Teacher Prep Time
Aug. 23rd, 2004 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velvetpageThe campaign by the Elementary Teachers' Federation (read: teachers' union) has begun. This time, we're after two hundred minutes of prep time per week.
There was an opinion column in the paper a few days ago which I somehow missed, dealing with this. It said a lot of not-so-nice things, including harping on the vacation time thing and pointing out that 38% of Canadians do not use all of their vacation time, and none of these are teachers. I deigned not to answer that particular volley, but when I found this article this morning, I had to answer it. Here are the (most politically savvy) reasons why
To those of you who think, as Lovric does, that ten minutes’ prep time is a laughable thing to ask for, here are some calculations as to what that ten minutes means in our schools.
Looking at a school which has 25 full-time teachers, ten minutes extra prep time per day adds up to 250 minutes per day which someone has to teach. That, interestingly, is the amount of time normally taught by one full-time teacher if that teacher gets 50 minutes of prep per day. (The school day is 300 minutes long, plus breaks.) The math, therefore, says that for every 25 teachers, one more will have to be hired to provide prep time. This, of course, is the reason for the hemming and hawing by the province and the Boards of Education; a 4% addition to their employee budget is not to be sneezed at.
In our prototype school of 25 teachers, where would that new teacher fit? Prep time for teachers comes from several places. In grades 4 to 8, it often comes from French, which is taught for – wait for it – 200 minutes a week. It can also come from library time, physical education, computer time, music, art, or any area where another teacher has the expertise to take over for fifty minutes. The new teacher would almost certainly be hired to fill one of these areas, or more than one, leaving other teachers free to teach their own specialties. Most students would see their library time increase, their gym time either increased or taught by a teacher who specializes in phys. Ed., their computer time increase – the list goes on.
Also, consider that these ten minutes are not just extra prep time; they are also minutes for which someone else has planned, taught, and evaluated. It’s a double benefit for teachers, freeing up the time they would spend planning for that ten minutes, as well as the ten minutes themselves. An extra period every week of prep time would be huge in terms of productivity and performance.
So, teachers’ ability to deliver an effective program increases, students’ access to specialty and enriching teaching increases, one more teacher is thrown into the mix of extra-curricular activities at each school to improve those, and the only downside is that 4% budget increase. I think it’s worth it.
There was an opinion column in the paper a few days ago which I somehow missed, dealing with this. It said a lot of not-so-nice things, including harping on the vacation time thing and pointing out that 38% of Canadians do not use all of their vacation time, and none of these are teachers. I deigned not to answer that particular volley, but when I found this article this morning, I had to answer it. Here are the (most politically savvy) reasons why
To those of you who think, as Lovric does, that ten minutes’ prep time is a laughable thing to ask for, here are some calculations as to what that ten minutes means in our schools.
Looking at a school which has 25 full-time teachers, ten minutes extra prep time per day adds up to 250 minutes per day which someone has to teach. That, interestingly, is the amount of time normally taught by one full-time teacher if that teacher gets 50 minutes of prep per day. (The school day is 300 minutes long, plus breaks.) The math, therefore, says that for every 25 teachers, one more will have to be hired to provide prep time. This, of course, is the reason for the hemming and hawing by the province and the Boards of Education; a 4% addition to their employee budget is not to be sneezed at.
In our prototype school of 25 teachers, where would that new teacher fit? Prep time for teachers comes from several places. In grades 4 to 8, it often comes from French, which is taught for – wait for it – 200 minutes a week. It can also come from library time, physical education, computer time, music, art, or any area where another teacher has the expertise to take over for fifty minutes. The new teacher would almost certainly be hired to fill one of these areas, or more than one, leaving other teachers free to teach their own specialties. Most students would see their library time increase, their gym time either increased or taught by a teacher who specializes in phys. Ed., their computer time increase – the list goes on.
Also, consider that these ten minutes are not just extra prep time; they are also minutes for which someone else has planned, taught, and evaluated. It’s a double benefit for teachers, freeing up the time they would spend planning for that ten minutes, as well as the ten minutes themselves. An extra period every week of prep time would be huge in terms of productivity and performance.
So, teachers’ ability to deliver an effective program increases, students’ access to specialty and enriching teaching increases, one more teacher is thrown into the mix of extra-curricular activities at each school to improve those, and the only downside is that 4% budget increase. I think it’s worth it.