Half-days on Wednesdays!?

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05/21/2021 14:25

Subject: Re:Half-days on Wednesdays!?

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Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's very unclear how it will result in better learning. The stated purpose (according to one poster) of Bias training and training to "accelerate learning" would be great, but they can do it on the pd days they already have. Of course catching kids up who need it would be great but those kids will be with "external partners" rather than their teachers. Time with their teachers is what the kids need. On a personal note, in another country we experienced full Wednesdays off and it felt like a total loss. The kids lost their sense of routine mid week. Naturally a half day is better than no Wednesday. Also the majority of kids may not be labeled as struggling but that does not mean that they don't need instruction and specials (specials would be cut under this system). Aftercare is not a substitute for school. It is also already difficult to find enough time in the week for all the specials classes. Science would probably be the one to go. In my opinion what DCPS needs is more/better science, more experiential learning and field trips to keep the kids engaged. A field trip on a few of those Wednesday afternoons would probably be more beneficial than this idea.

Yes, I totally agree. Taking an afternoon a week to do a different type activity that is **part of the curriculum** and overseen by classroom teachers could be great. Field trips, labs, projects integrated into the curriculum. But just throwing away an afternoon a week (adding up to a whole week of school time) for some vague plan is not that.

I was the PP talking about how fewer hours can lead to better learning and I completely agree with what your saying. Just remember that setting up all of these things does take time and teachers currently get only 45 minutes a day for grading, lesson planning, parent communication, student check ins (particularly necessary for kids dealing with trauma/peer conflicts). At some point, something will have to kid to make the programming you are recommending, which I think is an awesome idea, possible.

I would support additional teacher planning time, but giving elementary school kids a few more minutes of lunch and recess per day or more frequent P.E. would be a more child-friendly approach. Having the same routine each week benefits children. In middle and high schools they could actually build in field trip half-day blocks into the schedule to recoup more teacher planning time. Typically field trips remove up to 100 children from the school with only one classroom teacher and a bunch of parents attending. Currently the kids just miss all of their classes to attend these field trips, and thus the number of field trips must be limited, whereas middle and high schools can really stand to benefit from the field trips.