WEEK 34 - The case for year-round schooling

When most people in the US think about year-round schooling, they think it's absolutely crazy. The United States traditionally has had school years that span from September to June, which originally was to accommodate for the children who had to work in the fields during the summertime.

However, now that we have moved away from being a farming country, summer break for students is usually equated with relaxing, having a summer job, or taking vacations. When I was a student, I would have hated the idea of year-round schooling. Now that I'm a teacher, I see that there are many great reasons for it.

First of all, when I say "year-round schooling" I don't mean that students are in the classroom 5 days a week for the whole calendar year. Most schools that go year-round actually have the same amount of days in the classroom, but it's spread out over the whole year. Rather than having 4 quarters back-to-back and then having 3 months of vacation, students would have 1 quarter (9 weeks), then 3 weeks off. Then they'd have another quarter, then another 3 weeks off, etc.

Disadvantages of this would be that it would affect students' and teachers' abilities to get summer jobs, and some students would be in school in the heat without air-conditioning.

However, as a teacher, I feel like the advantages would far outweigh the disadvantages. Studies have shown that the first couple of months of the school year ends up being a review of the last year because kids forget things over the 3-month long summer. With only 3 weeks off at a time, it would be less likely that students would forget things, and in the long run, kids would learn more.

Additionally, it would help teachers plan better. To actually create a unit to teach in class takes a long time, and is extremely difficult to do during the school year. Therefore, many teachers do unit-writing during the summer. The disadvantage of this is that teachers are creating material without knowing the students or the students' needs. Contrary to what most people think, teachers can't always just use the same lessons over and over and over. Lessons are often changed or discarded based on the needs and abilities of the students. One year I might have a classroom filled with students with IEPs who need special modifications, and the next year I could have a group of kids that are complete high-fliers. No 2 groups of kids are ever the same and therefore lessons always change. If we had the 3 weeks in between each quarter, I could take the time to create new lessons based on what would work well with my students. Since we don't have that time, oftentimes my lessons are just thrown together because I have so many other things going on, like meetings and grading.

Also, I truly believe that human beings weren't made to go full force for 9 months and then have nothing for 3 months. The way things are set up now, students and teachers are expected to turn the switch on in September, then shut it off in June, but it is a highly ineffective way of doing things. We do this on a smaller scale as well, making students go full force with academics every day and cutting out recess, phy ed, and unstructured play time. Kids (and humans in general) are more efficient when they take frequent mental breaks.

My hours for week 34:

Day	Date	Start	End	Total Hours
Sun	4/21/2013	8:00 PM	10:15 PM	2.25
M	4/22/2013	7:45 AM	4:45 PM	9
T	4/23/2013	7:45 AM	4:15 PM	8.5
W	4/24/2013	7:45 AM	5:30 PM	9.75
		10:30 PM	11:15 PM	0.75
Th	4/25/2013	7:45 AM	8:15 PM	12.5
F	4/26/2013	7:30 AM	3:45 PM	8.25
Sat	4/27/2013			0
	Total			51