Equal Work but less useless work

After a couple weeks in the classroom I have really noticed some more differences between Lxxxxx and Bxxxx. I vividly remember comments of teachers at Bxxxxx, frustrated with the amount of extra paper work and the never ending staff meetings that cut into their planning periods. On more than one occasion I remember hearing teachers say that all the extra work was really taking away from their time to plan for classroom instruction. Lxxxxxx, being a small charter school does not have this issue. There is no “red-tape” paper work or excess meetings. On Fridays the students have a shortened class schedule and are released at 1:30pm at which time there is a staff meeting. This meeting is spent mostly discussing student issues and strategies for effectively addressing these issues. The rest of the afternoon is spent by the teachers trying to plan for the next week. Currently my teacher has six periods made up of two 6th, two 7th, and two 8th grade classes, of which I will eventually take over the 7th and 8th grade classes. With six one hour periods there is currently no planning period so other than Friday afternoons preparation takes place before and after school hours.
In addition to the lack of daily planning periods the teachers are expected to be apart of regular interviewing sessions with new applicants for admission. So in the end the teachers and principal at Langston are probably currently spending more time at work then those at my previous school. The difference is the attitude of the teachers. Lxxxxxx has created a school culture that is place the teachers want to be. I’ve had the opportunity to talk with most of the teachers and the resounding theme is that they couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. They do look forward to having a planning period in the future when the school moves to a larger facility and hires more teachers.