Shawn Daley

Shawn Daley is currently a professor of education courses at Concordia University in Portland. While his primary foci are history education, classroom management and educational technology, he believes that Schools of Education should play an important role in the ongoing conversation on school reform. Before working at Concordia, Shawn served for ten years as a high school Social Studies and Language Arts teacher at Gresham and Jesuit High Schools. Shawn is also serving as President of the Oregon Council for the Social Studies, and lives with his family in North Portland.

I want my 8 days back.

This past week my school district, in conjunction with our various employee unions, agreed that the best strategy for meeting statewide budget demands was to hack 8 days from the school year for all programs in the district.  They also decided to cut 2 full time positions at my school.  I understand their dilemma, having to meet the Governor’s request for a 9% reduction based on  income tax revenues, and I also applaud their decision in that few of my colleagues (most of them young and energetic) will lose their jobs.   Yet, when I sit and think about what it means to lose 8 days of school, I grow more irate at the situation that the economy has plunged our districts into.

In “teacher terms” what does 8 days look like for me and what does 2 people cut mean?  (more…)