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Extra school days bring extra challenge

Friday, June 12, 2009

(Updated 3:52 pm)

By Jason Hardin
Staff Writer

Field days. Inflatable bouncing mats. Awards ceremonies. Firetrucks. Motorcycle sidecar rides. And, yes, some teaching, too.

With three extra makeup days stuck at the end of an already late-ending school year — and with testing winding down and grades already turned in — area schools are scrounging for ways to keep kids busy and focused in the middle of June.

For teachers and administrators, it’s a challenge.

“Everybody’s tired, but we’re making the best of it,” said Jill Walsh, the principal at Summerfield Elementary. “We’re just doing the best we can to keep the kids busy.”

At Archer Elementary School in Greensboro on Thursday, fifth graders solemnly walked — as solemnly as fifth-graders can manage — in a line across the auditorium, in a quick practice for Monday’s graduation ceremony.

Across the hall, second-graders received academic awards, while grinning parents wielded digital cameras.

Today, they’ll have a reading celebration. Students will get to jump on a “Moonbounce” mat, and in return for having read a cumulative 35,000 books, they’ll get to splash principal Patrice Brown in a dunking booth.

Originally, the year had been scheduled to end Wednesday. But three snow days during the winter meant three extra days for students in June, with the last day falling awkwardly on Monday.

School officials expect attendance to sink that day.

“I’ve had a lot of parents tell me they already planned to go to the beach,” Walsh said.

For teachers, the last few days always involve the challenge of keeping students focused.

Generally, schools employ a mix of special end-of-year activities such as field days and festivals with regular classroom work.

At Summerfield, firefighters brought a truck over to the school and sprayed a mist on the hot students during outdoor activities.

“They loved that,” Walsh said.

Some schools get creative with the extra time.

At Summerfield, teachers came up with “wish lists” of things they’d like to see teachers in the grade below them work on. For instance, the fifth-grade teachers mentioned states and capitals, so this year’s fourth-graders have been working on that.

“You want it to be fun, but you’ve got to have some structure in here, too,” Walsh said.

According to the central office, the extra days are the same as any other.

“These are going to be regular school days, especially for the elementary and middle school students, and the same expectations of learning and instruction happening would apply this day as it does any other day,” said Haley Miller, a school spokeswoman.

The educational value of the extra days has been debated, though.

School board Chairman Alan Duncan has said holding the days after exams and tests was not helpful. He and others have said educational goals would be better served by holding the makeup days earlier.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Jerry Wolford (News & Record)

Photo Caption: Archer Elementary School second-grader Marvin Hernandez, 8, shows the three certificates he received Thursday during awards day.

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formerupper

June 12, 2009 - 7:48 am EDT

I agree with Mr. Duncan that having the days made up at the end of the year did nothing to help meet educational goals. My daughter is in the 8th grade and ever since EOG's ended the only classes she did any work in were Algebra 1 ( and that was only until the EOC was taken) and social studies. All of her other classes they have watched movies and talked with their friends. What a waste of our tax dollars and to top it off the teachers complain about their pay. They haven't taught my daughter anything for the past two weeks.

EGParent

June 12, 2009 - 8:45 am EDT

This just proves that Central Office has No idea what goes on in the classroom.....

After AP exams........................nothing......3 weeks ago...books taken up immediately after exam
After EOC/EOG exams.............nothing......2 weeks ago
After Finals classroom exams....nothing.....1 this week

There is plenty to teach after the testing is complete and I hold the Principals accountable for not holding their teachers accountable to teach.....

They complain about having to teach to the test...well now take advantage of the time you have to teach what is not on the test......the kids are bored to death with your laziness......

If I was the Superintendent I would circulate among the schools and put a pink slip warning on the desk of
every lazy teacher that has a disney movie rolling this morning......if you worked in the corporate world and did
nothing for three weeks..you would be fired....

Kids are tired of doing NOTHING....now learning could be fun if you had an ounce of creativity....

TAURUS88

June 12, 2009 - 9:24 am EDT

I totally agree with the previous 2 posters. 3 major mistakes that have caused the decline of guilford county schools:
1 EOG have forced schools to use the entire year to teach kids to pass 1 test
2 since corporal punishment is no longer used, there is no real recourse for bad behavior, hence no true discipline in schools
3 merger of GSO City schools, HP city schools, and Guilford County Schools. check the statistics and you will see a major decline in all 3 systems as far as attendenance, discipline and graduation rates

Bilbo

June 12, 2009 - 11:29 am EDT

You obviously know nothing of the reality of being in a classroom. You decry us of lacking creativity and motivation and then back these rule changes (more testing -accountability, less discipline-no home life structure)that have made education a most difficult profession. I CHALLENGE you to come and work in one of our classrooms next year....you wouldn't last a week.

EGParent

June 12, 2009 - 3:38 pm EDT

Bibo,
I know quite a bit about the challenges that the classroom teacher faces...and yes I support accountability testing because I have seen it work...If teachers could be depended on to teach the material that they are suppose to teach,
we could do away with it...yet it is the few that we must monitor that has increased the testing that is done.
I dare say without accountablility testing we would have teachers using electronics to babysit their kids year round like they are doing the last three weeks of class. We worry about kids losing what they have learned over the summer but no one ever includes the last three weeks of school in which they do absolutely nothing.....
I have lasted quite a bit longer in a classroom than a week....and I know if the students are challenged and engaged I have control. The minute I walk in without a plan they are climbing out of the windows.....
It is all about expectations and preparations...and it takes quite a bit of energy!
I strongly support good challenging, engaged teachers...

notagain

June 12, 2009 - 11:05 am EDT

And while the children who didn't pass the EOG's are retesting - what are the children doing that did. They are bing forced to sit in a room and do nothing really while waiting on a group of children to retake. I hope Guilford County learns from this SNOW day make up mess. I know my children wont be in school on Monday.

erikhuey

June 12, 2009 - 11:17 am EDT

see http://guilfordschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/bored-at-school.html

Hmmm...

June 12, 2009 - 12:10 pm EDT

Sounds like something Moe Green should be looking at very seriously!!!

batshalom

June 12, 2009 - 1:06 pm EDT

It is important to note that this is a *system* challenge and not something to blame on teachers. The system could be better - the teachers have to work within something that either damns them if they do or damns them if they don't. If there were not a system in place to allow time for students to retake the EOG, parents of those students would be furious. What is there for teachers to do with the students who did pass? Teach more? If they taught more, there would be parents would be furious for not giving their children time to wind down the school year and students who would see no point in learning more. I see nothing wrong with teachers doing things to make the children's school time fun. I am not crazy about EOG's but at the moment it's what the system requires. Perhaps this will change. If it does not, I am quite certain the Earth won't spin off its axis because of it.

EGParent

June 12, 2009 - 1:40 pm EDT

Please!!!

The only "system" challenge that we have here are teachers that are too lazy to do what they are still being paid to do the last three weeks... I give them the last day or two to wind down reward and have fun...but the last three weeks is absolutely ridiculous!!

This is a classroom challenge and the teachers and principals that are allowing it need a reality check....

My son turned in his textbooks "three weeks ago"...and is sick of watching movies...

I'll say it again....the teachers would not face the discipline problems they face at the end of the year if they
would use some creativity in their teaching....
and by creativity...

I don't mean copying worksheets to do and handing them out every day to be worked on..I mean teaching...

in the schools

June 12, 2009 - 3:29 pm EDT

I'd like to see some statistics on discipline at the end of the year. I think it is probably down. The difference is that administrators aren't pressured to not suspend kids so they can prepare for their testing, so they may be a bit quicker to drop the hammer. I would venture to say the amount of incidents themselves are less or at worst equal.

parentof2

June 12, 2009 - 9:19 pm EDT

Reading the comments of people who are seeing only a small aspect of the education system is disheartening. By making broad generalizations about all teachers, you are putting down an entire profession and being disrespectful to teachers who actually do their job. Some schools may have had their EOCs/EOGs and final exams a couple of weeks ago, but there are some schools who just finished almost an entire week of these tests. Until the middle of last week, I was TEACHING my students new material that they needed to know before they left my classroom. There were many other teachers who were doing the same thing with the same goal in mind...preparing your children to be successful in their future classes as well as in life. No...I did not stop teaching when last Thursday rolled around. On the contrary, I was busy reteaching students material they struggled with during the course of the class and reviewing material that they needed to know for the final exam.

Any good teacher doesn't tell his/her students, "You have a final or a test in a few days. I guess you better study." These teachers prepare the students for the test and give them the tools to be successful. We teach the students to become independent thinkers and learners, so they will be successful in a corporate job or whatever they decide to do when they leave our classrooms. So, when I hear comments from people who are not in the classroom about "lazy" teachers, it tells me that that person has not been in the classroom and may be misinterpreting what is actually happening within the walls of the classroom. I know that I would welcome any parent or concerned member of the community to come into my classroom and observe what is occurring on a daily basis, and I know that many of my colleagues would welcome your visit as well. Once you come in and visit a classroom for more than a few minutes and see what we do, then you can make your comments about teachers being "lazy."

EGParent

June 14, 2009 - 3:59 pm EDT

I have been involved with Guilford County schools for 21 years. I have students in school now and out of
12 classes....they have done nothing the last three weeks in most of them.

You fall into the catagory of still having a final exam to give....and still teaching material for the final exam..

Like I said once the testing is over in the class...teaching is over!!