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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

School Hours

Through a conversation about length of school day with someone about education in another state, I began reflecting on the school where I teach.  Kids at my school attend from 8-2:15 (6.25 hours). During that time kids have a 45 minute lunch/recess, 15 minute class recess and a 30 minute special (library, computer or PE). That's an hour and a half of 'other stuff' That leaves me with about 4.5 hours a day to teach...meaning that for almost 20 hours a day the students are not getting instruction unless they have fabulous parents who provide enrichment activities. WOW! No wonder it never feels like I have enough time to get through all the standards let along any enrichment or extension activities...YIKES!

Thoughts from other educators, parents, students, etc....??? I'd love to hear your perspective!

9 comments:

  1. Wow, that's it? While physical activity (i.e. PE and recess) are important, so is the learning part. Parents these days really don't take part in their kids education like they did back when we were in school. I believe kids should be in school and actively learning longer than 4-1/2 hours a day.

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    1. Teri, I agree with you completely! This is crazy! I almost wonder about year round school; less loss between breaks, more frequent breaks and more time to teach!

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  2. I think the class sizes are way too high. Considering the headcount, I'm amazed at what you and your colleauges are capable of doing with that 4.5 hours. Yet I'm saddened by the amount of time that my kid has to wait for her peers to 'get with the program' on behavioral issues...time that would be better spent on academic acheivement. I am grateful for the specials, particularly music for its influence on brain development. Thanks for sparking the conversation!

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    1. Thank you, Shari! I agree, I couldn't imagine no music or PE for that matter. Being an athlete and musician all the way through college, I know how important these are. I wish that our school day was longer, even 8-3 would give me another 45 minutes of instruction per day; that's huge!

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  3. You know, actually, my parents didn't do anything with my education outside of school. We did our learning in class and rarely had homework. I think the trick is, in your situation, is that you have to be super organized and get the kids on a super tight routine where there isn't any lag time between activities. (and you probably do this already!) Small group stations where the kids rotate between activities while you are instructing another small group helps cut down on wait-time between activities. Really do a study in your classroom over a week or two and analyze the amount of time that you spend on actual instruction and transition between activities and see where you can become more efficient. If you have a really good administrator who is dedicated to helping teachers provide better instruction, he or she can help with your analysis during classroom observations. It may be the case that you spend this year gathering data so that next school year, you can change your routine from the get-go. Re-read Harry Wong's book. Good luck!

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    1. I am actually fair effecient with my instruction and rotations, although, we can always do better. I do a lot of small group instruction and we do ability for reading which helps have more directed instruction; it's just impossible to teach science, social studies, art, math, reading, writing, grammar and spelling to any quality in 20 minute blocks of time. I read Harry Wong every year, love him as well as Ron Clark! This post is more inspired by the fact that our school district is looking at cutting even more days out of the school year and I am thinking we need the opposite, more days/more time. I don't even want more money, just time to do my job and get these kids ready for life! I was just shocked when it dawned on me that 4 hours out of a kids is spent in school learning academics; CRAZY!

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  4. I went to school from 7:30 until 3:30 from first through 8th grade. Granted there was a half hour each morning for mass (Catholic school required). We had two 15 minuted recess and a 45 min lunch/play time. No PE per-say, Music 3 time a week for an hour, plus choir 2 x per week (again Catholic school thing. Our days where varied though with math M/W/F writing T/TH Geography T/TH and so on in order that we could spend a good 45 minutes to an hour on each subject. Maybe rather than try to teach everything every day break it down in order that all subject are taught during the week but a good amount of time is spent in each area.

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    1. They get math, reading and writing every day...but then we do T/H Science or Social Studies and W/F is Number Corner/calendar/math games. But still...4 hours a day for classroom instruction and learning out of 24, just doesn't seem like a enough to me.

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  5. I always thought year round school would be beneficial..Kids seem to lose so much during the summer breaks.

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