Wow, has my school been through some changes since mid-February. Last year was our first year as a 5th/6th grade academy. The growing pains were indeed painful. This year started off much more smoothly, but there were speedbumps up ahead.
Last year the students attended school from 9 AM until 3:50 PM. This year the start and dismissal days were returned to the previous year's of 8:30 AM until 2:15 PM. We were mandated to have students complete a 40-minute protocol on Fast ForWord (FFW)which was later adjusted to 30 minutes since our day was cramped. Well, turns out that with FFW being required, we were shortchanging instruction in other subjects. Thus, the decision to extend our day. I suspected this would be the case back in December when we were asked to submit a copy of our schedules before winter break so that "administrators could review and revise them over winter break." No word followed until February 15.
Here's the timeline:
Tuesday, February 15 - Staff receives email stating that the school day is being extended until 3:10 PM beginning on February 21. Since 3:10 was our contractual ending time for teachers after our prep time, I was hoping that another prep time was being worked into the schedule while the students' day was being extended. In addition, we were going to be team teaching and I would be teaching math. My classroom was set up for Read 180 with the computers, software, and television. I would be switching classrooms with another teacher. Eight of us, n fact, would be switching classrooms.
Wednesday, February 16 - Students receive a letter to take home detailing that their day will be extended to 3:10 PM beginning the following Monday, February 21. At the staff meeting later that day, staff were told that our day will be ending at 4:10 PM with our pay being pro-rated for the extra time.
Thursday, February 17 - At our schoolwide PLC meeting, we were informed that the 3:10 PM dismissal time conflicted with the Transportation Department's bus schedule and students would instead be dismissed at 2:50 PM and we would end our day at 3:40 or 3:45 PM. To this day, I am still a little fuzzy about this detail. No letter was sent home to students. As far as their families were concerned, dismissal was still 3:10 PM. My colleague and I decided to switch classrooms on Friday since the other six were moving on Wednesday.
Friday, February 18 - My colleague and I spent the day moving supplies. I had 20 boxes alone! At the end of the day an announcement was made over the PA system informing students that Monday we would not be following the extended day yet. An impromptu meeting was called for staff where we were informed that we would not be extending the day after all. To say I was angry, would be an understatement. I had 20 boxes of angry to deal with. Again, no letter was sent home with the students.
The next week, I was told not to move my stuff back nor continue moving. So there I was in a classroom with my 24 students while my supplies and books were in another room. Sigh... Finally, by Wednesday, we received word that we would indeed by extending the day to 2:50 PM. I could complete my move. By Friday of that week, I was all moved in.
...then ISTEP. Before we could do any team teaching, we were told to keep our homerooms and not team teach since ISTEP testing was beginning the following week. Question: Why didn't we just make the schedules and work out the glitches during this time and make the switch after ISTEP?
It took until March 7 that we started the team teaching and new schedules. I feel like I wasted an awful lot of time during this time moving boxes, figuring out rosters, adjusting schedules, creating filler lessons while my supplies and my students' books were in two different places.
I hope this is the last of any more major changes.
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