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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][img][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]If I encountered it I would probably discuss our plans with our pediatrician and see whether they thought the kids socioemotional health was best served by being in school or with family.[/quote]

If your child does not need the instruction and is not missing anything important--then why are you worried about it being excused?  Why are you demanding that the teacher provide work if she is not teaching?   PP claims her child will be just fine academiclally.[/quote]

If she’s not teaching there wont be any assignments to provide.

If [b]i[/b] was taking a long flight or had significant downtime [b]I’d[/b] ask for the material. If [b]i [/b]got pushback[b] id [/b]seek an excused absence. [b]I [/b]wouldn’t follow an arbitrary rule so a teacher felt powerful not doing what others do hsppily.[/quote]

So, who is the one here claiming to be powerful?

[/quote]

What a weird reaction— parents get work for their traveling kids every day.  Isn’t this what you want? Parents working with their kids out of school?

Really nothing will satisfy you. Don’t take kids out — even if there is a sub or non important materials. Don't fall behind but don’t keep up! [/quote]

Your kid actually can’t “keep up” with 4 weeks of packet work. What we can’t send along is all the instruction and activities we do to help them learn the content and master the skills that work should assess. [b]At BEST we can send 4 weeks of busy work which is pointless to ask us to put together and pointless for your kid to do. [/b]We can’t send the next 4 weeks of lessons and new content. I’ve mentioned in this thread before the kid who went to India for over a month last year and the dad wanted us to have 1:1 Google meet lessons (this was denied). But we did post all the work for him online, even though in my class no assignments are even done online. Nevertheless I did it. He emailed us saying his son was having trouble understanding the material posted in Schoology. No duh!! He was not here to be taught it! [/quote]

Wait a second— we just had a retired teacher tel us that busywork was SO IMPORTANT that kids should come to school to receive instruction from her pre-positioned busywork folder instead of spending time with their families. [/quote]

LOL!  I'm the retired teacher whose words you have conveniently twisted.  You skipped the part about the detailed plans and the materials for the lessons that were left on my desk.  The folder of "busy work" was "just in case."

But, the part I really don't understand is the parent who thinks that lessons go in "lock step."  This assumes that every lesson is a complete success and that all of the students clearly "get" it.  Gee, sometimes a lesson needs repetition and more practice--and sometimes, the kids get it so quickly that you can skip along to the next one.

But, PP has decided that the teacher is supposed to anticipate exactly what her child needs.

And, as preparing the lesson for the kids with "strep."  If she cannot see the difference here, then she cannot be helped. And, kids are seldom out sick for weeks--and, believe me, most teachers would lovingly do as much as possible to help that kid.  But, traveling mom thinks this is the same thing.  And, FWIW, a sick child definitely suffers and a really sick child is going to need lots of extra help on return--because they likely have not been able to keep up because he does not feel well.

[b]As for the doctor--sounds like a quack if he is giving excuses for travel.[/b]
[/quote]

If you don’t know how over FCPS most local pediatric practices are you’re living under a rock. There are memes about them printed out in the nurses station of ours.[/quote]

Is it a school’s responsibility to keep pediatricians happy?

No. 
[/quote]

Of course, not, but don’t be shocked that many pediatricians are more than happy to make sure their patients aren’t being arbitrary penalized by FCPS. They remember being at work while their kids were at home “learning”[/quote]

Ah one of the idiotic “Schools were closed during a pandemic when millions of people were dying” geniuses. I can’t wait for you rkid to get to college and watch the Professors laugh at her COVID is the excuse of everything attitude. [/quote]

COVID may not be the reason for everything but its definitely the reason my pediatricians office has FCPS memes on the wall and has no problem keeping their patients insulated from dumb policies.

They also require vaccination so don’t worry its not only MAHA fringe who is over FCPS.[/quote]

Complaining about COVID policies on the one hand and claiming that expecting kids not to take extended vacations while school is in session is a little ironic.

I hated the COVID policies and think they made terrible decisions.  I also think kids should be in school when school is in session.  [/quote]

It may seem ironic. You concluded that kids should be in school whenever FCPS decides they feel like having school. I concluded that FCPS doesn’t remotely care about the well-being of their students or their families, and so that— and not FCPS’ whims— is my primary concern. It’s in my child's best interest and mu families best interest that we travel and spend time together. That this doesn’t help FCPS meet their attendance metric is for them to worry about.[/quote]

You do realize that the attendance metric influences funding for your child’s school?

[/quote]

You keep saying this. Here’s an easy fix:

The day before winter break has a very high absence rate. Next year make that a teacher planning day.  Now the school average attendance is higher!

Why doesn't FCPS take the steps within their control?[/quote]

DP. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, are we? If you make that day a planning day, parents will treat that as the start of winter break and take their kid out a day earlier.[/quote]

Try it and see. Or put planning days on other high-absence days like the Monday after Thanksgiving. FCPS has 100% control over where those days are and 0% credibility with parents, so start making the decisions within their control, it will help with both problems.[/quote]

Parents already take off days before and after planning days so all that would happen is instead of taking off Friday if is a planning day, parents would take off Thursday on same theory as being used in thread now. Will fix nothing and parents wanting 3 weeks or 4 or whatever want in Dec will still be mad.[/quote]

Or obvious answer:  go in the summer

Or, again, go.  But, your child's education is on you.  You obviously think he is missing nothing.[/quote]

This isn’t your logic when teachers vacation during the school year. [/quote]

That is extremely rare.  I was a teacher--I only took a week off once for an extreme family emergency.  It was far from a vacation.[/quote]

I know two teachers who did midweek Disney last year and I’m a different poster than the earlier one who posted about Orlando.

It’s clearly not that rare.[/quote]

I agree it’s not rare. I’m a retired teacher substitute and I’ve done a few 5 day jobs this year for teachers away on vacation. I think it’s more common for teachers to be out multiple personal days in a row now than it used to be. I don’t blame them though. I retired with way too many hours of accumulated leave. I should have used more of it when I was younger. [/quote].

If teachers can be out taking vacations, so can students. Adapt.[/quote]

What, are you serious?? This makes no sense. Teachers have already been students themselves and have completed their education. They are working professionals no different than the rest of us. They earn vacation time to use as part of their jobs. Students are students. They have not completed their education and do not have employment that grants them vacation time. You can't compare teachers taking vacations to students. [/quote]

+1
Its a wild take to say that a working professional can't take a vacation.  [/quote]

It is but it's not wild to say there are restrictions on when time can be taken and how many days in a row can be taken. Ask a tax accountant if they can take off in early April or if a software engineer would schedule a trip 2 weeks before go-live. At my company, they give everyone the week between Christmas and New Years off except for Accounting who has to close the books (they get a different week off later in February). I have a friend who teaches in NYC and they can't take off the Friday before a holiday weekend.

There is a balance between "no vacation" and "do whatever you want." Nothing, by the way is how a lot of European systems work. Teachers and students cannot take vacation during school hours.[/quote]

A few years ago, my kid's math teacher had a series of destination weddings where she took off several long weekends over the course of the fall into early winter.

They were spaced out, but unfortunately the high schools are on an every other day block schedule, and the spacing was such that every wedding she missed overlapped with the day my kid had math.  Such as taking off Friday for travel, two weeks later taking off M/Th/F for the wedding events, 2 weeks later taking off Friday for travel.

Several of the days off overlapped with those ridiculous 3 and 4 day werks that FCPS likes to have 1st semester.

Not all the subs knew math, so one of the students tried to teach and help the kids who were struggling due to only seeing the teacher a handful of times over a couple months.

It was awful.

Collectively,  it was not actually a lot of days off, but the timing of the weddings vs the block schedule vs FCPS religious and social holidays was terrible for my kid and many other students, not to mention the burden on the smart girl trying to help all the kids who were struggling.[/quote]

Teacher here and this is so odd to me. I never tell my students why I’m absent; that’s my private business. To be honest, it’s always one of two reasons: I’m sick or I took personal leave to catch up on paperwork.

I just can’t imagine sharing my personal information like that. The only time I have taken off for something other than the above, it was one day to take my own child to college for the first time. I told my boss. I left a sub plan for my students. [/quote]

Many younger teachers now share a LOT with their students and honestly, teachers about to retire do too.[/quote]

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