My Summer Vacation, Sort Of

When I became a teacher people told me I became a teacher for three reasons; June, July, and August. I would laugh and reply that it wasn't true because school generally began in the middle of August and teachers had to report before then.

Well, the State of Texas in it's infinite wisdom decided last year that school should not start before the last week of August but schools still had to meet the required 180 days. I guess you can tell what that means for most schools now. Since they can't start until the end of August , most schools have to go into the month of June unless they have cut out some holidays through the year. Waco ISD's last day for students is June 3rd and for teachers it is June 4th.

When the new school year begins teachers will have to report on August 18 and students will report on August 25. Now I know that most of you will say that still gives me most of June and August off and all of July. Not true. You see our district offers summer training opportunities for all staff. While this training is not mandatory it is strongly encouraged. Several campuses will begin a new campus climate program called TRIBES. Also, the district has adopted a new Math program and my campus will phase in a new reading program. All of this requires training. So for my summer enjoyment today I scheduled 51 hours of training during the month of July.

So for all of those who think a teacher becomes a teacher because of June, July, and August; you can tell them I became a teacher because of 3 weeks in June, 2 weeks in August, and not much of July.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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