From Harford Students Count on Us:
The recently approved HCPS 2106-17 calendar includes a week-long Thanksgiving Break.
Please provide your comments on the HCPS Calendar. Is the extended Thanksgiving Break beneficial to our students, our teachers and our community as a whole? Many of our teachers, parents and students believe it is not.
Please email the Harford County Board of Education asking them to reconsider the 2016-17 Calendar.
Joseph.Hau@hcps.org
Thomas.Fitzpatrick@hcps.org
Robert.Frisch@hcps.org
Barbara.Canavan@hcps.org
Nancy.Reynolds@hcps.org
Joseph.Voskuhl@hcps.org
Laura.Runyeon@hcps.org
Alfred.Williamson@hcps.org
Jansen.Robinson@hcps.org
Rachel.Gauthier@hcps.org
Genae.Hatcher@hcps.org.
It is beneficial. Children need a break to just be kids instead of running on the activity treadmill. What’s wrong with slowing things down a bit? I am all for the weeklong break. They aren’t doing anything in the days leading up to Thanksgiving anyway, so they may as well stay home.
The proposed calendar includes the same Thanksgiving week that the school system had this school year. If you look carefully, Monday through Wednesday are designated as teacher development days, which if not held during this week, would instead break up another week in the schedule. This appears to be an more efficient use of time, though I am not an HCPS teacher and cannot speak to whether this works effectively for teacher development.
It doesn’t…trust me.
The extra time off is great for people who have to travel to see family. In the past the kids last day was the day before Thanksgiving and traffic is horrible! It could take up to and extra hour or more to reach your destination because of overcrowding on the highways and turnpikes (not including accidents). And I am sure many people took their kids out of school early to avoid this. This year was great because we were able to leave earlier and avoided that mess. Actually, we came from a school district in another state that started earlier in August and ended at the end of May (which many districts in other states are changing to). I would rather see that type of schedule here. I hate that the kids lose most of June if they have snow days. That is usually when the weather is nice and not so hot.
Our family really likes the week long break at Thanksgiving. We much prefer it to more 3 or 4 day weeks (which is disruptive to our weekly routines). I wish the author of this article would have presented some sort of argument in favor of their position. Many of our teachers, parents and students believe it is not beneficial? Ok. Well let’s hear it then. Why do you/they feel that way? To where do you propose those professional development days be moved on the schedule?
“To where do you propose those professional development days be moved on the schedule? ”
Do like most counties do…don’t have so many.
More idiots on mountain road who have absolutely no idea which lane has the right of way and what lane has to yield the right of way.
For the morons:
If you are diving West on RT152 in the morning and you are in the left lane and cross bel air road YOUR LANE DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY and you must yield into the right lane of traffic. This is known as an alternate merge.
If you are driving East on RT152 in the evenings and you are in the right lane driving from I95 towards the Royal Farms YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY and you must yield into the left lane. It does not mean that you have the right to drive the right lane until there is no more roadway and force the cars in the left lane to allow your dumbass to merge.
Additionally, If you are driving East on RT152 in the evenings and you are in the left land past Harford Rd the left lane DOES NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY and you must yield to the traffic in the right lane. This is called an alternate merge as well and it does not mean that you drive all the way up the left side of the roadway and use the middle turn lane as an extension of the left lane to force traffic in the right lane to let your dumbass over.
You keep using the word “ALTERNATE”. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Let’s ask Webster’s…
ALTERNATE:
1. occurring or succeeding by turns
2. arranged first on one side and then on the other at different levels or points along an axial line
3. every other : every second
Alternate merging is taking turns. The right lane does not have right of way. Every other car gets to merge, like a zipper. So you have to take a break from self-righteousness and share the road. Sorry.
You must be one of the testa di cazzos I refuse to let in daily.
https://partners.skanska.com/usa/clients/MMTA/TPL/Outreach/RM/Final%20RFP/Contract%20Documents/Book%205%20-%20Engineering%20Data/11%20Traffic/MDSHA/MDSHA%20Alternate%20Merge%20Guidelines.pdf
Take it up with SHA.
What does your comment have to do with teachers, asshole?
Beside being not relevant to the story… Isn’t 152 North/South and only one place of the four is an alternate merge, it didn’t use to be, the other three one lane clearly has the right of way!
I like our Governor’s idea of having teacher meetings and workshops before school starts or after the school year ends.
As a teacher and a parent, I feel that the extended Thanksgiving break and all of the days off in the beginning of the year are a disruption of the school week. Once we get past President’s Day in February, it is a long way until another day off. The students have a hard time getting into any type of routine with all of the days off of school in the fall. Teachers are not permitted to take their families on vacations during the week of Thanksgiving either. Professional development could be built into early dismissal days for students as well as at the beginning and end of the year.
The week-long Thanksgiving break sounds great in theory, but after experiencing it (as an HCPS teacher) for the past 2 years, I can tell you it is not.
1. There are no professional development days for teachers at the end of 1st quarter. This is a huge problem. Professional development days at the quarter change provide crucial time for teachers to finish grades and touch base with parents/admin/counselors. I like to “start fresh” each quarter and re-establish rules and routines. I personally benefit from having time to re-invent my approach so I’m ready to bring it to the kids. PLEASE MOVE ONE OF THE THANKSGIVING BREAK PD DAYS TO THE END OF 1st QUARTER!
2. Students are about to have a week-long break before Christmas. A few days off for Thanksgiving is enough. A whole week separated by another whole week, plus the potential of snow days (maybe not this year…) is too much of a disruption. I would be in favor of students having the day off on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Teachers could have a 1/2 PD day on that Wednesday. I’m sure some would be up in arms, but that’s the way it’s always been.
3. My students definitely do work on the days before Thanksgiving and Christmas. These are days that I use to revisit and reinforce important skills, to help students who have fallen behind to catch up. For the more advanced students, I have assigned meaningful projects that synthesize what we have learned. A week-long Thanksgiving break is a disaster for students involved in the performing arts who have performances coming up in late November/early December.
4. HCPS crams PD meetings, activities, and workshops into these PD days. I feel absolutely overloaded. I think PD is important, but I don’t see the need to attend 6 different workshops over the course of 2 days. It is too much.
Proposal:
Move 1 PD day to the end of 1st quarter
Move 1 PD day to the end of 2nd quarter
Give the students off and give teachers 1/2 PD day the Wednesday before Thanksgiving
I personally love having the PD days just before Thanksgiving. But I definitely can see where you would benefit from it being as you described.
Public schools are closed on a day dedicated to thanking God for the blessings he has given us. And yet, that same God is no longer welcome in public schools. The stench of liberal atheistic hypocrisy is overwhelming. Keep the schools open on Thanksgiving so that the atheists can be educated. Believers can be given a waiver for the week.
Just because someone is an atheist does not mean that can’t feel or express gratitude for the good things they have in life. And your opinion on the beliefs of others are only that. They have no bearing on the life experience of those you criticize.
Which God are we thanking? Allah, Visnu, Jehovah, etc?
It is not that God is not wanted but rather forced organized religion. No kid should be forced to have to worship in a way inconsistent with their beliefs.
Let’s get rid of all school closed days, including Holidays and give kids the option to take 10 or so personal/excused absence days, throw in employee development days as needed. No more butt hurt cry babying.
I guess butt sniffers would wonder what happens to unused days? Poof, gone. You take fact that your kid didn’t have to make up a test (on their own time) and other classwork.
You take your personal vaca’ any day you want, but its the kids responsible to make up the work. Fair, equal, respect, and if you don’t, you fail, but you graduate anyway so smells like what?
I would like to know:
1.) Who comprises the membership of this “Harford students count on us” group
2.) The definition of “many” as referred to second paragraph
Harford Students Count on Us = Ryan Burbey
As an HCPS teacher, I feel the thanksgiving PD days are an absolute waste of time. It would be a much better use of time to simply allow the students to attend school for 2.5 days that week and get of school 3 days earlier. Or perhaps, even have a full spring break, since we almost always lose spring break to snow later in the year. The fundamental problem with the thanksgiving PD days is that only supervisors at the top of the totem poll think it is worth their time because they use this PD time to to justify their positions and high salaries by planning the useless sessions.In reality, teachers are groaning about the wasted time and would rather just be teaching students.
The argument that students need a long break in November is absurd. They do get a very nice long weekend for thanksgiving, and Christmas break is not far off after that. If a family needs to leave early and take their child out of school to travel, that is fine, but the entire county schedule should not be accomodating the minority of students who need to travel. the function of the school system is to educate, not provide travel arraingements.
Quite simply, the PD days during thanksgiving are a poor use of school resources and teachers time. It would be better to have students attend school the week of Thanksgiving, and be let out of school earlier at the end of the year when it is REALLY difficult to keep the students focused on learning. They need a break when it is 90 degrees outside and sunny, not at thanksgiving when the freezing temps set in.
Before I abruptly quit my public school teaching job, yes, job – not career. I didn’t show up for the personal development days, I was going to leave the week after, regardless, without telling anyone.
I told the person who contacted me I wasn’t interested in coming in. They told me HR was going to get in touch with me, I laughed.
Someone else called me a day later but I never answered, I also never step foot back in my job and probably can’t get a job in teaching again. Don’t know, I threw all the paperwork they sent me away besides my W2.
Not that I suggest quitting like that, but I had another job lined up and its turned into a great career without repercussions from leaving the way I did.
“good riddance” “we don’t need the likes of you”
I agree. The liberal social justice “I’m offended by everything” daily routine in the bubble is not for me. I removed myself, very quickly without notice.
I’m sure a temp sub finished off my year. I did my job until the day I decided I didn’t feel like it anymore, and never returned.
Worked for me, I feel good.