Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Final Sprint

I liken the school year to a series of sprints. We move like crazy, then take a week off (Thanksgiving), move like crazy, then take two weeks off (Winter Break), really sprint towards CSAP, then take a week off (Spring Break), then the final dash towards summer break. I've often said that if we could redesign the school calendar we would not do it this way. Let's take a break from teaching and learning for 11 weeks, then start all over again.

That is why Altona will at least have summer learning and summer school (remediation and enrichment). Although I think the district calendar should be changed (I'm on the committee), at least we can figure out how to keep a majority of students learning throughout the summer!