Long weekend...

Here in the TX, we, too, had a long weekend. Ours was for a different reason though. Friday was a teacher work day (Yeah, no work got done...), and Monday was technically a Teacher Staff Development day. The kids had a four day weekend and some of the teachers had a three day break.

Friday--Our day started with making sure our grades were turned in. Thursday was the end of the third six weeks grading period and first semester. (We have 6 6-week grading periods instead of the 4 9-week "quarters".) We were given a longer lunch break so we could enjoy ourselves. We were given an option for the afternoon--either work in our classrooms or attend a session at the local high school auditorium. I chose to go to the session at the high school.

The guest speaker was Manuel V. Scott. Seeing his name probably doesn't trigger anything in your brain. However, he is an Original Freedom Writer--You know, from the movie Freedom Writers. Please visit here to find out more. (I'll let him tell his story.) It was really neat to hear from a student after hearing the teacher, Erin Gruwell, a few years ago.

Monday was a Staff Development Day, which teachers were allowed to "comp out" of if they earned 6 hours of staff development during the summer (before the school year) or after school during the year. I usually get more than my share of hours in the summer...some of those activities will be discussed as the year goes on.

In my opinion, our district goes about this all wrong. I'm not talking about the comp hours, but the day they have chosen for the comp day. We have a good African-American population that celebrates the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Our community has a parade, a dinner, and other activities all weekend. (This is how hour guest speaker came to be.) For our district to NOT acknowledge this day as a true holiday, is just not right.

And, substitute, we had 10 days off in September for a hurricane. But, I don't know which is better/worse????? Cold or Hurricane? Want to debate?