The Millard District has decided to add in more “teacher days” for this year.

With COVID-19 taking place, Millard District Superintendent Dr. James Sutfin, the Board of Education, administrative team and the teacher’s association discussed on September 8 at a board meeting about the additional three days that will be added to the “teacher days” this year. On the upcoming meeting on September 21, the discussion about the adding of more days will be ratified.

The reason for this decision is the added planning this year with concurrent learning and the need for teachers and other faculty members to use these days to catch up on work and be given extra work time. With the new change for this year, its been challenging for teachers. With the multi-tasking of having students in-class and remote learners, the need for more “teacher days” is beneficial to the teachers.

“These days are actually very intense with teachers having time to think deeper and complete work in large chunks of time that is not really available to them on a daily or weekly basis,” Sutfin said. “I have high hope that these days will be valuable to the work life of our teachers and ultimately be of benefit to our students who are the direct recipients of their teachers’ effort.”

The role of teachers is mentally fatiguing right now because they are having to change the way the teacher is so that they can keep themselves and their students as safe as possible. Plus, teachers make accommodations for the learners with special learning needs. This means there could be three or more different lesson plans happening at one time which can be a lot for teachers since it is a new process for them.

“I believe that these added days will be extremely beneficial to our teachers here at Millard West,’’ Principal Dr. Greg Tiemann said. “With our new protocols this year and now having some students be in class whilst others are doing remote learning, it is a big change for students to have to deal with, therefore the adding of more free days for them will let them settle down and complete what they need to get done.”

 English teacher Marlyin Kerkhove will be using these upcoming added “teacher days” as extra help for her. For Kerkhove herself, she has been having problems adjusting to the new school changes. 

“I think the teacher work days are a very good idea because I am having problems grading after school hours and even on the weekends,” Kerkhove said. “The workdays are a very good idea and will help me plan upcoming weeks and grade so that I can have a weekend to exercise, nap and plan healthy meals.”

In addition to the COVID-19 taking over, the decision of giving teachers more days where they can catch up on any work and be given extra work time will be extremely helpful for them and many are glad it is happening.