WHAT DO YOUR TEACHERS DO ON 1/2 DAYS?

Often, parents and kids wonder, "Why do we need to have 1/2 days?" or "What do the teachers do during those 1/2 days when the kids aren't there?"

The fact is, that the 1/2 day early release Fridays are extremely valuable to our staff and in turn have a great impact on what and how your children learn. As I'm sure you can imagine, a day in the life of an elementary classroom is very busy and there is little, if any time for the teachers to work together and collaborate in planning their curriculum or evaluating their instruction. During 1/2 days teachers can work together in grade level teams, curriculum teams, or staff committees.

Today, during our 1/2 day teachers worked in grade level teams to analyze reports from the state OSPI and WASL data related to Math. We looked at three different articles related to math instruction, "WASL Math Strengths & Weaknesses," "Lessons Learned from Scoring the Math WASL," and "What a Strong Math Classroom Looks Like." Teachers read and discussed these articles and then brainstormed ways that we can improve in the math areas that our students struggle with: measurement, geometry, and probability and statistics.

The good news is, because of this type of collaboration our math scores have greatly improved. Our 3rd grade Math WASL Scores were quite good this year and exceeded the district and the state. We had over 85% of our 3rd graders meet or exceed the standard in Math! Way to go 3rd graders (now 4th graders).

Please feel free to ask your child's teacher what they learned on the last 1/2 day and how this time helped them be a better instructor.