It’s Monday. The hallways are empty and quiet without the buzz of student-life. However, despite the desolate nature of Grandview High School, teachers are hard at work. Today is Teacher-Work Day. Without students to teach, what do teachers do? 

“On teacher workdays, Grandview staff members participate in multiple activities. Most days, we take part in professional development sessions,” Elizabeth Groves, an English teacher, said. 

Depending on the department, each teacher attends a different session. 

“Some departments, like Student Achievement Services and counseling, have other district-required trainings that they must attend on these days,” Groves said. 

According to Groves, each teacher attends a conference to gain more understanding of their subject or of new teaching practices.  

“I attended a training this year to further my knowledge about the science of reading. This was really important to my own learning, as it helped me to be a better teacher for my students,” Groves said. 

These meetings also provide a place for communication between teachers. 

“[It provides] dialogue with colleagues afterwards about what it is that we would like to implement in our classrooms,” Lauren Bull, a Social Studies and Avid teacher, said. 

She comments that some conferences have a round-robin method, where teachers rotate from one session to another. Special ed, diversity, multilingual, and inclusion classes are just some of the examples of what is offered. 

“Training and professional development sessions also give teachers more tools to be able to connect with their students, work on their teaching practices, and make the educational process more accessible for all learners, ” Groves said. 

Groves also emphasizes that each Teacher-Work Day is beneficial to facilitate department communication such as staff meetings led by Dr. Lisa Rovers and other admin. 

“After [this], we use the rest of our time to plan lessons, grade, communicate with students and parents, and take care of administrative tasks,” said Groves. 

However, teachers also face challenges regarding balancing the sessions/training and the unstructured time during Teacher-Work Days. Bull agrees that the professional development this year has been wonderful, but sometimes it can take away from work time that teachers need. 

“I think teachers are always looking for extra time. Generally speaking, that [is] something teachers are always searching for because the amount of outside grading and planning that is required to do the job goes beyond just the classroom,” Bull said. 

Teacher-Work Days come with the same problem many students face- how to get it all done. 

“[It’s] difficult when we have lots of things to do in one day, or when sessions run really long. This is because, similarly to students, teachers need brain breaks to be able to process all of the new information we are receiving,” Groves said. 

With the challenge of a heavy workload, as well as trying to balance personal, administrator, and student needs- teachers are hard at work, even when there are no students to teach. 

“The main goal is to support our curriculum, to support our students, and to support our objectives as teachers,” Bull said.