CALENDAR: O days and new material

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ES parent here. Our teachers most definitely did not follow the rules. My child had a new math lesson with new content today. Plus new homework supporting that content.

Good. After a year of learning loss, creating 15 more days on learning loss and justifying it in a public school based on religion is ridiculous. The sooner someone challenges this 100% illegal setup, the better.

It’s actually only 11 days, but ok.

And for kids on a block schedule in MS/HS, it’s 22 days. Which is not okay.

No it’s not. Math is not your strong suit. First of all, there are only a total only of 11 O days for the 21-22 school year. Not sure how you extrapolate to 22. A teacher on here explained it a while ago too. It’s 5 days on A days, and 6 days on B days. This is for the whole year. So it balances out.

They can be catch up days. Give the kids a break.

Do you have little kids?

Middle and high school are on the block schedule.

They only have 4 classes per day.

The MS and HS schedules alternate between A days and B days.

A and B days cover the same material every 2 days.

So if AB chemistry has a zero day on the Monday A day, then AP chemistry that meets on B days cannot move forward on the material.

11 days becomes 22 days of no learning for HS and MS.

Yes, I was right. You really aren’t getting it. Teachers are not going to hold the other class back on B day just because A day was an O day. They will be off by a few lessons. Big deal.

It actually is a big deal. If you were a teacher, you would know that. Science classes do labs. If I get off sync by even a few days, that means running multiple lab set ups at the same time. Quizzes and tests get offset by multiple days. That means early kids don't get their quizzes returned until all can take it. Tests get offset by days. Students get confused when they ask what is going on in class and are told something different by friends on the other day. It really is quite challenging to juggle all this. These first 2 observance days are close enough and on opposite days, so it is workable to shift things to only have one day for each group affected. Won't always be possible though.

Wahhhh.

[Anonymous]

Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ES parent here. Our teachers most definitely did not follow the rules. My child had a new math lesson with new content today. Plus new homework supporting that content.

Good. After a year of learning loss, creating 15 more days on learning loss and justifying it in a public school based on religion is ridiculous. The sooner someone challenges this 100% illegal setup, the better.

It’s actually only 11 days, but ok.

And for kids on a block schedule in MS/HS, it’s 22 days. Which is not okay.

No it’s not. Math is not your strong suit. First of all, there are only a total only of 11 O days for the 21-22 school year. Not sure how you extrapolate to 22. A teacher on here explained it a while ago too. It’s 5 days on A days, and 6 days on B days. This is for the whole year. So it balances out.

They can be catch up days. Give the kids a break.

Do you have little kids?

Middle and high school are on the block schedule.

They only have 4 classes per day.

The MS and HS schedules alternate between A days and B days.

A and B days cover the same material every 2 days.

So if AB chemistry has a zero day on the Monday A day, then AP chemistry that meets on B days cannot move forward on the material.

11 days becomes 22 days of no learning for HS and MS.

Yes, I was right. You really aren’t getting it. Teachers are not going to hold the other class back on B day just because A day was an O day. They will be off by a few lessons. Big deal.

It actually is a big deal. If you were a teacher, you would know that. Science classes do labs. If I get off sync by even a few days, that means running multiple lab set ups at the same time. Quizzes and tests get offset by multiple days. That means early kids don't get their quizzes returned until all can take it. Tests get offset by days. Students get confused when they ask what is going on in class and are told something different by friends on the other day. It really is quite challenging to juggle all this. These first 2 observance days are close enough and on opposite days, so it is workable to shift things to only have one day for each group affected. Won't always be possible though.

Wahhhh.

Helpful response. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

As a parent of a senior, this makes me sad. I don’t understand why religious groups got the idea the schools should give a day off (which then morphed into 15 days of no instruction). School is for learning. Take a day off for your personal beliefs, if necessary, and make it up when you return. I don’t want any religious observances in school. I would move winter break away from Christmas into January, if I ruled the world.

[Anonymous]

Will FCPS still have catch up days at the end of each semester?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

As a parent of a senior, this makes me sad. I don’t understand why religious groups got the idea the schools should give a day off (which then morphed into 15 days of no instruction). School is for learning. Take a day off for your personal beliefs, if necessary, and make it up when you return. I don’t want any religious observances in school. I would move winter break away from Christmas into January, if I ruled the world.

Religious groups didn’t push for this, the SB did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jew here and I will let the SB know my views. I think no tests or quizzes is ENOUGH. They also should post all notes for new materials taught that day and not have notes with a question that they answered in class, but did not post the answer too. Make it easy to catch up, but there is no reason to avoid teaching new material.

If they must do things this new way then those days could absolutely be reviewing for a quiz with study guide work, Kahut, or allowing time to work on individual papers/projects and get help from the teacher.

I am Jewish and a teacher and I have the same sentiment and shared my views with the SB. It should be exactly what you said. No assessments and majir events (BTSN, field trips) and ample time to make up work. The no new content is not working for anyone.

[Anonymous]

“ I would move winter break away from Christmas into January, if I ruled the world.”

Good luck with that! That would work fine for the extra days/week. But 90%+ of kids and a huge share of teachers simply would not show up from 12/24-12/26 at a minimum. Big chunk too for 12/27- 1/1. What we could do without is the extra whole week off ahead of that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

As a parent of a senior, this makes me sad. I don’t understand why religious groups got the idea the schools should give a day off (which then morphed into 15 days of no instruction). School is for learning. Take a day off for your personal beliefs, if necessary, and make it up when you return. I don’t want any religious observances in school. I would move winter break away from Christmas into January, if I ruled the world.

Religious groups (represented by a task force the SB out together to address religious equity) wanted 4 day's off: the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid. The SB are the ones who ignored the recommendation of their own task force and created this O day nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the plan is to make this year so painful that next year people will be begging to just have 4 holidays (something that would have likely created public ire in the past).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

So instead of shortening or taking out some of the fluff elsewhere in the year, just throw out an entire unit?! That’s the best you all could come up with?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

As a parent of a senior, this makes me sad. I don’t understand why religious groups got the idea the schools should give a day off (which then morphed into 15 days of no instruction). School is for learning. Take a day off for your personal beliefs, if necessary, and make it up when you return. I don’t want any religious observances in school. I would move winter break away from Christmas into January, if I ruled the world.

Religious groups (represented by a task force the SB out together to address religious equity) wanted 4 day's off: the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali, and Eid. The SB are the ones who ignored the recommendation of their own task force and created this O day nonsense.

For the last time: NO explicitly religious holidays. If you want religious holidays, go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

So instead of shortening or taking out some of the fluff elsewhere in the year, just throw out an entire unit?! That’s the best you all could come up with?!

There is literally no fluff to take out at this point. Between half days, religious days, snow days, testing days, and the AP test being the first week of May I have no fluff in my curriculum any more. The projects are gone, the presentations are gone, anything time consuming is cut. We started content on the first day and haven't slowed down. There are several class periods where I'm teaching multiple days of material in a single period to try to minimize the loss.

At some point I can cover less than everything well, or everything rushed poorly. I think the first option is the better choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Had CT leader meeting today. General consensus is we are all throwing out the last units of our curriculum this year since we can't get to it with 2 weeks less in each class. Those of us teaching underclassmen will cover the material after the AP tests. Those of us with seniors...they just won't get it. Some of us talked about sending home packets with the info, but we can't require them to read extra or do anything above and beyond since we can only do 30 minutes per night of homework. Admin shot down the packet idea right away, saying we teach it or don't but we can't expect kids to teach it to themselves (which I agree with, but...we are running out of options.) Heaven help us if there is snow this year.

So instead of shortening or taking out some of the fluff elsewhere in the year, just throw out an entire unit?! That’s the best you all could come up with?!

There is literally no fluff to take out at this point. Between half days, religious days, snow days, testing days, and the AP test being the first week of May I have no fluff in my curriculum any more. The projects are gone, the presentations are gone, anything time consuming is cut. We started content on the first day and haven't slowed down. There are several class periods where I'm teaching multiple days of material in a single period to try to minimize the loss.

At some point I can cover less than everything well, or everything rushed poorly. I think the first option is the better choice.

Exactly - the School Board has riddled the calendar with so many "nothing happens" days, most months only have one full week of school.

You have to get to March(!) before there's a single month with 3 full weeks of school. Most months don't even have two full weeks.

Just reinforces my observation: The School Board is only good at keeping kids out of school.

[Anonymous]

And I can say as a parent of Jewish elementary school children ... they are still anxious about missing school. Either have a regular day or have the day off -- the O day doesn't do a ton for my family.