Rich activities = A day off?

I was talking with some other teachers about all these job action situations currently happening in our province.  Basically we have to get in no earlier than 15 minutes before our first class, and we're rushed out at 5 minutes after our last period.  If you are a teacher, you'd know how tough that is.  Some schools are even encouraging teachers to only mark and plan during school hours.  This is where this comment came up:

"I just make up an activity..."

Ok sounds good so far

"Have the kids do it..."

Uh-huh

"And then I take that time to mark..."

Oh I see -- wait what?

There are couple of things I am seeing here.  First of all, of course I realize that activities are better than just students doing worksheets all class.  I also realize that if teachers are being restricted in their ability to mark, something creative has to happen -- But I just have some problems with throwing an activity at the kids and then doing my own thing.

Even if it's a rich activity.

I sincerely believe that there's real value in teachers being an active part of the learning community.  Even when kids are doing activities, I am never on my chair checking e-mails and reading the news.

I interact with them, ask questions, make them confused, and then encourage them to think out of the conclusion.  Sometimes I guide them and support their thinking, but most of the time I walk around and cause them problems.  Well maybe problems is the wrong word... maybe chaos is better.  Just kidding there also.  What I mean is, students think through the activities and problems, and I ask "what about this" "what about that" "what if" "will this always work"... etc.

Besides the chaos that I throw in each group, I also constantly give them feedback.  Each student requires different kinds of feedback at different stages of their understanding.

I saw this on a wall at some point, and I took a picture of it.  It pretty much describes what I am talking about:

Students don't need to be fed answers.  They need to develop their own answers.  They need to develop their own questions too -- but some require more guidance to be able to produce their own answers.

But let me get back to my original topic.  I find my membership in the classroom learning community to be valuable.  I am not trying to say that I am super important, but I believe there is a lot of things teachers can do, and should do, when students are engaged in an activity.  I also believe that during these types of activities, there is an excellent opportunity to obtain valid and authentic information on student learning and student understanding.

If I'm just sitting and marking, I'm going to miss all that!

But with all that said... if job actions come down... I am not sure how creative I can be with evaluations and planning...