Extending the School Day!!!???

[Elem Teacher]

Hello

I live in MA and there have been about 20 districts in MA that have requested grants to make the school day longer, by either two hours or a longer school year. They say it is because teachers don't have enough time to teach what they need with the MCAS Tests in all.

The school day would then be 8-5ish, don't you think that would burn the kids out? That is a long day. Also don't you think it would mess things up with kids being invovled in sports and extra curricular activites?

I don't know if I really agree with extending the school day or year. How About you??

thanks, carol

 

[speeder1]

longer days or year

Could it be because most parents work from 9am to 5pm and they don't want to pay for babysitters. Educrats need to leave education alone. It was good enough for them but not good enough for their children.

I don't know about burning out the kids, but it sure would burn out teachers . I work with MR and ED kids and I am always ready for the bell to ring at 3 .

 

[rb]

We have an extended day

We added 15 minutes to the beginning of the day and 9 minutes to the end of the day this year. We did it as a budgetary solution, not a what's best for the kids. I thought it would be great to start school a week later, have a week off in February and get out before Memorial Day. I am having reservations, the kids are tired. State testing is right now and kids have had a week less prep time. I don't know the kids well and giving grades this first nine weeks is going to be a nightmare. I thought things would get better with the second nine weeks--but we have Halloween, parent teacher conferences, Thanksgiving and then we have exams before Christmas. I guess the bulk of heavy learning will take place in the second semester. Kids have to be in the room ready to learn at 7:15 and leave for home at 2:40 with a 25 minute lunch break.

 

[NJ Teacher]

Lengthening the school day

Our district seems to have the philosophy that "more is better". We have the longest calendar in our county, and as we are potentially moving into negotiations, it wouldn't surprise me if they either want to lengthen the day or add days to the calendar again.I think that the reason we don't appear to have time to teach everything is that more is continuously added and nothing is removed. If they were to extend the day that much, I would hope that those districts would have to pay their teachers appropriate salary increases to compensate for the additonal work time. I also agree that we have become the babysitters. This year, our district started late due to construction, and I was at a Board meeting where a parent was protesting because she was going to have to find child care because her child would not be in school.

 

[CO Teacher]

More time vs. Better use of time

I teach in Colorado and my kids are done learning after their full seven hour day of school. I wonder what exactly is being meant by extending the day. When I used to work in the corporate world, people were forced to stay at work until 5:00, but nothing productive happened between about 3 and 5. Our school has seen huge growth by altering programs and using data to better drive instruction. While I could see parents who need child care paying for after school tutoring, are they planning on turning teachers into easy day care or are they actually doing what's best for kids? Are they also planning on paying us the 80k a year that year round professionals get?

 

[Jazzbo]

not always the answer

I worked in a district where a school had its fourth year of corrective action. All positions were opened and only 3 out of 40 some teachers chose to re-apply (2 were hired.)
I applied to transfer there.
Our kids' day was the same 8:40-3:40, but the teacher day went until 4:40. It was really great. It's not always more contact time the kids need, but having that prep and meeting time was awesome. There was actually time to meet with colleagues and plan units. We did a lot of cross-grade meeting. We already had 50 minutes a day, but this made a huge difference.
I agree with PPs that kids will be very tired. I found this to be a great solution. (Of course, the extra pay was nice!)