Wednesdays

 My school district has deemed Wednesday as an asynchronous learning day. On a side note, before last March did you ever use or even know what asynchronous was? I digress... Wednesdays are meant to be spent meeting with students either one on one,  in small groups, or in large whole-class settings.  Wednesdays can also be used for students to finish up incomplete work, take a test, or something along those lines.  Wednesdays are sort of like a catch-all day. If it needs to happen, it happens on Wednesdays!

(Even though Wednesdays are not a school day, our standards have remained the same.  We teach the same amount in a smaller amount of time.  For some, our Target (gifted) kids are still pulled for a day's worth of instruction.  So, I have some of my kids for 3 days a week... with all the same standards!)

For my team, we begin the day with our planning meeting.  I have been on this team for seven years and it has always been our goal to take a subject, plan it, and then share it with the team.  One positive from Covid is that we are finally doing that... at least to some extent.  We meet early in the day to share our resources, plans and answer questions.  We then move right into our CCC meetings, where we discuss data and all the things that need to be discussed.  These Wednesday meetings often last 2 hours! In fairness to us, we do not have time during the day to talk much and with Covid guidelines, we are not supposed to gather. 

I then move onto meeting with a small group of students to help with writing or reading skills.  It is a great opportunity to make an impact on these kids.  After that, I move to my whole group meetings where I meet for 30 minutes with one group and 30 minutes with another.  I tell you what, by noon I am exhausted!! The day is only half over and I have done nothing but work in front of a computer.

Our day continues after a quick lunch break with meetings - whether faculty, team, key teams, or something else.  Needless to say, Wednesdays are a FULL day.  For my school, this is not a rest day or a go play golf day.. this is a workday. Sadly, that can not be said for all schools or all people within a school.  I have actually heard stories of people playing golf on Wednesday.... which by the way is FINE!  We are all so tired and stretched so thin, if a round of golf eases the load - then golf away!

I say all of this for two reasons. One, I am curious how other school districts are doing this year.  Do you go to school five days a week?  We are a hybrid model - kids are virtual and in person.  The second reason I mention this is because I saw a social media post this morning asking teachers what they thought of having Wednesdays asynchronous next year.  It seems as if many like the break-in instruction and feel as if their kids are well-rested and can tackle more content.  The post got me thinking about whether I would like Wednesday to continue to be asynchronous or not.  Honestly, I don't know... I like aspects of it and then there are aspects I don't like.  The whole thing is above my pay grade... I will make the best of whatever schedule I have.