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Post by iteach3rdgrade on May 22, 2019 4:51:18 GMT
I know a few teachers around here, that had to have grades in 2 weeks before the last day of school. Perhaps that plays into it? what the hell? Why bother to show up then? And that is why people feel it's okay for kids to miss because they won't be doing anything. That is frustrating because it happens before breaks at other times of the year as well.
Coloring and movies sound like a nightmare for more than one afternoon.
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LeaP
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Post by LeaP on May 22, 2019 5:15:04 GMT
At my daughters' school they don't do much after AP exams and often use those classes to study for other finals, except for AP stats where they have two post AP exam projects to do. The other classes have finals on a block schedule in the final week (first week of June) of school. Both of my girls would love to watch movies in class but if it was the rule rather than the exception then they might love it a little less.
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cycworker
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Jun 26, 2014 0:42:38 GMT
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Post by cycworker on May 22, 2019 6:17:58 GMT
We had to have our grades in also, but the kids are there to learn whether or not you are taking grades. Now I never mention the grades being turned in early so they still work hard. I don't get it. My grades are due Thursday at 4. Some years we get one more day. We don't do AP anymore and instead do concurrent enrollment. The college portion of those classes were done two weeks ago with the college, but most are seniors so they only had a couple of days after those grades were due But isn't Thursday the last day of school? Here, report cards get distributed to the kids on the last day of school. So yes, teachers have to have everything in so the principal can sign off on the report cards. That means final mark cut off is about a week to 10 days prior to last day.
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Post by nlwilkins on May 22, 2019 7:27:52 GMT
Really it is up to the administration, the district administration. If grades are turned in before end of school, then they are encouraging this kind of activity. When I was teaching,turning in grades was the last thing we did before checking out. And we (the teachers) did not check out until two or three days after the kids were through. Finals were the the last week of school spread out so there werre not too many tests in one day. Classes were extended for longer exams. But we still had some classes after the exams. But ony one or two.
There is also things the teachers can do that can affect the students grades and possible letter of recommendation. If grades are already turned in, students can help the teacher with clean up and getting things organized. They can write reviews of the classes and how they feel they can be improved. Counselors can come in and discuss college and scholarship applictons for those grades that are just starting the process. Or other visitors can come in to talk to the students. They can practice filling out job applications. My brain just goes on and on with things students can do those days of school that are not graded. This would be the time to address those practical life skills that teachers say they don't have time to teach.
Subs could bring job applictions with them and have students practice filling them out. They could also bring in collecge applictions and do the same thing. Bring in magazines and have students make posters with cut out pictures in groups then present their posters to the class. Perhaps the posters could be how they would like school to be, or perhaps what they want to learn in school besides readding, writing and arithmatic. Much better than wriiting an essay on it. Or students form groups and make lists of their favorite things tht happened that year, lists of what they need to learn to live on theiir own, Again my brain is just running on. Subs are not stuck watching movies unless they want to be.
For my students it was inventory time and closing up the kitchen and all. (I taught Home Ec type classes) There was a lot of work to do to make sure eveything was ship shape and out of reach of sticky fingers over the summer. Then we always went over their finals so they could see what they got wrong and learn from that.
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Post by littlemama on May 22, 2019 10:45:51 GMT
We dont have end of year state testing, so unless the class is an AP class, teaching goes through the end of the year. AP exams take place up to 6 weeks before the end of school, so the time after that is often spent on a final project or course appropriate mivies. Students in those classes have to do summer homework to fit all the course materials in, so if they spend an equivalent time watching movies, it is fine with me. AP is definitely on a southern school schedule!
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Post by littlemama on May 22, 2019 10:47:37 GMT
And final exams are the last 3 days of school for all except seniors, so there isnt really room for screwing around in non AP classes.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2019 11:07:46 GMT
This is our last week of school. My two (8th grade and 10th grade) have finals Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, but get out half day when their finals are over which mine are using to study and get some extra rest. No school tomorrow and then a school-wide picnic for Friday until noon. I can't even imagine them not doing anything these last few weeks. It has been all review and testing around here.
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CeeScraps
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Post by CeeScraps on May 22, 2019 12:16:51 GMT
what the hell? Why bother to show up then? I know, right?! Grades have to be in so early because all of that paperwork has to be printed, sorted into classrooms and stuff into an envelope. They start that early in case there are tech issues whether that be with the program itself, or even the printer, let alone the 1,000 other things that play into the end of the year stuff.
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Subbing
May 22, 2019 12:37:47 GMT
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Post by freecharlie on May 22, 2019 12:37:47 GMT
Grades have to be in so early because all of that paperwork has to be printed, sorted into classrooms and stuff into an envelope. They start that early in case there are tech issues whether that be with the program itself, or even the printer, let alone the 1,000 other things that play into the end of the year stuff. is that elementary, middle or high school?
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Subbing
May 22, 2019 12:39:26 GMT
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Post by freecharlie on May 22, 2019 12:39:26 GMT
I don't get it. My grades are due Thursday at 4. Some years we get one more day. We don't do AP anymore and instead do concurrent enrollment. The college portion of those classes were done two weeks ago with the college, but most are seniors so they only had a couple of days after those grades were due But isn't Thursday the last day of school? Here, report cards get distributed to the kids on the last day of school. So yes, teachers have to have everything in so the principal can sign off on the report cards. That means final mark cut off is about a week to 10 days prior to last day. this sounds more elementary than high school. Perhaps that is the difference. We use infinite campus program. Grades are calculated as we input them. I sign off after finalizing that the grades are correct
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Post by monklady123 on May 22, 2019 12:49:26 GMT
I'm not at all surprised, from what I remember my kids telling me when they were in high school. I only sub in elementary, and last week and this week they're taking their state-mandated subsidized tests (the SOLs -- Standards of Learning -- which is an unfortunately acronym. ) -- Anyway, mentally they are done. The ones who still have tests left can be held to good behavior, sort of, since the test is yet to come. But then we have school until June 21st! So the last three weeks are basically fun projects and Field Day (on which I do NOT sub) and end-of-year concert, and parties, etc. And yes some movies too, although not as many at the elementary level as my kids said they had in high school. I subbed in 5th grade yesterday and wow it was a long day. They have an interesting -- to me, anyway -- project that they started on Monday and the teacher's plans said "after you introduce the project and they get started they must work silently." well hahahahahahaha That was not happening unless I wanted to spend the entire two hours saying, every 60 seconds, "Quiet please. Stop talking over there. "Ms. D. said this is a silent project..." etc. Nope. So I told them they could talk quietly with their table mates as long as they were working. Of course I still had to tell them to be more quiet, and I sent one instigator out to work in the hall alone, but overall it was fine. They are SO DONE and ready for middle school
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johnnysmom
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Post by johnnysmom on May 22, 2019 12:50:42 GMT
But isn't Thursday the last day of school? Here, report cards get distributed to the kids on the last day of school. So yes, teachers have to have everything in so the principal can sign off on the report cards. That means final mark cut off is about a week to 10 days prior to last day. this sounds more elementary than high school. Perhaps that is the difference. We use infinite campus program. Grades are calculated as we input them. I sign off after finalizing that the grades are correct I agree that it seems elementary grade cards would go home on last day. I have a high schooler and a 2nd grader. IIRC the elem gets their grade cards on last day and HS is mailed or picked up a week or two later. My HSer has exams up to the last day that would need to be input. The 2nd grader though....his teacher is doing testing this week but they’ll continue to learn (except field day, 2 field trips, extra recess and whatever else) till the end on the 12th. But really not much is going to change grade wise......the odds of going from a satisfactory to unsatisfactory (or vice versa) is pretty darn small at this point.
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Post by shamrock on May 22, 2019 13:12:58 GMT
My kids are done with school on Friday (5/24).
My middle schooler stopped most new instruction last week. Band wrapped up 2 weeks ago after their concert, but they were still playing fun pieces until 2 days ago. It’s been low key for him this week, but they’ve still been doing activities. No movies and coloring for him. Well, they have been watching a movie but it is in Chinese and during his Chinese class, so not quite the same.
My high schooler has a different experience, last week was dead week- no new material. Lots of study halls and some review sessions. They have been playing Mario Kart in Orchestra since their concert almost 3 weeks ago. I could write a book about concerns with the orchestra teacher 🙄so that doesn’t surprise me. His AP course has been done since the test on the 14th. He has finals today through Friday. Students are only at school for the tests so very short days.
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Post by Merge on May 22, 2019 13:39:00 GMT
My high schoolers have mostly been doing nothing at school since state and AP testing finished the first week in May. Even those teachers who have assigned papers or projects are just giving them time to work on those things during class. No teaching. I spent the last two nights teaching my sophomore to write a research paper because her English teacher basically gave them a prompt and said "go." 🙄
TBH I'm not thrilled, but I blame the state's testing culture, not the teachers in most cases. (I do actually blame the English teacher - she has resigned and is just putting in her time at this point.)
It's next to impossible to get a sub who can and will actually teach in our district. Most struggle with the most basic plans. To the OP, I'm sorry your skills are not being better utilized. Possibly your fellow substitutes are not as well qualified, and teachers have gotten used to leaving plans for the lowest common denominator. I suggest you leave a note in the teachers' boxes that you can and will follow their lesson plans, and the teachers who value that should request you directly.
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Post by monklady123 on May 22, 2019 14:49:49 GMT
My high schoolers have mostly been doing nothing at school since state and AP testing finished the first week in May. Even those teachers who have assigned papers or projects are just giving them time to work on those things during class. No teaching. I spent the last two nights teaching my sophomore to write a research paper because her English teacher basically gave them a prompt and said "go." 🙄 TBH I'm not thrilled, but I blame the state's testing culture, not the teachers in most cases. (I do actually blame the English teacher - she has resigned and is just putting in her time at this point.) It's next to impossible to get a sub who can and will actually teach in our district. Most struggle with the most basic plans. To the OP, I'm sorry your skills are not being better utilized. Possibly your fellow substitutes are not as well qualified, and teachers have gotten used to leaving plans for the lowest common denominator. I suggest you leave a note in the teachers' boxes that you can and will follow their lesson plans, and the teachers who value that should request you directly. Lol... this is one reason why I sub only in elementary school....I can pretty much be assured that I'll know how to teach whatever it is. Although...with that 5th grade advanced math group there have been some dicey moments. But I suspect that most middle and high school teachers, especially those in math or science, would just assume their sub didn't know how to teach that subject. Unless they knew them ahead of time of course. Years ago I used to sub for our middle school French teacher (I knew her from when my kids had French), and since she knew that I spoke French she would leave actual lessons. But she could never assume that from some random sub.
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paigepea
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Post by paigepea on May 22, 2019 15:24:12 GMT
When I taught we did exam prep after term marks were due. If no exam, in younger grades, we did light content - writing, reading, group work, presentations, until end of year. We might of had a free class on the last day when the room was cleaned up already.
I have 2 dd’s Younger dd gr 5 does nothing once marks are submitted, which is 1 week to 10 days before last day of classes. It’s so annoying. Older dd’s school is the opposite. They do exams, mini projects, assignments, group work all up until and including the last day of school. End of year celebration is worked into other parts of their day, like at assembly or during lunch time. Kids get out one week before teachers and teachers stay on to clean up class / submit final marks. Marks are not submitted until after kids complete the year.
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Post by clarencelynn on May 22, 2019 17:47:39 GMT
My high school junior has a similar situation (not a lot of learning happening these last 2 weeks of school) however today his anatomy teacher started a personal finance/budgeting course. No, that subject doesn't have anything to do with anatomy however with the jammed pack course schedule most of these kids have there usually isn't time for a personal finance course. As they were working on their budgets today, I received a 'thank you for paying my car insurance for me! I didn't know it was so expensive' text from DS. He's a keeper.
The rest of his classes are watching movies or doing simple research projects, mostly related to the class subject.
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Post by Merge on May 22, 2019 18:13:46 GMT
My high schoolers have mostly been doing nothing at school since state and AP testing finished the first week in May. Even those teachers who have assigned papers or projects are just giving them time to work on those things during class. No teaching. I spent the last two nights teaching my sophomore to write a research paper because her English teacher basically gave them a prompt and said "go." 🙄 TBH I'm not thrilled, but I blame the state's testing culture, not the teachers in most cases. (I do actually blame the English teacher - she has resigned and is just putting in her time at this point.) It's next to impossible to get a sub who can and will actually teach in our district. Most struggle with the most basic plans. To the OP, I'm sorry your skills are not being better utilized. Possibly your fellow substitutes are not as well qualified, and teachers have gotten used to leaving plans for the lowest common denominator. I suggest you leave a note in the teachers' boxes that you can and will follow their lesson plans, and the teachers who value that should request you directly. Lol... this is one reason why I sub only in elementary school....I can pretty much be assured that I'll know how to teach whatever it is. Although...with that 5th grade advanced math group there have been some dicey moments. But I suspect that most middle and high school teachers, especially those in math or science, would just assume their sub didn't know how to teach that subject. Unless they knew them ahead of time of course. Years ago I used to sub for our middle school French teacher (I knew her from when my kids had French), and since she knew that I spoke French she would leave actual lessons. But she could never assume that from some random sub. I'm talking getting a sub that can even help the kids read through the directions for a worksheet and keep them on task, regardless of content. Honestly, most of the ones we used to get couldn't even do that. District sub pay is so low that most of the time you're just getting a warm body. I never expect to get a sub who can teach music, but I used to leave thinking sheets and games in the hopes that the kids could do something productive while I was gone. When that didn't happen, I started leaving musical movies - and then I got a sub who couldn't operate the DVD player. So I went to leaving coloring for the younger kids and something simple like a word search for the older ones. My basic hope was that he/she didn't let the kids destroy the room or the instruments, or hurt each other. It was sad. Things are better in private school - it can be difficult to get a sub sometimes, but the ones we do get are competent (as I'm sure you are) and I can leave something productive for them to do.
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Post by monklady123 on May 22, 2019 18:28:56 GMT
Lol... this is one reason why I sub only in elementary school....I can pretty much be assured that I'll know how to teach whatever it is. Although...with that 5th grade advanced math group there have been some dicey moments. But I suspect that most middle and high school teachers, especially those in math or science, would just assume their sub didn't know how to teach that subject. Unless they knew them ahead of time of course. Years ago I used to sub for our middle school French teacher (I knew her from when my kids had French), and since she knew that I spoke French she would leave actual lessons. But she could never assume that from some random sub. I'm talking getting a sub that can even help the kids read through the directions for a worksheet and keep them on task, regardless of content. Honestly, most of the ones we used to get couldn't even do that. District sub pay is so low that most of the time you're just getting a warm body. I never expect to get a sub who can teach music, but I used to leave thinking sheets and games in the hopes that the kids could do something productive while I was gone. When that didn't happen, I started leaving musical movies - and then I got a sub who couldn't operate the DVD player. So I went to leaving coloring for the younger kids and something simple like a word search for the older ones. My basic hope was that he/she didn't let the kids destroy the room or the instruments, or hurt each other. It was sad. Things are better in private school - it can be difficult to get a sub sometimes, but the ones we do get are competent (as I'm sure you are) and I can leave something productive for them to do. Unfortunately I know that what you said is all true. This is why I'm in high demand. I mean, I know I'm not unique...obviously there are other good subs out there. But there are all too many who are just warm bodies. There was one guy who showed up recently at my school to sub for one of the reading teachers. In fact I ran into him in the hallway and thought he looked a bit dazed. -- Anyway...that reading teacher's job is to push in to a kindergarten and two 1st grades in the morning, then in the afternoon she has a pull-out group of 3rd and 4th graders. So for the kindergarten she left "beginning/end sound bingo" (to be played one or the other...either beginning sounds or ending sounds), and for 1st she left specific instructions for reading a book, asking questions (character, setting, problem, solution, etc.) then she said "if there is time left you could play the bingo game that you used in kindergarten." For the afternoon group of older kids they had specific activities to do: reading, writing about the reading, a writing prompt, and two word study activities. So what did the sub do all day? He played bingo. Only bingo. And only the beginning sounds bingo. With 3rd and 4th graders! for two hours! omg. The teacher said that the only silver lining was that her plans were all written for the next day for the afternoon group since they did NONE of the work. wow. I don't get that attitude at all... at least TRY to work with the teacher's plans. If you don't get everything finished...well they'd understand since probably a sub's time management wouldn't be the same as the teacher's. But to not even TRY? We had another one once who played his guitar all day. And one who let the kids play on their iPads for the entire day. And another one who left promptly at 3:05 when the bell rang despite the fact that NONE of the buses had arrived yet (our buses don't arrive all together because they're coming from previous runs to take middle school kids home). I reported the one who left at 3:05 because all his bus kids showed up at the door of my classroom and said he'd told them to "go to another class and wait for your buses". This was 2nd grade! omg Anyway, yeah, I feel your pain because I've heard all the horror stories. If I lived near you I could sub for you because I do know music. At least I'd be able to have them do music things.
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Post by jenjie on May 22, 2019 19:19:04 GMT
@monklady that’s horrible! My sil is a teacher. She subbed for years. Everyone wanted her bc when she subbed it was as if the teacher never left. They never lost a day of classwork.
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ddly
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Post by ddly on May 22, 2019 20:36:22 GMT
We do finals the last 3 days of school. The last day is a half day with makeup time the last hour. We also have a day of inservice after school gets out. Grades need to be done by then.
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CeeScraps
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Jun 26, 2014 12:56:40 GMT
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Post by CeeScraps on May 22, 2019 23:31:45 GMT
Grades have to be in so early because all of that paperwork has to be printed, sorted into classrooms and stuff into an envelope. They start that early in case there are tech issues whether that be with the program itself, or even the printer, let alone the 1,000 other things that play into the end of the year stuff. is that elementary, middle or high school? It’s our district K-8 that needs everything done early. We have 7,500 children in 4 buildings. So it’s a lot of organizing and printing and distributing the cards.
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craftymom101
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Post by craftymom101 on May 22, 2019 23:33:14 GMT
I subbed again today in high school and I am exhausted. No seniors on campus but the kids are super wound up. This teacher at least left plans for me, including a project for the students to work on, but they were still nuts!
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Post by leannec on May 22, 2019 23:58:22 GMT
I'm a substitute teacher (by choice because I really like it) as well ... we go right until the end of June here but the students are getting restless already ... I was definitely teaching a lesson today and those who were interested seemed to get something out of it ... those who were not, did not This is great to hear leannec ! I remember you posted about being terrified of going back to work subbing and wondered how that all worked out. Have your fainting attacks been held at bay as well? Thanks for thinking of me ... subbing is going well ... I come home super tired but the job itself isn't too bad ... I've learned how to show videos on a Smartboard so that's an accomplishment I'm really hoping to continue to sub next year ... I am in no way ready for my own classroom but they might see things differently because I'm getting paid my regular teacher's salary (not daily sub pay) ... we'll see how things go in the next few weeks I have had one "episode" but it was at home so no biggie
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Post by ihaveonly1l on May 23, 2019 0:37:32 GMT
I’m still teaching. We have 12 days left. Even the project I have planned for after students turn in their devices (5 days before the end) is still standards based but fun.
My students do better with routine.
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Post by MichyM on May 23, 2019 2:22:40 GMT
This is great to hear leannec ! I remember you posted about being terrified of going back to work subbing and wondered how that all worked out. Have your fainting attacks been held at bay as well? Thanks for thinking of me ... subbing is going well ... I come home super tired but the job itself isn't too bad ... I've learned how to show videos on a Smartboard so that's an accomplishment I'm really hoping to continue to sub next year ... I am in no way ready for my own classroom but they might see things differently because I'm getting paid my regular teacher's salary (not daily sub pay) ... we'll see how things go in the next few weeks I have had one "episode" but it was at home so no biggie Congrats on your Smartboard mastery And I'm so happpy things have turned out so well for you and that you're even looking forward to next year. Who would have thunk?!?
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Post by 950nancy on May 23, 2019 2:47:16 GMT
We had to have our grades in also, but the kids are there to learn whether or not you are taking grades. Now I never mention the grades being turned in early so they still work hard. I don't get it. My grades are due Thursday at 4. Some years we get one more day. We don't do AP anymore and instead do concurrent enrollment. The college portion of those classes were done two weeks ago with the college, but most are seniors so they only had a couple of days after those grades were due Our school did a Renaissance program where grades were turned in the 8 days before the last day of school. There was an assembly and scrolls of names were dropped, t-shirts were ordered, and bags of incentives were passed out. They needed to know numbers of kids on each honor roll to order everything in time. It was fine the first three quarters because we just started grades for the next quarter early. I get that high school is different. My husband even got an afternoon off at the high school level each quarter so that he could enter this grades.
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cycworker
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Post by cycworker on May 23, 2019 6:11:22 GMT
But isn't Thursday the last day of school? Here, report cards get distributed to the kids on the last day of school. So yes, teachers have to have everything in so the principal can sign off on the report cards. That means final mark cut off is about a week to 10 days prior to last day. this sounds more elementary than high school. Perhaps that is the difference. We use infinite campus program. Grades are calculated as we input them. I sign off after finalizing that the grades are correct Maybe. But here, in elementary the principal has to read & sign off on all report cards. In high school, it could be the principal or one of the vice principals (they split it up). So the teacher, in elementary, needs time to write the report & then the principal has to get them, read them & return them so they can be distributed the last day. In high school, depending on the grade & class, there are exams at the end of the term. Kids only attend during the exam period if they have a test to write. We start school the day after Labour Day and go right until the end of June. Our last day is June 27; June 28 is an admin day/professional day. Graduation ceremonies for secondary are June 25 & 26 (we have 7 high schools).
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