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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I didn't like the calendar this year at all.

Some of it was outside of the school's control. The [b]snowcrete [/b]never-ending closure was an anomaly that frustrated me, but I can't [i]really [/i]blame on FCPS. This was the second year in a row of pretty bad snow and the county has got to develop a better plan to clear it if snow is going to be a more regular occurrence in our region. The closures for [b]special elections[/b] were also frustrating. I appreciated that they at least tried to combine them with TWs, but they just felt like one more thing on top of a bad situation.

Overall, though, there were entirely too many [b]TWs[/b]/SPs. Do teachers really need 2.5 days at the end of every quarter? On top of that, as an elementary parent, we had these completely unjustified monthly half-days. I was annoyed last year when they introduced them to help teachers learn a last-minute new curriculum, but at least there was a reason for them. This year they just...decided to keep them for fun?

I really don't mind a few extra student holidays to allow minority religion families to celebrate some of their major holidays. Part of what I like about living in Fairfax is how diverse it is and I liked that the days off prompted my kid to ask why and learn a little bit about Yom Kippur and Ramadan and Diwali, in addition to Christmas and Easter. It doesn't cover every holiday, nor is that feasible, but I like the message that it sends. And since sometimes those holidays fall on weekends or over the summer, I would leave them alone. This year happened to fall a lot mid-week and was exacerbated by the other closures, but generally-speaking, if we reigned in the TWs and monthly half-days, I think the calendar could be a lot better without having to throw holidays under the bus. [/quote]

Were there more TW/SP days though? Teachers have had 195 day contracts for years. 5 or 6 TW days fall before school starts and 1 or 2 fall after it ends. The rest fall somewhere in between.

I’d be ok with eliminating the early release days, but I think a TW should occur around the time 4th quarter grades  are due (now).

ES Teacher [/quote]

+1 I just took a personal day to write report cards so I could write comments and actually them and think about the kids and their work. I worked from 5:30am- 2:30 with a few breaks. I guess they don’t mind subs at the end of the year? [/quote]

I don’t think people realize how long it takes to complete ES Progress Reports.[/quote]

It's been several years worth of report cards and I've never received a single personalized comment from the teacher. It's always a generic text with a placeholder for a student name. Thank you for doing this![/quote]

The comments are all canned. That’s all we have to choose from. Inputting of grades takes the brunt of the time honestly. Most ES teachers are entering 2,000 grades for the 4th quarter including citizenship and effort grades. [/quote]

But there is no calculation involved, unlike high school report cards.  The teachers just pick 1-4, then a canned comment off a list.[/quote]

HS grades are already calculated. My teacher spouse teaches in a MS and just has to verify. He says MS grading is so much easier it’s not even close. ES has to choose 1-4 about 2,000 times for the 4th quarter.
Take for example the final grade. A student’s quarterly grades are 2, 2, NT, 4. The next student has 3, 2, NT, 3. You have to go through and determine each final grade after entering each 4th quarter grade. [/quote]

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