Friday, February 4, 2011

Counting Hours vs Days

I have mixed feelings of counting hours versus counting days when inclement weather comes into play. I guess one of my views would be to have the flexibility to make up time missed by extending the day or starting earlier when temps are more conducive to staying in school. The part we must remember is that we had 2 early dismissals due to heat.

Your thoughts pro and con.

28 comments:

  1. After reading this article, my first thought was this is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Obviously these people have never been in a classroom to begin with. I agree with you that this becomes a sticky situation with our rural Iowa weather. Also thinking that we are depriving students of class time and learning is ridiculous. One of the lines the article stated "Kids may not like this bill, We fully recognize that, but you know what, five to 10 years from now they can look back and say, yeah, I got all the education that was due to me." I have been out of high school now 12 years and never once has the thought crossed my mind that I was deprived of my education because of a missed school day. One of my 8th grade male students agreed with me today and said the same thing. He never thinks he is losing an educational opportunity because school starts late. These are just some of my intitial thoughts.

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  2. Days versus hours sounds like a political discussion not an educational discussion. I would have to agree with Justin in that I don't think I was deprived of a quality education due to inclement weather nor are my students. As an educator you learn to be flexible and make adjustments when needed. I don't believe our district abuses the early out/late start system. When these decisions are made they are made for the safety of our students and school personnel. If the change takes place from days to hours I would hope that they allow the local districts flexibility with the calendar to meet the educational needs of the students.

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  3. Melissa,

    I would agree that the decision is more political based than a decision based on what is best for students. I also believe some schools' actions end up being a new law or sanction against the group. Example is last start and then an early out, or bring them in while knowing you are going to send them back home. But under our current guidelines, if the busses run and then you send them home, it counts as a day.

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  4. It appears to me that by counting hours that do not include recess, our elementary students are going to either have longer school days or go to school more days than junior high and high school students--when it should be the other way around--if at all. Or--do we cut recess--get creative and structure recess as class time, etc. Apparently, this idea has not been thought out very clearly by anyone who has actually taught in a school.

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  5. The Idea of counting hours instead of counting days would put many in a need to change with no time to prepare. The daycare, elementary, and even high schoolers will face the different methods of this law. Does this mean that elementary have to stay later hours for their recesses? Little kids have to have so many recreational periods to be able to function in the classroom. Also seniors will not know they day they will graduate or when they will be actually done with school. Many dates have already been set. When asking people about this law, many say that they are not losing any education by missing a couple day or hours of school.

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  6. I believe the legislation needs to rethink the idea of changing school days to school hours. What "value" if any will be gained by adding on time missed for early outs or late starts? If this takes affect into this year, dates would have to be reset and it would just be complicated. If it takes place next year, faculty will be restless with having to worry about, "Ok, how many hours were we in school today?" Also, elementary need recess during the day and by taking this away from them, they'll be bouncing off the walls with so much energy to burn. Money issues are also an issue with the schools.

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  7. When I first saw that the government was really thinking about counting hours instead of days I thought that the idea was ridiculous. If it was to take place this year, I don't think that it would be a very good idea. This would cause a lot of stress for everybody that deals with the education system. This would cause the need of a lot of changes from everyone. I don't think that people would adjust to it very well either. In a way, I see how the hours would be better than counting the days though. It would ensure that every school would put the same number of hours in and every student would be getting equal time in class. This would make up for all of the snow days and would get rid of the people that say that kids need to be in school more.

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  8. I agree that the legislation needs to really think what they are trying to put into place. They are getting themselves in quite a bind if you ask me. With the teachers contract, attempting to count hours, and Iowa's unpredictable weather this new law will create a lot of stress and trying to work around with contracts. If this law passes, harsh winters and hot falls will bring the school to ending well into June which is unacceptable. The students will barely have a summer break before they have to come back. I do not believe that by counting hours will help the students learn in the time that was lost by missed school days and hours. This law will simply create a lot of drama and anger that is not needed.

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  9. I believe that the legislation should spend more time weighing the pro's and con's . This will effect the students and teachers in many ways . Does this law mean the elementary will have to stay longer ? Elementary students need recess. School days would be way to long without it . I think that the policy shouldn't start this year . It would be very confusing trying to figure out how many hours to make up .If It started this year it would be hard figuring out when the seniors were actually done . Honestly I can't say that I would have gained more "values " by making up the hours .

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  10. I think that the legislation should rethink the pros and cons . Will the elementary have to make up the hours because of recess. Elementary kids need recess . If they didn't have recess then teachers would suffer . It would effect the high school students as well . I think the system would make it hard to figure out when seniors were actually done . Honestly I can't say that the couple hours made up would help my education any more .

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  11. I think the legislation needs to look at all sides closely before making any decisions on this bill. The bill would be a strain on most schools in the state. School districts already have plans in place to make up the days missed. Counting hours instead of days would require more planning to make sure all hours are made up. Another thing legislatures need to consider is do children suffer from early outs and late starts? I believe they do not. Students are less likely to learn and be motivated at the end of year.

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  12. I think that the legislation should needs to take another look at this idea. I think that they should look at both the pros and cons of this idea and also listen to what communities, teachers, students, and parents have to say about this idea as well. This bill would cause many problems and headaches for the school because of all the changes that would need to be made. Most school districts have a plan already prepared for making up snow days and counting hours instead of days would conflict with these plans. Counting hours instead of days would require a lot more planning to ensure that all the hours were being made up. I also think that it is rough for the elementary children to have to stay longer during the day because of recess. Those kids need a recess to help get that energy out and break up the day. The recess is almost as rewarding for the teachers because they get a small break and it helps the kids to stay more concentrated during class. I do not think that students suffer from late starts and early outs. I don't think that their education takes a toll because teachers accommodate to the winter weather and they take extra time to make sure that we learn the things that would have been learned if the weather was nice. I honestly think that our education is not in harm by losing a few hours of school and not making them up because our teachers make sure that we are prepared for college and learn everything that we need to learn. I think that counting days instead of hours in our schools is in our best interest and many others would agree with me on that.

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  13. Composition Students,

    Let me clarify something as most of you are voicing your concerns toward the Legislative leaders. The proposal came from the Department of Education, and they would like a change in Iowa Code to count hours versus days. I think a lot of you are making some good points. However, what if I were to forward the blog and comments on to the House and Senate members of the Legislature? Would they understand your concerns or would some be offended. I should have made this more clear in our class discussions.

    Writing a draft and rereading it before posting is always a good practice, especially if the Legislative branches were to read this.

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  14. Many questions came to me when I heard that education was going to be counted by hours instead of day. Would recesses be taken away from children? Would teachers be paid hourly instead of on salary? Would seniors still be allowed to miss time? Education is very important, but when I look back at the education I received I will not question its value. Just because there were late starts and early outs does not mean I feel like I missed out on education. Schools will be less likely to call late starts and early outs because it will be very stressful to make up those extra hours, and this will put students in dangerous conditions

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  15. Many questions came to me when I heard that education was going to be counted by hours instead of day. Would recesses be taken away from children? Would teachers be paid hourly instead of on salary? Would seniors still be allowed to miss time? Education is very important, but when I look back at the education I received I will not question its value. Just because there were late starts and early outs does not mean I feel like I missed out on education. Schools will be less likely to call late starts and early outs because it will be very stressful to make up those extra hours, and this will put students in dangerous conditions

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  16. I feel that when changing the counting of school time from days to hours, a few problems would arise. Calling of or delaying school is always a difficult decision for the administrators of a school. I think that by changing from days to hours, more pressure is put on the administrators because a 2-hour late start would result in bringing in students to make up the time. With this added consequence, school officials may be less likely to call school when really it should be. This will add more stress to an already difficult task. I feel that the change will have to be a slow one if it is going to happen, and should be thought and planned out very carefully. Everyone has a different opinion on this issue, but all voices should be heard. Teachers, city members, and government officials all should have a say because the public school system is supported by the tax payers. I feel that the decision could possibly be affected by a few high ranking officials and feel a better way to handle this situation would be to study it for a few years and decide if it is really in best interest of the students.

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  17. I understand where the Department of Education is coming from. Counting hours instead of days will make sure that every ounce of education that is promised, will be accounted for. However, I feel that this new code will put an unnecessary strain on the students, teachers, and administrators. I feel that under this new code, schools will hesitate to call a two hour late start or no school. This could put the students in driving situations that are not only dangerous to themselves but other drivers on the roads. If it is money thats behind this idea, who will pay for the teachers' overtime when they have to come in extra days? Would they change the teachers' pay to hourly wages instead of on a salary? Administrators will have to deal with all of these new complications and stresses of making up the extra hours. When I look back on my education, I will not remember the late starts or no school days, let alone, think that they diminished the value.

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  18. I can see how counting hours rather than days makes sense, but that system would have some downfalls. In the days spent making up the hours we missed would consist of the teachers either putting up a DVD, or they would tell us to look different things up on our computers. Even though we would get the mandatory hours, they would not be quality learning hours. I think counting hours instead of days would just be wasted time and money having to run the school those extra days.

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  19. As I read the new proposal, many emotions were going trough my mind. At first I thought it seemed like an awful idea. As I thought about it more, I realized that there are many schools out there who may be taking advantage of the way school days are set up now. This would finally be a way to make everything fair throughout the state. Many questions arose though. How would the elementary make up the recess time? Would they have to have a longer school day? Are teachers going to get paid more? The Department of Education has brought forward a very controversial topic here. Talking to leaders and parents in our community, they can honestly say the late starts and early dismissals they had growing up did not have a negative effect on their overall education. Overall, I think the school should continue counting days instead of hours.

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  20. The points that are made in the article could be very true, but the one line about children looking back and saying they got the education they were do if the schools started counting hours is false. There are many questions that the legislation will have to answer about the details of this new bill. Such as would students still get recess and how would this effect the teachers salary? I can understand why the legislature would want to pass this bill but for the students and teachers the bill just doesn't make sense.

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  21. When I first heard that the school may start to count hours rather than days, I didn't know what to think. If they started to count hours, there would be the possibility of taking recess away from the children. The children need that interaction with others during the day rather than being stuck inside a room all day long. Another thing to think about would be that teachers would hesitate to have late starts or no school because of the hassle to make up those hours. The Department of Education needs to look very closely at this issue, and think of all the pros and cons of the issue before they decide anything.

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  22. When I first heard about changing the school days to hours, I was not very happy. I was even more unhappy that this could possibly go into effect this year. The Department of Education should weigh all of their options before they make a final decision. I think that they need to look at every aspect before they finalize their decision. A lot of questions came to my mind when I heard of this change. Would we add hours at the beginning and end of our days? Would the elementary students have recess? How many days are seniors allowed to miss before they start making them up (if any)? Counting hours would require a lot of time and planning. I honestly don't think that if we make up two hours or so we are going to learn more. I think sticking with counting days is in everyone's best interest.

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  23. The department of education's goal is to make everyone have the best education possible. They need to look on how this will benefit students. Students will be receiving more hours in school with this change but is it enough to make a difference. Students are getting there educational needs counting days and the change wouldn't be that significant. Students are not losing information with an early our late start once in awhile. It would require way more work to count hours. Many people would be angered by this change. Also does this mean younger kids recess will be taken away or that they would have to make that up. Kids are full of energy and we are in an obesity epidemic and recess is good for kids to have. Its helps then burn energy and calories and only makes them function better in the classroom. The legislation really needs to take this all into consideration before their decision which will affect everyone.

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  24. I think that before the legislators pass this law, they need to look at both sides of it very closely. It might seem like a good idea when you just glance at the idea, but as you go in to depth there are many questions that are raised. Will elementary students stay in school longer than middle and high school students because of recess? Will high school students be dismissed at different times because they are released to lunch at different times? They should also consider that getting students home will also be affected. Buses will have to leave at different times for different students, and parents my have to come to the school multiple times to pick up different age students. If the Department of Education and the state legislators look at this side of the law, then I think they will either make the choice to not pass the law, or make improvements to the law that will make it an easier transition.

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  25. My thought about this when the topic came up was that its not going to bother me I am a Senior and then thinking and hearing the discussion and hearing it May happen sooner this concerns me. That people want us to change this and we have no time to get ready for this or change things. Kids look forward to early outs late starts no school. But if this happens no one will be looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong education is important but if we have to do this then schools wont be as cautious and want to call late starts because they might not want to make up the hours and then people will have to drive. For teachers will they be paid more and differently for this to happen? Will taxes go up because of this? My thought about this is why change something if it is not broken whats wrong with what we have now?

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  26. I can understand were the Department of Education is coming from on making school days to hours. One of the issues coming up with this change is money. By changing the days teachers would have to be paid more because the school days would end up being longer. And everyone is always wanting to save money. The next issue would be what to do with the younger kids. Without recess being able to be counted into the school day, the younger kids will have to go longer, because of this. Or instead you could take away the recess and have them sitting in school today. With the younger kids not being able to have a break this could cause them to be overwhelmed with school. A break is never a bad thing. The last issue is, are the hours of the students going to be kept track of or is it the hours of just the school. Keeping track of all this hours can be very hard and difficult thing and who is going to do it? I think counting the hours could be a good thing of school systems, but trying to make it happen this year. I think more time and planning would have to go into this into making this work the best that it could.

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  27. I think, as a Newell-Fonda High School Senior, I am at the perfect position to have an opinion of the days vs. hours debate. I agree that due to the amount of hours lost from the school year there has been a substantial amount of time taken away from the education of our students. However, I believe that the quality of the education given to students is more important than the exact quantity of hours students clock in in a years time. For example, I do not think to my self, “I learn how to give the introduction of a speech at 9:45 and I learn how to give the conclusion of a speech at 10:00.” As Students we do not learn that way. We think of the Unit as a whole, not everyday as its own lesson to be learned.

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  28. When I heard school was going to count hours instead of days I had a couple concerns. Will seniors have to make up these missed hours? And I don't believe missing a couple of days of school due to weather has hurt my education. This could put a lot of stress on the schools to get the kids to school everyday. Would they also have to change the way that they pay the teachers to hourly instead of on a salary?

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