May/June attendance now optional?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My tenth grader has had assignments, projects, tests, and labs up until today. Finals start tomorrow and I am thankful her finals schedule is more project based than test based this year.

I am this poster and my kid goes to Woodson…I am so confused by the large amount of complaints? Where are your kids in school that they have not been doing anything for a month?!?

+1
My kids are at Chantilly. They're still working through final exams.

We are at Chantilly too. Chantilly is old school and works until the bitter end. Pros and cons.

Another Chantilly parent. Kid has two finals left, one tomorrow and one next Tuesday. They have had quizzes, tests, papers and presentations until today. Honestly, it has been hard, because finals for AP exams and AP exams were hugely stressful times, and after, there has been little motivation to do much of anything. They are just thankful that regardless of how they do on the exams, their grades will still be the same (which doesn't mean there is no studying going on).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

+1 from another MS teacher. I'm not showing movies but we're doing a lot of filler activities that are mostly ungraded. Behaviors are out of control. We've had more fights the past two weeks than we've had all year. A lot of the well behaved students have stopped showing up and I don't blame them one bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

+1 from another MS teacher. I'm not showing movies but we're doing a lot of filler activities that are mostly ungraded. Behaviors are out of control. We've had more fights the past two weeks than we've had all year. A lot of the well behaved students have stopped showing up and I don't blame them one bit.

All this will still happen earlier if you end the year earlier.

[Anonymous]

W're in MCPS but most of my kid's teachers are gone, grading APs. They have busywork projects (easy As) and lots of SGA meetings and stuff. But yeah, it's kind of a waste. I am not making an issue of being late to 1st period or coming back late from off-campus lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

+1 from another MS teacher. I'm not showing movies but we're doing a lot of filler activities that are mostly ungraded. Behaviors are out of control. We've had more fights the past two weeks than we've had all year. A lot of the well behaved students have stopped showing up and I don't blame them one bit.

All this will still happen earlier if you end the year earlier.

Why? It's clear the kids know it's just filler now. If it ended sooner, all of this would be avoided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is finishing up projects this week and has finals this week and next (everyday until Tuesday). Why don’t your kids have finals?!?!

I have the DD who went late yesterday and she did end up missing her first class. No, I didn’t call in any excuse. I asked her about this too. Her half days start today and she has two projects due for the two classes today. Her language class has a listening test that is a regular test grade during their final block. Her math class is having a test. I guess nothing for the other blocks and no real finals. She already said she’s not going on the last day.

[Anonymous]

At Lake Braddock, and I assume most HS. The last day is a 2 hour day where anyone who comes is just put in the cafeteria? I'm sure this counts as instructional time.

We were promised that starting school before Labor Day was to get all the instruction in before SOL and AP tests. That was a lie and it was also a lie that we would get out earlier.

Yes, some of my kids teachers are giving finals in the "final" block. But half aren't. I don't envy the teachers. They have to have the grades submitted at 8a after the final. Seniors who left after for the internship are done in May, others who didn't were done last week. How do you manage 3 different class end dates.

END SCHOOL AT THE END OF May!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Lake Braddock, and I assume most HS. The last day is a 2 hour day where anyone who comes is just put in the cafeteria? I'm sure this counts as instructional time.

We were promised that starting school before Labor Day was to get all the instruction in before SOL and AP tests. That was a lie and it was also a lie that we would get out earlier.

Yes, some of my kids teachers are giving finals in the "final" block. But half aren't. I don't envy the teachers. They have to have the grades submitted at 8a after the final. Seniors who left after for the internship are done in May, others who didn't were done last week. How do you manage 3 different class end dates.

END SCHOOL AT THE END OF May!!!

FCPS hasn’t ended school in May in over 40 years and won’t start now. Go move to the South or the Midwest if you’re looking for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lake Braddock, and I assume most HS. The last day is a 2 hour day where anyone who comes is just put in the cafeteria? I'm sure this counts as instructional time.

We were promised that starting school before Labor Day was to get all the instruction in before SOL and AP tests. That was a lie and it was also a lie that we would get out earlier.

Yes, some of my kids teachers are giving finals in the "final" block. But half aren't. I don't envy the teachers. They have to have the grades submitted at 8a after the final. Seniors who left after for the internship are done in May, others who didn't were done last week. How do you manage 3 different class end dates.

END SCHOOL AT THE END OF May!!!

FCPS hasn’t ended school in May in over 40 years and won’t start now. Go move to the South or the Midwest if you’re looking for that.

Not my point. For example, in 12-13 we started school on September 4th, and got out only one day later than this year, June 18th.

So we were starting this year on August 18th, and getting out June 17th. The kids were in school over 17 days earlier, but get out only one day earlier? That wasn't what we were told would happen with a pre-labor day start. By this we should be getting out June 1.

All the garbage extra days were added in. No one would have agreed to this back then. There would have been an uproar. We were misled. I had younger kids then, and all the HS parents were saying how great it would be so their kids would be better prepared for AP exams.

Either start after Labor Day or end earlier. Everyone agrees the calendar is awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lake Braddock, and I assume most HS. The last day is a 2 hour day where anyone who comes is just put in the cafeteria? I'm sure this counts as instructional time.

We were promised that starting school before Labor Day was to get all the instruction in before SOL and AP tests. That was a lie and it was also a lie that we would get out earlier.

Yes, some of my kids teachers are giving finals in the "final" block. But half aren't. I don't envy the teachers. They have to have the grades submitted at 8a after the final. Seniors who left after for the internship are done in May, others who didn't were done last week. How do you manage 3 different class end dates.

END SCHOOL AT THE END OF May!!!

FCPS hasn’t ended school in May in over 40 years and won’t start now. Go move to the South or the Midwest if you’re looking for that.

Not my point. For example, in 12-13 we started school on September 4th, and got out only one day later than this year, June 18th.

So we were starting this year on August 18th, and getting out June 17th. The kids were in school over 17 days earlier, but get out only one day earlier? That wasn't what we were told would happen with a pre-labor day start. By this we should be getting out June 1.

All the garbage extra days were added in. No one would have agreed to this back then. There would have been an uproar. We were misled. I had younger kids then, and all the HS parents were saying how great it would be so their kids would be better prepared for AP exams.

Either start after Labor Day or end earlier. Everyone agrees the calendar is awful.

It'd be easier and save time if you just wrote what you meant instead of first writing nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

I think we need a much louder teacher collective voice for this type of change for it to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Lake Braddock, and I assume most HS. The last day is a 2 hour day where anyone who comes is just put in the cafeteria? I'm sure this counts as instructional time.

We were promised that starting school before Labor Day was to get all the instruction in before SOL and AP tests. That was a lie and it was also a lie that we would get out earlier.

Yes, some of my kids teachers are giving finals in the "final" block. But half aren't. I don't envy the teachers. They have to have the grades submitted at 8a after the final. Seniors who left after for the internship are done in May, others who didn't were done last week. How do you manage 3 different class end dates.

END SCHOOL AT THE END OF May!!!

FCPS hasn’t ended school in May in over 40 years and won’t start now. Go move to the South or the Midwest if you’re looking for that.

Not my point. For example, in 12-13 we started school on September 4th, and got out only one day later than this year, June 18th.

So we were starting this year on August 18th, and getting out June 17th. The kids were in school over 17 days earlier, but get out only one day earlier? That wasn't what we were told would happen with a pre-labor day start. By this we should be getting out June 1.

All the garbage extra days were added in. No one would have agreed to this back then. There would have been an uproar. We were misled. I had younger kids then, and all the HS parents were saying how great it would be so their kids would be better prepared for AP exams.

Either start after Labor Day or end earlier. Everyone agrees the calendar is awful.

It'd be easier and save time if you just wrote what you meant instead of first writing nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

+1 from another MS teacher. I'm not showing movies but we're doing a lot of filler activities that are mostly ungraded. Behaviors are out of control. We've had more fights the past two weeks than we've had all year. A lot of the well behaved students have stopped showing up and I don't blame them one bit.

All this will still happen earlier if you end the year earlier.

Why? It's clear the kids know it's just filler now. If it ended sooner, all of this would be avoided.

No you’d still have to have a week of filler for the teachers to wind down, get the last minute grades in, etc. All this stuff would just be pushed earlier - how do you not see that? Nothing would change except we’d have a longer summer. The last few weeks would still be like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

There are two teacher workdays on June 18 and 19th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MS teacher here. We need to end school earlier (Memorial Day or first week of June) and then expect real learning/work until the second to last day. Otherwise behavior problems and absenteeism are huge. Teachers who show movies are doing so because student computers are being collected, you can't do a summative (real) assessment without giving 2 weeks to retake, and a large portion of kids have stopped coming or are there but out of control and refusing to do work.

Put 2-3 teacher work days at the end of the school year for grading so that teacher can TEACH until the end and still have time to finalize gradebooks.

There are two teacher workdays on June 18 and 19th.

And yet grades are due a week before those two days! There are two days where the students are gone and the teachers still have nothing to do but are required to be in the building