Thursday, September 21 served as the first teacher workday of the school year. It was not only a break for students but a beneficial opportunity for teachers and staff at Leesville as well
Throughout the school year, approximately five weekdays are devoted to “teacher workdays.” Teachers are given a full day to catch up on work, attend meetings, and complete anything else needed without the attendance of their students.
“I am planning on making a lot of parent phone calls, catch up on grading, print out copies of my next unit, and work on some long term planning for the rest of the semester,” said Jeffrey Moran, a history teacher at Leesville Road, about his plans for the day.
Staff often use the day to accomplish all tasks that are unable to be fulfilled on a standard day when they also have to teach class.
Because of the work time that they are gifted with, teachers have a strong appreciation for the days built into the calendar. Without the workdays, many teachers would not be able to achieve their goals, such as finishing extra work and attending meetings.
“I’m always grateful for the workdays, as it gives teachers an opportunity to catch up on grading, lesson planning, emails, paperwork, and all the other fun stuff associated with teaching. Plus, we don’t have to report to school as early on workdays, which means we get to sleep in a little bit!,” said Robert Thornhill, science teacher at Leesville
Seeing that the past workday fell on a Thursday and appeared to be an interruption to the school week, many negative feelings arose about the event. Although rumors of concern about the disruption to the week drifted through the halls of the school, teachers still came to work organized and prepared for the day ahead.
“To me, it doesn’t usually make a big difference which day of the week the workday falls on…Occasional workdays enable teachers to get a lot of things done that are difficult to do during a typical work week. Plus, when the school year has been grinding on for a while, they are a nice change of pace, I think–both for teachers and students,” said Thornhill.
