The Dallas Morning News asked teachers to weigh-in on the 45-minute extended day. Eighty-five responses were received.

Here is what some had to say:

I have 30 years w/DISD, I've raised 3 DISD children during that time. I have never been that teacher that went home right at 3:45! But being forced to work from 8:00 - 4:30 every day, with no compensation, is Oppresive!! The majority of DISD teachers are already committed & stay late to get the JOB done....but this year, the extra time has been FILLED!! No time to plan/prepare for the next day, UNLESS you stay OVER-TIME!! But, Not ALL CTU's (certified Teachers) are in this "same boat".....it is only the CORE, Classroom Teachers that have the extra time, stress, pressure....other CTU's, such as Fine arts, PE, computer, SPed....heave received a reprieve from the pressure! This is the lowest year for MORALE....don't believe ALL that POSITIVE propoganda PooP that was posted today by fellow teachers....that was "FORCED, not CHOICE!!" Ms. Hobbs, I have worked as an educator in DallasISD for the last 18 years and have never hated my job until this year. On top of the mandatory Multiple Response Strategies, almost daily Spot observations, PDAS observation in October (where I was told that it wasn't looking good for me), extreme paper work, and low staff morale, the extra 45 minutes a day is breaking me and my colleagues down. I work in the evenings once I am home and even on weekends...the new lesson plans take so much time, trying to come up with lesson objectives and demonstrations of learning. I am EXHAUSTED and have serious plans to leave the district. My colleagues and I are worn thin...the countless classroom visits, poor ratings on spot observations, overcrowded classrooms... and there is NO relief in sight. Thank you for listening because NO one else in the district seems to be willing to hear from teachers. we are asked to have staff development on writing lesson objectives and demonstrations of learnings, we are being observed and evaluated based on these two criterias and they will be counted towards our pdas. they still dont know how the rating we are getting is given since the obsevations and the score is subjective. I t gives the principal the "right" to hold us into the early evening. We go straight from the duty after school into the workday extension meeting and then into department meetings or into grade level meetings or other committee meetings. 45minutes!!! At this point is just been use as another process in the DISD bureaucracy, teachers at this point are not more prepared but indeed more tired. To make things even worst, they are schools that still require teachers to do early morning duty (five or six weeks during the year) even do they have TA that can perform this duty. Tutoring will be from 3:30 to 4:30 which creates a problem for those of us that have to run an pick our own children from daycare, since some responsible parents will not be present to pick up their children at 4:30 sharp.

I hate it. I can no longer talk to my child's teacher. She has to rush into training meetings, and she has no time to meet during the day because she is using her planning time to complete work she normally did between when the students left and she went home. I hate it.

I don't like the fact that teacher's can no longer decide how to use their after school time. Many of us scheduled conference times with parents right after school. Also, we scheduled our doctor's appointment 's so that we would not miss a full/half work day. Now, we are being told to schedule them on certain days so that we don't miss out on professional development. We are at a dilemma since many doctors' offices close on certain days and we are being forced to take days off to meet our medical needs. After school care is becoming expensive for those of us who have children in daycare that charge extra for the extended time we now have to work without extra pay. We are told that we cannot leave without clocking out because we have to prove we are working the extra 45 minutes. Every day after school we have a meeting where we sign in to document our attendance. We are not trusted to work in our classrooms and prepare for the next school day. Many of us show up early to get things prepared. Parents want to schedule conferences but are unwilling to come after our extended day. We are feeling very tired, frustrated, and overwhelmed with all the changes. We wish someone will listen to OUR needs. We are only humans who are expected to be superheroes on fixed budgets and micromanaged time. DISD teachers have been through a tremendous amount of pressure , for several years now. It just keeps getting harder to teach. We teachers are all overachievers, and we just don't give up. You see, we do want to please our principals , parents , and yes you media ,with successful students . ....Most of us don't mind the longer day, it's just that we desperately need that 45 min to implement and plan our wonderful LO's and DOL's. It's pretty sad when so much change is thrust upon us and zero time to make it happen. Is this a recipe for success? I seriously doubt it.

There are no positive benefits from extending our work day. Our campus has scheduled all of our days with meetings and free tutoring ( we were paid to tutor in the past). We have been working very hard to internalize the learning objectives and demonstration of learning. The teachers I work with have worked every Friday until 9:30, 10:00 p.m. completing lesson plans. We also have worked every Saturday since school has started. We have to complete all of our necessary tasks and we can't begin until 4:30. Our school has already lost two teachers because of high demands, lack of support and work loads. This is my last year teaching for DISD. I don't really notice much of a difference. I get to work at 7:15 and leave school around 6:00. Sometime in that time I go to a few extra 40 minute meetings - I multitask by using the morning or daytime meetings to eat my breakfast or lunch, and the afternoon meetings to make "to do" lists of things I need to do when I am not in meetings. I DO wish that a second duty free time could be added to the day - one like the one in the pass. Even with 10-11 hour days, I am still always behind.

THE 45 MIN. ARE BEING USED SOLELY FOR PROF.DEV. NO TIME TO TUTOR, NO TIME TO SEE PARENTS, NO TIME TO GRADE PAPERS. I'M STILL PUTTING IN 1 TO 2 HOURS PER NIGHT TO DO THESE THINGS PLUS 2 TO 3 HOURS ON WEEKENDS FOR LESSON PLANS, YEAH, ALL OF US ARE NOW WORKING THE FULL 8 HOURS PER DAY.(I WISH So far, my principal has not scheduled a meeting for each day (only some), so I consider myself somewhat lucky to have had an occasional afternoon to do my work. However, I have been told that I will have to either tutor or sponsor an extracurricular activity two days a week beginning in mid-October. I think the afternoons for my work are gone. I wouldn't resent the additional time if I could use it in the way I determine to be most beneficial for my classroom. I have a master's degree, yet no trust in my professional expertise from central admin. What profession treats employees this way and is successful? There is no time to prepare for your students. We meet every morning and every afternoon. Teachers are stressed and do not like coming to work... Many Teachers are crying because we have so much do... I believe as a teacher the 45 extra minutes is unnecessary. I am a fairly new teacher and all I want to do is come to work and teach but unfortunately with all the pressure it really does take the enjoyment out of teaching. Alot of us come in early to prepare for the day, we stay up late working and spend time on weekends thinking and planning for work, we go shopping for classroom lessons, ALL THE TIME and they still want more and more they don't want to pay us. Its frustratintg also when your classroom don't have classroom materials and we gotta spend are last dollars for our students to have a good lesson. And then on top of that we got to worry if we don't have an effective lesson plan on a certain day we can get fired for it. I always work the extra 45 minutes and beyond...but now we have less time to work in our classrooms to prepare for each day because we have meetings in the morning. The "required" extra 45 minutes may look good on paper, but the structure means we are doing less that helps our students and more that "looks good to the public & higher ups." As I said, 45 minutes a day as "clocked in" time is not a schedule changer. It is how we use the time that is a problem. And, if they are making sure they "get their money's worth"...then where do we clock in during weekends spent grading? Perhaps we should be paid for time actually spent....

Before school, after school, and planning periods are already taken up with meetings. 45 minutes after school is really about 2 extra hours a day at my huspand's school due to the inept administration leading the training. He gets home between 6:30 and 7:00 each night during the

week. He goes in on the weekends and works at home on the weekends to catch up each and every week. There is no time at school to grade papers, tutor students, meet with parents, plan, rearrange classrooms, put up bulletin boards, etc. At our school we are required to work much longer than the 45 minutes. When I asked the union about this I was told it is allowable under the "other duties as assigned" clause in our contract. One or two weeks out of every six week period we are required to work morning duty. In past years we were allowed to leave early if we did morning duty, but not this year. Morning duty is 30 minutes daily. Our schedule has us stay later one day a week so we can leave early on Friday, but if we have no school on Fridays we still have to stay extra late that one day. One day several teachers were late to after school staff development because they were talking with parents. So, the principal set the meeting time five minutes later and extended our work days by 10 minutes. Moral is horrible. We have so many extra reports besides our regular duties, that teachers are working until 10 or 12 at night. We start our day exhausted. We have no time for personal activities, or time with our own children. We are constantly being told DISD wants to get rid of us. Many many good teachers say they will be looking for jobs with other districts next year. Why should teachers work for less money and longer hours at DISD? With teachers meeting every day after school, there is no time to work with students who may need one-on-one instruction or time to contact parents at the end of the school day before teachers go home. After all, teachers do have a life (and families) after school. When they say '45-minute extension', it really should be called the '1 1/2 hour extension'. From the moment we dismiss our students at 3:15, we are in meetings or tutoring our students until 4:45. We are not allowed to grade papers, input grades, make copies, prepare materials for lessons, write our very lengthy objectives and DOL's for the next day, meet with parents, plan lessons, or prepare interventions for low students. We are instead tutoring students for free or having staff development meetings where we get assigned our own homework. At my school, if we're 5 min. late to the meeting, we get that time added on to the end, like we're children. Heaven forbid we take a restroom break after school before the meeting. We barely have time to catch our breath. Actually, our day is only half over at 4:45. For some teachers, this is making it impossible to complete all of their preparation, because they may need to leave by 5:00 to pick up their own children and have absolutely no time to work in their classroom. I now spend over 1/2 of my weedend and each evening working to make up for the lost time after school. In teaching for over 10 years, I have never felt as unprepared for my lessons than this year. It is just not possible. Teacher morale has never been this low. We've already had 2 teachers resign at my school, and this is unheard of during the school year. Teachers are now having to change to different grades just to fill these higher need positions after school has been going on for 6 weeks. I haven't talked to one teacher who has said they are coming back to DISD next year. Everyone I know is leaving, even our experienced teachers who have taught 10 years or more.

Now, apparently, the school board has said we are not allowed to make Dr.'s appointments from 8 to 4:45. I don't know of any Dr. that takes appointments after 5, on weekends, or holidays. I honestly believe the school board hates DISD teachers. I feel they're more to blame for this mess than Mike Miles. My fear is that no one will notice how big of a mess we're in until next year when over 50% of our teachers are gone. That percentage should be higher, but I'm sure some teachers will be too scared to resign for fear of not finding another job. The more experienced and skilled teachers will be the ones to find jobs elsewhere. I'm SHOCKED the news has not been covering this.

Teachers do not have time to plan for the next day or the next week. I can understand two days a week but five, come on! Teachers are feed up! Teachers are stressed! Teachers don't have time! Teachers don't have time to prepare for students! We spent years reading Alfred Tatum- Poverty in Mind but we didn't comprehend the section where he says, "if the teachers are happy, the kids are happy". It already feels like April-May. I guramentee of they take this 45 minutes away teachers could do what they love to do....TEACH!! Miles wants to give climate surveys, but what about district surveys! Moral is low due to this additional time. People have left the district because of the additional time. Teachers can go to other districts and make more or the same pay for less time.

We are required to tutor from 3:15-3:45 and then we go into a meeting of some kind. Our students leave at 3:15 but oftentimes are not picked up until 3:25. That leaves very little time to tutor, especially if you consider we also have to use that time to go to the restroom as well. We can't just go anytime during the day since we have a class and cannot leave them unattended. We have no time to grade papers, meet with parents and very little time to collaborate with each other as we are constantly hearing about DOL's and LO's. We have been a high performing school for the past several years. Why is that not given any consideration. We are a group of teachers that if you tell us what you want from us we will figure out a way to do it together. We do not need constant people telling us how to run our classes. We already have high expectations for ourselves and our students. This constant having to look over our shoulders to see who is coming in and making sure we have our DOL's posted and worded correctly takes away from our teaching. My prediction is that while we have had a very high performing school in the past this year we will not because we do not have the time to tutor and teach like we have in the past. In a way you could say that the self fulfilling prophecy is in play here. Miles and his minions are telling us we are bad teachers and they want to make sure we do not have the time to be good teachers. We have to do it his way whether or not thst is best for our school and students We are required to arrive at school by 8:00, but 8:00 is the time our students arrive. How can you arrive at the same time the students do and be prepared and ready to do your job? Most teachers,

like myself, arrive at school early to prepare for the day and week ahead. For instance, I arrive before 7:00 a.m. everyday, well before the required 8:00, yet I am still required to stay the extra 45 minutes until 4:30 even though I have already worked an extra hour in the morning. So now I am actually working an extra hour everday for free. But nobody mentions this. Not to mention all the extra time teachers spend working on their own at home. I work on lessons for my students in the evenings after I get home from work and weekends as well. I prefer to arrive early so I can prepare for my day and then I used to be able to leave by 3:45 so I could get home to my young child. I am a single parent and staying everyday until 4:30 when I've beeen there since 7:00 a.m. and then fighting traffic, getting home late, still having to do school work ,and take care of my small child is exhausting to say the least. The school board, by adding this extra 45 minutes to our workday implies they think we don't work enough. It is insulting and degrading. Teacher morale is at an all time low. I don't know anyone who works harder than a teacher, who is more dedicated to trying to help children better their lives, and in return is treated with such disregard and with such disrepect. Are you serious? It is oppressive at best. My doctor and family friends all tell me that it is time to retire before my health completely deteriorates. Because of the extended day, I now spend a total of 2+ hours on the freeway. Love my job and my kids, hate the stress and unreasonable demands... God bless the young people just now coming into the profession. Thanks for letting us vent...we are too scared and exhausted to unify and fight this...this is one time that I wish we had a REAL union! I was not really concerned about the 45 minute extension when we were informed last year because I was already at work until 5:30 or 6:00 every day, however, I am now staying until 6:30 or 7:00 every night because we now have even less time to work due to the meetings afterschool. There are times when we are in meetings until 5:00 or 5:30 and theose meetings are in no way beneficial to our students. It is terrible! The stress added by losing that time was a complete blind side for me! I had no idea how much I got done in them at time when it was MY time. The new way of having to post a learning objective and demonstration of learning for EVERY subject every day on the board is incredibly time consuming and now we don't have time in which to do it! I got into teaching for the love of it and for the hours that were compatible with my kids! I am resigning in a few weeks due to the extra PD time and the complete lack of consideration of my time. By tge time I do all that is needed after the extra PDI leave school now around 5:30 or 6:00 and get home by 6:30 or later after picking up my kids. My whole family is suffering. Planning time is not enough to do all that we have to do! Don't get me started on the weekly Spot Observations and subsequent debriefing meetings.. Things are not done the same at each school. Some schools have administrators who realize teachers need their own time at school and allow their teachers to do what they need. Some schools have monthly not weekly spot observations. The district is loosing

a highly exceeds teacher because their 45 mins and the changes enforced by their militant minded Superintendent! I am a person with a life...respect that! The 45 min PD and new Superintendents lesson planning requirements were the perfect storm! The teachers at my school are beyond miserable and its effects will be seen. I have been driven to emotional and physical exhaustion and I am done! meetings, just to say we met. we are hired professional adults. if I am not working to my potential, my direct supervisor should be able to just conference with me. with so many meetings and superficial beliefs, the administration tends to forget about just the day to day stuff that makes a campus effective. Why are we so worried about downtown? Our time and energy should be with students and their parents.

It's awful. It would be nice if we were able to actually get meaningful work done, but we are being kept in meetings that start at 3:30 and end at 4:30. My goal had been to have my things ready to go when students were dismissed, but since our area director informed our principal that it is "inappropriate" to sit down, I have yet to have a chance to do even that. I make a lengthy commute (which is by no means an excuse on my part), and by the time I've tidied up my desk and readied my room for the next day, I'm stuck in horrible traffic. Some nights I haven't gotten home to my family until after 7:30. I eat dinner, pull out my school work that I couldn't complete during the day (because of meetings and the fact that we aren't supposed to sit down), and I get back to work. I'm exhausted. I don't like the endless meetings and being forced to tutor or have a club 2 days a week after school. Yes, I like to tutor my kids, but I prefer to tutor before school on the days that I choose. I really, really don't like the time that these meetings take and the fact that I have to grade papers, record grades, and work on lesson plans at home. Yes, I can get to school early or stay past 4:45 to get this done, but this takes even more time away from my family. And yes, we have a 45minute planning period. But, you don't have 45 minutes to work by the time you take your class to their specials class and then pick them up. It's not enough time to do all the work that is required of us, and more than ever is required of us not. And the stories going around about desks being removed, higher-ups coming in classrooms for spot observations and never having anything positive to say, only cause added stress. Do I dare take a chance and sit down for a minute for fear someone will come in my room and "catch" me??? It's ridiculous. Oh, and don't forget the 20-minute coaching session that happens the day after your spot observation. And this happens every week. So, that's more time taken away. And don't forget about the ARDs and other meetings that are required like a once a week grade level meeting during your planning period where you have to come with the following weeks lesson objectives and DOLs ready for review. It also takes too much time to write your lesson objectives and DOLs on the board for the administrator or higher-up who might happen to walk in your room to see. It seriously takes

about 10 minutes to get that done and that is 10 minutes that could be better spent. Look at my lesson plans to see what we are doing. Most good teachers have their objectives on the board anyway, just not as lengthy as what is now required. Don't drive away good teachers, but that is what is happening. Enough is enough...walk a mile in our shoes. Trade places with a teacher for a week to see how hard the job is. We love what we do - teaching the kids. There are enough challenges and obstacles already. Don't add to it. Be a support for us and listen to our needs. Please. The 45 minute extended work day is a slap in the face of every professional that walks into classrooms every morning to prepare the future of our country. I have not had a raise in 4 years and in fact lose money with increases in insurance rates, and now to be treated as if I lack the dedication to "put in a full 8 hours". I am at my campus far longer than 4:45 everyday. In the past however, I had the freedom to do the work necessary to affect student achievement. Now, I sit in meeting after meeting being told how to write on the board LOs, and DOLs only to have the standard change from week to week or day to day or adminstrator to administrator. Meetings to cover meetings all the while we still have substitute teachers covering classes and being threatened with bad observations and school metrics. I am insulted to have my precious time wasted my adminstrators threatening us and alternatly cajoling and playing the "it's not me - it's Ross Ave" card. The district has bigger problems than the 45 min. We are being led a black hole of despair by an uncertified dictator that has us repeat every meeting #3 There is no excuse for poor teaching. I'd like to hear him say there is no excuse for poor administration. Ross Avenue needs to get their house in order before they set foot in the trenches and dictate how I spend my 45 minutes. What a colossal waste of time! Meetings about DOLS, Core Beliefs, "Bookends" strategies, rinse and repeat. Time isn't being used for student needs. Now we have a book study that will be integrated into the meetings. If I had been able to use the time for planning, grading, etc, I'd be a MUCH happier camper. I am only writing on this topic because I am seriously worried about our school. The teachers at my school are really feeling the stress and frustration of this new 45 minute extended workday. The morale among teachers is very very low at our school right now and we are only 6 weeks into the school year. We are stuck in meetings EVERY DAY after school and we are not allowed to leave until 4:30 or 4:45. Although, I am not sure who actually leaves at that time because after our meetings is the only time we have to plan lessons, grade papers, clean up our classrooms, and collaborate with team members. The meetings we are attending are about the core beliefs and our core subjects but we are meeting as mass groups and not as grade levels, which would actually be productive. The thing that is most frustrating to me is that there has been SO much attention given to creating and posting the Objectives and DOL's (Demonstrations of Learning) but yet there has been NO time to actually work with our team members to plan these. I am constantly

leaving after dark because I can not get caught up. I am one of those teachers that likes to plan ahead so I can be prepared and organized, which is usually something administration looks for in a teacher. However, this year it seems like I am having to choose between staying late everyday at school to get quality lessons prepared or going home at a reasonable hour to be with my family. This is not something any teacher should have to choose between and it is probably going to take a toll on retaining the quality teachers next year. To sum up my concerns, I am not saying that the 45 minutes is a horrible thing. In fact, I was usually there until that time last year, however, it is what we are being forced to do with that extra 45 minutes that is concerning. It would be more productive in my opinion to let us plan with our grade levels so we could actually produce lessons that are worth teaching.

It is all bad. There is nothing that is improving teaching at all goiing on in these meetings. It is all centered on us learning his "Core Beliefs", his way to do all things. Every day so far this year there has been a meeting for planning his daily objectives, demonstrations of learning, multiple response strategies, or the walks that are coming to a building near you. Then to top it all off, there are on-line courses you have to complete on you own time. Plus all the things that are actually needed to complete for a classroom; grades, grading, portfolios, parent contacts, forms for the office, sub plans, etc. My planning time during the day is spent just trying to catch up with all the things that have come down that day. I have never worked so much and gotten so little accomplished. I actually feel all of this is making me an ineffective teacher some days. There is not such thing as time off at all this year. Today.. should be some relaxation, but grades are due by Monday and I had to give tests yesterday to finish up the 6 weeks. If I hadn't had meetings all week I would have had some of this completed. Yet, because I am a dedicated professional I wil get it all done and completed before the deadline with no thought to my time. Most teachers feel that they have no personal life or time with their families. Something has got to give.... THIS IS INSANITY defined! They are slave driving us. We have a 40 minute meeting every single day. That's how we start our day. We have less time to actually prepare for our students. We can no longer tutor in the morning before school due to the daily mandated meetings. The district has also changed the ending of the 6 weeks. It actually ended yesterday and grades are due Monday. But yet our exam isn't until today - test day assigned by the principal. That forces me to grade exams over the weekend to have grades entered by the deadline. When a teacher has 170+ students as I do, this adds up to many more hours of my personal time being spent without pay. 45 additional minutes a day = more meetings, less tutoring, more time being at school, more time spent at home grading which all adds up to a very unhappy educator.

Many teachers used that time to stop by the gym on the way home. Now they can't. DISD provides discounted gym memberships to its employees, but the 45-minute extension makes it difficult for teachers to find the time to avail themselves of this perk. Right hand, left hand. In the long run, having teachers who do not have time to exercise or prepare healty meals will drag DISD down. Our 45 minutes begin with us taking out our own trash cans because of the cut of janitors at each campus. (btw my room goes without being swept or vacuumed for over a week at a time-unless I do it myself. After the 45 minutes.) We have no time to do anything bc we are in meetings from 3:30-4:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. These meetings can range from standard faculty meetings, to cook studies, looking at data, discussing how to better DOLs. So my real work doesn't begin until after 4:30. And then I go home and start grading papers about 8:00, after I put my children to bed. The message is loud and clear, be a super teacher, but that's going to take about 75% of all your day. Miles seems to target vetrabs teachers and many of those teachers on my campus are ready to go. I'm not too far in, but am seriously considering a career change. If I can't teach, then why am I a teacher? Im glad that we have finally been given the opportunity to share with you some of the things that are happening within the district so that you can better inform parents. As an employee of Dallas ISD I cannot publically voice these concerns to my parents and my hope is that maybe the Dallas Morning News can educate the parents- promoting someone to be an advocate for our kids. First let me explain the impact that the extra 45 minutes has on our school. We meet every day from 3:30 to 4:15 (sometimes 4:30). Most of the time these meetings are a total waste of time- which is probably due to the fact that we are meeting EVERYDAY- and most of the information that they share could be given out in a WEEKLY staff meeting but that is not really my concern, what angers me most about Dallas ISD and all the hype that WE PUT THE KIDS FIRST is the impact that this 45 minutes is having on my students. In the past I would spend that 45 minutes after school providing one on one tutoring for those students that needed it the most. We had homework clubs, computer club, chest clubs and many other activities that helped give our students other outlets and extra help. Now we are asking students to leave at 3:15 and come back at 4:30 for extra help. Many of my students do not come back for tutoring and those that do are walking home around 5:30 in the afternoon, just to arrive home at 5:45/6:00. Mike Miles is so busy hiring and firing folks hes forgetting about the ones who really matter. I dont care about the 45 minutes, all Im asking is that you let me spend the time with my students, helping them become more successful. Require us to tutor or supervise a club- not sit for 45 minutes every day and here about how to write a great objective or DOL. I am also frustrated that leveling has yet to take place in Dallas ISD. Long term subs are in the classrooms teaching core subjects. Often times these individuals have no vested interest and are there with the understanding that Dallas will be hiring an actual classroom teaching or combining the classroom once leveling takes place. NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED. This means that there

are students who have yet to meet their actual classroom teacher for this year. If the district plans on combining classes due to small numbers or shifting teachers over to campuses that have too many students this needs to happen NOW! It hurts the students to be in a class with 30 first graders and be unable to split the class because leveling has not taken place. Dallas ISD parents need to know what is happening in this district and take a stand. Dont settle for your child having a substitute teacher until November or December. Dont settle for your first grader being in a class with 30 students. Complain about your child arriving home at 6:00 and the lack of after school programs. Call the district and demand that they get things right. Miles priorities are all wrong, and the ones that suffer are our students. Monday and Tuesday teachers are in Professional Learning Communities. Wednesday we have extended tutoring. Thursday is reserved for FAC, SBDM, training, faculty meetings, committee meetings. Friday teachers are free to do whatever they need to do. I do not like how defeated the teachers feel. The new requirements in DISD are difficult and require new learning which is stressful on its own. Asking teachers to stay the extra 45 minutes is like the last straw for them. Some of them are so hostile the time spent after school is not valuable because many are dwelling on how they are being micromanaged. I believe the PLCs at my campus were more effective last year when they could be during the day for an uninterrupted 90 minutes. This allowed for the administrative team to be a part of every PLC and work hand in hand with teachers to plan, analyze and ensure student success. The new schedule only allows for the administrative team to meet with 4 grade levels a week and only with those grade levels about 15 minutes. On a personal note, I really appreciate you making this completely private. As a leader I have many concerns but cannot express those on your blog that requires my identity. Absolutely it is a way to overwhelm teachers.....more, of course! Time wasted. We could use those 45 mins for planning or other things like do all paper work we all have to do almost every day. Desmotivational environment and sadness its all among the halls and rooms. No time for anything and plus we cant take care of our own families, extended time make us every day stay longer in traffic making it so difficult to be able to be a mom or dad. The 45 minute time addition is an onerous task. We are required to stay for redundant meetings just to full up time. We have no autonomous time to work on the new initiatives. It is disheartening and disrespectful to be treated as an under valued employee. We are entrusted with the future of our country, but are treated in a way that sends a completely different message. Its actually a waste of time and prevents us from doing the things that we know to do to ensure success. Our extra 45 minutes is already planned for us, none of which allows for grading papers, planning for the next day, or contacting parents. This extra 45 minutes also doubles our commute time in the afternoon, which cost us more money, and being that we haven't had a raise in going on three years we are truly felling the crunch. This wasted 45 minutes also takes away your

natural desire to work at home because you are getting home so much later; this has cut into our personal/ family times as well. Honestly this has been the most stressful environment to work in and I don't see many people being attracted to this district or even profession if nothing changes about the way it's professionals are treated. I foresee more and more teachers leaving the district because of stress and the passion for teaching has been tormented by learning objectives and demonstration for learning . Many division leaders all have a different perspective of what an LO or DOL should look like. Teachers can't seem to please them or get it right based on their perspective. Salaried teachers are now required to clock in and clock out every workday to ensure we are working the extra 45 minutes a day. This is troubling because it seems as if the district does not trust its employees to do their jobs. I myself clock in every morning around 7 am and I used to leave everyday around 5. I love the children in my classes and hate that now, a lot of my morning time is being used for frivolous meetings. Now, as soon as the bell rings I try to get out of here as soon as possible. They want us to work the same hours as other professionals? Why dont they give us the same amount of lunch time as professionals? We have been hired to teach, yet we are security in the mornings and during our planning, children in the meetings (our principal uses multiple response strategies in the meeting to mock the classroom), and fed up at the end of the day. I truly like that the new superintendent is making changes I just wished he cared more about the morale of his teachers. A lot of teachers wont be returning for this foolishness next year. We are being taught educational methods and psychology that one would have learned in an teaching program in college. We have so many ACs that haven't been taught. It is like we are student teaching. We don't have time to help them. 7 classes a day with up to 200 students per day makes it difficult to keep up with planning, grading and tutoring. Don't see how this will improve the quality of education but maybe will improve test scores. Have heard that a lot of teachers are planning to retire after the start of the second semester when they will get credit for the full year for retirement. Mr. Miles should like that--cheaper teachers.

The extra 45 minutes are used for meetings. There is not time to write lesson plans, grade, or get prepared for the next day. That has to be completed after 4:30. It makes it very hard to have any time with family. we are asked to meet daily from the time we dismiss students until 4:45pm or so. it is called PD (professional development). i have very little time in my room to prepare for actual teaching of students. most of my prep time (after school, for example, is devoted to discussing newly instituted "learning objectives" and "demonstrations of learning". we spend a lot of time looking

at how teachers have worded the learning objectives. syntax. verb usage. little actual devotion to learning strategies for actual students. our staff was given an opportunity for a "training" on vocabulary (that might be beneficial for students) and it is scheduled for 3 days until 5:30pm. we were told we would be compensated for this time by being able to "leave early" on designated days, except on a typical day, after PD, i can not leave any earlier than 5 or 5:30pm because i never got a chance to spend time in my room for prep. some of my colleagues have even been spending their weekends at school because there is no time even with this "extra 45 minutes" to accomplish basic classroom teacher tasks. this includes meeting with parents. if i need to conference with parents it will either need to be after PD or during planning time, which means parents potentially leaving work in the middle of the day to meet. above all, the morale is stiflingly low. teachers are used to demands on their time and always feeling as if they have left something undone, but this is ridiculous. the board is killing good teachers. is this what they intended? There is absolutely nothing I like about it. I feel like I don't have a life anymore. I make it to work between 7:10-7:20 every morning, and we can't leave until 5:00 Monday & Wednesday, and 4:30 on Tuesday & Thursday. On Friday, we can leave at 3:30. Mind you, there are still meetings being called during our planning period, going over time on meetings. I feel like I'm drowning. I'm spending more time at school, but feel like I'm not getting anything accomplished...taking more & more work home. The new lesson plans with specific, broken down lesson plans & Demonstrations of Learning (DOL) take me at least 2 hours to complete per subject. We're hearing the same brainwashing drone every meeting about the Core Beliefs, & what to put on lesson plans, but no one is an expert at how to do it, just a bunch of teachers telling us what to do with no training. At our school, we have subs every day on every grade. We have permanent subs for several grades since we start this school year six weeks ago, not to mention all the teachers that have been out because of stress/sickness. Our principal believes that the time the board added to our day has to be spent on activities related to Professional Development/ Professional Learning Communities or Tutoring. We haven't had a single day free of meetings. This is how she divided our weekly 45 minutes: Monday and Wednesday we have mandated Professional Development meetings until 4:30. Tuesday we have mandated tutoring (starting next week) until 4:30. Thursday is your choice of mandated tutoring or mandated clubs until 4:30. Friday's you're "free" to go at 3:45 or you can use your time to grade papers and prepare yourself for the next week. This was an agreement because they are taking away from us 20 minutes weekly for "coaching" from our Planning time. We know teachers from other campuses that their Principals allow them to work on whatever they need during this time and only require them to have a Faculty meeting once a week. We have heard about teachers resigning on other schools. We are having a new quick observation called Spot observation that is supposed to last 15 minutes and after that you meet with your "coach" to talk about this, and have been evaluated using a rubric in which you

have 4 different scores, and have been told that no one knows what a 3 or a 4 looks like in the rubric, and that they need to score us with 1, 1.5 or 2 and that the goal for the end of the year is that every teacher will be on the 2 range, whatever that means. We have heard from other campuses that the requirement is for an administrator to do this spot observations every other week, but in our campus is weekly. We have this new daily objectives posted in our classrooms, and administrator enter your classroom to check and write those, being sure that you don't have the same one posted for more than a day. The Principal tell you some things that you should have posted, and the Assistant Principal tell you a different thing, but neither of them give you a print document with the requirements. Please, it is important for us to be informed and you have always contribute with that, we are puzzled about why we hear so many different thing going around the district, but haven't seen anything on the news. Once again, thank you for keeping us informed. I retired a year ago and sub in several buildings.-- I have never in 35 years seen teacher morale so low. The 45 minutes is being used for daily staff development meetings. The meetings begin at 3:30 - the same time teachers are allowed to bring children who have not been picked up yet. A bathroom break or a quick word with a parent will make you late to the meeting. At 4:45, when most meetings end, teachers are free to return to their rooms to complete their daily work, such as grading, calling a parent, planning, or getting materials ready for the next day. Teachers are tired, angry, overwhelmed, and ready to walk out in droves. I predict more resignations this semester, with a large amount in January and an even larger amount in May. Since teachers don't "thumb out" at the end of the day, the board members who pushed this change never had one single clue how long teachers were actually working. This notion that "the district is paying for 8 hours and should get 8 hours" is laughable. If teachers counted up the hours they spend coming in early, staying late, and working at nights and on weekends, they would probably average 50 hours a week. (Some put in more hours, some less, depending on their class load and teaching assignment.) This additional time came with no raise. To add insult to injury, Mr. Miles has mandated changes in lesson planning, including posting all daily objectives for the day written in specific language. Some bilingual teachers have to post them in both languages. This busy work, designed solely for the administrative visits, does nothing to enhance teaching or learning and takes a lot of time to write out each day- time the teachers no longer have because of the daily meetings. Building principals have been intimidated and threatened to carry out these mandates to the letter or be replaced by one of Miles' 60 Administrative Interns. Currently, these interns have no school assignment. They visit schools and observe, go to trainings with Miles, are assured a principals job next year, and make 60K this year while they train. Teachers are pretty much demoralized at this point. In the last two years, DISD has taken away teacher's dignity and morale. The 45 minutes is just one of an all out assault (It is really 75 minutes). Their feeling is that a new teacher (Either alt cert or TFA) can do just as good as an experienced teacher-which based on the way they measure is probably true. This is why at the

beginning of the year they did massive advertising for new alt cert teachers, before they even started the year. Other school districts are not hiring, but Disd is loading up on Ac people. They do not care that every teacher is completely frustrated, because if they leave, they have the AC people to replace them-cheaper,younger and with less personal commitments. The 45 minutes is just a part, they added 30 minutes to the instructional day and 45 minutes in meetings, which is really 75 minutes taken away from tutoring, grading and planning. After a day, there is no energy or desire to do anything further. So far this extra 45 minutes has not benefited the children in any way. Our time after school should be spent meeting with parents, tutoring students, involving students in extra-curricular activities, and preparing for the following day. Instead, after a long day of posting and teaching objectives and dols we must go sit in a training and hear someone tell us about things we have no time to do. It is incredibly frustrating. There are plenty of days we stay late to work. There are plenty of nights we take work home with us. Plenty of weekends spent preparing for the week to come. We should be given the freedom to make those calls for ourselves. This is not a corporation, it is children. We are all trying to do our best with all the changes and these after school meetings are not benefiting anyone, just stealing our time..... Teacher burn-out! Constantly meeting about issues not confirmed. I don't like the extra 45 min. I still feel that I don't have time to grade or plan for my kids because we are always in meetings. This should not be about the 45 minute workday, it should be about the stress teachers are now under because of what Mike Miles has sold to the district. Principals are now the bully, degrading teachers in front of other staff members and parents. There are so many good teachers in the district, but if you have someone telling you that everything you do is wrong, then how can you teach. Some of these principals are not good at training so it is easier to belittle and put down, NOT GOOD!! You need a blog where teachers and principals can tell express their feeling and about Destination 2020. It's time consuming and inflexible. I take more work home than ever. I see most of my parents every day, because I teach a primary grade. Yet, I have to postpone any serious spot on conference. Our school has set time one day a week for contacts, but teachers need more flexibility for this. My school did not set these rules. It came from the school board. I will say some meetings are productive, but many are demeaning. We are having meetings just to have meetings. Does he board have daily meetings? Do corporations have daily meetings? The board should already know teachers work outside their work hours. We have deadlines. When it doesn't get done at school, it goes home or we stay late. Teachers are getting burned out and it's early October. Please look into the recent HR firings and the latest Miles school visits. From what I

heard, Miles got a rude awakening of the type of students we deal with. He's not in Colorado Springs anymore. Perhaps he should of done his homework before he started giving orders. Before you can make a plan, one needs to study the "control group". There's nothing to like about forced extra time that you can't use properly. I can't meet with parents because after the 45 minutes it's too late. I can't use that time to work on my classroom preparation b/c I'm in useless meetings. I'm extremely tired all the time from getting home too late. It's not just an extra 45 minutes, it adds a lot more in traffic. Normally I would stay one day a week late and get everything done. Now I have to take tons of work home. My school work is piling up and my laundry at home is piling up as well. Everyone is in a bad mood. Teachers who are working on their education masters are having too much trouble making their class. Teachers with kids are having problems with daycare as well. Teachers who rarely took time off are taking it, because of exhaustion or simply to take care of things we use to do after school like doctors appt, car appts, bank visits, etc I rather have a couple of long days like we used to do in the past but be able to leave early on others day to take care of my life!

Mike Miles' Independent School District-- An absolute joke! Teachers already put in extra time along with taking hundreds of papers home to be checked and inputting grades into Gradespeed. The problem is that Miles is a F _ _ _ ing hypocrite. Teachers are being released for not having a teaching certificate in a specific subject area. Yet Miles does not have his superintendents certification! I have had enough of the following: -Core Beliefs -Extra 45 mins. -DOLs (Demonstration of Learning) with no clarity -Continuously adding more things to do to an already hectic schedule -Writing up both Principals & Teachers -Using the Gotcha Approach -Micromanaging -Teacher shortage -Pink slips -Giving large pay increase to those who have proved NOT 1 thing! We agree with improving academics, but disagree with the method. Doesnt matter, I will resign in 2013. our meetings after school (for the 45 mins.) are unorganized and do not help at all with class/academic achievement...they also give us tasks in these meetings that can not be completed in the allotted time so we then have to work on them outside of this time when we should be doing other things for our class like planning lessons, preparing work stations, etc. again, what we do in these meetings i don't believe are going to help student achievement. it almost feels like our time is just being filled with busywork because the 45 mins. have been mandated as time we have to be in meetings so they have to give us something to do. every teacher i know already worked more than 8 hours. teachers work all day with the kids, then after school and THEN bring more work home.

Like- not having grade level meeting during lunch anymore. Dislike- Afterschool program took a hit (in time and number of afternoons) because "45" meetings are required during that time. Can't work in any dentist/doctor/appts. late in afternoon-they're all closed by the time I'm out so I'll use a sick day instead and hope I can schedule them all in the same day. Can't use before school time

for the "45" so working with students before the bell is "extra". Already seeing that we'll be hunting for staff development topics by semester's end. Funny thing is, they got that 45 minutes from me AND MORE on most days in earlier years. You have a problem with a teacher not working long enough, talk to THEM. I don't punish the class when a student breaks a rule.

I don't like to have to do my work on campus. I need a break. In the past, I could choose to stay on campus and do the required work, or I could rest, relax, and then do it at home. A brain and a body need some time to relax and rejuvenate to do a good job. Isn't the important issue whether or not the job gets done well? Also, while the Board said it would be the Principal's discretion how the time is to be used, it appears there are many Top>Down directives coming, so we are not using the time as we would really choose, but as someone in a higher administrative position dictates. So the intent for campuses to use the time as they best see fit is gone. Now it's more work work work that Administration wants, and not time for the campus to focus on campus specific issues. I could probably have a better, more coherent, logical answer, if I weren't so tired from 6 weeks of 10 hour days. Last year I worked about 9 hours a day. So with the new 45 minutes, I'm actually working a full hour more. Thanks, School Board. P.S.-- I noticed they paid Mike Miles to come in for 15 extra days- why don't they pay teachers who work extra hours? Likes 1. When it ends. Dislikes 1. Being made to participate in meetings that have no real point. These meetings will not warrant any improvement in student achievement or teacher productivity. They are often guided and driven by the new mantra of the district- those "Core Beliefs". 2. Watching my coworkers continually jump through unending hoops. Being made to do things that are only for the principal's benefit. She's more concerned with her image than she is with policy. 3. Crying coworkers. We are literally crying at our desks, in our cars, at home, etc. We are faced with taking care of the needs of our children at school and then taking care of the needs of our children at home. We are finding it very difficult to find and maintain balance. Even though we may go home from work, we are still working on work when we get home. Learning objectives aren't gonna write themselves and they MUST be done for every subject taught every day. Teachers spend so much time on tasks that have absolutely nothing to do with creating a better lesson that it leads to a piss poor lesson plan but a fabulous learning objective. I think the problem is that not only is Miles requiring a lot of new things (fairly steep learning curve but not a bad thing) but we also have the extra 45 minutes. And it's not just the 45 minutes but it's 45 minutes of meetings - 45 minutes when you can't be tutoring students or have a book club or meeting with parents or grading papers or working on the school website or assisting parents with parent portal or doing community outreach such as Parent and Tot programs. There also is a huge amount of inconsistency between the Divisions. Went out with a group of 9 teachers who are now in 6 different schools and there were 6 different things we were being told and 6 different expectations. People are frustrated and exhausted after only 5 weeks of school. I predict that at the end of the first semester (at which point you get an additional year of credit towards retirement) anyone who can will get the heck out of dodge! Feel free to contact me with any questions you have and thanks for doing this (and making it somewhat anonymous).

The previous link submitted before I was done writing, and honestly I probably wouldn't have submitted it if I hadn't done it by accident. I apologize for beginning on topic and then leading into a rant on Mike Miles policies that are creating negative atmosphere for teachers to work in and ultimately hurting students. I am all for accountability, but it must be done the right way, by building bridges instead of burning them. Hope a little of this was insightful into the life of a Dallas ISD high school teacher in a low income school. We have had to clock in for a few years. I have gotten used to that. But with the new workday extension we now have to clock out. According to those above me, that was one of the only good options since we are central staff. We spent much of our time traveling to other schools around district to visit students, teachers, etc. In order to account for the 45 minutes, the supervisors were asked if it would be better to have us clock out each day or make it mandatory for us to report back to our central office each day for the last 45 minutes of the day in order to do a book study, etc. So, essentially the district has taken away our ability to act as professionals by making us clock in and out like an hourly employee. I have never charged the district for time I spend talking/thinking about my students on the weekend etc. Why now do I have to clock in and out even though I spend way more time than that thinking about my job? It is absolutely a waste of time. We are currently working on a "book study" of a book we had to read TWO years ago, because the administrators simply do not know what to do with us, and they MUST do something. We are being told we have to tutor in the AFTERNOON, even though we will not be paid for the time unless a certain number of students come in. I offered to tutor in the mornings during that 45 minutes--not good enough--I have to be in a meeting. Some departments have multiple meetings during that time a week, AND have a collaborative period during the day when they are supposed to meet. I think the teachers are getting more instruction than the children. There is no time to grade, sponsor clubs, etc. Regardless of the official extension of the day, the majority of teachers on my high school campus work every day numerous extra hours (without pay). The official start time is 8:00 A.M., but when I pull into the parking lot a few minutes before 7:00A.M. every morning, the parking lot is usually already filled with 10-15 cars. As well, anyone could walk down my high school hallway at 5:30 P.M. and still see teachers at their desks tutoring, grading, and lesson planning. This is because a designated "planning period" as one of a teacher's classes no longer exists. Instead, the TEA mandated planning period has moved to 8:00 - 8:45 A.M. before the students enter their first class. Anyone who has taught before knows this sacred morninconsumers consumed with preparing for the day with making copies and don't forget properly setting up your board with the L.O. and D.O.L. for every prep a teacher teaches. Recently before school begins in the morning, my grade level team has spent twenty minutes or more during the sacred morning time discussing how to properly write the D.O.L. (demonstration of learning) on the board. The LOs, which is just a fancy Mike Miles acronym for the objective, and the D.O.L., which is another fancy Mike Miles acronym for the exit ticket or what students will do to exhibit mastery, are sucking crucial time from teachers on an already shortened planning schedule this year. Don't get me mistaken, I am a huge advocate for a rigorous, student friendly objective on the board each and every day. In addition, I strongly believe effective teaching centers around backwards planning with continual opportunities for students to practice and exhibit mastery of the daily objective. Since I entered the classroom, I have taught with a student friendly objective

on the board and a lesson plan with some aligned activity or quiz to see if students learned the objective. One of the problems this year in DISD is that central office staff is expecting all classrooms to have a formulaic D.O.L. everyday based off of Mike Miles wording. Central office staff has come into my classroom and many of my colleagues classrooms for less than two minutes and judged the effectively of the teaching and the learning going on in the classroom solely on if the L.O. and D.O.L. are in what they regard as "correct" and "rigorous" wording. Administrators are then given reports that are disseminated to teachers stating how as a campus we are not correctly writing the L.Os and the D.O.Ls Mike Miles only cares about getting good scores on the state tests. He doesn't care if teachers have time after school to meet with parents or if teachers have time to prepare for teaching the following day. There is no time to get better prepared. The score is: Mike Miles 1 Students 0 Thanks Mr. Miles for only caring about yourself. Why don't go back to Colorado where you belong?

We are spending a great deal of time on the core beliefs which will affect the scores at the end of the year. Mr. Miles needs to know that DISD has improved each year but as a result of the micromanagers who do not offer any support on understanding these new teaching concepts. This process is moving too fast and as a result our schools will suffer. Meetings that were previously held during our 45 minute planning time are now held after school so that's a plus. Built in tutoring time is also a plus. I don't have a problem with the extended day. I just didn't like the condescending, disrespectful manner in which it was first proposed, nor the fact that DISD didn't have a concrete plan for what to do with the added time. Very unfair according to teachers. The new initiatives take at least 4 hours to plan. You add the planning, the grading DOLs, the after hours parent conferences, the after hours making of bulletin boards, after hours prepping of the classroom, after hours conferences with administrators, and updating of student profiles and you have squeezed 50 to 60 hours of work out of a teacher who is still going to volunteer for the movie night, carnival, and family learning night.... And that doesn't include the useless staff development that some admins are forcing on their teachers. This 45-minute workday extension has resulted in exactly what most teachers suspected countless meetings that are needless, redundant, and inefficient disguised as "professional development". We are merely clocking time in these meetings, and we are now left with LESS time for planning, grading, and tutoring students than ever before. This has placed a hardship on my and other teachers' families, since our child care has had to be adjusted to account for the earlier start time and the later release time. The unintended effect on staff morale has been the most devastating. Teachers feel disrespected, and many have vowed to work just the eight hours without any of the extra time devoted selflessly in years past. No taking papers home to grade,

no lesson planning at home, no researching content to find innovative new strategies and presentation techniques, etc. When this proposal was first heard by teachers, many exclaimed, "Wait - I ONLY have to work eight hours?? Great!" It is disheartening sometimes to read the DMN DISD blog, because you get a glimpse of exactly how the public views teachers - as lazy, check-collecting, overpaid slobs with superiority complexes. This 45-minute addition to our day merely supports this misconception and fuels the public's ire. This extension of our workday equates to about 17.5 days that have been added to our job description (that's 3.5 weeks of work) for NO additional compensation. Having worked in the private sector for several years before I began my teaching career, I am certain that this would be considered unacceptable in most other industries. This is abuse of power in an increasingly uncertain economic age. It is well known that we need our jobs, and that we should "shut up and take it" even at the expense of our students. The 45-minute workday extension is only a drop in the bucket for the amount of time it takes SPED teachers to respond to the demands placed on them. To meet the expectations of the district, a SPED teacher is responsible for being in 6 classes to help the SPED students needing assistance in that subject. The SPED teacher should be prepared for the class and should know those students who have difficulty. The SPED teacher is also expected to revise quizes/tests and class assignments for the student who is unable to complete the regular course requirements because of a disability. To do a good job, a teacher can easily spend 40 - 50 hours per week on this function. The other expectation of the SPED Teacher/Case Manager is the management of the assigned SPED students on their case load. The Casemanager is expected to complete the paperwork designated by the district to meet federal regulations. The current program, which was implemented this year, requires respones on 40 - 45 pages. The casemanager is further responsible for convening a parent meeting to discuss the paperwork and the students progress in their classes. Crisis management is also included in the casemanager's range of duties if one of their students has an issue which needs intervention. To be effective, a casemanager can easily spend over 40 hours a week to meet this expectation. The way I figure, it is two distinct jobs for which only one salary is paid. Furthermore, I fully expect to not be able to meet the DISD expectations, to be evaluated at the end of the year as performing 'below expectations' and to be looking for a new job for next year. So 45 extra minutes per day is OK....I'm here anyway. No one seems to be talking about the still large number of vacancies of teachers and central office Sped staff. I'm hearing that new people are choosing to go with other districts because of the extended day and central office losing their contracts. There is an employment shortage no one is discussing. We had three people resign in two weeks because less pay and increasing workload. No one seems to be talking about the still large number of vacancies of teachers and central office Sped staff. I'm hearing that new people are choosing to go with other districts because of

the extended day and central office losing their contracts. There is an employment shortage no one is discussing. We had three people resign in two weeks because less pay and increasing workload. What I dont like about the 45 minute workday extension: It is not MY time: The 45 extra minutes (for the most part) is not my time to do with what I see fit It is not for grading papers, it is not for calling parents, it is not for conferencing with parents (as far as Ive been led to believe), it is not for entering grades in the computer, it is not for setting up my classroom for the next days activities. It is inconsistent: Furthermore, the activities done during those 45 minutes are inconsistent, as well. Some days we have a campus-wide meeting, sometimes we break into subject-areas and have staff development sessions over the particular subject we teach. Sometimes, the people that are needed for a meeting during that 45 minutes are notified with short notice at the end of the day. Some days we are able to collaborate with our co-workers (team-members) to plan out lessons and lesson plans for the next week, but we never really know from day to day, which days well be able to do that and which days we wont. It is fluff: Sometimes I feel like the principal and her staff are just throwing stuff together for the sole purpose of documenting that we did something as a faculty (when the substance of the activity was non-meaningful to myself or other faculty members)fluff. It gives me no options but to put a sub in the classroom: I used to be able to cut out of work at 3:15-3:30 (after kids left the building) to make the last appointment slot of the dentists/doctors/optometrists officeNow the 45 minute extension does not allow me to do that. I used to be able to cut out of work at 3:153:30 (after kids left the building) to take care of necessary personal business.close on a home purchase, meet the cable guy at my house for an installation appointment, and conduct other necessary business with businesses that close at 5:00 (utilities, tax office, drivers license, etc). Now, if I need to take care of one of the above, I need to put in for a substitute for a day or full day, which is NOT in the best interest of my students. What I DO like about the 45 minute extension: NOTHING