What Can a Teacher Do in Ten Minutes?
I was doing some research at the SPS website and was going through elementary schools and was drawn to the length of day at them.
The majority of elementaries have a 6:10 hour/minute day. However, there are at least 12 that have a 6:05 hour/minute day while at least 5 have a 6:15 hour/minute day. (There are two that have an extra half-an-hour but they are schools under a transformation plan.)
I know you're thinking, "So how does 5-10 minutes really count?" Over a year, it adds up. What if your child had 5-10 minutes more of dedicated math instruction every day? Obviously, it must be a decision at a site-level. It might be of interest to ask your principal how the decision was made at your school.
Comments
- Lunch too long
What does the average person at the JSCEE does in their last ten minutes of the day?
For a teacher or an administrator, ten minutes can be everything or nothing. Ten predictable minutes, for 180 consecutive days is one more week of school.
Yes, Zebra, these type of regulations are state mandated but not enforced by the district. Do you believe in Santa Clause also?
In a comprehensive report published by the Seattle Times several years ago, only 2 of our comprehensive high schools (Garfield & Roosevelt) met the minimum state mandated instructional hours for high school credits (150 hours) with some as low as 130 hours!
How does the district get around it? They have changed their definition of "instructional hours" for a high school credit (a very different requirement than the 1,000 hour contact hour requirement, ie overall time at school). What does "instructional hours" include? Seattle is the ONLY district in the state to include passing time, second breakfast/extended breaks, study hall, advisory time, homeroom, assemblies, ETC (literally, everything except lunch) in the instructional hours calculation for a high school credit.
Yes- quality "seat time" DOES matter and it just keeps getting less and less in Seattle schools. The key at the secondary school level is how much time is spent with a teacher in core subjects? The district thinks time in the hallways helps kids master their geometry!
I know there is talk of negotiating different contract language for K-8s so a day that meets the MS time requirements can be scheduled without violating the K-5 teachers' requirements.