Evelyn Walsh

Wednesdays off for teacher workdays are beneficial for students and teachers, providing time for students to explore extracurricular activities, and for teachers to get work done.

Here at Rocky Mountain High School, we take pride in our academic systems and students. Days off from school are helpful not only for students, but teachers as well. When asked why we have random Wednesdays off, our principal, Scott Conners, the principle of Rocky, said, “Teachers across the district participate in Professional Development aimed at improving instructional practices during the morning and they come back to the building in the afternoon to collaborate with their PLC to create lesson plans, assessments, and look at data, etc.”

What activities do teachers participate in on those days? “They receive professional development, collaborate with their PLC, create lesson plans/assessments/etc.”

Why did we start having these Wednesdays off? Conners said, “WASD adopted a PLC (Professional Learning Community) model roughly 20 years ago and began collaborating on Wednesday mornings. That work has continued to transform over the years and as a district, we have looked for ways to bolster student success through both PLC work and providing PD. Recently we built in additional days in the master calendar through negotiations to allow for more purposeful PD and PLC time.”

Melissa Bass, a math teacher here at Rocky, was asked what teachers like to do on Wednesdays off. “Depends on the day,” she said. “If it is labeled a PD day, we will spend the morning in meetings learning about new policies or how to better our instruction.  If it is labeled as a Teacher Work Day, we get to spend the time in our classroom getting grades in for the end of semester or getting our classes ready for the new semester,” she said.

Are they productive, or more of just a break? “They are getting better. At one point, we would be in meetings all day (not productive) but now it is morning meeting and afternoon work with your department,” said Bass.

Found on Education Week, this tells a little bit about the history of teacher workdays, “Workdays were originally created to allow teachers and support staff to prepare for classroom work directly related to students and centered around curriculum. They were a day for mentors to spend side by side with their new-teacher mentees, helping shape effective content and best practices in the classroom. As the workday approached, teachers would prepare by updating lesson plans, communicating with specialists, going through cumulative folders, making copies, and grading papers.”  With that we know teacher workdays are very important to keep the system flowing smoothly.

You can help your teachers and other staff members by following their rules the first time and doing your tests and homework on time. Nevertheless, days off from school are also helpful for students, as it gives them a change of pattern and extra time for studying or homework, among other things.

In a study found on The California Research Network, “Research suggests that restorative breaks can improve cognitive function and problem-solving skills. Consider the application of the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method based on 25-minute focused work intervals interspersed with short breaks. This approach aligns with the principle of strategic breaks for enhanced productivity, demonstrating that incorporating regular breaks into a demanding workload can yield significant cognitive benefits. The APA study, along with other sources, allows us to create a clear picture: 77% of students reported moderate to severe stress levels, 50% of students reported feeling overwhelmed by schoolwork, 60% of students reported feeling stressed by social media, and 70% of students reported feeling by extracurricular activities.” The evidence is overwhelming that breaks are indeed helpful for students, especially ones who takes more advanced or AP classes that require a lot more time and effort.

In this study, found on Phycology Today Canada says, “Now, a new study (Buch et al., 2021) led by Leonardo Cohenof the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) investigates how the human brain replays newly ac‐quired procedural motor memories during waking rest breaks in between practice sessions. These findings were published on June 8 in the open-access journal Cell Reports. ‘”This is the first demonstration of wakeful neural replay of a newly learned skill elicited by practice in humans,”’ Cohen said in a news release. ‘”This study is also the first to show that wakeful replay predicts rapid consolidation of skill, which is responsible for early learning.’”

So, even short breaks, like in between studying at home, are important to your brain health. So next time you have a day off, make the most of it, whether that be studying, doing homework, or just having fun.