May/June attendance now optional?

[Anonymous]

At our middle school final grades are due today. That is a problem, as it means any summative tasks had to be due at least 3 weeks ago (to allow time for retakes) and any formatives that take more than a few minutes to grade had to be due at least a week ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of an 8th grader here. He came home yesterday and reported that things are pretty much done. He has one final left, in his language, and kids are finishing their presentations in one class. Other then that they are watching a movie in LA, playing board games in Science, and he doesn’t know what they are going to do in math. I did get a sigh when I suggested Geometry Dash…

I have no problem with these days being light. He talks with his friends, hangs out a bit and gets to relax. All is well. And it is no different then how I remember the end of MS/HS when I was a kid.

Even when I was in school, I never got the point of this; why can't we play with our friends outside of school? Why make the school calendar so needlessly long?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The next three days are painful. More movies and TV series played in all classes. Laptops collected tomorrow, too. This is drawn out this year.

Which annoys me because they do consider these instructional days. They aren’t. And it isn’t just these last two weeks, for elementary it is all those early releases. Our school did virtually nothing learning on those days.

So those that argue this calendar provided the same amount instruction are missing the bigger picture.

+100.

Everyone who argued all year that FCPS was meeting their legal requirement never considered how low that legal requirement was. Said it before and I will say it again, meeting the legal requirement isn't enough and FCPS needs to do better!! We should not be in school this late in June and we need to have more consistent 5 day weeks in the Fall and Winter. Weather happens but we can control every other random day off on the Calendar.

This isn't about childcare but about improving education. The system is very broken.

DP. Agree. Teachers used to grade during school days—give the kids some worksheets and move on. My MS has done nothing at school for the last week and a half.

That's because teachers have to watch middle school kids [u]constantly[%u]. They can't give worksheets to keep kids busy because the kids are feral (due to lack of parenting) and cannot be trusted to do the work so the teacher can grade.

If parents would teach their kids to behave like civilized, polite humans, it would have a profound impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I substitute regularly at a few elementary schools. It seemed pretty much regular school through last Friday, with a different “air” about it. On Friday during the math block for example, the class I had was assigned the task of creating a design for a sculpture for the front of the school. They could work independently or in a small group. First they had to sketch the design and write a short description of how it represented the school. Then they used Keva planks to build a model of the design using more than 25 but less than 45. Once that was done they were given a total budget that could be spent on the sculpture. Each plank used was given a dollar amount that corresponded to a material (stone $4, copper $6, etc). They had to figure out the cost of using each material or a combination of materials and had to adjust their design accordingly. They knew it wasn’t for a grade, but they had fun and got some positive things out of it.

Sounds like our summer camp.

[Anonymous]

I try to do fun things we don’t normally have time for after grades are due. We do review games (not on computers), debates, etc. Kids have fun and it’s good community building before they say goodbye. It keeps behaviors in check because they aren’t bored. It’s not that hard to not watch movies.

[Anonymous]

Yep, the day after the 4th SOL was done, the first movie was put in for science class. That was May 14th. Then other classes followed suit. TIL today it was Wall-E, Sound of Music, Boss Baby, A Bug’s Life, Judge Judy, and when one movie ends, they put in another…is school optional for the last 4.5 weeks in 8th grade? The teacher’s could prepare them for next year. They could teach an exemplary lesson in their field of study. They could visit the outside or courtyard. This is really dumbing down FCPS. They could teach cursive. They could talk about their high school advice, their career path, current trends of research in their fields, anything! It’s so mind-numbing to watch a movie one period after another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school final grades are due today. That is a problem, as it means any summative tasks had to be due at least 3 weeks ago (to allow time for retakes) and any formatives that take more than a few minutes to grade had to be due at least a week ago.

Good point!

The crazy retake policy at high school and middle school is one of the main reasons why school is finished almost a month prior to the last day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The next three days are painful. More movies and TV series played in all classes. Laptops collected tomorrow, too. This is drawn out this year.

Which annoys me because they do consider these instructional days. They aren’t. And it isn’t just these last two weeks, for elementary it is all those early releases. Our school did virtually nothing learning on those days.

So those that argue this calendar provided the same amount instruction are missing the bigger picture.

+100.

Everyone who argued all year that FCPS was meeting their legal requirement never considered how low that legal requirement was. Said it before and I will say it again, meeting the legal requirement isn't enough and FCPS needs to do better!! We should not be in school this late in June and we need to have more consistent 5 day weeks in the Fall and Winter. Weather happens but we can control every other random day off on the Calendar.

This isn't about childcare but about improving education. The system is very broken.

DP. Agree. Teachers used to grade during school days—give the kids some worksheets and move on. My MS has done nothing at school for the last week and a half.

That's because teachers have to watch middle school kids [u]constantly[%u]. They can't give worksheets to keep kids busy because the kids are feral (due to lack of parenting) and cannot be trusted to do the work so the teacher can grade.

If parents would teach their kids to behave like civilized, polite humans, it would have a profound impact.

I was at a really strict Catholic school with involved parents, and our 6th and 7th graders were feral way back then.

If you read literature from hundreds of years ago, even ancient people had the same conplaint about young teenagers.

Yes, middle schoolers have to be watched as much as toddlers. Yes, they are feral.

But most of that is the age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I substitute regularly at a few elementary schools. It seemed pretty much regular school through last Friday, with a different “air” about it. On Friday during the math block for example, the class I had was assigned the task of creating a design for a sculpture for the front of the school. They could work independently or in a small group. First they had to sketch the design and write a short description of how it represented the school. Then they used Keva planks to build a model of the design using more than 25 but less than 45. Once that was done they were given a total budget that could be spent on the sculpture. Each plank used was given a dollar amount that corresponded to a material (stone $4, copper $6, etc). They had to figure out the cost of using each material or a combination of materials and had to adjust their design accordingly. They knew it wasn’t for a grade, but they had fun and got some positive things out of it.

Sounds like our summer camp.

I’ll assume that’s a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader has been spending hours and hours on his phone at school for WEEKS.

So much for "away for the day."

What are they going to do next year with no phoned allowed?

They are really picking and choosing on the rules. Will definitely come back to bite them.

[Anonymous]

Today’s movie was School of Rock. Cute movie, but DC had already seen it, and it does not relate to the class subject …not to mention that I didn’t send my kid to the movie theater!!

We should all have our kids make a list of every movie that’s been shown in May & June. Post it here!

And then, everyone: contact your school board rep to complain if your kid has been bored for weeks. Let your rep know this is unacceptable!

FCPS: please address this issue as it is a serious waste of resources in a district that should be setting the pace for high quality education!

[Anonymous]

The lorax, mulan, green book, kung fu panda, hidden figures

[Anonymous]

I like the final days when they get to watch movies and relax at school. Today my son is playing Switch at school with a bunch of kids. It sounds fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the final days when they get to watch movies and relax at school. Today my son is playing Switch at school with a bunch of kids. It sounds fun!

babe, its been "final weeks".

[Anonymous]

3rd grade. No movies. Admin won’t allow it even for class parties.