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Post by peasapie on Aug 8, 2015 19:08:19 GMT
Many U.S. Schools already do this. Particularly in areas where schools require AC anyway, year round. Nothing new.
When I was teaching, I felt like a mid June to early Seotember break was too long. I was ready to go back after six weeks.
Are you ready to pay more for teachers to work those extra weeks? Because I know many teachers who would welcome the extra pay. Right now they have to fill in with other work over the summer.
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wellway
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Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Aug 8, 2015 19:12:54 GMT
Here in the UK State schools have 195 days of school, 190 days pupil attendance and 5 teacher training days (Inset days).
The school year consists of three terms, Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each Term is spilt into two half terms with a week off mid term, ie after six/seven weeks. So the school year starts in Sept, first half term late Oct, two weeks off at Christmas, second half term in late Feb, two weeks at Easter, third half term in June, last day in school usually around 22/23rd July. Then six or so weeks of until the new school year starts.
Guess what, this arrangement gets complaints from parents because travel companies raise prices to coincide with all the holidays. The Govt are getting tough on parents that take children out of school in school time.
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Post by fridaycat on Aug 8, 2015 19:13:24 GMT
In Ohio I've heard it been said that year round school would hurt our summer weather tourism industry. $$$
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breetheflea
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Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Aug 8, 2015 19:20:23 GMT
While I enjoy my long summer vacation (from the middle of June to the beginning of September) and do not want year round school I would gladly give up one week if we could have 5 more days off during the school year. There is a really long slog between when school starts (early September) and the first extra day off (middle of October, conferences) and another from Spring Break (beginning of April to Memorial Day). I would also like more time off during December, especially BEFORE Christmas. So while I don't want year round school, I wouldn't mind rearranging the schedule just a bit... When DD was in preschool last year (in the same building as the grade school, which had a similar schedule), it floored me by how often the kids were off. They started in early September, had time off in October for conferences. Time off in November for Thanksgiving. Time off in Dec-Jan for winter break. Time off in February for President's Day. Time off in March for spring break. Time off in April for Easter. And then preschool ended in mid-May. It was insane. I don't remember ever having that much time off of school when I was a kid! Keep in mind that we were paying for preschool, and we paid the same amount every month whether the kids were in school every week or not. We took a family vacation in December before Christmas so we ended up paying for a whole month of preschool even though she was only in school for one week. With DD going to kindergarten this fall, she will still have several days off EVERY month of the school year. I work from home so I can work around it, but if I didn't it would be very frustrating. First day of school is Aug. 31st, last day of school is June 3rd. Our calendar this coming year:
School starts Sept 2nd.
Labor Day Sept 7th (this year is weird, school usually starts after Labor Day) Oct 22nd and 23rd (conferences) Nov 11th (middle of week this year, Veterans Day) Nov 25,26,27 Thanksgiving Dec 21st - Jan 3rd Winter Break Jan 18 MLK Day, 29th (Semester Break, not usually on a Friday usually in the middle of the week) Feb 15th (Presidents Day) April 4th-8th (Spring Break) May 30th (Memorial Day)
June 15th (Last Day of School)
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moodyblue
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Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Aug 8, 2015 19:26:56 GMT
Can someone please tell me why this hasn't become standard in the US yet? There are so many positives to it and I can't think of any negatives. Seems like teachers just want their summers off. But hell, who doesn't? You seem to be implying that teachers have any control over this - which makes me laugh out loud in a rather cynical way. You don't know much about how education works in this country if you really believe that teachers get to decide things like this. And your later comment about AC being easy to install also makes me laugh. It is NOT easy in older buildings (and there are tons of very old school buildings all over the country) nor is it cheap to install or to run it. Many many states and school districts are running on very lean budgets and there is no money for major expenditures like this. I don't know whether you are wanting a balanced year-round calendar or a longer school year, but there are pros and cons to everything. Much of the reason we have a long summer break has to do with the agrarian society we used to be, but nowadays tourism and other issues come into play too. And no matter what a district chooses to do, the loudest voices and most influence come from the parents in the district, NOT the teachers.
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Post by mrsscrapdiva on Aug 8, 2015 19:30:01 GMT
I just wanted to add my 2 cents...
Yes, USA needs this. I am 100% onboard. There is too much learning that is lost over the 8 -10 weeks of summer.
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 8, 2015 19:32:20 GMT
Several of our districts are close to year round school. The teachers do not get a vote. I am not sure where that idea even came from. Perhaps places with stronger unions might have a vote. There are a lot of teachers that would like time off in the cooler months rather than the summer. We live in ski country and I can see that making many teachers happy, but once again, teachers do not get a say. Two of our fifteen building had air originally and putting it in several more has cost the district tons of money. Money not spent on kids. Most parents I have ever discussed this with do not want year round school. There are benefits academically with year round school but not enough to persuade districts to change. Most kids make up that gap quickly. I know it is a lot more expensive to go to year round. Personally, I loved having the summers off with my boys. Long lazy days spent hanging out or exploring our mountains was amazing. I get the benefits of having it both ways.
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 8, 2015 19:35:22 GMT
I don't get three months off in the summer..not sure of any teacher that does. I think that was back in the 70's for me. Now it is about 9 weeks, at least two weeks of teacher educational classes, and another seven to ten days of prepping before the kids come back. Every year we have a new curriculum we have to learn and that is all done on our summer free time. That is out of the nine weeks.
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Post by dualmaestra on Aug 8, 2015 19:44:43 GMT
For those saying it would cost more for year-round school, or that the school year would be 11 months long -- is that really true? My impression of year-round schooling was that it was the same number of days in school and vacation days, just they they are spread out differently. This is how it worked at my previous district. Same number of days, but at different times. We had 4 tracks, 3 were on at any time and 1 off. A change about every 6 weeks. Each state requires certain number of minutes a child must be in school, that doesn't change. another thing to consider is schedules. For our district, middle and high schools were not year round. So if a parent had children in different schools, they were on/off at differnt times.what if a teacher with children at other schools had their children on differnt tracks? They never got the same days off. in our district, everyone wanted A Track, which was the most similar to traditional calendar, that included teachers and parents.
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georgiapea
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Jun 27, 2014 18:02:10 GMT
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Post by georgiapea on Aug 8, 2015 19:45:15 GMT
Year round school would be very beneficial. Many people manage to do their jobs without 'burnout' who don't get the summer off. People would take their vacations during the regular breaks and everyone would adjust.
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Post by monklady123 on Aug 8, 2015 19:49:58 GMT
I don't get three months off in the summer..not sure of any teacher that does. I think that was back in the 70's for me. Now it is about 9 weeks, at least two weeks of teacher educational classes, and another seven to ten days of prepping before the kids come back. Every year we have a new curriculum we have to learn and that is all done on our summer free time. That is out of the nine weeks. Plus, most of the younger teachers who I know are all working on Master's degrees or other certification so they're trying to take classes in the summer. It's hard to do that during the school year, even just one, since teaching isn't usually a job you can just leave at the "office". Yes, yes, I know that a lot of us have worked full-time jobs and gone to graduate school. But, even when I worked at the State Department -- a demanding and "formal" type job -- most of the time I left my work there when I came home. I wonder if there are *any* teachers who never do school stuff at home?
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 8, 2015 19:52:54 GMT
I think that was back in the 70's for me. Now it is about 9 weeks, at least two weeks of teacher educational classes, and another seven to ten days of prepping before the kids come back. Every year we have a new curriculum we have to learn and that is all done on our summer free time. That is out of the nine weeks. Plus, most of the younger teachers who I know are all working on Master's degrees or other certification so they're trying to take classes in the summer. It's hard to do that during the school year, even just one, since teaching isn't usually a job you can just leave at the "office". Yes, yes, I know that a lot of us have worked full-time jobs and gone to graduate school. But, even when I worked at the State Department -- a demanding and "formal" type job -- most of the time I left my work there when I came home. I wonder if there are *any* teachers who never do school stuff at home? I brought home stuff 3-4 nights a week. If I didn't do it, I wasn't prepared. I had six subjects to prep for every day and no way could I be unprepared.
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 8, 2015 19:55:23 GMT
Year round school would be very beneficial. Many people manage to do their jobs without 'burnout' who don't get the summer off. People would take their vacations during the regular breaks and everyone would adjust. I have worked other jobs and I have taught. None of my other jobs were as exhausting as teaching. None. Not even close. Our district lost about 20% of their teaching staff from burnout this last spring. Another 10% left for retirement or moving to another state.
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~Lauren~
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Jun 26, 2014 3:33:18 GMT
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Post by ~Lauren~ on Aug 8, 2015 19:58:49 GMT
The U.S. Is actually near the top in number of hours spent in the classroom. I would not mind going year around. I think more breaks throughout the year and a shorter summer would be better for the kids and we would see less regression. Kids in Texas go to school for 177 days. And isn't it said that despite the fact that we have the most in class hours the United States is consistently near the bottom of the academic excellence studies a first world countries. We are doing something very wrong
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CeeScraps
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Jun 26, 2014 12:56:40 GMT
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Post by CeeScraps on Aug 8, 2015 20:02:46 GMT
Our school looked into it...here is what the board had wanted.... I would teach "x" weeks. At the end of my time I had to pack up my stuff because it was all going to be put on carts, moved to storage. Once I was out a new teacher would take the room for "x" weeks. She would teach.... I return, my stuff comes out of storage, I set up the room, teach, then pack up, storage and the cycle continues.
At any level this was a nightmare. Think of an Elementary classroom teacher and her stuff. Another reason it hasn't worked in my district is that the buildings are not air conditioned.
I've never done it but under different circumstances I think it would be a good thing.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:08:24 GMT
I am an academic without summer teaching responsibilities so would be sorry to lose my flexible summers with my kids, but if the empirical research says a year-round schedule is better for kids, I am supportive. One question -- what do working parents in districts that have year-round school? I assume there are various camps or other care options? We have a nanny, but most working parents I know send their kids to day camps over the summer or use district-run summer programs. Our school district is year round and actually has either enrichment or tutorial programs for one week and then nothing the other week. I got more caught out by random inservice days and the two days off for elections etc.
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Post by freecharlie on Aug 8, 2015 20:08:43 GMT
The U.S. Is actually near the top in number of hours spent in the classroom. I would not mind going year around. I think more breaks throughout the year and a shorter summer would be better for the kids and we would see less regression. Kids in Texas go to school for 177 days. And isn't it said that despite the fact that we have the most in class hours the United States is consistently near the bottom of the academic excellence studies a first world countries. We are doing something very wrong I'm not going to deny that we can do thing better, but I think there is a lot to be said for the cultures of other countries. There is not as much special snowflake syndrome. In japan once a week or so the kids and teachers clean the school. It promotes respect of the building and the organization, something this country is lacking.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:12:46 GMT
The schedule we have now has nothing to do with teacher preference. As I understand it, it grew out of agrarian needs. And perhaps the lack of air conditioning in older schools. In fact, many teachers would prefer a year round schedule. It has been implemented in some areas with great success. I think one major stumbling block is high-tourist areas that depend on kids for the industry. I believe in Wisconsin, for example, schools are not allowed to start until after Labor Day, per tourist season. Another issue is day care. Parents would need to find day care in spurts, as year round is usually implemented on/off. Now, if you are talking every day, all day, all year, teachers' pay would need to increase and districts may not be able to afford year round schools. I don't get paid for the 8 weeks I am off during summer. It might be nice to draw that check as opposed to working for free writing curricula, paying for my own professional development, working another job to earn money, etc during those 8 weeks. For me, it's like a factory shutdown. Use vacation days or don't get paid. I don't get to choose vacation days, so I can't do things like a multi day conference or professional development during the school year. Add utilities, maintenance costs, support personnel, etc, and it's a very expensive undertaking. I think there are many reasons it is not widespread in the US. Agreed. And in some areas- sports. 12 weeks on and 3 weeks off wouldn't work well with many sports schedules. I think once we as a society adjusted to it, year round education would be beneficial. I works, it just means your athlete doesn't go to school but still plays during the breaks. Sometimes it is good because they are getting rest and really up for the games at that point in the season.
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Post by zztop11 on Aug 8, 2015 20:21:04 GMT
Come on. Don't you know why? It's because the U.S. is still an agrarian society. We need our children to be available in the summer to bring in the harvest, plant the next crop, babysit the youngins'. In truth, it's probably because Common Core wouldn't work with year-round scheduling. Or maybe it's because teachers would earn more money? No, I know. I know. Really. It's because those that aren't teachers wouldn't have anything else to complain about with teachers. They would be working "full time" just like everyone else P.S. I was a teacher for 30 L-O-N-G years. Can't you tell
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melissa
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Jun 25, 2014 20:45:00 GMT
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Post by melissa on Aug 8, 2015 20:29:29 GMT
I am thankful dd did not have year round schooling, though, as homeschoolers, I admit we did continue some schooling in the summer which helped lighten the load a bit during the year. Summers gave her a time to explore other avenues more deeply than can normally be done when school is in session.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:34:18 GMT
For those saying it would cost more for year-round school, or that the school year would be 11 months long -- is that really true? My impression of year-round schooling was that it was the same number of days in school and vacation days, just they they are spread out differently. You are correct. The irony in my area of the country is this. Our district is on a modified year round. Starting first week of August and going through the 1st week of June with 2 week breaks Autumn, Winter (Christmas), Spring, and additional days for Inservice, Elections, National Holidays, and a 3 day Thanksgiving break. A lot of those additional days absorb any schedule issues from ice/snow days in our area. So the students normally get out the same week of the year for the summer as planned. Surrounding districts have a traditional year and start within the same week. Have a similar Autumn to Winter break schedule though normally only 1 week Autumn break. They don't build in days into their schedule are many got out the same week as we did this past year, when they were scheduled to be out 2 or more weeks earlier. Honestly, I think the modified year round that we have is less stressful once you get used to it. It was hard moving from England to here as my kids would have only had 1 week summer an I just felt that they needed more so we explained that to their English schools, who were very supportive and understanding and they finished the end of June and had a month off before starting in the US.
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Post by zztop11 on Aug 8, 2015 20:35:13 GMT
I am thankful dd did not have year round schooling, though, as homeschoolers, I admit we did continue some schooling in the summer which helped lighten the load a bit during the year. Summers gave her a time to explore other avenues more deeply than can normally be done when school is in session. In all seriousness (from my post above), I agree with you. I think that summer is the time to give your mind a rest. I'm big on family time. Fortunately, being a teacher I was able to give my daughter lots of that. We traveled (still do and she's 28 and married). It's time to be outdoors, recharge your batteries, swim, ride bikes, etc. Going to camp is a big one on my list also. Kids that go to camp learn so many things. I don't know how we could incorporate camp with year-round school.
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AnotherPea
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Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
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Post by AnotherPea on Aug 8, 2015 20:36:24 GMT
Our year-round schools have the same number of instructional days per year, just with breaks sprinkled throughout the year. There has been no evidence to show that this increases learning with students.
Sure, teachers want breaks. So do kids and a lot of families.
I guess if one could say that the only reason we don't have year-round is because teachers want summers off, we could also say that the only reason parents want year round is because they don't want to pay for summer child care.
I know in a lot of states educational funding is lower than what it should be. I cannot imagine states ponying up the money that it would cost to have true year-round schools.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:41:31 GMT
In Ohio I've heard it been said that year round school would hurt our summer weather tourism industry. $$$ That honestly makes no sense. We found we don't travel during the summer because that is when everyone else is off! We love having breaks when all the other schools are in, less crowds, less heat - but those are still tourism dollars.
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Post by pmk on Aug 8, 2015 20:43:21 GMT
Here in the UK State schools have 195 days of school, 190 days pupil attendance and 5 teacher training days (Inset days). The school year consists of three terms, Autumn, Spring and Summer. Each Term is spilt into two half terms with a week off mid term, ie after six/seven weeks. So the school year starts in Sept, first half term late Oct, two weeks off at Christmas, second half term in late Feb, two weeks at Easter, third half term in June, last day in school usually around 22/23rd July. Then six or so weeks of until the new school year starts. Guess what, this arrangement gets complaints from parents because travel companies raise prices to coincide with all the holidays. The Govt are getting tough on parents that take children out of school in school time. It's slightly different in Scotland. We get long weekends for half term holidays rather than full weeks (except for the October holiday week and some areas get 2 weeks then). We start in August and finish in late June. Occasionally we even manage to get away on holiday before the travel agents work out that we finish earlier than other areas of the UK! Interestingly we havent gone down the route of fines for parents who take their children out of school in term time. Local authorities can have their absence record amended to show 'unauthorised absence' but that's about as harsh as it gets!!
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Post by doesitmatter on Aug 8, 2015 20:43:57 GMT
It is standard or at least an option in many areas.
I have lived in a city and now live rural and it's an option in both places, it just depends on the program you choose.
It is an option, but the parents generally need to be more involved and proactive in the year round options.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:46:39 GMT
I think that was back in the 70's for me. Now it is about 9 weeks, at least two weeks of teacher educational classes, and another seven to ten days of prepping before the kids come back. Every year we have a new curriculum we have to learn and that is all done on our summer free time. That is out of the nine weeks. Plus, most of the younger teachers who I know are all working on Master's degrees or other certification so they're trying to take classes in the summer. It's hard to do that during the school year, even just one, since teaching isn't usually a job you can just leave at the "office". Yes, yes, I know that a lot of us have worked full-time jobs and gone to graduate school. But, even when I worked at the State Department -- a demanding and "formal" type job -- most of the time I left my work there when I came home. I wonder if there are *any* teachers who never do school stuff at home? I'm the child of a teacher and wonder if I should bill her district for all the unpaid child labor over the years!
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 8, 2015 20:49:11 GMT
Our school looked into it...here is what the board had wanted.... I would teach "x" weeks. At the end of my time I had to pack up my stuff because it was all going to be put on carts, moved to storage. Once I was out a new teacher would take the room for "x" weeks. She would teach.... I return, my stuff comes out of storage, I set up the room, teach, then pack up, storage and the cycle continues. At any level this was a nightmare. Think of an Elementary classroom teacher and her stuff. Another reason it hasn't worked in my district is that the buildings are not air conditioned. I've never done it but under different circumstances I think it would be a good thing. That's a special level of crazy!
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Post by myshelly on Aug 8, 2015 20:49:37 GMT
In Ohio I've heard it been said that year round school would hurt our summer weather tourism industry. $$$ That honestly makes no sense. We found we don't travel during the summer because that is when everyone else is off! We love having breaks when all the other schools are in, less crowds, less heat - but those are still tourism dollars. It's not just travel. Seasonal businesses like amusement parks and water parks depend on high schoolers to work the season and on kids being out of school to have season passes. The beach tourist towns here are only open during the season. They make all of their money May-August and then a lot of the businesses there closed the rest of the year. As I said, every time this is brought up here, businesses lobby heavily against it. I'm not concerned about it happening here.
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AnotherPea
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Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
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Post by AnotherPea on Aug 8, 2015 20:51:47 GMT
The U.S. Is actually near the top in number of hours spent in the classroom. I would not mind going year around. I think more breaks throughout the year and a shorter summer would be better for the kids and we would see less regression. Kids in Texas go to school for 177 days. And isn't it said that despite the fact that we have the most in class hours the United States is consistently near the bottom of the academic excellence studies a first world countries. We are doing something very wrong I'd like a link to your statistics if you can find one. All of the studies I've looked at didn't account for different demographics. In the US we include everyone in our data. Not just the top of the class or college-bound students.
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