Longer school year/ Longer hours in the day?

Unfortunately standardized testing has become a strong influence on the teaching occurring in the classroom today. Teachers I know are saying there is just not enough time to teach everything they need to teach the students for the test in the time allotted, mainly one friend of mine who works at a low performing school. I wonder what other educators' thoughts are regarding whether it would be beneficial to extend the school year for students or maybe just the school day? I am stuck between extending either the day/year or not, while I like the summers off, I do value the attention needed towards providing a thorough and meaningful education to our students. I am currently a college student studying to become an elementary teacher and this is a topic I am quite curious about and would really love to hear any opinions available! Thanks!

Take care! :)

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Permalink Reply by crystal v on November 23, 2010 at 12:46pm

I believe that they need to cut to the chase. Teach the importance and stick with that instead of giving us meaningless stuff as a " movie on friday" type of deal. Plus they are always teaching to give a test, so student just memorize to pass a test. This type of memorization will not stay in the short term memory. I do agree with there not being enough time, but there has to be a a different way. We in fact do spend half of our days at school, their has to be a enough time, i think we should not have 8 periods in highschool, each teacher is different and teaches in their own way..& come to think about it, 50 mins can be little when your having to waste 10 mins for everyone to get in their seats and for the teacher to get started.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Broomfield on December 6, 2010 at 11:01pm

When I was in highschool, which wasnt long ago, I always grew very bored near the end of summer. Also I noticed the first few weeks of school were all about review. SO i think i longer school year with more short breaks in between would benfit everybody.

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on December 7, 2010 at 9:01pm

I would not mind seeing year-round school implemented around the country. Although summer is nice, it would be nice to have more short breaks during the year instead of one long one in the middle of the year. Being away from school so long leaves room for not remembering what was learned the year before. If you are not gone for as long then there would not be a need to spend as much time on "review" every time.