Calling All Preschool Teachers: Do your students have a 4 day week?

[aristocatz]

Searching for preschool teachers who work in a school that only offers preschool sessions for 4 days per week & has one day where no preschool classes are offered.

What day of the week is no preschool?

What do you guys (as teachers) do during that day?

Thanks!

 

[deb24k]

I am a public school preschool teacher. Public school preschools exist to service children with special needs. School districts are required to provide services to meet these needs when children turn 3. We have a 4 day school week for students. Fridays we have no school for students, but are workdays for faculty. We hold all of our IEP meetings with parents on this day. Specialists also schedule new evals on this day. We hold team meetings with entire classroom staff and specialists to fulfill collaboration requirements built into IEPs and we get planning and prep time. Our classroom teachers are responsible for both the "regular education" students and the "special education" students. Unlike most elementary classrooms our ratios for integrated classrooms are 49% special education students to 51% typically developing peer models.

 

[aristocatz]

I am a public school preschool teacher. Public school preschools exist to service children with special needs. School districts are required to provide services to meet these needs when children turn 3. We have a 4 day school week for students. Fridays we have no school for students, but are workdays for faculty. We hold all of our IEP meetings with parents on this day. Specialists also schedule new evals on this day. We hold team meetings with entire classroom staff and specialists to fulfill collaboration requirements built into IEPs and we get planning and prep time. Our classroom teachers are responsible for both the "regular education" students and the "special education" students. Unlike most elementary classrooms our ratios for integrated classrooms are 49% special education students to 51% typically developing peer models.

Thank you! We run integrated preK models in our public preschool program as well (& some PreK ABA classrooms)-half day programs with AM & PM sessions. We are currently 5 days/week, but our district is considering moving us to 4 days/week, but they want more info on how to structure that 5th day for teaching staff to ensure they are productive & fair. Some of the higher ups are afraid that it will be difficult to ensure staff are on task & also concerned that the K-8 teachers will be resentful.

My take on it is that the integrated preK teachers need that 5th day, more so than K-8 teachers because our preK teachers essentially wear two hats-they are general ed teachers and they are special ed teachers. Integrated preK teachers are also responsible for writing IEP's & progress reports, which our K-8 gen ed teachers are not in charge of.

What day of week do you have your day off from kids? Is it Friday?

 

[deb24k]

Yes Friday's. Our programs sound similar and our teachers wear two hats also writing IEPs and progress notes. Honestly, we have no problems keeping busy. We have recently had a K teacher move down to prek thinking it would be "easier" etc. She went back to her 5 days with kids in K lol

 

[DLgal]

My sons both attended public preschool (special education) and they had a 4 day week. No school on Wednesdays. They were essentially teacher workdays, meeting days, in-service days, etc.

 

[JayhawkMomma]

I work in a public school pre-k program as a para. Our am class (3-4 year olds) has a 4 day week and Friday morning is our "planning period". AKA We prep for the following week and the teacher does as much paperwork as she can get done. The pm class (4-5 year olds) is 5 days a week.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I am the Librarian at a school that just transitioned from a 4-day Pre-K week to a 5-day Pre-K week. There was no school on Fridays previously. The certified teacher came in on Fridays and that is when she did meetings, home visits, had her planning time (our Pre-K does not go to "special area", so there is no true planning time for those teachers). The assistants did not work on Fridays.