The challenges of the last week of school | The Cornerstone
It’s the great irony of the last week of the school year: there’s way too much for the teacher to do and not nearly enough for the students. Every educator I know has a massive amount of paperwork to complete and multi-page checklists of miscellaneous time-consuming tasks that have to be done before summer. And yet students are left pretty much twiddling their thumbs, and therefore, exhibiting behavior problems.
I despise the fact that teachers are required to submit 4th quarter report card grades weeks before the quarter actually ends. It leaves them scrambling to produce grade mere weeks after the last report cards were issued. And it’s unfair to the kids because they only have 6 weeks to improve their grades instead of 9.
Everything students do in the last 3 weeks of school doesn’t truly count. Do the powers that be realize how hard it is to get kids to put forth their best effort on a beautiful 80 degree afternoon in June when they know their fate for the year has already been determined?
I’m all for year round school with breaks each quarter or four day weeks for many reasons including this.
