Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashartus
What I've heard is it relates to teacher work hours vs. budget. Professional days count towards the days a teacher has to work each year. The school boards don't have to pay all the support staff on professional days though, so they save a huge amount of money each time they have one. So they have been reducing instructional days to barely meet the minimum hours by increasing the number of professional days. Apparently the public board hit the minimum hours a few years ago, and the Catholic board got there this year.
As far as what they do - when my wife has one it usually seems to be half a day of external workshops and half a day at her school for planning meetings, team building exercises, etc. depending on the principal.
|
One of the reasons there are so many professional days is due to transportation costs. (No bus drivers) Have you noticed how much longer the average school day is in Alberta compared to a school in BC . All high school students (Grades 10-12) must have access to 1000 hours of instruction per school year vs 942 for high school students in BC. The high school I teach at had to increase the length of the day due to the fact we have 10 professional days per year instead of 3 like we used to have.