I'm not the counselor at the school. I'm not the one out there telling people alcohol is bad. I'm the one at the end of the line trying to save the teenager's life after they have had too much to drink.
~Guest speaker in my science classes last week, my brother, an ER physician, talking about the effects of drug overdoses.
I was extremely appreciative of my brother for taking the time to come into my classes for the day and share his stories and knowledge with my high school science students. The information he presented was scientific, relevant, and interesting—a great use of instructional time.
It was also interesting to hear his reaction, as someone outside the education system, at being a "teacher for a day." While I was there to introduce him and provide some moderation of his presentation and student questions, my brother was essentially serving as a guest teacher for the entire school day.
So what were some of my brother’s impressions? He remarked on the diversity of student backgrounds and attitudes. (I teach all the tenth graders at my school. Every one.) Describing how he felt at the end of the day, he said, “I was tired.”
"I was surprised by the pace of the day. The bell rings, and the students leave. Immediately a new group of students come in, and within four minutes, the bell rings and the next class starts. There's no time to think." This was my brother, an ER physician, saying he was surprised by the pace of the school day. My brother is a busy guy at work, so for him to say the day was fast paced tells you something!
There is clearly no extra time in our school day. A new law would extend the number of instructional hours to 1080 annually in grades 7-12, and would not allow early releases or late starts for collaboration or professional development to count towards that 1080 hours.
Especially with the elimination of Learning Improvement (LID) days, more and more schools have started to use a regular early release or late start for professional development or teacher collaboration. We need this time as educators. We have major new standards initiatives—Common Core and Next Generation Science—that we are trying to implement. In addition, we are required to collaborate as part of our new TPEP teacher evaluation system.
We’ve talked about this issue on this blog before. Tom wrote about the importance of collaboration time. I wrote about an attempt by the science department at my school to fit a collaboration session into the 20 minutes at the end of the school day–talk about a fast pace! That is the kind of thing that would have to happen if there were to be collaboration during a regular school day.
There are three bills currently before the senate that would address this issue: SB 6082, SB 6189, and SB 6320. All three would delay the 1080 hour requirement, each includes a few different details.
The 1080 instructional hours would increase each class period in a middle or high school by 2-3 minutes. The academic benefit to that could be debated. The money currently allocated by the state for this increase would not cover the expenses that would be incurred by districts, according to numerous school board members and superintendents. In addition, the 1080 hours would result in the elimination of much of the existing collaboration and professional development time. We need to figure out how to address these issues before extending the school day, and adding time to the school year in the form of Learning Improvement Days needs to seriously be considered.
I want to pass a law: all education-related laws must be composed and approved by panel of practicing educators representing all legislative districts. Once the bill hits Olympia, any amendments that substantially change the law must return for approval by this legislative body.
In the interim, Tom’s right, we need to amplify teacher voice. That doesn’t have to mean picketing and pitchforks (to me, those belong in the same category as the fearmongering of test-threats), what works better are conversations, invitations for policymakers to come into our classrooms, and reasoned (not shrill and complaining) advocacy for what we know will better serve the kids we serve.
This is a classic example of education legislation passed without consulting those with the most experience in predicting how it will play out: teachers!
If there was ever a case to be made for amplifying the voice of teachers, this is it.
We need to show that 2 to 3 minutes added to each class period will not have anywhere near the impact on student learning as teacher collaboration (ie. PLC time). Not even five extra minutes per class period. Students aren’t robots that learn on cue, seat time is a myth.