Teacher Guide To End of the School Year
Students in North America enjoy having a relaxing and long summer holiday. Although some of them say that it's a bit harder to get back into the groove of school after a long summer recess, most students don't want to give up their summers out of school. Some countries whose children do better in standardized testing than students in North America have longer school years, but some also have shorter school years, so it's more about using the school time wisely than it is about making summer break shorter.
Summer break doesn't have to mean that you're not learning anything. You can spend some time each day reading books or reading about new things on the Internet, so that you will keep your mind well-tuned and ready for the school year to begin once more. That doesn't mean giving up days at the beach or on vacation, just a little extra time spent keeping your mind tuned for the school year to start again.
- End of the School Year Lesson Plans
- End of the School Year Worksheets
- Language Arts Units
- Lesson Plan Ideas For The End Of School
- Math Worksheets
- Report Card Comments
- Summer Reading Lists Program
Summer vacations are important to those taking them, but they are also very important to the theme parks and beaches and other vacation spots who rely on the money spent by students and their families, to travel to these places for a well-deserved summer break. If students went to school for more time in the summer, they wouldn't lose as much of the routine of school, but they also wouldn't be able to take longer summer jobs or summer breaks to relax with their family or friends.
Some of the importance of this debate falls on the parents of school-age children. Parents can help students to use summer break as a time where you continue to learn, just in different ways. Day trips to museums and the like can give you a chance to learn without being in school.
During summer vacation time, students can attend classes if their grades aren't doing well. In some cases, summer school may be needed for a student to go on to their next school year in the fall. Summer school doesn't usually last the whole time of summer break, either, so you'll still get a vacation even if you're not doing quite as well in school this year.
Some schools have been scheduling their summer break for a shorter time period, and taking longer times off for spring break and the holidays. The students and teachers have largely had positive things to say about the change, although the younger students miss the long summers more. There is still time in the warm months for vacations and trips to the lake, even though the overall summer break is shortened. Students who have been on this new system arrive back at school at the end of the shorter summer break more focused and ready to study than they were when they had longer breaks.
Another plan that has been tried in North America is one modeled after the British, which involves going to school from January to March, and then taking April off. Then they have school again from May through July with August off, and then school from September through November and then take December off. This gives a few well-spaced longer breaks during the year, and still allows enough of a summer break to spend some time away on vacation.
Regardless of how the schedule is re-arranged, it is nice for students to have some type of summer break, so they can spend a well-earned time relaxing after the school year or semester.
Related Teacher Resources That Are Worth A Look:
- Students Grading Themselves?
- Teacher's Guide on 50 Ways to Say "Good Job!"
- Top 10 Tips for Teaching on the Last Day of School