BY DANIELLE ONAFRAYCHUK
The 2013-2014 school year has brought many changes to Cooper City High School. Among these changes is the addition of Professional Study Days (PSDs). These new early release days were enacted to allow teachers time to edit their curriculum and collaborate with other teachers on their teaching mechanisms.
Many Broward County Schools had already incorporated PSDs into their school year prior to CCHS. This is the first year that we adopted this system because of the realization that a seven class daily schedule was such a workload. Allowing teachers PSD days has helped them manage this seven class agenda. Over the course of the year the school will have a minimum of eight PSDs.
“I honestly find Professional Study Days to be great because it allows us time to get stuff accomplished instead of having to stay after school until 6 p.m. every day.” CCHS teacher Linda Coel said.
Professional Study Days are a day once a month in which teachers and students end their school day at 11:20 and are encouraged to spend the rest of the day doing school related projects. Teachers are expected to use this allotted time to work on their lesson plans and course rigor.
Both students and teachers see PSDs as a positive addition. These are an extra 27 hours in total that teachers are allowed to create a more rigorous curriculum for their students and to get their assignments graded and recorded. PSDs are beneficial to students as they give them time to get their work and enable them to study.
“I love Professional Study Days, it helps me balance out football, studying, and personal stuff by basically giving me a day to get all my stuff together.” junior Donnie Schmitt said.
For some students, Professional Study Days may simply be a day to get out of school early, but for countless others, these days aid them in handling their school work.
As Broward County words it in their online waiver, “Broward County high schools may utilize any number of designated days for additional professional study hours for the purpose of implementing school-wide plans to improve student achievement.”
