Late start Mondays

[bookworm]

In perusing my August calendar, I just discovered that when I am at girls camp in a few weeks, we will only be 3 weeks from school starting! ...So I went online and got the school year calendar to transfer to my ical on my computer, and as I was transferring information, I was reminded of the new "late start Monday" thing we're doing this year. I'm curious what you all think of it.

Personally, I don't know what to think! I know that for forgetful people (ahem... like me ) it might be a problem. However, my children will probably want to have a highlighted calendar on the fridge so they can remember what days they get that extra hour of sleep, so they will probably remember for me. I'm not sure what benefits it will provide. Do any of you know the reasons from the district for this?

[missypoohsticks]

IMHO, I think this is the dumbest thing that I have ever heard of. Apparently it is so that teachers can do some kind of training. So my question is, why don't they do it once a month on early day???

[bookworm]

Hmmm... I hadn't heard that. I assumed it was for prep time, which is what they do on Wednesdays.

I also wish they would change back to the traditional Friday early out day. That's what I think DUH about! I really don't get why we have that on Wednesday and the rest of the civilized world has it on Friday. Friday afternoons are often just a waste of classroom time, because NO ONE wants to be there on Friday afternoon!! But I digress...

[natickgirl]

For what it's worth, even schools in MA do dumb things like late start days. & early release days. Fortuntately for me, my kids' schools do NOT have late start days. They have occasional early release "teacher prep" days or during parent teacher conference week. Nothing regular, though, so it is a bit confusing. I've known moms who've forgotten early days. It's not a pretty sight when the parents both work & they've forgotten that school ends early.

The town next to ours has early release days on Wed. I think it's crazy. Maybe they think if they do 1/2 day on Fri. they'll have more people taking the whole day off to get an early start on the weekend.....

[Erudite]

Seems like I'd heard that was the reason for Tooele's move to early out Wednesday (that of people taking all of Friday off). I know I was guilty of skipping Fridays...but it was just my kindergartener then and I sometimes had a hard time seeing the point of sending him to school for 1.5 hours.

My kids go to a charter school here and we have half day Fridays, so the kids are out before lunch, but they go to school from 8-3 on the other days, so their normal school day is longer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the half day Fridays, since it means I don't have to fix lunch for the kids that morning and we could go off somewhere for the weekend after lunch if we wanted to. What we do with it is the kids have their piano lessons then, so that when they're done, they still have the afternoon to play with other kids. Plus, the school treats Fridays specially too, calling them "Wonder Days". They do all kinds of hands-on learning activities on that half day, so kids would hate to be missing Fridays...and they do. I know the teachers meet in teams that day and they have faculty meeting and trainings as well. It's all very productive stuff!

[5ft Diva]

Okay, getting back to the topic at hand, I have heard many good things from three teachers about LSM's and if it helps them out I'm all in favor of it because my children benefit from it. From my understanding this is a trial year which is why they're only having them once a month.

My only qualm about it is that I found out about LSM's by reading the paper and not from the school district. I think they could have done a better job educating the general public about this new program. I also don't think many teachers heard about it - it was just implemented. I do think that if the school board wants community support they should let us in on what they're doing. (Maybe they didn't want to hear the whining so decided it was easier to ask for forgiveness after the fact...can't say I blame them.)

[bookworm]

Diva, the school did send notes home about it- that's how I found out. Maybe some notes got lost along the way? I know I missed a few last year and I had 3 kids at that school!!

I agree that anything that makes our teachers better teachers benefits our kids. I just didn't understand the purpose of it- one hour per month doesn't seem like much to me. I have seen those classrooms, though, and many of those teachers can use all the prep/training time they can get! It's a job that requires a ton of work, organization and patience- and most teachers already give up a lot of personal "off-work" time for grading papers, getting organized, etc. so if they need an extra hour each month I guess it's good, it just seems strange to me.

[5ft Diva]

I don't believe it's for prep time. My understanding is that it is for training the teachers. I'm sure it'll end up being used for both....it'll be interesting to see how the teachers use the time given to them.

[missypoohsticks]

My gripe is that it is going to be a hardship for working parents, and I don't understand why they couldn't do the same thing AFTER school on an early day, since they have to be there until the normal release time anyway...

[Mamallama]

I'm just shaking my head on this one. Just wish there could be more consistancy. Getting out early every Wednesday drives me nuts, and now having to add taking kids late to school on some Mondays.....Sheesh for unorganized people like me, it gets to be confusing....
I stress out as it is all week worried I'm going to forget to pick up my ds on Wednesdays early..... oh well I'll survive.

Time will tell if it does any good.....hopefully it will be worth the trouble.....and hopefully I don't mix up my days too many times.......

Actually I wish that there would be an everyday later start time for Junior High and HS kids. They don't get enough sleep as it is.......

[Stargazer]

If you go to tooelesd.org and click on Late Start Program info it tells you why they are doing it. Hope this answers some of your questions.