Inservice

I have this idea that when students and parents imagine what teachers do on 1/2 days and teacher inservice days, it goes a little something like this:  The teacher is sitting, no lounging, at their desk.  Their feet are up and there is some lively music playing softly in the background.  A steaming cup of coffee or maybe a venti caramel macchiato is close at hand, probably right next to the plate of scones.  The teacher is engrossed in the charming writing projects that their students recently turned in.  They are smiling and making a checkmark next to each student's name as they finish reading their papers.  The time floats by, the teacher notices it is nearly time to go home and puts away the graded papers and lesson planning books to go home and relax with their family.

This week was the first time that I got to see a good portion of what ACTUALLY happens on a 1/2 day.  I came in at the time that is stated on the contract for teachers at this school.  Everyone was already in their classrooms and it was apparent that they had been there for quite some time.  Decorations were up for the Valentine's party, the day's schedule was on the board, the Morning Message was written, and individual valen-grams for each student had been personalized.  The teachers were consulting with other members of their grade level groups about the three assessments that they hoped to complete before the celebration, lunch, and then early dismissal.  They also reviewed to triumphs and challenges from the previous day's technology training in our 2nd grade classroom.  Parents began arriving about 20 minutes before the starting bell, delivering cookies, juice and valentines.  It seemed like one millisecond later, the bell rang and the students started pouring in the door.  Assessments were completed, short video watched with another class of 2nd graders, valentines were distributed (yes, there were 29 very excited children bouncing around the room delivering valentines to all of their classmates), children read their valentines (who am I kidding, they just counted up the pieces of candy), lunch was eaten, and then the kids packed up all their pink and red loot to take home.  The teachers walked their students out to the buses and stayed out there.  They had been told that parent volunteers would take on bus duty today, but it was barely contained chaos so they stayed until the buses left.  That left about 7 minutes for the teachers to eat lunch and gather up any materials they needed (COFFEE!) for the next series of meetings that would occur over the next 3 hours. 

Before the 1st meeting started, the teachers had already put in a full day's effort.  They then participated in technology training; a new writing curriculum adoption overview; review of smarter balanced testing resources & lesson plans; discussions about the grading system and grading inconsistencies within the district, within the schools, within grade levels, and within classrooms.  The teachers were eager to work to address these issues.  The principal acknowledged that this was a very important issue that needed attention, then reminded them of a dozen other issues that also needed immediate attention.  Time was up.  The meeting was over.  The contract day had ended.  The teachers were speed-walking back to their classrooms to get some preparation done for their next day in the classroom.  They walked out the door with their arms piled with curriculum books, folders, and papers to be graded (remember those three assessments from earlier today?).  I'm fairly certain that they were not going to be relaxing all weekend.