To the editor:

While reading the article recently about what the Lawrence school district will do to make up snow days, I came across quite a few online comments regarding “wasted Wednesdays.” As a Lawrence teacher, I respectfully request that those of you who consider our Wednesday collaboration time a waste take another look.

I am a fifth-grade teacher who works with approximately 10 other teachers to serve 80 fifth- and sixth-graders. These students are diverse racially, academically, socio-economically, physically. During the course of my day, I have 40 minutes of plan time and a 30-minute lunch period. The rest of the time, I am directly responsible for my students and am actively teaching.

After school, I am only paid for another 30 minutes of work, when I am often called to meetings, may tutor students and prepare for the next day. My team uses the 90 minutes we are given on Wednesdays to collaborate about how to best serve our kids. We look at the most recent data, organize new reading groups, plan intervention, try to solve behavior issues, you name it.

It doesn’t really matter to me when we make up our snow days. What does matter to me is that what I do is trivialized by many people who don’t really know a thing of what they speak. All ask is that you give Lawrence teachers the respect of trusting us to do our jobs. Are some Wednesdays wasted by some teachers? Probably. But most of that time is well-used.