Teaching & Learning?? Yeah right!

So, here was the original schedule for the weeks of winter break for the School District of Philadelphia
Monday, 12/23 Schools open
Tuesday, 12/24 closed
Wednesday, 12/25, closed
Thursday, 12/26, closed
Friday, 12/27, closed
Monday, 12/30, closed
Tuesday, 12/31, closed
Wednesday, 1/1, closed
Thursday, 1/2, open
Friday, 1/3, open

We questioned the wisdom of opening on Monday the 23rd for a few reasons. One, what real teaching & learning would occur when student absences would likely be high considering child care schedules and the randomness of opening for a single day before an extended break?

Two, how much did it cost the district to open for the day considering the financial bind we are in? Heat, electricity, water, trash removal, guest teachers, busing, feeding, etc.

To add egg to the district's face, there was a huge water main break, the result of which was the early dismissal of nearly 40 schools at 11:30am. Shall I detail what an unexpected, emergency closing of schools entails? I won't, but you can imagine.

Now to the two days that we had to work on the other side of 2014. This was a little bit more understandable, but still rather questionable, especially considering parent schedules, family vacations, and weekly/monthly child care payments.

Let's now cook that egg we added to the district's face on the 23rd. There was a huge snow storm which forced the closing of schools on Friday the 3rd.

To summarize, we worked on a Monday of one week and a Thursday of the next, and yet it's about teaching and learning?

Some would say hindsight is 20/20. True, but in these instances, teachers and parents had foresight for months and expressed the absudity of the situations.

To those who would say that teachers already get so much time off, plus the summer months, now you are complainig that you have to work a few days, teachers just shut up.

Well, I could go into the, "do what we do" speech. Or even the 'do what we do for the pay we receive, that by-the-way, they want to cut and the crap we have to put up with on a daily basis", but I won't go there.

I will say this. We signed up to be teachers. We want to teach. The randomness of a schedule like the one we had to adhere to does not promote the consistency that we as teachers and that our students need for effective teaching and learning. Two complete weeks off as opposed to random days would have been better. Ed.Ds didn't listen and situations beyond their control took control. None of what occurred would have impacted the district had we not been scheduled to be in our buildings from jump street.

As a teacher, I'm left now with repeating myself for an umpt-teenth whatever content may have been covered, considering that some families even chose to start vacations early by keeping their child out on the 20th, which was the FRIDAY before that absurd Monday!

But it's all about teaching and learning right? Sure.