raindancer
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Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Aug 8, 2015 23:29:20 GMT
I'm a teacher and I'm totally open to year round school. I would love breaks at different points in the year as opposed to one long summer. I think it'd be more difficult for working parents who need to find daycare solutions than an inconvenience for teachers. I also think that some of the opinions of "how school should work" that have been shared here are pretty interesting. I have some opinions about how LOTS of systems should work, but I'm not an expert on them, so I typically don't weigh in. But, everyone is an" expert" when it comes to school. Because they went to school. I've been to the dentist, but I certainly could not perform a root canal. Day cares and camps change schedules to match. It works out just fine. I'm not stating anything from my personal opinion. It's been shown in numerous studies that kids do better in year round schools.
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Post by LiLi on Aug 8, 2015 23:33:03 GMT
Because an extended summer break provides so many things: 1) a chance for teachers to rest and renew so that we are nice people in the classroom and don't get burned out There are plenty of jobs that are equal to or more stressful than being a teacher. They don't get breaks, nor expect them PLUS you'd still get breaks just shortened a tad (but still way longer than any other profession) and spread out more often. 2) a chance for students to grow and mature and come back for a fresh start each year I don't even see this as a thing. My kids get the same effect when having a three week break for winter.3) a time for children to spend time with their parents and bond/vacation It is very rare for parents to have summers off, unless they work in education... Most people only take their vacation during the summer (1-3 weeks or so) because they have to. It would make it way easier for employers to give these vacation times throughout the year, and does it really matter WHEN they take their time off? If anything it would be better because people could avoid high density during high peak summer time destinations and take their time off when their kids are off throughout the year.4) many school buildings are not equipped to deal with the summer heat in terms of air conditioning For schools that don't already have A/C (we do here) how hard is it to install a couple or more window/ small hole in the wall A/C units per classroom? It would even work in old buildings.5) a time for a kid to be a kid and not be governed by a schedule every single moment The time to be a kid would happen more often. Imo having shorter breaks or so (2 or three weeks every couple months) gives this same opportunity. Even more so for some people. Plus, most kids wouldn't have the same "I'm Bored" issue that occurs by the end of summer. Or the burn out and lack of doing much of anything the last few weeks of school.
Blue = my input. We used to have year round school here in my city, but they got rid of it a while ago. It even helped when some grades had too many kids, some were off, some were on, leading to less populated classrooms.
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scrapaddie
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,090
Jul 8, 2014 20:17:31 GMT
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Post by scrapaddie on Aug 8, 2015 23:39:26 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? As a teacher, . I rarely had a summer off... and I worked 6 days a week during the school year and well into the evenings. We often found it difficult to find a,week for a family vacation and I never took a two week vacation while I taught. Classes and workshops as well as tearing down and setting up the classroom took most of my summer
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theshyone
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Jun 26, 2014 12:50:12 GMT
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Post by theshyone on Aug 8, 2015 23:41:28 GMT
The thought of year round school is horrifying to me. Are you an urban person or rural? You aren't taking into account kids helping on the farm during the busy time of year. Three months off? Not here. We go to end of June and start beginning of September. We have choice of a year round school or September to June school. Both are used. Neither is better than the other in general, but may be better for parents. However I've not met a kid yet at the year round school that likes sitting in class in August. They hate it. I'm of the other persuasion. Shorten the year even more, get rid of the crappy "filler", I hate it, my kid hates it. My son detests school, no part of it is enjoyed. None. I can't imagine forcing him to go 11 months of the year. He needs the summer to regroup. His personality is so different. Have you considered homeschooling? Not a possibility at this time. Next year he is eligible for online school which will be examined.
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scrapaddie
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Jul 8, 2014 20:17:31 GMT
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Post by scrapaddie on Aug 8, 2015 23:50:49 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. Kids in Ohio go 180 days
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 3:17:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2015 23:52:53 GMT
I didn't like the idea of year round till we moved and our elementary had year round school. I LOVED it will my oldest went to elementary the next year and was on a traditional schedule while my other two were on year round. I loved that when we were on break only some of the kids were on break so things weren't as crowded. I loved being able to take a vacation mid year without the kids missing school.
Kids camps just happened every break so each of the 4 tracks we had had camp available to them. Babysitters were used to it and they took on more kids. It's just every few weeks some kids would leave and others would come back.
When my children go to junior high I didn't like it so much. Trying to work around traditional and year round schedules was even harder than working around the traditional schedule. But if it could have worked I would have loved year round junior high and high school as well. One problem with it working is not just sports. It's also marching band and play practice and club activities and dances etc.
Our elementary went back to traditional school my youngest's last year of elementary. I debated on pulling him out and home school partly for scheduling reasons before that happened. It was my oldest senior year and I really wanted our family to spend more time together. When the school went traditional we stayed. The teachers were not happy for the most part. Several of them left the school for year round schools.
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twinsmomfla99
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Jun 26, 2014 13:42:47 GMT
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Post by twinsmomfla99 on Aug 8, 2015 23:55:42 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. Had to do this and it was horrible. 4 teachers were grouped, 1 for each track. One was a "rover". When A track/teacher was off, the rover went into that room. When A came back, B went off-track and rover moved into B's room, etc.But we had overcrowding and it had to be done I was in a 4-track year round system one year and LOVED it. Four teachers shared three classrooms. School started with teachers A, B, and C. Three weeks later, C tracked out and D came back. Three weeks later, C came back and B tracked out. Once you were in a classroom, you stayed there until your turn to track out. Each teacher got a good-sized storage cart and one file cabinet that went into storage while tracked out. When you came back, your storage cart and file cabinet went to your new classroom for the next nine week period. Each classroom had a set of textbooks that stayed there. They were not permanently assigned to students, but teachers would check them out for students to take home if necessary. During track out time, each teacher got to choose when to do in service days (1 or 2 depending on the time of year). To avoid the whole "packing the room" issue, each teacher was responsible for decorating and wall displays for one quarter. She would make 3 copies of everything so each room looked the same--no need to take anything down when you tracked out. They coordinated ordering supplies so they had the same instructional materials for curriculum as well. As for daycare, I think it was more widely available. Each daycare would track kids in and out just like the schools. So instead of accommodating 30 kids for a summer program, they could accommodate up to 120 kids in 4 different groups during the track outs.
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Post by 950nancy on Aug 8, 2015 23:59:55 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. I'd like this schedule. I think the US is too weighted to fewer instructional days with longer hours. Each state is different but most are around 170 days. I was shocked when we moved from CA to CO when our kids were in early elementary. It went from 180 days to 160 - but the minimum hours were LONGER. It made for some really long days for a first grader. I think especially in early elementary school they lose too much over the summer, and an 8AM to 3 PM schedule is too long to actually be productive. I think there would be less burnout for everyone and more consistent learning if there were more school days and fewer hours in school. Very true, but then you have to pay for the school to be open more days and that is what costs so much money. The buses themselves are so expensive to run each day. I think 8-3 is a perfect day for elementary. We have to teach math and reading for 90+ minutes each day and that takes up three hours of teaching in just two subjects.
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scrappymum
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Aug 6, 2014 2:58:26 GMT
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Post by scrappymum on Aug 9, 2015 0:11:32 GMT
I love reading about the differences in our countries! As a kid, I thought how awesome it would be to have 3 months off school like US kids did. TV made it look so cool, and summer camps...wow...we had nothing like that! In my state, kids do 200 days, 4 x 10 week terms, 2 weeks break after Term 1,2 & 3 and 6 weeks break over the summer/Christmas holidays. I do love our system, but we know no different. Not sure what countries Pyccku was referring too, but Australia certainly educates everyone. In fact, it is compulsory to complete Year 12 (in my state) unless you have a full time job or enrolled full time in a TAFE college. The high schools have three different pathways when you get to Year 11 and 12: OP for kids who aim to go straight to University after Year 12, Personal Pathway, for kids who want to go to a TAFE college or apprenticeship and Industry Pathways to help kids get training ready to join the work force. During Years 11 and 12, the kids in PP and IP attend TAFE college part-time as well as school and come out with some higher qualifications when completing Year 12. This system is designed to help EVERY student achieve their full potential.My kids school treats each child as an individual and works with them to guide them in the right direction for them. Within these structures are also Excellence and Honours programs which offer more content in subjects that students excel in. This is a public school..... Overall, I believe we have a great education system. Kids here, over 14, often have casual jobs after school and week-ends and school holidays, again, it has always been this way. Life in the US seems to be quite different to here in many ways! Always makes for interesting reading though, it is always good to learn how other countries do things!
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mallie
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Jul 3, 2014 18:13:13 GMT
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Post by mallie on Aug 9, 2015 0:16:21 GMT
It would never happen in this state due to the power of the agriculture and tourism lobbies. Their power is why we have a state statute forbidding public school districts from starting prior to the Tuesday after Labor Day.
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 3:17:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 0:16:49 GMT
I'm loling at people saying 'ac is easy to install' - AC is actually extremely expensive to install as a climate control system, and if you're talking about putting ac units in each window, that is both extremely inefficient and again, expensive. our high school dates to 1928. There is no adding ac to that part of the building. The next part of the building was built in the 60s. Can't add it to that part either. The part built I the 80s has ac. The windows on the bottom floor are not allowed to have windows ac due to security. I completely understand how expensive installing AC would be, but sort of not getting that it's hard. Do these schools not have a heating system in place? My parents just had central air installed in their house, built in 1907, and it was very easy; unit outside that runs in the same ductwork as their furnace. Same thing is true of my house, built originally in the 1870s.
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scrapaddie
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Jul 8, 2014 20:17:31 GMT
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Post by scrapaddie on Aug 9, 2015 0:20:01 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. In . Ohio, the schools that go "year round" are not putting in more days, they just have more, shorter breaks, rather than a longer break
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 3:17:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 0:26:40 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. In . Ohio, the schools that go "year round" are not putting in more days, they just have more, shorter breaks, rather than a longer break Yes. Year round teachers were not paid more where we had it. Same amount of school days. Though in some ways it was actually cheaper to have the year round. My BIL would work the extra track during the year (I'm not sure how that worked). He was paid more than the other teachers, but the district paid out less because they didn't need to pay benefits to another person. Someone talked about putting all their stuff up and the end of each track. Most of the teachers we had appreciated that - they learned they didn't really need as much stuff as they thought they did, but could still work effectively.
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 3:17:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 0:29:52 GMT
I don't see it happening here in NJ anytime soon, and honestly, just as my personal preference, I hope it doesn't until my youngest is out of school.
I have a friend who moved to another part the country that does have year-round schooling, and she has shared the pros and cons, most of which have already been discussed here. The biggest issue was scheduling conflicts with having an older child on a traditional schedule for high school, with younger ones on a tracked schedule.
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moodyblue
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Location: Western Illinois
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Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Aug 9, 2015 0:42:17 GMT
our high school dates to 1928. There is no adding ac to that part of the building. The next part of the building was built in the 60s. Can't add it to that part either. The part built I the 80s has ac. The windows on the bottom floor are not allowed to have windows ac due to security. I completely understand how expensive installing AC would be, but sort of not getting that it's hard. Do these schools not have a heating system in place? My parents just had central air installed in their house, built in 1907, and it was very easy; unit outside that runs in the same ductwork as their furnace. Same thing is true of my house, built originally in the 1870s. The building I worked in for most of my career did not have a furnace like you're thinking of; it had a boiler system for heating, so not like the ductwork you'd find with a furnace. And many older buildings don't have the wiring needed for window AC units, so electrical upgrades would be needed too. Our "new" junior high (three years old) has geothermal heating and cooling, but when we renovated the old JH into our elementary building, it was too expensive to retrofit it with geothermal - and we are having some issues with the HVAC system that was installed. Most people would be amazed at the heating and cooling costs for schools, especially in buildings that are old and not energy efficient. I'd love to work in a school district with plenty of money so that things like heating and cooling costs wouldn't be a concern, but I don't know of any districts around my area where that is true.
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gottapeanow
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Jun 25, 2014 20:56:09 GMT
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Post by gottapeanow on Aug 9, 2015 0:49:15 GMT
I hate the idea of year-round school. I'm glad we don't have it here. My opinion as a parent and a former teacher, although some schools here do have it. Lisa
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Post by lisacharlotte on Aug 9, 2015 0:49:47 GMT
My 1922 house doesn't have ducts nor room for them within my lathe and plaster walls. My house is heated with a boiler and radiators. We have window units for AC.
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raindancer
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Jun 26, 2014 20:10:29 GMT
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Post by raindancer on Aug 9, 2015 0:50:37 GMT
What I cannot understand is all the people here who think that spending money for AC is too big of a burden in exchange for the betterment of our education system.
Do you realize how absurd that sounds? AC is too much to ask? It's an expense we don't want to offer our kids a competitive edge in a global economy. We know year round school helps kids learn better.
It's nothing more than intellectual laziness and an inability to think outside the box, and to look to others to see how it can work. Change is a challenge, but when it's for a worthy cause like improving our children and by default our country and our world, it's worth while.
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Deleted
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Sept 28, 2024 3:17:10 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2015 0:53:09 GMT
To reference the post retrofitting schools with air-conditioning: I can't speak to the other five elementary schools or the other middle school in our district, but I know that the ones my children attend do not have ductwork. Neither does most of the high school.
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Post by melanell on Aug 9, 2015 1:02:51 GMT
I would love year round school. The kids can get out of some of their school year habits over the summer and it's such an ordeal for my one son to move back to that mindset. He would absolutely do better with frequent smaller breaks. Right now the hardest time for us is the fall because A.) He's begrudgingly leaving the summer freedoms behind and B.) because it is unfortunately the longest stretch we have in the year with no extra days off at all.
Plus, I don't necessarily love that my time off with my kids is always during the hottest part of the year OR during busy holiday times. I, for instance, would love a few days off in the fall. We love the fall time and we'd love to go for a long weekend camping or something like that. But we can't because we have no time off from school until thanksgiving, and it's cold by then and we're very busy.
Day care centers work around school schedules here. They offer pick-up and drop-off services, they know that on snow days there will be more kids in the center, etc. If the local schools changed to a new schedule, the day care centers would adjust, I am sure. They want to be there the hours when parents need them.
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Post by melanell on Aug 9, 2015 1:06:43 GMT
Do you find the children are really flagging by the end of the school year? I know mine certainly were losing focus by the time we broke up for summer and they would have had a week off 6 weeks prior to that and about 2 or 3 weeks off at Easter before that! I can't imagine them having the mental energy to apply themselves fully if they hadn't had a break in so long. Obviously I'm talking about when they were younger. I find that mine loses focus by the end of the year for 2 reasons. One is that the school tends to schedule oodles of special events at the end of the year, so the kids are very excited and focused on those. But more so, they are focused on the end of the year. It's very hard to keep my DS from checking out in May due to all of the non-learning time and the countdown he keeps running in his head. But for us, there is only a 4 day weekend for Easter. And sometimes it's only a 3 day weekend. So the kids have gone a pretty long time without any break beyond a long weekend or two.
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Post by ahiller on Aug 9, 2015 1:07:33 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? I would hate it. We wait SO long for summers in Michigan - I want my kids to be able to swim and play and have fun in the short amount of nice weather that we do get. It would suck for them to sit in classrooms in the summer. We already sit inside enough the other crappy months out of the year.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 9, 2015 1:26:22 GMT
I live in a big tourist area. It still works. The tourist/business industry is overstating its case. Does your entire county and every county around it do this? I could see that schools here and there going to school all year might not affect businesses, but if the entire state did it then it might change a lot more. The city district does, county doesn't but the county kids don't tend to work in the tourism in this area and everyone seems pretty insular to their area with regard to teen employment.
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milocat
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Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
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Mar 18, 2015 4:10:31 GMT
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Post by milocat on Aug 9, 2015 1:31:39 GMT
In my area of Alberta kids go for 187-190 days (teachers 10ish more days than that). Sometimes people get in a big stink when we have to go back the Tuesday before Labour Day. But what they don't understand is that if we go back before Labour Day then we get 2 weeks not 10 days at Christmas. i for one would rather see a bit more of a break at Christmas. (We don't end until the 27th or so of June) As far as spreading our 188 days to year round, YUCK! Who wants to be off for 2 weeks in April or October when the weather is crap. We get so little summer here we want to enjoy it. Farming is big around here but it's done in mid-May/June and September/mid-October so it wouldn't help to adjust the school year. Academically it may be more beneficial but let kids be kids and enjoy their summer, they'll have their whole lives to work year round.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 9, 2015 1:32:13 GMT
I live in a big tourist area. It still works. The tourist/business industry is overstating its case. I don't know what kind of touristy area you live in, but around here they Waterpark and amusement parks are only open during the summer. They could not be open without the high school seasonal workers. (Not that that would be the compelling reason against year round). For those with two tracks, it does increase. Cost because buses and lunches must then run for both (or all three) tracks. Which is why districts typically only do that if there is an overcrowding issue. College bound/schedule kids for those jobs. Teens for more year around minimum wage ones or overlap. It can work if people want it too. Our school let Juniors/Seniors with jobs count that as a class and could leave early, there may be others that only want to work while their kids are at school. So it can work. Just have to think around the whole box and not get stuck into well this is always how this worked.
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likescarrots
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Aug 16, 2014 17:52:53 GMT
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Post by likescarrots on Aug 9, 2015 1:41:18 GMT
What I cannot understand is all the people here who think that spending money for AC is too big of a burden in exchange for the betterment of our education system. Do you realize how absurd that sounds? AC is too much to ask? It's an expense we don't want to offer our kids a competitive edge in a global economy. We know year round school helps kids learn better. It's nothing more than intellectual laziness and an inability to think outside the box, and to look to others to see how it can work. Change is a challenge, but when it's for a worthy cause like improving our children and by default our country and our world, it's worth while. I don't think it is (too big of a burden), and I'm not at all against year round school either. But I think if we can't even get the country to agree that teachers should be paid more than babysitters, how are we going to get them to agree to pay for HVAC overhauls? This very thread was started on the premise of teachers of being lazy (read: not worth the mediocre pay they are making). We are a country who only thinks in terms of profits, and our education system will continue to fail until we overcome that position. Personally, I have no hope for the future when it comes to the American education system.
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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 9, 2015 1:41:39 GMT
I think we have bigger problems to fix that need more attention/money and would give us bigger gains than spreading out breaks. There are no differences in performance between the schools in my district that have different calendars.
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Post by RiverIsis on Aug 9, 2015 1:52:07 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? I would hate it. We wait SO long for summers in Michigan - I want my kids to be able to swim and play and have fun in the short amount of nice weather that we do get. It would suck for them to sit in classrooms in the summer. We already sit inside enough the other crappy months out of the year. How long a summer break do you have? My kids were on a year round and had up to 8 weeks June/July so it isn't like they were never off during the summer or it wasn't a long break. The break time varied more because of weather issues or extra curricular activities that would start over the summer whether or not my kids were on a traditional schedule or not.
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Post by lorieann13 on Aug 9, 2015 1:55:42 GMT
Our school districts used to be year round. Not only did parents hate it but so did teachers. Student scores were way lower as well and the year my daughter was year round, she had a hard time. The kids had a very subpar education.
I would never want year round or all year schooling!
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Post by ptamom on Aug 9, 2015 1:59:33 GMT
Year round, as in 50 weeks a year, with 2 weeks vacation?
Or the typical 180 days, spaced more evenly throughout the year with shorter, more frequent breaks?
The first will never happen. Society does not value teaching enough to commit the funds to make it a full year job.
The second scenario, well, all the teachers I know would love to have shorter summer breaks, an added fall break, and in general not have more than a week or two off at a time, (4 weeks off max, for summer.)
The summer "brain-drain" is a huge problem. Weeks are lost in the fall recovering all the info taught the previous spring. The fact that some parents can afford to send their kids to enrichment camps and programs, and some can't, widens the achievement gap so much.
Teachers have families. Usually their spouses are not teachers, so do not have the same vacation schedule. Often their kids are in a different district, where the scheduled days off may vary. Teachers need to get daycare fore their kids too.
In my district, the biggest objectors to year-round schedules are the sports teams/families, the band teams/families, and the summer camp providers. They come in to the school board meetings in force, with their kids in tow, to object to any change that might inconvenience their programs.
Meanwhile, those of us who believe our kids would benefit academically from a year round schedule with shorter breaks are out maneuvered by their passion, and the school board members, who happen to be band/sport parents coincidentally, vote in favor of the status quo.
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