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Old 03-09-2017, 10:03 AM
 
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Well, in CO the schools break for two weeks at Christmas instead of one, or at least some districts do. They did so in the Denver area. It benefitted the ski resorts.

I don't know if all schools in all states have to provide the same number of teaching hours per year. Good question there. Private might differ from public, but my OP concerns public schools only.
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Old 03-09-2017, 10:16 AM
 
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I went to school in the 70s and early 80s. We moved a lot. We had occasional half days in every school district we lived in. So this is definitely not a new thing.
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Old 03-09-2017, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Back in the Mitten. Formerly NC
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The school district I attended has had 'late start' on Wednesdays since at least the early 1990s. They start 2 hours late on Wednesdays.
Buses are the reason behind this. Middle school and high school shares a bus route. They drop off high school first and pick them up last, allowing a longer school day. It adds up to about 30 minutes a day. So, to get rid of the time difference, high school has late start once a week. This time is also open for tutoring, making up tests, clubs, etc...
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Old 03-09-2017, 11:50 AM
 
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Where we moved from wednesday was early release every week. I found this absurd. All working parents did was pay for weekly at school "aftercare," so the kids got home at the normal time. Then I found out that the high school kids get out at 1:30 everyday. That was all just crazy to me, I have no idea how they get the mandatory hours in, they also had an extra week of vacation in February every year. Then they don't get out until July but start labor day. It was very different than where I grew up.
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Old 03-09-2017, 03:47 PM
 
Location: Mid South Central TX
3,216 posts, read 8,534,160 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pikabike View Post
Students assaulting teachers is not a reason for giving them routine time off from teaching. It would be a reason to give an assaulted teacher time off, of course. If an entire population of students assaulted teachers, that would call for a different remedy than only giving some time off.

I don't think the early release of classroom time is necessarily a bad thing, but I do wonder if teachers are really "collaborating" during the time designated for such purposes, or if they are just running personal errands or taking off for a three-day weekend, such as could happen with a full Friday off every other week. Yes, this routine Friday off does exist.

Teachers do face more difficulties in their jobs than they did when I was growing up. Weapon-related violence, bad parenting (e.g., kids not encouraged to finish their homework), and the ever-present intrusions and distractions from devices such as smart phones were not as common back then.

But those problems don't get fixed by simply allowing time off. So I guess my second question is, where early release is standard, is there any teacher accountability for that time? It is, after all, supposed to ultimately benefit the students' education, and taxpayers want to know if those benefits actually exist, for the students.
The early STUDENT release days are not early TEACHER release days. SO, no, we are not running errands. Each district will have differing rules, but I know when we have early release days (other than parent-teacher conference days), we usually have scheduled items, such as meetings and/or training. If it is not directly scheduled, it is intended for planning and collaborative purposes.

Trust me, we use that time and much more.

Growing up, we had early release every Thursday.
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Old 03-09-2017, 04:01 PM
 
Location: Suburbia
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When my district had early release Mondays it was definitely not a time to get errands done. We were often in meetings or trainings. When we didn't have those we used the time for our own planning purposes.
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Old 03-09-2017, 05:16 PM
 
Location: Inland FL
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Supposedly has something to do with reductions in education spending. Also staff have to go to meetings and teachers need time to plan. They have so much planning and work to do. They are under a lot of pressure these days.
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Old 03-09-2017, 07:22 PM
 
Location: Sun City West, Arizona
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pikabike View Post
Yeah, my husband and I call it Teacher Screwoff Day.
In reality, at least from my experience, it started when parents kept demanding more and more parent conferences, and would expect teachers to hold those conferences outside of regular teacher hours so as not to inconvenience the parents. And as required paperwork increased due to state and federal regulations which were demanded by taxpayers to prove schools were doing a certain level of performance. Or teachers would be expected to go to inservice programs outside their regular hours, not get paid for the required program. So I guess I'd call it Parents stop screwing teachers day and take care of your own darned kid.

Last edited by phetaroi; 03-09-2017 at 08:28 PM..
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Old 03-09-2017, 07:57 PM
 
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I taught in Hawai'i and kids got out early every Wednesday (one hour early). This was time devoted to staff meetings and professional development. I often left later on Wednesdays because of meetings running over than I did on other days. We moved up to the Northwest, and they also have early release on Wednesdays for staff development (I'm no longer in the classroom, so I don't know what it looks like- I assume the same). So for the last 14 years, it's been the norm in the two places I've lived. It's not the norm in my hometown, though. They still go full day, 5 days a week.
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Old 03-09-2017, 08:01 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
19,480 posts, read 25,034,467 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SalamanderSmile View Post
Where we moved from wednesday was early release every week. I found this absurd. All working parents did was pay for weekly at school "aftercare," so the kids got home at the normal time. (snip)
The districts in my area all have some type of early release days, usually twice a month. However, the schools provide free child care to any elementary age child where the parents request it until the end of the regular school day. Usually, it is a combination of recreational activities, homework help time, or computer time. But, very few parents actually use the free child care service as the buses would take the children home, or to their usual day care centers, early on early release days and if the children stayed the parents had to come to school to pick them up. My local school had about 350 students and only about 20 to 30 students would stay for the free childcare each time.

Back when I was a student teacher, from 1974-75 my district had early release days (and had already had them for several years) but I do not know if it was common or not in other areas.
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