Tomorrow is Wednesday which means if you have a daughter or son that goes to high school at a Manteca Unified campus they can sleep in a bit later.
The late start on Wednesdays was born from a desire to make teaching more effective and to better tailor efforts to how individual students learn.
“Teachers use the time to collaborate on the best practices for curriculum and to go over (data) from student progress to coordinate efforts to meet student needs,” noted Manteca Unified Superintendent Jason Messer.
The late start for students gives teachers an hour where they can collaborate with others in their respective departments. Messer noted it can’t be done during prep times given the difficulty, for example, of scheduling prep time for all science teachers at the same time.
After school doesn’t work either as teachers often have extracurricular assignments and are tutoring individual students.
Messer said it is an effective way of teachers playing to each other’s strengths.
“One teacher may be strong in a certain area and another in a different area,” he said. “They help improve each other through collaboration.”
Students may arrive an hour late but they do not lose any educational time. That’s due to the change of bell schedules and increased class times.
Various studies have shown that the process known as Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) involving teachers working together and discussing instructional needs of students plays a  key role in improving student success.
Typical PLCs stress supportive and shared leadership, collective creativity, shared values and vision, supportive conditions, and shared personal practices.
Essentially teachers are learning form the experience and success of their colleagues.