Anonymous wrote:Is the first Monday back (1/4) also a half-day?

Is this being asked sarcastically?

Anonymous wrote:Is the first Monday back (1/4) also a half-day?

no

Here is the MCPS calendar - http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/0992.15_2015-16_SchoolCalendar(1).pdf

a more "interactive" version - http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/calendar/

It will include half days - for example:

Feb. 26
EARLY RELEASE DAY FOR ALL STUDENTS
Planning/grades/interims

Is the first Monday back (1/4) also a half-day?

You must be wrong, PP. Cold Spring student do lots of extra math. You must be thinking of another school.

21:22. I thought the children at Cold Spring had no need for intensive math review.

I'm outraged that kids were watching movies and playing on phones. At our ES (Cold Spring) the kids were doing intensive math review and prep for most of the day. Glad my DD went and was able to get ahead of the kids that stayed home or went on hikes.

Anonymous wrote:Kudos to the teacher who actually planned to do their job on December 23. My kids, in high school, told me that all they did was watch movies and play on their phones all day. I'm glad they went to school because they would have just made me nuts all day in the house, but it's a shame that especially in high school the teachers couldn't have used the time for exam review since semester exams come up very quickly after they return to school.

Which school?

Catholic School parent here. We have this week and next week off. I hate it because I need the extra few days prior to XMAS to prepare (wrap Santa's gifts, etc). I would be fine with full day of school on 23rd.

Hear hear on needing the days the kids are in school to prepare in peace without them. I'm in MCPS and I love the schedule this year. My seven-year-old has autism and there is no way I could get anything done with him around.

My DH teaches middle school Spanish. The kids planned a fiesta--they brought in snacks and watched (most of) a Disney movie in Spanish. Not exactly his best instructional day, but it wasn't a complete blow off. He said about 1/4 of the students were absent.

Anonymous wrote:Kudos to the teacher who actually planned to do their job on December 23. My kids, in high school, told me that all they did was watch movies and play on their phones all day. I'm glad they went to school because they would have just made me nuts all day in the house, but it's a shame that especially in high school the teachers couldn't have used the time for exam review since semester exams come up very quickly after they return to school.

My MS kid reported 1 class was just "play on the Chromebooks" but 3 used it as a review day or a day where they could work on a project due in early January. 2 sort of had a fun day that was related to their lessons (English just finished a unit on Advertisements - the class was assigned to create their own short ad for the novel they are reading this quarter. The class presented their ads; foreign language teacher had a small party using food terms and "like"/"don't like" expressions). PE had their annual basketball game of teachers vs. kids.

I give the school a B+ on the day as a whole. DC could have missed the day and her academic career would not have suffered, but it was a nice day to be at school. DC said there was pretty high attendance, not 100% but > 80%. Our ES always had a poor attendance by the 23rd.

I think half days are more primed for the total blow-off days (only 25 minutes per class) even for the kids that are present. It's hard to do much in 25 minutes.

Kudos to the teacher who actually planned to do their job on December 23. My kids, in high school, told me that all they did was watch movies and play on their phones all day. I'm glad they went to school because they would have just made me nuts all day in the house, but it's a shame that especially in high school the teachers couldn't have used the time for exam review since semester exams come up very quickly after they return to school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh poop. Season of good will has come to a grinding halt.

When is there ever good will toward MCPS on DCUM?

Damn you, Starr!

Anonymous wrote:Oh poop. Season of good will has come to a grinding halt.

When is there ever good will toward MCPS on DCUM?

Did someone already mention that the 23rd is NOT a half day next year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private Catholic School parent here. We have this week and next week off. I hate it because I need the extra few days prior to XMAS to prepare (wrap Santa's gifts, etc). I would be fine with full day of school on 23rd.

A gentle suggestion: I stash the gifts in the store bag and then wrap them the next morning before I wake the little ones up.

Ha! The little ones wake me up...plus I am way to organized/anal to let something like that go until the last minute. Thanks for the suggestion anyway!