aRTs Roundtable #11: Scheduling the Arts

Today’s Topic:
Scheduling with the Arts

Carol -
K-6
We sat in a round table with Principal and representatives from each grade level
Give classes to the team and the classroom teams decide on who comes when
Completely done by administrator, no input or comments from arts teacher or classroom teachers
Below are the last four year of my music schedule
Also below is the schools in the area and how they run the fine arts at the middle school.

Tricia-
@DianeRavitch, “ A teacher’s work environment is a child’s learning environment.”
Quote from Theresa McGee: “Protect what you have. I've never heard an administrator suggest that an art teacher needs more planning time.”
If you want teachers to be innovative, creative, and accomodating they need to have a schedule that gives them time to plan.
Time between classes is not planning time. Watch Theresa McGee’s time lapse video to see how a typical art teacher spends their time between sections.
Traveling to another school takes much more energy and time than administators realize.
plug in set up technology
set out the art supplies
carry over my examples, handouts, and special supplies
igure out the art displays
ecreate my classroom management charts, binders, pencil exchange, table boxes, etc

Jen -
Schedule at Elementary School done by principal, but has ALL teachers look over it for errors, can suggest changes (I was able to change my schedule so that I now have a “team plan” period with my coworker, which we both wanted).

Schedule at Middle School is done primarily by the administrators and a few teachers. I’ve been fortunate where I’ve been able to suggest changes to my schedule, and I’ve never been denied the change when requested. It could be as simple as changing what quarter has the “double plan period” so it hits during concert prep time, or changing in what order my music class rotation is (asked this year to go AFTER computers instead of before, so that I am not teaching the tech that she does, but instead reinforcing it but still maintaining musical concepts). They value input, especially if they don’t know the workload or demands of a particular class, or in my case, what the demands are of a travelling teacher and how the schedules from both buildings work together.