (TASK, etc.) than we did last year. And we didnt have enough time last year as it was. Now, take our very challenging bell schedule and compare it to McKinleys. McKinleys teachers teach 5 on 7 as opposed to our 6 on 7. They have odd and even days, with 75-minute classes. Last year, McKinleys administration decided to add the imposed extra instructional minutes in their entirety to TIGER Time - McKinleys TASK (e.g. study hall, for anyone following this who is not at Radford). They have TIGER Time every day at the end of the school day for 40 minutes. A typical McKinley teacher teaches 937 minutes per week, as opposed to our 1290. Thus, a McKinley teacher has 253 more minutes per week, or 4 hours and 13 minutes, to prepare, to collaborate, and to help students outside of class. One of their preps is administrative prep, but one McKinley teacher tells me that admin. doesnt always use it, and at least every other such period becomes a second teacher prep. So thats in addition to the 4+ hours of non-instructional time advantage that McKinley teachers have over us. No wonder that last year, on the several occasions that I had an opportunity to speak with McKinley teachers, they seemed far less stressed out than we Radford folk over EES! The disparity that this analysis indicates between what goes on at one high school in this single-district state in which we are all earning our bread and butter and what goes on at another is truly shocking to me. Id love to hear comments/reactions from anyone interested.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 06:12:22 +0000
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