Target: Planning Time

[Jo Chinn <jchinn@OLYPEN.COM>]

Netters,

I'm wondering how you have dealt with planning time when it is guaranteed
by the negotiated agreement between your district and teachers' union.

Here's my situation.  Our contract states each teacher gets 52 consecutive
minutes of planning time daily.  I'm in the middle school of 720 students,
where I use a combined fixed and flexible schedule.  I see all the language
arts classes weekly, and usually work hard with the teachers to plan
integrated lessons.  Then, I have all the research projects, some of which
last up to two weeks!

Because my library can hold two classes, plus another class in the lab, we
can pack in quite a few kids.

Results:  sometimes I don't get planning time for two or three weeks at a
time. Sometimes I have two or three hours a day!

How do the rest of you handle this problem?  Is it a problem?  I've been at
this 20 years, and am getting a little crotchety!  To me, there's a
difference between "planning time" and time when there aren't any kids in
the library.

What do you think?

Jo Chinn
Sequim Middle School Library
Sequim, WA  98382
jchinn@olypen.com

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