Dump Mid-Winter Break
I totally don't get Mid-Winter Break. To me, it seems not only unnecessary but an interuption. Kids just started the new semester and they will soon have Spring Break when - BAM - they get a week off in the middle of February for no clear reason.
Apparently Nicole Brodeur thinks so too.
Apparently Nicole Brodeur thinks so too.
Comments
Not sure why spring break doesn't provide the same opportunity -- perhaps its linkage with Easter? making it another extended family/religious period?
Get out a week earlier in June please.
If you look at the school calendar between January and April, there are very few full weeks of schooling between one-day holidays, early release and Spring/Winter breaks plus the disruption that is the WASL.
We need to get out of school earlier.
childcare needs. There are definately class issues here that would affect perceptions about the usefullness of mid winter break.
November is already a half-month, between holiday and half-days for conferences. Half of December is lost, then just when they get back in their groove, February comes with another week off.
When our kids were younger it was always stressful to find childcare to supplement before and after school care. The cherry on top is WASL testing, which starts immediately after spring vacation. Who planned that one?
I would happily trade mid-winter break for getting out earlier in June, though. Of course I'm not a skier...
As long as we're talking about the calendar, doesn't UW have the largest group of employees on a single schedule in Seattle? Maybe Seattle Public Schools and UW could have their spring breaks at the same time.
After the long summer break- it takes several months for teachers to assess student readiness and get them going, then there is November teacher conferences, and winter break in December.
Mid-Winter break following shortened weeks in Jan and Feb, just adds insult to injury and totally disrupts the forward momentum for many students which is tenuous at best.
( Not to make light of the very real issue of child care- which is a struggle for many families who cannot take time off every time there is a half day or a week long break)
Then, come April, we have nearly 3 solid months without any variety. We get out in late June, weeks later than children in the rest of the country. Are our kids still really focused on school at that point? Wouldn't the end of the school year be the best time for some shake-ups in the routine rather than right after Christmas break?
Intuitively, it seems that school should start out slowly in the fall, build to a crescendo over winter with minimal disruptions in the routine to maximize learning, and end with some fun and variety in the schedule in the spring to celebrate a job well done and prevent fatigue.
"I find mid-winter break to be an interruption in the flow. I'd much rather we didn't have one and got out of school a week earlier in the summer. I am in the minority because, when it comes time to vote for the next year's schedule, teachers and administrators vote in the mid-winter break."
It wasn't that long ago when we did have a number of school days that were canceled due to snow- the district decided to extend the school year into the summer instead of shortening mid winter break.
PS You forgot constant nagging from parents - maybe I should lighten up on that. :-]
Blogs aren't a form of journalism that solicits opinions from those who choose not to post and there don't appear to be any educatos posting who vote in favor of mid-winter break, so we can't understand why they vote the way they do. (And I don't think speculation as to motives is particularly helpful.) In any event, I'm willing to trust that there are good reasons that our educators routinely vote in favor of the midwinter break. They're not well-paid, so Brodeur's theory that it's a breakdown between skiers and non-skiers is unlikely to hold explain it, at least in full.
Personally, as a parent, I like it, but I can certainly understand why it's a hardship to others. I grew up back east where the culture supported a completely different set of vacation days. We had all sorts of Christian and Jewish holidays, plus a couple of days for teacher's convention. Once you know the drill, you make it work. It may not be ideal, but it is what it is. Any system has issues for some. It's school, not daycare. Ideally, society would provide both. But we don't seem to be willing to do that in this country.
The new film Race To Nowhere is all about you and your friends, and the full-time hyper-competitiveness our selfish, hypocritical, materialistic culture dumps on you.
With few exceptions, any grown up who tells you they had it tougher than you is lying through their teeth.
As a parent, I could live without the extra week off, but if you need it, and it helps you get along, I'll support it.
Awesome to hear from you!
SO it should be educational anyway, right?
But with early dismissals, late arrivals, assemblies up the yin/yang, holidays for this, and some teachers making use of as many vacation/personal days to stretch their weekends , not to mention subs so educators can go visit schools across the state and the country, and it can seem more like just getting a warm body to supervise the kids.
Daycare was more focused, at least they didn't seem to have curriculum dictated to them and they knew the value of play.
:)
I'm sorry that Joshua feels his teachers nag, I am of the logical consequences school myself, but then I don't have a classroom to keep together.
From 12yrs old onward, my kids were extremely busy with school and their extra curriculars like sports and community service, but they did those things with their friends- and it wasn't punitive, it was their choice.
Just like PTA's paying for curriculum and instruction takes the heat off of the district/state stepping up to their responsibility, so does taking yet another break " to escape from the horror". take the heat off of SPS to allow the youth to take more control and have more input into their own learning.
- 3 weeks after school started - 2 hour early dismissal on 9/30/09
- 7 days later - no school for professional development on 10/9/09
- 2.5 weeks later - 2 hour early dismissal on 10/28/-0
- 1.5 weeks later - no school - Veterans Day
- 1.5 weeks later - 1 hour early dismissal for Thanksgiving and 2 days off. The early dismissal is unnecessary and difficult for parents.
- 3 weeks later - 2 weeks off for Christmas
- 2 weeks later - no school - MLK Day.
- 2 weeks later - no school on 1/29/10 - day between semesters. This is unnecessary!
- 2 weeks later - full week off for mid-winter break.
- 2 days later - 2 hour early dismissal on 3/3/10
- 1.5 weeks later - no school 3/19/10 - professional development
- 1 week later - week off for Spring Break
- 6.5 weeks later - 2 hour early dismissal on 5/19 - professional development
- 1.5 weeks later - no school - Memorial Day
- 3.5 weeks later - last day of school.
Many school districts have done away with the mid-winter break because all the breaks are unnecessary and too disruptive to the students' progression in learning.
Likewise, for many other resume-building programs and activities.
It's a disgrace! Delete Mid-winter break, or (blasphemy! Early Dismissals, WASL, etc), and let these older students, at least, have an even playing field - literally!! One more way Seattle School bureaucracy proves how provincial they are and strive to remain.
So mid winter is now the week we lost in December.