The Transparent Tech Teacher |
Our school district consists of two schools at two separate campuses, K-6 and 8-12. Because we are our own district, we get to set the calendar. Each year, the administration sends out two or three different versions of a calendar and the staff gets to vote. The winning calendar is presented to the board for review and after some revisions and compromise, the calendar for the following year is set.
We are on a modified calendar where we have a shorter summer and longer breaks during the year. This year, our last day of school was June 3rd and our first day will be August 14th. For breaks during the year we get three weeks at Christmas, two weeks at Thanksgiving, a two-week Spring Break and a one-week Fall Break. Although I'm in a love affair with summer, I've traditionally been a fan of our calendar even though it cuts my summer short. I just LOVE the long breaks during the year and they seem to come when the students and I need them most. What are your thoughts? Would you rather have a longer summer vacation or longer breaks during the school year?
8 Comments
Kaitlin Morgan
8/6/2017 09:01:56 pm
Our schedule sounds like a mix of yours (1 week for Thanksgiving, 2 for Christmas, 1 in February, 1 in Spring, then about 2 months for summer). I wish that our schedule was more evenly spaced out. October and April are torture for us without breaks. But I think I'm thinking of a year round schedule, not just a modified one. But the grass is always greener on the other side, I guess!
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Hey Kaitlin, there's a lot to be said for making the most of our situation, or enjoying the grass on our side, but sometimes it is kinda fun to think about the ideal situation! There are so many ways to spin the calendar. I'm not a fan of year round schedule personally. Modified is the calendar that suits me most. Hopefully you get your October or April break someday.
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8/6/2017 09:48:36 pm
I teach adults on a college schedule, so my longest break has always been the Christmas holiday anyways. However, I've always been skeptical that the long break was particularly good for knowledge retention. Perhaps spreading out the breaks would help to mitigate some of that.
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Garin, you must be on a 12 month contract? So, that's one of the big reasons administrators and stake holders cite for holding to the modified schedule at our school-knowledge retention. I don't know what the data points are to back that up, but it seems reasonable to me.
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Kelly Spiese
8/7/2017 12:23:30 pm
School schedules equal craziness in my household. I work on a semester schedule as a college librarian. We live in a border town and so my husband is a teacher in another state. For the past couple of years he began the school year roughly the same time as my kids and ended at the same time. One day holidays throughout the school year are completely different though. This past year the state he works for passed a law that school can't begin until after Labor Day and can't go passed a certain day in June. My kids on the other hand start school next week. It's always so complicated. I often heard year-round schooling being tossed around. I wonder what that would do to our crazy schedules.
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itxaso cayero
8/7/2017 06:42:01 pm
I personally love extending my summer that way I can go to Spain (home) and spend the most days in a row I can with my family. Going so far only four two weeks in the winter break would not be worth it for me! However it looks like your current modified schedule started and ended on the same days ours did and we don't have those long breaks in the middle of the year! Lucky!
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AuthorBecky teaches tech to 3rd-6th grade students at Compass Public Charter School. ArchivesBlogrollCategories
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