Anonymous wrote:Is 8th grade promotion a new thing? My kids didn’t have a ceremony in MCPS. Or do I have a bad memory and it was optional? I definitely didn’t attend any ceremonies.

It's up to the school/the 8th grade team how they celebrate.

Anonymous wrote:Is 8th grade promotion a new thing? My kids didn’t have a ceremony in MCPS. Or do I have a bad memory and it was optional? I definitely didn’t attend any ceremonies.

8th grade promotion is standard all over the US. 5th/6th grade (depending on when students enter middle school) promotions are NOT.

I let my kids rest after they got promoted. The last week is full of cleaning up, running errands for the teacher and generally a bunch of busy work.

DH and I don't believe that children should be busy every second of the day. It's overstimulation and the reason why so many kids are on stimulants/antidepressants now.

Another year, we sent them off for a week with their grandparents before summer camps. It was nice to have a children week, reminded DH and I our lives before we had children.

Is 8th grade promotion a new thing? My kids didn’t have a ceremony in MCPS. Or do I have a bad memory and it was optional? I definitely didn’t attend any ceremonies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t 8th graders have their promotion ceremony already? Why would they go to school?

Because kids are supposed to get 180 days of schooling and there’s still a ton 8th graders can learn?

I also received a message from one of my kid’s middle school teachers telling me attendance was no longer being taken after graduation. I know attendance drops in the last few days of the school year but was pretty shocked they were encouraging lack of attendance so openly.

Attendance not being taken? So why send that message that your kid was marked absent...?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents are literally the worst.

Glad you can justify a school ceasing to provide instructional time to students during official school days by blaming their parents for being “the worst.”

Sounds like you’ve been smoking some heavy doses of copium.

Idiot, 8th graders have already graduated/promoted. There's no more "instructional time " for them. They don't need to be in school.
It's like expecting HS seniors to come back to school after graduation because school is still in session. You just need babysitters.
Y'all stupid.
-DP

This probably comes across more like, "back in my day..."

But seriously I don't remember these big grade 5 and grade 8 ceremonies back when I was younger. We did have an end of year outing but no big graduation ceremony.

In particular is graduating from 5th or 8th grade really THAT big of an accomplishment in MCPS now?

And even then, talking to parents at other schools in MCPS, not all schools celebrate students finishing 5th or 8th grades the same way.

So there's no big ceremony and no "graduation/promotion" day for them. And I assume the last day of school is the last day of the school year for those schools, even though students may choose to not come in the last week if they know no instruction will be done that week.

I get how it's fun for the kids and probably give them memories and something to celebrate, especially if kids are going their separate ways due to moving, split articulation, magnet/ib programs, etc.

I just think it's funny what we're really celebrating here. And for some schools that early and makes it seem the kids are done with the school year from that point on.

btw the shorter way of what I'm trying to say is 12th graders are done with MCPS by graduation ceremony time and is why it doesn't make sense for them to come back afterwards. These 5th and 8th graders are only part way through their journey and have a couple of more years to go. So they're not done with the MCPS K-12 experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is common for most (if not all) middle schools. 8th grade instruction ends after promotion. Students are always welcome to come to school - and some do - but it is very common for many to be released. As a former teacher, we would love to keep things going but after the grueling spring testing for 8th graders and then final projects, they are done. They are still kids, not little robots.

Because they’re not little robots, it would have been nice for students to do some projects with teachers that inspire their love of learning for the subject rather than linking directly to a test score. My elementary school kid did fun STEM projects today while my middle school kid was told to…stay home.

Agree! This would be an awesome time to do things like.... Integrate cooking into a chemistry lesson. Spend time outside and learn something about nature for biology. Read and create comics for a combined English and art class. Build LEGO robots. All the STEM things with the wow factor, like Elephant Toothpaste.

Invite professionals in to talk about a day in the life of a

Judge
Lawyer
Baker
Journalist
Mechanic
Retail manager
Psychologist
Landscaper
Actor
Researcher
Accountant
Grocery worker
Child care professional
Entrepreneur
Farmer
Etc etc etc especially random careers people might not have heard of.

do you have any idea how hard it to get people to come in for career day?
Its the end of the school year/ Its ok to be done

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s public school. Everyone just gives up when the end is in sight.

Have more chill classroom time allowing students to do more fun projects, socialize, and watch movies yes. Actively telling students not to come back to school (if true) when it's a school day is a no no.

Sounds like some of you dont even know your own kids. Sit through a movie? They pay attention for 5 minutes then can't handle just BEING ALIVE with their own existence. Fun projects? They scoff at them. They need to learn how to be creative and do something with their boredom. Stop blaming teachers. You have a job as parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some parents are literally the worst.

Glad you can justify a school ceasing to provide instructional time to students during official school days by blaming their parents for being “the worst.”

Sounds like you’ve been smoking some heavy doses of copium.

Idiot, 8th graders have already graduated/promoted. There's no more "instructional time " for them. They don't need to be in school.
It's like expecting HS seniors to come back to school after graduation because school is still in session. You just need babysitters.
Y'all stupid.
-DP

Anonymous wrote:It’s public school. Everyone just gives up when the end is in sight.

Have more chill classroom time allowing students to do more fun projects, socialize, and watch movies yes. Actively telling students not to come back to school (if true) when it's a school day is a no no.

It’s public school. Everyone just gives up when the end is in sight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t 8th graders have their promotion ceremony already? Why would they go to school?

Ideally because they're 8th graders and not HS graduates who are done with MCPS.

And they're ideally supposed to be getting 180 days of instruction, or however many they're getting this year with the snow day waivers.

And maybe not at Westland but maybe some of them count on the school for meals or have nothing to do at home during the day. True they're 8th graders and older now. But families probably didn't plan for it.

Unfortunately, many 8th graders will come just to run around and act out. Not all, but there is a "We graduated and can't get into trouble" attitude. No matter how many times you explain it is not a graduation and they can still get into trouble, they just don't care anymore. Some kids are great, but the school year does have to come to end.

That’s ridiculous. Kids who don’t have disciplinary issues aren’t going to magically misbehave because they have been passed onto 9th grade. This is just an excuse for the teachers who choose to be lazy not to teach.

Parents are begging the school to take their 8th grader (who already graduated) for two more days, and *teachers* are the lazy ones in this situation?

Schools are open and this is an official McPs school day. I’m sorry you think it’s extraordinary that you be asked to teach 180 days in a year (especially after being gifted extra snow day holidays this year), but plenty of school districts and teachers do teach til the end of the school year because they care about students learning.

These are 8th graders we are talking about so your “parents are lazy and just want to use school as daycare” garbage doesn’t work here.

Oh, it absolutely does “work here,” because contrary to the lies routinely told on DCUM (everyone’s an “ICU nurse” or an “ER doctor” when they mistakenly think that claim bolsters their argument), a significant portion of DCUM Land work at HOME and having those annoying kids around is totally cramping their style. And those who don’t have permissively raised kids who don’t listen to them, so if they’re not there, they “can’t” keep their kids off YouTube or video games all day.

You have no evidence for any of this. Looks like you didn't get enough instructional time in school to help you write coherently.

Anonymous wrote:Some parents are literally the worst.

Glad you can justify a school ceasing to provide instructional time to students during official school days by blaming their parents for being “the worst.”

Sounds like you’ve been smoking some heavy doses of copium.

Some parents are literally the worst.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t 8th graders have their promotion ceremony already? Why would they go to school?

Ideally because they're 8th graders and not HS graduates who are done with MCPS.

And they're ideally supposed to be getting 180 days of instruction, or however many they're getting this year with the snow day waivers.

And maybe not at Westland but maybe some of them count on the school for meals or have nothing to do at home during the day. True they're 8th graders and older now. But families probably didn't plan for it.

Unfortunately, many 8th graders will come just to run around and act out. Not all, but there is a "We graduated and can't get into trouble" attitude. No matter how many times you explain it is not a graduation and they can still get into trouble, they just don't care anymore. Some kids are great, but the school year does have to come to end.

That’s ridiculous. Kids who don’t have disciplinary issues aren’t going to magically misbehave because they have been passed onto 9th grade. This is just an excuse for the teachers who choose to be lazy not to teach.

I teach middle school, but not 8th. This week, my school’s had so many incidents with 8th graders who were never in trouble before. They genuinely believe that they can’t get in trouble because they were promoted. They start roaming the halls, make bad decisions, and then run away from the adults.