{"id":2139,"date":"2021-12-20T10:43:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T15:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2021-12-20T10:56:54","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T15:56:54","slug":"action-is-here-howard-county-board-of-education-adds-six-half-days-to-school-calendar-for-teacher-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/action-is-here-howard-county-board-of-education-adds-six-half-days-to-school-calendar-for-teacher-well-being\/","title":{"rendered":"Action Is Here: Howard County Board of Education Adds Six Half Days to School Calendar for Teacher Well Being"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Chloe McGeehan, Managing Editor <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Howard County Board of Education unanimously voted on November 2nd to incorporate six additional half days into the 2021-2022 school year for teachers struggling with COVID-19 workload. The Board\u2019s unusually quick action surprised Howard County teachers and students, many now feeling more seen and appreciated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board Member Vicky Cutroneo emphasized at the November 2nd meeting, \u201cI am fully in support of giving half days to educators; I think anybody who is opposed to it should read some of the letters we\u2019re getting and some of the visits I went on in school as and talk to people.\u201d Going directly to River Hill staff to hear some of these stories, Mr. Engler, a chemistry teacher, shared, \u201cI don’t know that I would say I\u2019m stressed, I just don’t have enough time to get done everything I need to get done\u2026 I could see how that could be stressful but I refuse to let that cause me stress. I\u2019m very much of the mindset of tomorrow’s another day. If don’t get it done today, I\u2019ll do it tomorrow.\u201d Mr. Shagogue, an English teacher, added, \u201cI think this may be year 20 or 21 for me; I can\u2019t remember a more stressful year. I think there are stressors every year, but I do feel like this year has been one of the hardest if not the hardest.\u201d This unprecedented workload has led students like senior Josh Sarganar to notice teachers \u201cpacing in the classroom,\u201d and \u201cspending a lot more time on their computer at their desk rather than up front lecturing.\u201d Tenth grader Alexis Wheeler continues with, \u201cusually we would have a week ahead, but recently we’ve only had 2 or three days planned out\u201d to which fellow tenth grader Stephanie Moses responds with \u201cand the work we are supposed to learn is not being taught thoroughly or is rushed, so when it comes to test and unit exams I feel more stressed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the River Hill community is beginning to see how interconnected teacher well-being and an enriching student educational experience are; thus, while the Board Meeting centered around addressing teacher concerns, students too are breathing a sigh of relief at this much needed change. These half days may be time away from school; however, they aren\u2019t time away from working. Josh elaborated on his half day plans which includes \u201cgoing to school, going home, taking a nap, coming back for a meet, then coming back again for an orchestra concert,\u201d and Mr. Shagogue mentioned \u201ctoday my tenth grade students have an essay due, so [the half day] will give me the opportunity to spend some time today grading and so I think it’s incredibly beneficial\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The added half days decision came at just the right time with teachers and students needing support, as they face more uncertainty, fear, and isolation with the December 15th statement from Dr. Martirano that all extracurriculars will be cancelled for the next 30 days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chloe McGeehan, Managing Editor The Howard County Board of Education unanimously voted on November 2nd to incorporate six additional half days into the 2021-2022 school year for teachers struggling with COVID-19 workload. The Board\u2019s unusually quick action surprised Howard County teachers and students, many now feeling more seen and appreciated.  Board Member Vicky Cutroneo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/unnamed-1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2154,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions\/2154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}