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While students protested against testing and basked in the late-spring sun, educators across the city hunkered down to prepare for next year.

The first Thursday of June is a mandatory training day for city teachers. Hiring committees were set to meet at some schools up for “turnaround” overhauls, teachers offered voluntary tutoring sessions for high schoolers scheduled to take Regents exams next week, and some departments took educational field trips, according to GothamSchools readers who reached out to let us know how they were spending the day formerly known as Brooklyn-Queens Day.

Here are some of the responses we got on Twitter when we asked city teachers how they were spending the training day:

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City students will stay home for an odd midweek break tomorrow and teachers will head to training sessions during the weekday formerly known as Brooklyn-Queens Day.

From 1829 to 2006, schools in Brooklyn and Queens were closed on the first Thursday of June so that students could honor their Sunday school teachers with parades and parties. Over time, the original purpose was mostly lost, but schools in the two boroughs continued to shut their doors one day each June. That all changed with the 2005 teachers contract, which extended the day off to students across the city but turned it into a professional development day for teachers.

Now it’s called “Chancellor’s Conference Day for staff development related to the Regents High Learning Standards and Assessments,” according to the Department of Education’s calendar, and teachers are required to report for duty. (“Students IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS will NOT be in attendance,” the calendar warns.)

That doesn’t mean the day will be all work and no play for city teachers. (more…)

An excerpt from the Brooklyn Eagle's 1896 Children's Day report

Across the city, kids are staying home today for an odd mid-week day off, while their teachers are reporting for duty. The reason: A professional development day that was created in the current teachers’ contract to replace an antiquated celebration called Brooklyn-Queens Day.

Celebrated until 2006, Brooklyn-Queens Day grew out of parades held in the two boroughs in the 19th century to honor Sunday School teachers at local churches. On the first Thursday in June, schools were closed so that children could march through the streets, wearing their Sunday best and singing the praises of their religious school teachers. The Brooklyn Eagle counted 78,000 children participating in 1896, when the governor made an appearance to view the procession. The state legislature officially made the day a holiday in 1905 for Brooklyn and 1959 for Queens.

But by 1991, according to the New York Times, no one could quite remember why some students got an extra day off in early June. The teachers contract that went into effect in 2005 officially ended the tradition, extending the day off to students across the city but requiring teachers to use the day to plan their lessons. The Department of Education’s online calendar emphasizes that today is a professional development day for teachers “IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS” (the capital letters are the department’s).

At least some schools are still in session today. They are all charter schools, which do not have to adhere to the public school calendar. I heard from a staff member at a charter school who said, “No time for Brooklyn-Queens Day — we’ve got TerraNovas to take!” The staff member was referring to standardized tests that some schools use to assess their students.