It's the end of the school year so I think I am safe bringing this subject up. Ok, maybe not. The way I understand how year-round school works is that you are in class for 9 weeks and then you get 2-3 weeks off. Then you go another 9 weeks and get another 2-3 weeks off, and so on. The last few years or so my thoughts about year-round school have changed. When I was a "green" teacher I couldn't wait for summer and enjoyed every minute of it. Summer has always been a rejuvenating period for me. I usually come back to school very enthusiastic and ready to go. To be honest though, the last ten years or so, I am getting antsy to get back into a routine after about a month of summer. Don't get me wrong, I still love summer break, but I think year-round school would be better for everyone. When I say everyone I mean the kids, the teachers, and the parents. If you have ever taught before, or are teaching, you know how hard it is to get the kids, and yourself, back in the groove of things in the fall. For some kids it might take as long as the entire first quarter to get everything organized and moving smoothly. Year-round school would eliminate this "transition" period. Parents would also not have to go through this "nagging" period to get their kids back in a routine. I think all the teachers, and students, would stay fresher and more inspired if they knew they had a couple week break after working hard for one 9 week period.
There are some major problems with this change. First and foremost, keeping daycare for the kids when they are off for those 2-3 weeks during the year is a big concern. This would not be acceptable in most daycares. Most daycares don't allow you to come and go whenever. You must hold your spot. This is a major problem for parents. Second, in our area (the Midwest), schools would have to have air-conditioning for those unbearable summer months. Third, the entire sports and extra curricular activity schedules would have to be completely redone. And fourth, making a change like this would require some major open-mindedness from everyone!
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3 comments:
Mr. Carey,
I can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with you. I don't really know whats wrong with me lately.
Year-round school would be an exellent idea. If there was year-round school, we would not have as many problems getting back to our normal routine at the end of the summer. I am not saying this because I'm a nerd, but I think I would learn so much more if there was year-round school because we would not forget everything that we learned the previous year. In the last month our so of school, when teachers are still trying to teach us something, kids get over excited and cannot concentrate on their work. Recently, I had a geography test that I kind of blew off until the last minute because we only had a week left of school so I thought it wouldn't really matter. I ended up doing ok, but not as well as I probably could have. Another problem is that the last week of school, in almost all of my classes, we just hang out and watch movies, not really accomplishing anything.
That being said, I can still see where there would be some issues with year-round school. Most importantly, it still might be hard to get kids concentrating because of all the summer activities that would be going on. Who wants to stay inside when it is 90 degrees outside and everyone else is having fun? Also, it is bad enough in May with the temperature at 85 degrees and no air conditioning, so I can only imagine what it would be like in the middle of July. Another downside is that after 2 weeks of no school, kids will still be pyschotic and teachers will have to tame them down again, except that this will be every 11 weeks which is about 5 times every year. Although this is minor, the summer, for me, and probably me alone, is a time when I can catch up on my reading and not have to worry about the homework the next day or any of the other interuptions that come with the school year. I would hate to have this time taken away from me.
Despite all of this, I still think that year-round school would be a good situation. For me, after about the first month or so of the summer break, I get a little bored and anxious for school to start back up. I think that the sports situation could be worked around. The only problem, for example, would be training and camps over the summer. I know that for high school volleyball, in the summer, they have a summer league and weight lifting. Without the summer break, we wouldn't have this.
Overall, I think that if year-round school was a state or nation wide situation, there wouldn't be hardly any problems.
-Catherine
Mr. Carey
i totally agree with you but if you took that nation wide i really do not believce you would have enough interest. and catherine if we had an all year school we would have air conditioners because there is no way you could live in that school with no air conditioner...
-Tori Smith
WOW I think you are totalley wrong about having school all year aruond and I think all kids would agree(except some or so called nerds). I think kids should get a break to have some fun instaed of staying in your room and doing homework till you are so board you could die. If i could control of how many months of school we go to i would say 3 months would do it because some of this stuff we wont probaley use in our real life in the first place.
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