Education / Teaching thread (1 Viewer)

[guidomerkinsrules]

I am a HUGE advocate for the "year-round" school. we have exactly ONE in my district. My kids went there until 4th grade.
Basically they go to school from Early August until mid June, so they have a 6 week summer. Much less learning loss. They still go to school for the same amount of days, but they have extra breaks built into the school year. We would do Beach trips in October, and we did Disney in February. During the intersessions they offer fun educational "camps."

i'm not against that in theory - i think it's best for maybe k-8th or 9th
but for (older) high school students, summer becomes a really good time for 'pre-adulting'
not sure how to compensate for that
also what are 'intersessional' days?

and i can't say i love the idea of working deep into June - coming back in the august heat is bad enough

 

[SWJJ]

i'm not against that in theory - i think it's best for maybe k-8th or 9th
but for (older) high school students, summer becomes a really good time for 'pre-adulting'
not sure how to compensate for that
also what are 'intersessional' days?

and i can't say i love the idea of working deep into June - coming back in the august heat is bad enough

Intersession is what they call the "extra" breaks that are not on the calendar for schools that are not "year round." Intersessional days are the days they offer the "Camps" which are usually project based, block scheduled, fun hands-on learning opportunities. Teachers have to interview to do it and get paid extra for working them. It's much more fun to teach intersessional days. There are smaller classes. The kids that are there want to be there. There is no grading necessary, no tests, no scope and sequence to follow. I always worked teaching summer school when I was a teacher. I would much prefer the year round (or level calendar) and teaching intersessional classes to State Standardized Testing Remediation.

 

[bonnjer]

Further evidence that Louisiana teachers need to wake up to what's going on. Neither the legislature nor the forking board of education truly give a damn about teachers. It's almost as if they're actively trying to drive teachers out....

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Further evidence that Louisiana teachers need to wake up to what's going on. Neither the legislature nor the forking board of education truly give a damn about teachers. It's almost as if they're actively trying to drive teachers out....

I’m woke - now what?

 

[bonnjer]

I’m woke - now what?

Short of a strike, there's not much that can really be done. Sure, you can write some letters to the board or the legislators, but they don't pay attention to those. We've got states all around us giving thousands of dollars in raises and what does Louisiana do? This crap. It's infuriating.

 

[brandon8283]

It's interesting for sure. I was just reading about this the other day. Apparently advocates prefer the term "balanced calendar schooling" because "year round" makes it sound like they just power right through summer when the total number of days in school is the same, but the breaks are more evenly distributed.

While critics argue that it leads to student and teacher burnout, it seems that research is unclear on that - with some suggesting that it's actually better for burnout because the average break is longer than in a traditional schedule, giving teachers and students more beneficial pauses throughout the year rather than a handful of fairly shorts ones and one long one.

Another aspect is the summer trade-off between learning loss and the opportunity to things like attend summer camps, have significant travel with family or friends, and for older children, work summer jobs. These things benefit their development in ways that schools don't/can't typically provide.

This seemed like a decent summary:

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/the-pros-and-cons-of-year-round-school-calendars

In the districts I'm aware of in Mississippi that have made this move, over 95% of teachers have been in favor of the change specifically due to reducing burnout.

i'm not against that in theory - i think it's best for maybe k-8th or 9th
but for (older) high school students, summer becomes a really good time for 'pre-adulting'
not sure how to compensate for that
also what are 'intersessional' days?

and i can't say i love the idea of working deep into June - coming back in the august heat is bad enough

Not sure about the pre-adulting summer, but not sure that couldn't be made up in the weeks off.

The way our district is approaching intersessions (and the way districts we've modeled after are doing it) is that on the 2-week fall break and the 2-week spring break, the first week is called "intersession." During that time, students who need additional remediation from the 9-weeks before or the additional prep leading into the next 9-weeks can get much more personal attention. Additionally, teachers or community groups who want to offer other, non-curricular opportunities (sports camps, "adulting" classes, etc) can offer those during the intersession.

Teachers are able to volunteer to work on the intersession week for additional pay based on the number of students signing up to participate during that week (but the teachers absolutely do NOT have to volunteer). The districts we've researched have said they've had to turn away volunteering teachers due to more teacher availability than students participating, so there's not pressure from the district on teachers to work away their extra week off.

We will run buses and cafeterias during the week on a limited rotation to account for the fewer students who need those facilities.

I'm a bottomless pit of information on this topic at this point, as we've been working hard on the implementation of this for basically this entire school year, so if you've got more questions, ask away.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

In the districts I'm aware of in Mississippi that have made this move, over 95% of teachers have been in favor of the change specifically due to reducing burnout.


Not sure about the pre-adulting summer, but not sure that couldn't be made up in the weeks off.

The way our district is approaching intersessions (and the way districts we've modeled after are doing it) is that on the 2-week fall break and the 2-week spring break, the first week is called "intersession." During that time, students who need additional remediation from the 9-weeks before or the additional prep leading into the next 9-weeks can get much more personal attention. Additionally, teachers or community groups who want to offer other, non-curricular opportunities (sports camps, "adulting" classes, etc) can offer those during the intersession.

Teachers are able to volunteer to work on the intersession week for additional pay based on the number of students signing up to participate during that week (but the teachers absolutely do NOT have to volunteer). The districts we've researched have said they've had to turn away volunteering teachers due to more teacher availability than students participating, so there's not pressure from the district on teachers to work away their extra week off.

We will run buses and cafeterias during the week on a limited rotation to account for the fewer students who need those facilities.

I'm a bottomless pit of information on this topic at this point, as we've been working hard on the implementation of this for basically this entire school year, so if you've got more questions, ask away.

Thinking about this from a self-interested pov, I could see the intersession as a hardcore rehearsal process
In the summer going from 9-3, I can put up a show in about 3 weeks
But I could see the benefit of having a regular after school rehearsal period and the intercession would be tech week and performance
A lot of arts could have this ‘work on craft over 6 weeks, then have an intense week or two to finalize projects and performances

 

[brandon8283]

Thinking about this from a self-interested pov, I could see the intersession as a hardcore rehearsal process
In the summer going from 9-3, I can put up a show in about 3 weeks
But I could see the benefit of having a regular after school rehearsal period and the intercession would be tech week and performance
A lot of arts could have this ‘work on craft over 6 weeks, then have an intense week or two to finalize projects and performances

Very much so. The fall intersession falls right during marching band competition season. They're losing a week of band camp in the summer, but using the intersession week as a second band camp leading right into their competitive events.

Our theatre groups are definitely taking advantage of these weeks as tech weeks.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Very much so. The fall intersession falls right during marching band competition season. They're losing a week of band camp in the summer, but using the intersession week as a second band camp leading right into their competitive events.

Our theatre groups are definitely taking advantage of these weeks as tech weeks.

 

[SWJJ]

BESE is bought and paid for by big money pushing to send public dollars to private schools.

That and the "unmask our kids" people.

If you had a Venn Diagram of BESE representatives, their supporters, don't say gay supporters, no CRT in our classrooms, and put cameras in our classrooms people, it would be a single circle.

Besty DeVos was the Secretary of Education FFS

 

[gboudx]

My wife found out this week that the ISD is giving 6% across the board raises for educators. If the State of Texas approves any educator salary increases, those will go on top of the 6%. So that's some good news. But the surrounding ISD's are giving 10% across the board increases, and our ISD has only a 71% commitment for the 2023-24 school year. So they'll need to attract to the ISD while the surrounding ISD's are giving higher increases. Let's see how this works out.

 

[bonnjer]

My wife found out this week that the ISD is giving 6% across the board raises for educators. If the State of Texas approves any educator salary increases, those will go on top of the 6%. So that's some good news. But the surrounding ISD's are giving 10% across the board increases, and our ISD has only a 71% commitment for the 2023-24 school year. So they'll need to attract to the ISD while the surrounding ISD's are giving higher increases. Let's see how this works out.

Probably better than the State of Louisiana.

 

[gboudx]

Probably better than the State of Louisiana.

Yeah it sounds like it. That really sucks for them.

 

[Get in the Carr]

Longer just to be longer or is there content or practice you feel is missing?

Practice for sure. I know some schools already do this but a STEM like course for a few weeks during the summer would be great for older kids. I also don’t think one of the poorest parts of the country, with the lowest education metric scores, needs to be taking almost 4 months worth of breaks a year. I see Mississippi has shortened their summers by a week and that is a step forward. I hear it all the time from my family in Louisiana about a week off for mardi gras etc. Just seems kind of backbuttwards for a state that is known for bad education.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

W

Practice for sure. I know some schools already do this but a STEM like course for a few weeks during the summer would be great for older kids. I also don’t think one of the poorest parts of the country, with the lowest education metric scores, needs to be taking almost 4 months worth of breaks a year. I see Mississippi has shortened their summers by a week and that is a step forward. I hear it all the time from my family in Louisiana about a week off for mardi gras etc. Just seems kind of backbuttwards for a state that is known for bad education.

Wouldn’t practicing the same stuff yield the same results?
Also how do we know Mississippi removing a week is a step forward unless we see results showing that?