Fcps 5th grader -- daily study hall AND quiet time

[Anonymous]

Quiet time is part of the responsive classroom approach. Many fcps schools follow the responsive classroom guidelines. In my classroom, students get a 10 minute quiet time after lunch/recess. It is simply a time where the students sit quietly and get ready for the afternoon. Recess and lunch are high energy times, so that 10 minute period helps them refocus.

[Anonymous]

When I was in fifth grade, we had quiet time after lunch. Our teacher read chapter books to us. Only for a few minutes. It was a "good thing" as I recall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quiet time is part of the responsive classroom approach. Many fcps schools follow the responsive classroom guidelines. In my classroom, students get a 10 minute quiet time after lunch/recess. It is simply a time where the students sit quietly and get ready for the afternoon. Recess and lunch are high energy times, so that 10 minute period helps them refocus.

Thanks for this explanation.

[Anonymous]

Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

[Anonymous]

I guarantee you study hall is "intervention" time. But they can't call it that. It's not ok anymore to allow any child to fail. The teachers need to make sure that each and every child in the classroom learns the material. Daily intervention time, required by the school, forces teachers to devote daily attention to those kids who are not meeting benchmarks.

[Anonymous]

Yeah quiet time could be listening to a chapter book or sustained silent reading or just something to help refocus energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

I'm the PP you quoted. My children's school added a STEAM Lab. The school I teach at added a tech lab class and guidance and library were added to the Master Schedule too. It used to be that only Music, Art and PE were on the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

I'm the PP you quoted. My children's school added a STEAM Lab. The school I teach at added a tech lab class and guidance and library were added to the Master Schedule too. It used to be that only Music, Art and PE were on the schedule.

But what is it they actually accomplishe. My child had Tech this past week, the computers were so slow the only thing they did was sign up for Blackboard and time was up. Library was always there, they just go longer and it's on the schedule now. Guidance was a couple times a month before, it's just on the schedule now. "STEAM" is something that is too new to have a clear understanding of what is and how it's applied practically.

I think there are probably some schools with great leadership and strong principals that will actually accomplish a lot with the extra time, and others with lackluster leadership that are comfortable with status quo and not doing anything really innovative.

This is the biggest downfall for FCPS. The oversight and transparency amongst all schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

I'm the PP you quoted. My children's school added a STEAM Lab. The school I teach at added a tech lab class and guidance and library were added to the Master Schedule too. It used to be that only Music, Art and PE were on the schedule.

But what is it they actually accomplishe. My child had Tech this past week, the computers were so slow the only thing they did was sign up for Blackboard and time was up. Library was always there, they just go longer and it's on the schedule now. Guidance was a couple times a month before, it's just on the schedule now. "STEAM" is something that is too new to have a clear understanding of what is and how it's applied practically.

I think there are probably some schools with great leadership and strong principals that will actually accomplish a lot with the extra time, and others with lackluster leadership that are comfortable with status quo and not doing anything really innovative.

This is the biggest downfall for FCPS. The oversight and transparency amongst all schools.

PP, the cause of your frustration is NOT full-day Mondays or lackluster principals. The real cause is the regulation change that was made this summer regarding elementary teacher planning time. Prior to this summer, there was no regulation saying how much planning time a teacher had to have. On average, PE, Music and Art take up about 220 minutes a week NOW, elementary teachers have to have a minimum of 300 minutes a week, 60 of which can be principal-directed (meaning teachers have to meet with their team for collaboration & planning). The "extra" classes such at STEAM, STEM, guidance, study hall, drama, whatever a school figured out, are there because principals had to create classes so that teachers could have that planning time.

Planning time for a classroom teacher = time without students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

I'm the PP you quoted. My children's school added a STEAM Lab. The school I teach at added a tech lab class and guidance and library were added to the Master Schedule too. It used to be that only Music, Art and PE were on the schedule.

But what is it they actually accomplishe. My child had Tech this past week, the computers were so slow the only thing they did was sign up for Blackboard and time was up. Library was always there, they just go longer and it's on the schedule now. Guidance was a couple times a month before, it's just on the schedule now. "STEAM" is something that is too new to have a clear understanding of what is and how it's applied practically.

I think there are probably some schools with great leadership and strong principals that will actually accomplish a lot with the extra time, and others with lackluster leadership that are comfortable with status quo and not doing anything really innovative.

This is the biggest downfall for FCPS. The oversight and transparency amongst all schools.

PP, the cause of your frustration is NOT full-day Mondays or lackluster principals. The real cause is the regulation change that was made this summer regarding elementary teacher planning time. Prior to this summer, there was no regulation saying how much planning time a teacher had to have. On average, PE, Music and Art take up about 220 minutes a week NOW, elementary teachers have to have a minimum of 300 minutes a week, 60 of which can be principal-directed (meaning teachers have to meet with their team for collaboration & planning). The "extra" classes such at STEAM, STEM, guidance, study hall, drama, whatever a school figured out, are there because principals had to create classes so that teachers could have that planning time.

Planning time for a classroom teacher = time without students

That time is well within reason.

[Anonymous]

I agree that 30 minutes is not enough time to really teach a meaningful lesson to older students. It's probably short enough for Kindergarten and first grade though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every school had to figure out how to honor the promise of 1 hour of planning a day. With Specials blocks 45 minutes for upper grades at many schools, they've had to be creative. Even for the younger grades there were issues. Though they had music and PE back to back for 30 minutes each 2 times per week, and art weekly for an hour, that left 2 days uncovered. The larger the school, the more teachers/classes that needed coverage. It was not possible to just add time to the Specialists schedule as there are not enough hours in the day. As a teacher, and parent, I'm giving the administration the benefit of the doubt they did the best they could this year. I'm thinking there may be more consistency next year.

My school added in a math lab for students to do math games and counseling so students have quite a lot of specials to go to!

I'm the PP you quoted. My children's school added a STEAM Lab. The school I teach at added a tech lab class and guidance and library were added to the Master Schedule too. It used to be that only Music, Art and PE were on the schedule.

But what is it they actually accomplishe. My child had Tech this past week, the computers were so slow the only thing they did was sign up for Blackboard and time was up. Library was always there, they just go longer and it's on the schedule now. Guidance was a couple times a month before, it's just on the schedule now. "STEAM" is something that is too new to have a clear understanding of what is and how it's applied practically.

I think there are probably some schools with great leadership and strong principals that will actually accomplish a lot with the extra time, and others with lackluster leadership that are comfortable with status quo and not doing anything really innovative.

This is the biggest downfall for FCPS. The oversight and transparency amongst all schools.

PP, the cause of your frustration is NOT full-day Mondays or lackluster principals. The real cause is the regulation change that was made this summer regarding elementary teacher planning time. Prior to this summer, there was no regulation saying how much planning time a teacher had to have. On average, PE, Music and Art take up about 220 minutes a week NOW, elementary teachers have to have a minimum of 300 minutes a week, 60 of which can be principal-directed (meaning teachers have to meet with their team for collaboration & planning). The "extra" classes such at STEAM, STEM, guidance, study hall, drama, whatever a school figured out, are there because principals had to create classes so that teachers could have that planning time.

Planning time for a classroom teacher = time without students

That time is well within reason.

Planning time DOES NOT have to involve students actually being in school. Why does it cost $8 million more this year than last year if the teachers are still in the building the same amount of time?

[Anonymous]

I don't know where those 8 million dollars go, really.

What I do know is that teachers are mandated time in their day for planning, meetings, etc. It is typically not enough time and most teachers work before and after school to get all of their work done. However planning time in the day is still vital. FCPS administration created a bunch of unfunded or semifunded mandates such as increasing music/art/pe time to cover teacher's required planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where those 8 million dollars go, really.

What I do know is that teachers are mandated time in their day for planning, meetings, etc. It is typically not enough time and most teachers work before and after school to get all of their work done. However planning time in the day is still vital. FCPS administration created a bunch of unfunded or semifunded mandates such as increasing music/art/pe time to cover teacher's required planning.

The extra money pays for extra staff so the planning time can be provided.