US Schools?
 

The summer holidays are about to begin and I was surprised when the school stopped giving homework three whole weeks before the final day. I was also surprised that for the final week of school all they did was play games and watch movies?

My youngest is falling behind in some subjects and it seemed to me that the time could be better spent in helping the children to improve the skills they have learnt. My husband said that all 'testing' has been completed so no other work is required ... but surely education is more than just 'tests'?

Maybe I've just forgotten, but I seem to remember lessons continuing in the the UK right up until the last day of school ... so is this just the way it's done in the US, or just the way it's done at the schools my children happen to attend?

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Ours had to go in for one day after memorial day to make up for days lost to hurricanes last year. What did they do? Fek all. They were even told not to bring any books in with them.

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Mine were told not to bring anything with them all this week ... and last week! My youngest brought home all her textbooks that were kept at school two weeks ago ... so they've been doing fek all for two whole weeks! But, more importantly, she did come second in the hula hoop contest! ;)

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We would always have games in lessons of the last day before Christmas and Summer break. Never watched movies though.

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At any school I taught in in England there would have been a bloody riot on if we'd tried to make the buggers work in the last week of term. Lots of sport, videos, games and more videos. In addition, they always expected some after school 'disco' (their term, not mine), in which I had the dubious pleasure of watching 9year old girls in gold stretch lycra bodysuits throw up their orange squash all over the DJ (really the caretaker, but he went to the trouble of wearing an Elvis wig, bless him). Trying to plan a week of 'fun' is more stress than planning a week's lessons.

On a more serious note, it's not uncommon for children to fall behind, especially if they've come from a different school system. It's not always even a case of not being able to do the work, but the effect of using different teaching methods, different books and materials. Children get into a real routine with learning and when that routine changes, they take a while to adapt. Summer school programs are massively popular here and have no stigma attached, so if you're really concerned you could maybe look into them.

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My memory is hazy ... but I seem to remember that the very last day of school before a major holiday would be a bit more fun. Makes me wonder whether the fact that my children in the US have nigh on a month of playing before a holiday, and during school term seem to spend more time building projects than studying ... that maybe this is why they have to stay at school until 18 y/o rather than 16 y/o as in the UK?

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Blimey, either times have changed or I went to a really boring school in the UK ... we never got to mess around for a whole week, and I only remember there ever being one disco (I can still remember my friend doing the pojo that evening! lol).

My youngest is my husband's youngest actually ... so she's always been taught in the US. I don't think she needs summer school, though I will try and help her with her reading for which she went from a 'B' to a 'C'. Shame really, because she so wants to get straight A's like her siblings :(

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So the siblings that are doing better experienced a British education? That's reassuring.

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LOL ... sorry, but they are all my husband's children ... I just refer to them as my children - so they have all been blessed (?) with a US education! ;)

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Depends where you are...in maine, they normally have extra school days alotted, around 8 I think, in case of storms and missed school days, but if there isn't a bad winter, they don't ditch the days, so kids are normally hanging around..

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Our schools have been out since 19th May, drives me mad having them home for that long summer break.They did not do much the last week.Mind you I remember taking board games and playing cards to my school the last week before summer holidays.I wish they would break up the long summer break.My youngest has summer school,starts next week .She needs to get the extra help during the summer.My oldest is doing summer school to get some extra credits in.Does her good she's not sleeping all morning :) They go back Aug 23rd seems like an eternity.

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That's more than three months!!! :scared: How the hell is any parent supposed to live with their kids for three months? No wonder summer camps are so popular, you can abandon them in the woods for a few weeks at least. Seriously, if both parents are working, what are you supposed to do? I don't really get how that works. :confused:

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I seemed to be the only parent at the bus stop who complained about the long break.They all were looking forward to it :eek: I even asked the teachers why and one of them said it was because of the farmers :confused: Of course that was in the day when they would all be out in the fields working.Also our schools don't have A.C and it does get very hot 90 degrees today.I don't know how people manage when they are both working probably paying a fortune on day-care and summer camps.

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"Summer Camp", here at least, is basically six weeks of daytime activities at the school they've just spent the last few months at. Cost: $600.

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:scared: So no skinny dipping and nocturnal cabin activity at Camp Crystal Lake! I have been grossly misinformed over the years as to the nature of summer camp.

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What did you teach when you were in the UK? Have you managed to get a job here?

I was a Science teacher (secondary) and am about to apply for accreditation over here, then start looking for a job.

If you've got any pointers, that'd be grand :)

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Lord, I wish I did. In the UK I trained as a secondary school teacher but after a month teaching in Hull (4% GCSE pass rates!), I jumped into primary education, which in Hull, then Bradford, was no barrel of laughs either. I always expected to teach when I came to the US, but found that a)they don't really have specialist art teachers here, and b) the level of detail they required about the content of my BA was unavailable from my university (they've lost all record of me!!!). So I've pretty much given up on the prospect of teaching here, especially when I'm in a job doing less work for more money! :)

While schools seem to teach something very similar to the National Curriculum, the actual process of becoming a teacher is very difficult, and bloody overly complicated if you ask me. I remember reading on the California Teacher Credentialing website how the requirements are less stringent for shortage subjects, of which I think Science is one. But the last time I looked the website was down due to 'budgetry cutbacks'. Thanks for that Arnold.

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We moved to the States in the summer of 2000 and there were no kids around in our neighbourhood at all....it was really weird, like a ghost town. It turned out that most of the kids go away for a few weeks to a sleep away camp. Just a short time after our son started at middle school we were advised to book him into a summer camp before New Year, otherwise all the places would be full up. We decided that (since we're on non-immigrant visas) it would be a memorable experience for our son - then aged nearly 13 - to be immersed in American culture and to go away to camp for a month. We did some research and he chose one in the 'Berkshires' Massachusetts.

I couldn't believe the prices....some people have 2 or 3 kids whom all go to camp....and ironically it turned out that the camp counsellors were mostly from the UK - students brought out with BUNAC. The counsellor in my son's cabin was originally from my home city in England LOL! They were astonished when they found out what the fees were for each child....they worked out that they were earning a pittance (under $1 per hour after paying for their flights) but mostly work in summer camps with the intention of having a fun experience. These are the current fees this summer for 'Camp Half Moon':

http://www.camphalfmoon.com/frames-dates.html

We also had a huge list of compulsory clothes and equipment (a local supplier which sells stuff for many of the popular camps must be really raking it in). I was shocked when we arrived at the camp....it was rustic to say the least and the cabins weren't much bigger than my garden shed (which is what they basically were. My son didn't think that the camp was that great....he remembered our camping trips in Italy & France with Eurocamp and much preferred them LOL! (Actually we're doing it this Summer in Italy at his request).

A couple of years ago he decided to join his friend on another camp, this time in Pennsylvania which also had lots of British students working there ...(Camp Chen-a-Wanda....their website doesn't even have the pricey fees listed this year :rolleyes: ) but again he didn't enjoy it that much. On the last day when we went to collect him, there were parents in the office already booking their kids in for the following summer :eek:

These Summer camps are a real money making racket.....just buy up a large, cheap plot of land, preferably with a lake - erect some wooden cabins and seperate washrooms and dining hall (can be used for indoor activities like putting on a play or for doing art. buy a few kayaks, put up some goalposts, maybe a basketball court and put up a volleyball net. Bring in cheap staff from the EU countries and have the older campers helping out in the dining room or doing odd-jobs for a pittance...and have loads of parents happy for you to take their offspring for a few weeks whilst they continue to go to work LOL! I reckon it's just as cheap to send the kids to the UK to go to a PGL camp - including flights. My daughter went to Boreatton Park in Shropshire when she was 10 and loved it, whilst on our annual trip home to England our son had a week on a farm in Oxfordshire with PGL and loved that too.

(I'm aware that many teachers aren't paid during the Summer....they often get temp jobs eg. private tuition, SATS courses etc. so I guess they're quite happy for the schools to have such a long break here. In our state I understand that they can choose to be paid for the academic year only or for their salaries to be paid out each month of the year).

Re: US Schools?
 

These are the current fees this summer for 'Camp Half Moon':

http://www.camphalfmoon.com/frames-dates.html




That is an obscene amount of money :scared: !! Seriously considering giving up my day job and opening 'camp lottie' :D

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Too true...I wonder what kind of permits/licenses you need. I'm going to look into this. I'll have every parent in Southern California sending their kids to Dante's Inferno before the year's out.

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depends on the state...pretty easy to open one in maine apparantly, well the missus, uncle inlaw, weird fella, anyway, he bought a huge lump of blueberry fields and woods to open a camp...not business sense, well not much sense fullstop....still starting up, and he's trying to get a honey business going on the side with the blueberrys, and if the first batch is anything to go by...ouch...it was the worst honey ever, impressive with the blueberry fields that there wasn't any flavour at all in the honey :D

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Have you tried private schools? I think that you can get around a lot of state BS by teaching private. It's been suggested to me a few times even though I'd have a hard time going back to teaching.

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They teach science over here? ;) I think you need to be teaching AP, otherwise the job satisfaction is probably going to be quite low..... :mad:

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That's true, teaching private, you don't need to be certified, as long as you know what your teaching...what's really bad, school where MIL teaches, there's a math teacher that's only done one class of math at uni, is really a mac tech expert, but could only get a job as a math teacher and doesn't know much more than the kids..

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Its the way things are done in the US. The last day especially was a very fun day. I can remember that we would have already turned in our books and the classroom was pretty bare....so we would play games. It was fun and always something to look forward to.

Is education more than tests? It seems to me that both the US and UK systems are all about teaching children to do well on their standardized tests. Was their something else they were supposed to pick up along the way? :rolleyes:

I'm not a fan of any tests....but its all too common in both the US and the UK.

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Private schools generally pay a pittance, in this state anyway. You don't need to have a degree to teach. Here anyway.

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I'm still in the Uk. My 10 year old does very little in the last few weeks of term other than watch videos. Homework is non existant at the best of times.
My eldest (16) is on study leave from the local comp. and has only gone in for her exams.This is since 18th may. Before that they seem to have done sod all since christmas despite gcse's comming up.
My middle one is at a grammar school and they work them really hard right up until the last minute.
Re. School leaving age...although they can leave at 16 here most stay on until 18.At least here they do. Out of 200 year 11 "leavers" only about 10 are actually leaving, the rest are going on to do further study. Even the less academic students seem to stay on these days.

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Less than state? :scared: Now that is terrible.

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they get paid very well in this state, and they do need a degree in the field they teach, dont' need to be generally certified as a teacher though...works well, much better having someone that's a history buff teach history rather than someone that's certified to teach but might have only had one credit in history...

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What I said was:-
"My youngest is falling behind in some subjects and it seemed to me that the time could be better spent in helping the children to improve the skills they have learnt. My husband said that all 'testing' has been completed so no other work is required ... but surely education is more than just 'tests'?"

In other words, even though all the tests had been completed, could the teacher not have spent some time in helping the children to improve the skills they had learnt ... especially for those children who didn't happen to be straight A students.

:)

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Gosh, I remember going with my parents to France and Italy with Eurocamp when I was a teenager and I loved it too! Great not having to take a tent and all the gear and just have everything set up for you....hoping to do this again with my parents next year so my kids can experience it!

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What I said was sarcastic, but not at your expense. I thoroughly hate that children are taught nothing more (at times) than to pass these standardized tests. And yes, they should be helping all children. But, in this day and age unless your child is ADHD (or whatever the letters are for Attention Deficit) or ready to kill the whole student body with a single gun blast, then he or she will be pushed aside. I'm not a big fan of public schooling.

The celebration at the end of any school year is pretty normal. I think, even when I was younger and schools were not trying to teach the impossible in 5 minutes time, that everyone looked forward to the end of the year and teachers wisely knew they wouldn't get much more instruction into anyone.

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I'll be your partner...Geeze!!! :eek: :eek:

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Last couple days perhaps...but the last week is a bit extreme isn't it?

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Why? Do you think kids can't tell when the end of school is near? Do you think their minds will be focused? Especially young kids?

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We always had the last couple days to mess about a bit, and didn't have a problem doing any work till then, just give the kids work and tell them to knock it off....There's always something they could be doing, it is what there at school for, if it were just a week of messing around, why bother with turning up to school...

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Agreed! :) My youngest really does want to improve, simply because she wants to be the same as her siblings who are all straight A students. I guess I just expected this to be covered at school, but I now realise that it will be up to me to help her improve her reading and writing!

I did notice that just before the 'Star' (is that what it's called?) tests began I received a few letters from the school ... stating that all students should get a nutritious breakfast and plenty of sleep during this very important time ... with the added request for parents to donate snacks. I remember thinking that I didn't need to be told to feed my children or make sure they got enough sleep .. but also wondered why the school would want to give the impression that these basic requirements were only important during testing!

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Well, at least the childcare issues were taken care of that day! :p




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