Any chance they extend the first semester?

[Anonymous]

If these snow days continue to happen, could they move the end of Semester 1/MP2 a few days later so teachers at least have more time to cover all the planned material? Or would that never happen? Missing days during semester 1 and making them up during semester 2 doesn't make much sense, especially in HS classes.

[Anonymous]

Will never happen.

They add days to meet state minimums, not because anyone actually thinks learning happens on the last half day of school.

[Anonymous]

Semester 1 was already supposed to be 95 days compared to 87 for semester 2. So in theory, losing days from semester 1 should be better than losing from semester 2, but I agree that it is disruptive to teacher plans.

[Anonymous]

It's also disruptive to students' plans, especially if they are near the borderline of a grade and looking for chances to raise it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's also disruptive to students' plans, especially if they are near the borderline of a grade and looking for chances to raise it up.

Students should be working on their grades between snowball fights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's also disruptive to students' plans, especially if they are near the borderline of a grade and looking for chances to raise it up.

Not planning on bringing stuff up at the last minute is probably the most valuable lesson they'll learn this semester. If my kid was doing that, I'd be thrilled they were getting natural consequences to learn from.

[Anonymous]

For semester courses, high school teachers will shorten the material and just give the gist. None of the semester-long standalone courses are core subjects.

For year-long courses, since there's usually a switch in teachers, the teacher can let the department know that students are iffy on the last unit, and the next teacher will review the material at the beginning of the second semester. For AP Micro/Macro and the two AP Physics C, where you get an AP exam for each semester of the class, I'm sure the teachers coordinate to not let kids have gaps in their knowledge.

You or your kid can email the teachers to ask. This is not a trivial matter.

[Anonymous]

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/calendar/FY2024/Traditional_Calendar__table-version.pdf
Monday 1/29 is marked as a make-up day. Don't be surprised if they use that day and make it the last day of MP2, especially if Friday ends up closed. That's why they put those days as make-up days.

[Anonymous]

1/29 is also a grading/planing day that is in the MCEA contract. Nor sure if they can use that day for instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's also disruptive to students' plans, especially if they are near the borderline of a grade and looking for chances to raise it up.

That's neither here or there. The opposite can also be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's also disruptive to students' plans, especially if they are near the borderline of a grade and looking for chances to raise it up.

Not planning on bringing stuff up at the last minute is probably the most valuable lesson they'll learn this semester. If my kid was doing that, I'd be thrilled they were getting natural consequences to learn from.

Hard to learn that lesson when kids have unit tests and semester tests worth a significant part of the grade within a span of week. My kid has received emails from teachers asking in google polls whether they should take tests this week and skip the semester test review or skip the instruction for the unit tests and take the tests this week.

[Anonymous]

It’s definitely affecting teachers plans and schedules. Two of my kids teachers emailed/Remind work so that the kids could keep up. Already noted what date the planned quiz and test were moving to.

[Anonymous]

There is a reason for those possible make-up days in MCPS calendar.

[Anonymous]

My kid's math teacher hasn't entered any new grades since they came back from break. Last grade was Dec. 14th. Only 7 days left til the semester ends now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1/29 is also a grading/planing day that is in the MCEA contract. Nor sure if they can use that day for instruction.

The "M" indicates they can, but they probably will not.