I write this post at the risk of being nicknamed Scrooge. Let me preface this by saying that in my classroom, I have always bought the kids presents which they unwrap after lunch on the last day of school before the winter break. Every year there is one student who tells me something like the art supplies I gave her, “were just what she wanted” or that “this is the only present I’ll get this year.” I like bringing a little magic to school and building good memories with my class.
Some years I have had a party in addition to the gift giving but I got discouraged after buying the students pizza and having them tell me that they were serving pizza in the cafeteria that day. It was much more fun and healthy to go out to P.E. and burn off some energy after gift giving than to hype up on sugar. I still would get requests for parties or hear that “Ms. So and So is having a party, why aren’t we?” However, I just point out all the things we’re doing that Ms. So and So’s class never does. You have to resist that kind of student guilt because it can easily extend to logic like “Ms. So and So’s class doesn’t have to face forward in the auditorium, why do we have to?”
At schools I’ve worked at we’ve always had holiday performances and these do take time away from regular class work. However, I’ve always felt that the act of practicing for our performances and the experience of being in front of an audience taught things like discipline and perseverance and allowed some students who were less than stellar in their classwork to shine onstage. My schedule in those performance weeks is cramped and hurried but when your time management is effective you can incorporate those kinds of extra-curricular events without them being a hassle or taking time away from the core subjects.
In contrast, as early as Monday or Tuesday of this week I’ve seen several classrooms shut down their academics to build gingerbread houses, color pictures of Santa, and make reindeer hats. And it seems that it’s often the classes who need the instruction most who get it the least…the ELL class, the intervention students, the low-income district. It’s not a coincidence that more time goes wasted in these schools. (I refer you to my favorite blog post ever, Why Can’t Inner City Kids Learn, by City Teacher for more).
I realize that when working with disadvantaged students we want to give them more…more love, more happiness, more good things. But I would suggest that giving a student confidence by nurturing a strong reader is longer lasting happiness than a sugar high. I would also suggest that there’s a certain amount of laziness on the part of teachers. I realize building gingerbread houses takes a lot of preparation but certainly there’s a lot less planning involved than an academically rigorous lesson.
I don’t want to take holiday celebrations out of schools, I like the Halloween/Fall Festival Parade as much as the next pagan teacher but I do suggest that coloring turkeys, reindeers, skeletons is a waste of time (to be clear, I see this as often in grades 4 and 5 as I do in kindergarten and first grade).
If you must do this kind of busy work, at the very least can you relegate it to the last hours on the last day of school before the vacation? Can we stop complaining that we don’t have enough time to fit in things like technology integration, reader’s theater, and student led discussions when we have time for coloring and parties? Can we avoid giving in to students’ desires for candy and fun?—we’re the adults.
Your thoughts? Have I gone too far?
In theory, I completely agree with your thoughts. As a classroom teacher working with high risk high school students in a continuation school setting, theory goes out the door and survival becomes paramount. I want my kids to work hard until the bus arrives on Friday afternoon, but my own physical health is hanging on by a thread, the overwhelming emotional needs my teens have, and the end of the semester paperwork has got me beat!
I am out of steam…maybe I’ll get it right next time. But for now…I am not feeling a bit of guilt for showing a science video tomorrow.
There are times when it’s ok to show a movie, like when you want to discuss it. But to show a movie because you’re out of steam is simply irresponsible. The kids don’t go to school to sit there and do random things with little to no educational value. If you’re tired, stay home… The sub is probably eager to help the children learn something.
That would work, but there is one tiny problem….No subs available honey.
I know there is a glut of out of work teachers, but no one wants to work with the kids who just got out of jail for assault and grand theft auto.
I could stay at home, but they would be out on the streets…YOUR street sweetie, breaking in YOUR house…so I think the video is very responsible honey, very responsible indeed. And no, I’m not exaggerating.
Tamara,
I too teach high risk high school students so I know where you are coming from. I’ve found that my students run out of mental energy the week before the holidays. They start to shut down, and it is really difficult to keep them engaged. I’m grateful that I have computers in my classroom so that I can create lessons that really engage my students. Pre-computer days it was much more difficult before the holidays.
I just found my Flip camcorder during the holidays. It disappeared for a semester and them suddenly showed up again. I’m already thinking about a project for the week before March Break. My students were really enjoyed the last assignment when I asked them to create a video presenting a topic to their classmates.
My feeling is that if my students could work until the bell rang the Friday before the holidays, they wouldn’t be in my class. As for supply teachers, my students tell me they will only work for me and not a supply teacher who they don’t know, and true to their work when I am away they do not complete their assignments.
Tamara, teaching at the best of times is difficult. Fifty percent of teachers quit during the first five years of teaching. Some times you just have
to do what you have to do.
Take care.
I think you can find a balance. I allowed my kids to have a holiday celebration on the last day of the semester – after they took their final exam. We had a double period, but a test that would only take a single period to complete.
We also decorate the classroom, but we always do it after school. I teach in a high school, so it is easier to get kids to stay after. That way it doesn’t take any time from classroom instruction.
In Texas, we can’t purchase or give food to kids during the school day. Parents or students (middle/high) can bring food for birthdays, parties, etc. But teachers can’t give it to them at all. This is state law.
Slightly off-topic but in Los Angeles teachers can serve any kind of food but food brought by parents must be store-bought and not home-made…that’s the rule but in practice I’ve noticed it’s hard to turn away home baked goodies.
I also think it is possible to find a balance and if you have to serve sugared treats to the kids at least dispense them with education.