Things Charters Get Right #1: More Time For Staff

Well, it's been a while. I have a new school, a new home, and new thoughts. Well maybe some of the same thoughts, too. I'm going to try to post some ideas I've had about my new setting, as well as some bigger picture stuff related to the presidential campaigns and the recent conventions.

Here's a first thought on an obvious way charter schools get it right (compared with traditional public schools): more required work time before the schoolyear begins. This year I reported for work on the last day of July. That is a full 34 days before I found myself, clipboard in hand, in a classroom with live eighth graders. Contrast this with the day I would have been required to report (August 28, a mere five days before students) had I remained in a traditional public school.

There is little room for argument here. Five days? Two of which the school will actually be open for your use? Two days in the building to set up your classroom, hold P.D. (this is one of the few opportunities all year to actually learn something new about teaching), learn the discipline code, establish grade-level routines, meet as a department, not to mention all of the other administrative duties that fall through the cracks?

Working with children, especially high-need, years-behind, institutionally-excluded children, requires consistency, confidence, and competence among the staff. To me this is impossible to build in two days. Consider that during August, my staff had a two hour meeting to discuss the minute-by-minute proceedings of the first hour of the first day of school. Try penciling that in as part of your two days among everything else that needs to happen.

And the pay-off is obvious. In order for children to do the right thing, they need to, first and foremost, know what that thing is; this can't happen unless all adults are on the same page.

Add to all of this that in August I also hammered out a year-long curriculum, my first major exam, and three weeks worth of lesson plans. True, this was always part of my August plan when I was with the Board of Ed, but to work in a collegial, professional environment in which I can collaborate and get feedback is a major improvement. Not to mention, being compensated for this time helps, as well.