Protection of Instructional Time Policy
Commitments
Our schedule will provide the required 1,050 hours of instructional time or more and students will be actively involved in learning throughout those instructional hours. To ensure this:
1. Broadcast interruptions from the school office will be limited to emergencies. Wherever possible, email, telephone, quiet messengers, or waiting until class is done will be used instead.
2. Students arriving in each classroom will immediately have work to begin, without waiting for other students to assemble.
3. When a scheduled activity is unexpectedly delayed or cancelled, students will be given alternative, substantive learning activities to undertake.
4. Activities that reward or punish student behavior will not be conducted during instructional time unless those activities are strongly supported by the curriculum and instructional policies established by the Council.
5. Videotapes and television broadcasts will be used only when they efficiently convey knowledge and skills called for in the curriculum and are integrated into other activities that require the students to process and apply the information the video provides.
6. Our school safety plan and discipline and classroom management policy will also contribute to ensuring that behavioral problems do not subtract from learning time.
7. Classroom celebrations of birthdays may occur at the discretion of the grade level teachers/ teams. Celebrations will occur during a preplanned celebration time or during lunch or recess. Snacks provided for a celebration must follow our Food/Allergen Risk Policy. Classroom teachers will discourage door to door handing out of left over snacks. Enforcement of this new practice will ensure that students at Collins Lane are celebrated during non-instructional time.
Principal Responsibilities
1. Ensure that each new staff member learns about the commitments stated above.
2. Check for success in implementing this policy as part of regular classroom observation and evaluation of each teacher.
3. Include areas needing added work under this policy in recommendations for individual teachers’ professional growth.
POLICY EVALUATION
We will evaluate the effectiveness of this policy through our School Improvement Planning Process.
Date Adopted: 2008
Date Reviewed or Revised: 6-26-2012 Council Chairperson’s Initials: SS
Date Reviewed or Revised: 1-25-2016 Council Chairperson’s Initials: JP