Education Grants

[luvsJack]

I thought maybe someone that writes grants for schools could explain this to me--

Dd is in the 8th grade this year. One of the "privleges" of being in jr. high is that, in the past, they didn't have to go straight to class when arriving at school. They had some time to socialize outside for a little while if they arrived before school started. Well, that has changed.

The school got a grant and is being paid to do the following:

Now they go to homeroom from the time they arrive (most of them get to school between 7:20 and 7:45 when school officially "starts") until 8 a.m. If they eat breakfast at school, they are to stop by the cafeteria and get thier food and take it with them to homeroom. They can talk and socialize with their homeroom class during this time.

In the afternoon, they get out of school 15 minutes earlier.

So they added a useless "homeroom" in the a.m. (NOTHING is done during this time expect the ones that eat and they did that before in the cafeteria). Last year they stayed outside until 7:45 and then went to 1st period. And they are losing 15 minutes of instructional time in the p.m.--which for dd is science.

My question is WHY? Why would someone pay our school to do this?

 

[Miller1412]

Is it possibly for teacher collaboration? My state is going to 90 minutes per week of teacher collaboration time that has to be during the student day. My school is having a really tough time figuring out how to get this done, but as part of Race to the Top funds in Delaware, we have to do it. Frankly, I would rather be in the classroom.

 

[luvsJack]

Is it possibly for teacher collaboration? My state is going to 90 minutes per week of teacher collaboration time that has to be during the student day. My school is having a really tough time figuring out how to get this done, but as part of Race to the Top funds in Delaware, we have to do it. Frankly, I would rather be in the classroom.

Maybe so. It just seemed so weird to me! At first I thought maybe it was paying for all the kids to get breakfast or something. But no they still have to pay for it if they want it. So far they have had two days of biscuits and sausage and dd said it looked more like hockey puck and burnt hockey puck Needless to say, she won't be eating breakfast at school.

It would give them some extra time in the afternoons after the kids are gone, so that may very well be what it is. The teachers weren't real excited about it. I think they felt like they were losing more by losing that time in teh afternoon. Especially the upper grades.

 

[golfgal]

Well, I doubt "nothing" is done. Our middle school had homerooms. They took attendance, listened to school announcements, any papers that needed to go home were distributed, etc.

 

[luvsJack]

Well, I doubt "nothing" is done. Our middle school had homerooms. They took attendance, listened to school announcements, any papers that needed to go home were distributed, etc.

Nope. I asked about that. I thought they would do all of that and the lunch count (who wants what for lunch). But no. They return to their homeroom teacher for 4th period for whatever class that teacher teaches (Language Arts for dd) and lunch. 4th period class is a little longer because of lunch and all of that is taken care of then.

Its the same time that they used to spend outside standing around but now they spend it in the homeroom classroom. The 8th grade teachers don't like it because it gave them some extra work time in the morning to get things organized before the kids came in.