FCPS Early Release Mondays

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Will this fully eliminate the instances where classes have a standing sub one day a week for training/ meetings (which has been happening in my kiddos classrooms the last few years already)? Or is this lost learning time/ more routine juggling for the kiddos in addition to all that....?

Nope, this is completely different. These early release days are essentially for the reading trainings.

Yes. The state just mandated 32 ADDITIONAL hours of reading training on top of all the other stuff we have to do.

The state should pay for that instead of taking it out of existing instructional time. Way to go Glenn Youngkin - screwing teachers and students!

Aren't teachers supposed to learn this stuff in teacher college? Why do they need nearly a full week of training every year?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

What about the instructional hours that are being taken away?

As long as the instructional hours still fall at equal to or more than 990 then there’s not a problem with the state.

Depends on how they count. According to my kids... there's no learning on early dismissal days and there's no learning when they have the regular once a week subs and there's no learning when they have subs for other reasons and there's no learning the week before Thanksgiving or the two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.....and there's no learning 4th quarter -- it's all sol review..and there's no learning after the sols....
So, I think it's ok for parents to ask the questions they are asking.

According to your kids…. You’re probably not getting the most accurate information. Education does not mean “new” instruction every day. Reviewing content for the SOL’s, reading a book, playing basketball in PE, all of those count towards the hours. Your child may not find it interesting or fun, but it still counts. Early release days are still 5 hours (at least) of a class day, do you think they’re just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?

More like Google and you-tube and computer games... because there is not enough time on early dismissal days...

How is there not enough time on early release days? 5 or so hours? That’s math, language arts, recess, lunch and specials. That a typical ER day at my school. Sometimes, specials or recess is switched out with science depending on the day.

There is, her kids are BS’ing her and she doesn’t realize it

It must be easy for you to think that....but I don't think so. My mom friends kids tell their parents the same...
I just asked my big kid again and big said they never have time for lessons on early release days. Of all of the things big could lie about why would it be this?

How is it that they don’t have time? It’s not like school is 45 minutes on those days. (ES Teacher)

I'm not there...but in 5 hours they are doing morning meetings, lunch, recess, specials, time to line up for dismissal and all the time it takes to make each of those transitions. How much time would that leave for math, science, social studies, reading, writing, etc? Sounds like they run out of time, can't fit everything in, and the kids go on their computers instead. Maybe they'll plan for them differently when there's more of them?

About 2.5 hours are left. (ES Teacher)

Three hour early release days at my kids school would be 9:15 - 1:05. That's less than four hours and that includes 45 or so minutes for lunch and recess. What is getting done in three hours?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It's like the school board and the extremely top heavy administration don't actually care about kids actually learning.

They got rid of the old early release Mondays at parents' request but it did not help children or learning. They need to bring it back so that elementary school teachers would have proper planning time and less stress and overwork. That's what the administration should do if they care about kids actually learning.

This. I'm tired of hearing parents "my kids learn nothing at school but take my kids more" schools are not day cares and teachers need planning. period and no they should not have to do state mandated trainings without pay or for some measly 15 dollars and hour. NO!

Exactly. Which is why they need EVERY MONDAY OFF for training and planning.

If teachers need so much time for training and planning, why don't they just do scripted curriculums? It would take all the need for planning time away. The teachers get trained once on the curriculum and voila!

Really? I don't have a teaching degree and even I know that there is a huge variance in knowledge in elementary school students and this would not work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will this fully eliminate the instances where classes have a standing sub one day a week for training/ meetings (which has been happening in my kiddos classrooms the last few years already)? Or is this lost learning time/ more routine juggling for the kiddos in addition to all that....?

Nope, this is completely different. These early release days are essentially for the reading trainings.

Yes. The state just mandated 32 ADDITIONAL hours of reading training on top of all the other stuff we have to do.

The state should pay for that instead of taking it out of existing instructional time. Way to go Glenn Youngkin - screwing teachers and students!

Aren't teachers supposed to learn this stuff in teacher college? Why do they need nearly a full week of training every year?

OMG. Are you dense? Google Virginia Literacy Act - teachers up until very recently were not taught the correct curriculum. I don't like Glenn Youngkin, but I 100% agree that literacy instruction in the U.S. has gone to shit over the past 30 years and only in the past 3 or so years as FCPS has pushed back towards phonics and the "science of reading" has childrens' ability to read become better. I have two kids in FCPS ES - one who was taught the Lucy Calkins way and has required a ton of tutoring to actually learn how to read and one who was taught using the Wilson method that is at grade level. I KNOW that teachers need to be retrained on the RIGHT way to teach children how to read. I just think the implementation of training (3 hour early release days) is all wrong. I agree that it's needed, I just don't like the way LCPS or FCPS are doing it.

[Anonymous]

So the teachers are going to learn to teach reading over 7 different days scattered throughout the year? What about the kids that need to learn to read this year? The teacher will have only finished the training when the year is nearly over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will this fully eliminate the instances where classes have a standing sub one day a week for training/ meetings (which has been happening in my kiddos classrooms the last few years already)? Or is this lost learning time/ more routine juggling for the kiddos in addition to all that....?

Nope, this is completely different. These early release days are essentially for the reading trainings.

Yes. The state just mandated 32 ADDITIONAL hours of reading training on top of all the other stuff we have to do.

The state should pay for that instead of taking it out of existing instructional time. Way to go Glenn Youngkin - screwing teachers and students!

Aren't teachers supposed to learn this stuff in teacher college? Why do they need nearly a full week of training every year?

Maybe you don't have a job so you don't understand what professional development means, but things change every year and professionals need to take training annually to keep up with current methods. The finance curriculum I learned in college 20 years ago taught me nothing about how the financial world currently operates. I need training every year to keep up on the latest and greatest technology, just as teachers need training every year to keep up on the latest and greatest in teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the teachers are going to learn to teach reading over 7 different days scattered throughout the year? What about the kids that need to learn to read this year? The teacher will have only finished the training when the year is nearly over.

Really curious about your background and why this is so hard for you to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will this fully eliminate the instances where classes have a standing sub one day a week for training/ meetings (which has been happening in my kiddos classrooms the last few years already)? Or is this lost learning time/ more routine juggling for the kiddos in addition to all that....?

Nope, this is completely different. These early release days are essentially for the reading trainings.

Yes. The state just mandated 32 ADDITIONAL hours of reading training on top of all the other stuff we have to do.

The state should pay for that instead of taking it out of existing instructional time. Way to go Glenn Youngkin - screwing teachers and students!

Aren't teachers supposed to learn this stuff in teacher college? Why do they need nearly a full week of training every year?

No not every teacher learns how to teach kids literacy. They learn their content and they learn child development but reading is a specialized skill not all learn about .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the teachers are going to learn to teach reading over 7 different days scattered throughout the year? What about the kids that need to learn to read this year? The teacher will have only finished the training when the year is nearly over.

Guess what, they also roll out new standards the exact same year we have to teach them with no time to learn them and plan properly. I feel like you’re just learning how education works, congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can stay at school until school gets out — so this is not going to put any parents behind in terms of care. I’m not sure what the big deal is.

What about the instructional hours that are being taken away?

As long as the instructional hours still fall at equal to or more than 990 then there’s not a problem with the state.

Depends on how they count. According to my kids... there's no learning on early dismissal days and there's no learning when they have the regular once a week subs and there's no learning when they have subs for other reasons and there's no learning the week before Thanksgiving or the two weeks between Thanksgiving and winter break.....and there's no learning 4th quarter -- it's all sol review..and there's no learning after the sols....
So, I think it's ok for parents to ask the questions they are asking.

According to your kids…. You’re probably not getting the most accurate information. Education does not mean “new” instruction every day. Reviewing content for the SOL’s, reading a book, playing basketball in PE, all of those count towards the hours. Your child may not find it interesting or fun, but it still counts. Early release days are still 5 hours (at least) of a class day, do you think they’re just sitting around twiddling their thumbs?

More like Google and you-tube and computer games... because there is not enough time on early dismissal days...

How is there not enough time on early release days? 5 or so hours? That’s math, language arts, recess, lunch and specials. That a typical ER day at my school. Sometimes, specials or recess is switched out with science depending on the day.

There is, her kids are BS’ing her and she doesn’t realize it

It must be easy for you to think that....but I don't think so. My mom friends kids tell their parents the same...
I just asked my big kid again and big said they never have time for lessons on early release days. Of all of the things big could lie about why would it be this?

How is it that they don’t have time? It’s not like school is 45 minutes on those days. (ES Teacher)

I'm not there...but in 5 hours they are doing morning meetings, lunch, recess, specials, time to line up for dismissal and all the time it takes to make each of those transitions. How much time would that leave for math, science, social studies, reading, writing, etc? Sounds like they run out of time, can't fit everything in, and the kids go on their computers instead. Maybe they'll plan for them differently when there's more of them?

About 2.5 hours are left. (ES Teacher)

Three hour early release days at my kids school would be 9:15 - 1:05. That's less than four hours and that includes 45 or so minutes for lunch and recess. What is getting done in three hours?

An hour long math lesson with a 90-min language arts lesson (maybe morning meeting).

[Anonymous]

IEPs will need to be amended.

[Anonymous]

The calendar already has 14 teacher/staff development workdays. They could fit this into those days????

What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the teachers are going to learn to teach reading over 7 different days scattered throughout the year? What about the kids that need to learn to read this year? The teacher will have only finished the training when the year is nearly over.

Really curious about your background and why this is so hard for you to understand.

Just a mom wondering why teachers need so much more ongoing training than other professions. I imagine if you are a new teacher it would be helpful but after a few years, sitting through all that training year after year might get a bit tedious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the teachers are going to learn to teach reading over 7 different days scattered throughout the year? What about the kids that need to learn to read this year? The teacher will have only finished the training when the year is nearly over.

Really curious about your background and why this is so hard for you to understand.

Just a mom wondering why teachers need so much more ongoing training than other professions. I imagine if you are a new teacher it would be helpful but after a few years, sitting through all that training year after year might get a bit tedious.

It is! And nothing and education is really new anymore. I was trained in basal readers 20 years ago. Some of the training we go through is required by law, some are a result of law suits, and some is just because education is an area that politicians are constantly fighting over. Some is valuable, but that is a small percentage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The calendar already has 14 teacher/staff development workdays. They could fit this into those days????

What a joke.

+1

They already have so few 5 day weeks of school.

Remember when they made that HUGE deal about creating calendars for the next three years and included in bold the number of 5 day weeks?

This feels like a sneaky bait and switch. Thanks FCPS.