How many days are really in a school year?

In elementary school everyone had a class that did the countdown of the days of school (180). I always wondered how much time you are not spending in class/learning. Barry Bachenheimer and Karl Fisch have done the hard work and found students "miss" from 60 to 65 days of class each year due to pep rallies, guest speakers, state exams, final exams ect. This was a lot more than i thought. Mr. Bachenheimer actually estimated time spent in the class learning was 46 hours a year on average.

I agree to this to a certain extent but not all lessons learned in school come from the classroom. Guest speakers educate kids on not smoking, not doing drugs and sex education. And you have to count that towards education. Don't you? I think this list should of included field trips. They were great, but you didn't learn much. You were just going to see what you already learned about. Thats kind of like exam review days, which I'm still debating if it should be included or not. I have included a link to this blog below.

"180 Days?"

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technology illiterate

I believe Mr. Fisch hit the nail right on the head. A teacher is not preparing her kids for the future if she is not using technology in his/her classroom. Teachers should be using power points and email to keep in touch with students at the very least. Also blogs in traditional subjects is a good way to keep kids from falling behind.

For a teacher to not be educated on technology is completely unacceptable. If they didn't know anything about computers or cell phones, kids would just "my space" or email their friends during class, or text message the whole time. Technology is very important to being a good educator today, and that importance will only continue to build and leave stubborn educators behind.

Math blogs

Mr. Harbeck teaches math in Winnipeg, Canada. He is using blogs similar to the way we use them in my class. The students are given a assignment, and required to post it to a blog. They may just have to write about what they learned in class that day and give an example, or they may be given a problem and asked to explain how they came to the correct answer. This helps pick out shy students who may not fully understand but are afraid to ask. This prevents the old "the dog ate my homework excuse" and I believe it would cut down on the amount of homework problems.

Mathematical blogs

International Blogs

K. Lehman, or as her students call her Ms. K, is a high school teacher in Yangon, Myanmar. She teaches English and multimedia. She has a very cool blog. It contains videos, pictures, post of what went on in class. All of the clips I viewed were very interesting. She tries to keep the students involved with many different links included in her blog and website.

Ms. K's classroom blog

High School Blogs

Albany High School in New York has a school blog. They use this to keep students informed of events around campus. Students can post comments about themselves, what they do, what they are interested in, ect. I think it would make the students feel more involved in school and let them know the school cares about them. It could also be useful to set the story straight on the outrageous rumors that always seem to be spread around high schools.

Albany High School Class Blog

classroom blogs

Kathy Cassidy is a first grade teacher using blogs to help teach students and keep parents informed. Everyday she post what went on in class and what the students learned. She also post pictures and videos to view. Students have their own blogs too, which are kind of funny cause of the missed spellings. It helps keep parents involved and they can even listen in on class and interact with the students.

Mrs. Cassidy's Class Blog