All these days off...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't want to create a new post about this but oMG...

THE AMOUNT OF SUB JOBS TODAY IS INSANE.

People respond to incentives, who knew!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

What a ridiculous notion. Teachers are not showing videos for 3 weeks straight. We want our kids in school as long as possible before the long summer. We use school for child care purposes. Also they do a lot of fun things then like end of year party, Field Day, etc. Lastly, if your child misses 15 consecutive school days you have to re enroll them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't want to create a new post about this but oMG...

THE AMOUNT OF SUB JOBS TODAY IS INSANE.

Just wait until the week of Memorial Day. It will be a miracle if schools can funtion on 5/28 and 5/29.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

What a ridiculous notion. Teachers are not showing videos for 3 weeks straight. We want our kids in school as long as possible before the long summer. We use school for child care purposes. Also they do a lot of fun things then like end of year party, Field Day, etc. Lastly, if your child misses 15 consecutive school days you have to re enroll them.

True.

There is also field day, class parties and cleaning out your desk day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m horrified with how many just yank their kids from school for vacations

What do you expect with so many partial weeks?

It proof that they don’t value school after all their complaints about FCPS. FCPS definitely won’t change the calendar if parents continue to leave and go on vacation.

LoL. FCPS doesn’t value attendance, which is why kids aren’t in school. Parents catch on to that attitude and have the kids out of school when suits *them*.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My school at least is now coding absences as unexcused for travel, regardless of filling out the silly prearranged absence form.

Makes it 1000x easier for me, I can just say, "Sorry, it was unexcused, look at schoology and prepare yourself for the retake." vs having to privately tutor the week of lessons they missed.

You can say that, and then every savvy parent will ensure their kids absence is excused.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:In 2020, 3% of the the adult living in Fairfax County identified as Jewish. (This does not include the under 18s and does not include employees that live outside of the county)

Hindus are around the same percentage (diwali off)

Orthodox Christians are a much tinier group. Are they even 1%? Yet we have Orthodox Epiphany off (Jan 17) and Orthodox Easter off (April 10)

FCPS gives Day of the Dead/All Saints Day off. (Nov 1)

That one is a complete head scratcher. Catholics (and Mexicans) do not view that as a day to take off work or school. All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation, but you don't take off work or school to meet the obligation. You simply go to Mass in the early morning or to one of the many evening Mass options. All Saints Day is not a particularly huge feast day accompanied by a bunch of significant religious and cultural traditions that require one to take off work and school.

Giving All Saints Day/ day of the dead off as a religious cultural holiday is performative and shows that FCPS doesn’t understand the holiday.

November 1 is not a day off.

That’s because it’s a Saturday. The holiday is still listed because it’s always off when it’s not on a weekend. They plan the end of the quarter around it so it’s always a 4 day break.

Exactly.

But if you ask any Catholic, practicing Cathokic or just culturally catholic, they will tell you unequivocally that All Saints Day should not be a day off school.

All Catholics feel this way? Is this why schools in all of Italy and France shut down?

I’ve heard Catholics upset when it wasn’t off because their church only had morning services.

I think maybe some people within a religion may have differing thoughts.

Not sure what the schools in France or Italy have to do with FCPS.

I guess you didn’t see the comment I was replying to. So here ya go:

“But if you ask any Catholic, practicing Cathokic or just culturally catholic, they will tell you unequivocally that All Saints Day should not be a day off school.”

Just responding to this absolute falsehood. Catholics all around the world take the day off. There’s way more countries all over Europe and South America where all schools close for catholic observance of the day.

Maybe white bread yuppie Catholics in NOVA sit it out, but they don’t speak for all.

And to go a step further, maybe you’ve noticed we have a high population in of South American catholic students?

I read your comment and it's still irrelevant. I'm sure many countries take varying religious and other holidays off. It's irrelevant to an American school system.

And no I haven't noticed we have a lot of South American Catholic students. How would anyone know that?

You would know it if you were familiar with the demographics of the county.

Sure, go ahead and show us these demographics that show South American Catholics students.

Have you not noticed any Latinos in the DCUM area?

LOL, now you're moving the goalposts. Hilarious to watch.

I'm so confused. Do you really not believe that we have a lot of students from South/Central America in FCPS? Do you really not realize that many of the immigrants from South/Central America are Catholic?

We know you're confused, because you've gone from South American, to Latino, to South/Central American students. None of these are the same. And there certainly aren't enough of them to justify closing schools.

Maybe not where your kids go to school. At the last 2 schools that I’ve taught at (30 minutes apart), they make-up 30-50% of the population. One year, I had 3 white students.

That is only one school. Celebrating every single minority religious is a disadvantage for ALL kids. Fairness would be getting a good education. How many people celebrate Diwali? A few percentage points? It is worth disrupting schedule of everyone else?

We can’t do this for every holiday because we are causing challenges for the majority. It is public school!

I sincerely believe you will be happier in Texas.. or maybe Alabama or Mississippi. I think they cater to your kind.

+1
They have a nice, long, long summer break. (And many jurisdictions have 165 or 170 days of school instead of 180.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m horrified with how many just yank their kids from school for vacations

The tone-deafness of this comment.

Several of my friends with SN kids have to take them to stay with relatives during weeks without school when they cant get an appropriate camp (which are few and far between) and the parents work. Yes they tell the kids its a “vacation” to see Granny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

ES teacher here. This is false. We were still teaching benchmark in June and SS. The only thing I was done with was math. The fact that a teacher said that is appalling and shows that she probably isn’t a good teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

What a ridiculous notion. Teachers are not showing videos for 3 weeks straight. We want our kids in school as long as possible before the long summer. We use school for child care purposes. Also they do a lot of fun things then like end of year party, Field Day, etc. Lastly, if your child misses 15 consecutive school days you have to re enroll them.

True.

There is also field day, class parties and cleaning out your desk day.

Cleaning out your desk today? I’ve taught elementary school for over a decade. Cleaning out your desk takes less than 30 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

ES teacher here. This is false. We were still teaching benchmark in June and SS. The only thing I was done with was math. The fact that a teacher said that is appalling and shows that she probably isn’t a good teacher.

I have a hard time believing an ES teacher said that and that it wasn't a troll post. I'm also an ES teacher and we've never finished the pacing by the first week of April and we don't spend weeks doing review before testing. Admin doesn't even let us start taking down materials or packing until a few days before the last day of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

What a ridiculous notion. Teachers are not showing videos for 3 weeks straight. We want our kids in school as long as possible before the long summer. We use school for child care purposes. Also they do a lot of fun things then like end of year party, Field Day, etc. Lastly, if your child misses 15 consecutive school days you have to re enroll them.

True.

There is also field day, class parties and cleaning out your desk day.

Cleaning out your desk today? I’ve taught elementary school for over a decade. Cleaning out your desk takes less than 30 minutes.

I've taught ES for 30 years. The only time I have emptied out my desk is when I knew I was moving rooms.

Our field day is usually in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

ES teacher here. This is false. We were still teaching benchmark in June and SS. The only thing I was done with was math. The fact that a teacher said that is appalling and shows that she probably isn’t a good teacher.

It was true every year at our ES!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was talking to an ES teacher about the 5-day Memorial Day weekend that is scheduled for this year. She said that if your child has passed the SOLS and you can afford it, do you NOT send your child back for the last three weeks of school.

Her reasoning is that ALL of the instruction is done in early April and then its just SOL review. The last three weeks of school will be videos and busy work while the teachers clean up their classrooms or help students who failed the SOLs. Kids will be better off at home with a stay at home parent.

ES teacher here. This is false. We were still teaching benchmark in June and SS. The only thing I was done with was math. The fact that a teacher said that is appalling and shows that she probably isn’t a good teacher.

It was true every year at our ES!

Well clearly an issue at your specific school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't want to create a new post about this but oMG...

THE AMOUNT OF SUB JOBS TODAY IS INSANE.

Just wait until the week of Memorial Day. It will be a miracle if schools can funtion on 5/28 and 5/29.

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my high school has 20+ subs today...