The Proper Length for Summer
On this longest day of the year, I am sitting thinking about school start and end dates. This was a big topic of discussion this last school year as the Iowa legislature attempted to balance the wants of many different stakeholders (or attempted to distract from the fact that they weren't funding schools...). I read many Facebook posts from parents, teachers, and media. I stayed out of the conversation. I know I will show up whenever school starts and stay until it ends, so in some ways, it doesn't make a lot of difference to me. But I do have a few thoughts on the matter.
First, the consensus from many seemed to be, "Start later. But still get out earlier." In other words, cram those 180 days of instruction (or 1080 instructional hours) in however you can so that we can be free of school for June, July, and August. But we still want time off to travel at Christmas. And a Spring Break. And it would be nice to have the day before Thanksgiving off because so many people go out of town. And a long weekend around Easter would be nice too.
While this all sounds nice in theory, in practice it is less than ideal. If we want to maximize learning, kids need to be in school. And they need to be there mentally and physically. Teachers do too. Teaching and learning is a draining business. It's a lot of fun, but it's hard work. Mental breaks are needed, for the teachers as well as the students. Families will take vacations and they will often do this around holidays. So if we press the school days so close to the holidays that a quarter of our kids are gone, that's not an ideal day of teaching and learning.
And teacher professional development. Over the last several years, we have moved to a model of more professional development during the school year and less at the beginning and end. Here at CCA, we have had Wednesday afternoons (2 hours) devoted to PD each week as well as one or two days during the year when teachers work and kids get the day off. I know this doesn't always make sense to parents who wonder why there is a random day off in November or January or what we do on Wednesdays. The answer is, we learn stuff! And then we can apply it to our classrooms right away. Learning a lot of great techniques at the end of the school year is not particularly effective as we don't have time to try them out. Learning at the beginning of the school year is better, but still not ideal as there are always 5 million little things that we are trying to get organized and ready for the start of the year. With all the instructional days crammed between September and May, there will certainly be less teacher learning time during the school year. Something's got to give!
I will be interested to see how this next year goes. To me, psychologically, it makes sense to aim to get out at the end of May and start around the third week of August. In the spring when the weather starts to warm up, students (and teachers - let's be honest!) start to think of getting outside and being free to enjoy summer. By mid-August, we are all sunburnt and I start to see posts from kids and parents alike about being ready for school to start. The kids are ready to see their friends. Some are even... gasp ... bored. At this point I'm feeling excited about a wide open August, but we'll see how I feel when it actually gets here! In the meantime, I'll enjoy this longest day of the year.
First, the consensus from many seemed to be, "Start later. But still get out earlier." In other words, cram those 180 days of instruction (or 1080 instructional hours) in however you can so that we can be free of school for June, July, and August. But we still want time off to travel at Christmas. And a Spring Break. And it would be nice to have the day before Thanksgiving off because so many people go out of town. And a long weekend around Easter would be nice too.
While this all sounds nice in theory, in practice it is less than ideal. If we want to maximize learning, kids need to be in school. And they need to be there mentally and physically. Teachers do too. Teaching and learning is a draining business. It's a lot of fun, but it's hard work. Mental breaks are needed, for the teachers as well as the students. Families will take vacations and they will often do this around holidays. So if we press the school days so close to the holidays that a quarter of our kids are gone, that's not an ideal day of teaching and learning.
And teacher professional development. Over the last several years, we have moved to a model of more professional development during the school year and less at the beginning and end. Here at CCA, we have had Wednesday afternoons (2 hours) devoted to PD each week as well as one or two days during the year when teachers work and kids get the day off. I know this doesn't always make sense to parents who wonder why there is a random day off in November or January or what we do on Wednesdays. The answer is, we learn stuff! And then we can apply it to our classrooms right away. Learning a lot of great techniques at the end of the school year is not particularly effective as we don't have time to try them out. Learning at the beginning of the school year is better, but still not ideal as there are always 5 million little things that we are trying to get organized and ready for the start of the year. With all the instructional days crammed between September and May, there will certainly be less teacher learning time during the school year. Something's got to give!
I will be interested to see how this next year goes. To me, psychologically, it makes sense to aim to get out at the end of May and start around the third week of August. In the spring when the weather starts to warm up, students (and teachers - let's be honest!) start to think of getting outside and being free to enjoy summer. By mid-August, we are all sunburnt and I start to see posts from kids and parents alike about being ready for school to start. The kids are ready to see their friends. Some are even... gasp ... bored. At this point I'm feeling excited about a wide open August, but we'll see how I feel when it actually gets here! In the meantime, I'll enjoy this longest day of the year.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog! I am very torn on the start dates for school. As a teacher, I would love to see starting earlier and having the semester end at Christmas break time. This is something probably only high school teachers really care about.
As a parent (and having a pool at my house!) I would rather start later in August because it is hot out still and we get more out of the pool then than in end of May/beginning of June when its cooler out and the water temp is chilly. I know, I know, sob story :)