AS many of you might have read, the state legislature has approved a law that requires school systems to open the school year no earlier than August 25. This reduces the amount of work days for teachers, but keeps the same number of school days for students. It also forces semester exams for high schools to take place after Christmas break. In Watauga County, and other counties who have more than 8 days regularly of inclement weather, this requirement has been waived. However, our work days are still cut.

I have mixed emotions about this. I enjoy a few workdays now and then, but it seems like we have too many. The new calendar requires us to have one mandatory work day after each quarter, and I don't know why we haven't done this before.

For the elementary teachers in Watauga County, they no longer have two workdays for conferences with parents, which means they will have to schedule extra afterschool time for this.

I understand that the tourist economy is one of the backers for the supporters of the law.

What educational pros does this mandate give to the students if any?

I have left out lots of points on both the pros and cons, but what do you guys think????

Sorry, I forgot to log in. This is my post:

I think the works days would be beneficial for me as a teacher because I would use that time wisely and grade papers, do lesson plans and catch up on all the things I will probably be behind on as a teacher. But I do think starting Aug 25 would be really cool as well because in my county the schools started the first week in Aug which really takes the fun out of Aug. I guess we will see how the new law goes.

I agree with Jeni. Teacher workdays are beneficial to teachers in many ways, but I can remember when I thought there were to many days off in the school year. I wanted to start school and get it over and done with. Having all of those days off would drag out the year even longer.

When I started Kindergarden, school did not start until the end of August, and we would end in the beginning of June. I loved it because we had almost 3 entire months off. Every year after that school would start earlier and earlier but it finished about the same time. I hated it.

When I heard about the law, I was happy. Not only does it allow students to feel like they have a summer now, but it gives teachers that time off to. We will just have to wiat and see if the law works and is effective.

I'm kind of on the fence here. I can see how the new schedule would be both beneficial and troublesome. I personally like the idea of not having to start school until August 25, but if exams are pushed back until after Christmas break, I don't like that at all. The main reason I don't like this is because I had to do just that my senior year of high school. There was no school on the last day of exams (due to snow) and by the time we took the finals, I had almost completely forgotten everything I had learned. Sure, I could have studied over the break, but what kid is going to do that? To finish up, I like the new schedule, as long as finals aren't pushed back to after the break.

I think that starting the school year at the end of August sounds like a good idea, but like others I do not like the idea of having exams after Christmas Break. It is hard to remember the information that you had learned before the break, and as we know because we are students ourselves, student will probably not look over their material during Christmas break.

i agree with the last few posts. I think that summer is important to most students (i really loved my summers), but I am not so sure when I look at it with the view point that Robin stated. I think that having time to do parent/teacher conferences all together (over a 2 day span) is important. During the week you are teaching, and the parents are working, so when do you have them??? are weekends even an option? I definitely disagree with having exams after Christmas break...I know that if I was a student I would be sleeping late and hanging out with my family, no studying. Like someone mentioned earlier...what about snow days? I know that having school on teacher workdays can be a much easier experience that going further into the summer. What are some of the pros for the new schedule

I think everyone should think about the students too. Students are already out of school long enough during the summer. Retaining the information is important also. The new calender to me sounds horrible. I couldn't imagine taking an exam after Christmas break....like I would really study. Parents are always about vacations during the summer. Well if you can take off during the summer, take off during spring break or so forth. I can understand the other point of view. Some parents can only take off during the summer, well make your plans when you can, I just will hate reteaching for the first three weeks of school.

This new calendar has many problems for teachers and students. The tourist economy should have nothing to do with the schools. They should base the decision on what is best for the schools. At the school were my mom works they went to school every saturday in Dec. and were in school up until Dec. 23, because of snow, so that exams could be finished. That is not how i want to spend my winter holiday season. The tourist industry should think about the people who will not be traveling because of saturday school in the places that get a lot of snow.

Sorry I did not realize that I was not logged in for my response right after the question.