Missing time from high school

[jtdl]

Anyone with high school kids ever take them out of school for two weeks at a time? I had planned to go to WDW the first two weeks of March 2007 (the 2nd week being March break), but today I noticed the price of the resort rooms during that period! I knew it was peak season but didn't think the rates increased quite so much. We could go during value season and include the dining plan for almost as much as it will cost just for the room and passes in March! DD is an average student, but I'm wondering if two weeks is too much to miss during grade 10. She missed two weeks of grade 8 last year with no problems.

 

[DIS~n~JAN]

Hi, we're going for 2 weeks. It works out good for my dd in grade 11 as they don't have school. She would only be going twice in those 2 weeks for 2 exams. So for us it works out great, dh's slow time at work, less crowds, cheaper. We do take ds out of school and he is in grade 9, he's average student and his LA teacher wants a detailed journal with pictures. Great idea! I don't think the teachers really like the kids missing school, but hey, you can't please everyone!

 

[happytraveller]

Hi, i'm in the same situation-having to take my children out of school for the last two weeks before the summer break.I was worried about how it may affect my eldest inparticular, who's around the same age of your DD.But in all honesty, a childs prospects do not drop significantly from what they were previously, through missing a couple of weeks.Provided your able to have to hand some of what may be missed, it should be fine.

 

[Tiger926]

High school teacher weighing in here - As teachers we don't like kids missing school at all as it gives some of them the message that they can just constantly reschedule committments at the whims of vacation plans, plus some kids just can't miss school as they are behind or have attendance problems. Plus to be honest, we as teachers have to schedule our vacations, doctor appointments, during the holidays and with kids constantly leaving school during the year to go on vacation it gets frustrating after awhile.

That being said, we do know that some families have no other time to schedule vacation time, so you really need to mention it to teacher, but get permission from vp. Also, we as teachers do not have to give students any extra work at all - most do, but we don't have to, so please as a parent don't expect too much from your child's teacher as we are under tremendous amounts of pressure to teach very difficult curricula in a short amount of time and so kids coming and going for vacation is difficult on a classroom. Tell your child to not broadcast if he/she is given special consideration to go on vacation as each case really should be discussed in private on an individual basis with vp.

Good luck, Tiger

 

[CharlesTD]

Not as of yet but when we get to the point we will not hesitate to do it.

 

[jtdl]

I did check the guidelines in her Official School Code of Conduct book she was given at the beginning of the year. It states that if a child is going to be away from school, given 3 days notice the teachers will supply the student with the work they will miss. I think 3 days is really short notice - I usually give a couple weeks. I think she'll be fine, but with all the horror stories I heard when the new Ontario curriculum was first instituted, it's kinda scary! She very rarely misses any time due to illness, so the 10 days she misses for vacation is probably less than some kids miss in any given year.

 

[marylou]

Depending on the child, depends on whether you should take them out. I have one child that we did not dare take out of school for two weeks as she would be hopelessly lost upon her return but DS16 can handle the extra work to catch up/get ahead.
I have had teachers refuse to give extra work and give enough work for a month (I swear). In grade school, I made all the kids do a journal and a running geography lesson on all the states we went through as well as the countries at Epcot. And they had to show it to the teacher when they returned.

 

[Tiger926]

It's not necessarily the work, but it's also the attitude that people can just take time off whenever they choose - I know that some families have no other choice, but the implication is there nonetheless. Most of my students have much difficulty with keeping committments, staying on schedule and respecting deadlines, so when parents continuously take kids out of school for vacation, it may send the wrong message to some students and teachers. This is why I encourage everyone to speak to their administration on an individual basis as there are extenuating circumstances that make this necessary, but in the grand scheme of things, vacationing is a luxury and not a necessity (although we could argue that it is necessary for mental health, I suppose) and that is where the problems come in with repeatedly taking kids out of school. The point of them missing work is always going to be there so you really have to know whether or not your kids can handle being away, and I have to tell you, I as a teacher am more in tune with most of my students in regards to this then their parents as some parents have no clue how behind their kids are in school but they want to go on a cruise and so that is what wins over.

Tiger

 

[kidangel]

Having never hesitated to take the kids out of elementary school, we took two of our daughters out for a week-long Disney trip in early October. (grade 9 & 11) The school year was only a month old, and it's a non-semestered school, so they were only missing the equivelant of two and a half days of their classes. Both kids are strong students.

Most of their teachers gave them homework, which was a nice gesture - we knew there was no obligation for the teachers to do so. It was a little disappointing- we left on a Tuesday, and if the teachers had given them the work on the Friday, they could have done it on the weekend before we left. Instead, all 16 teachers left it until the Monday.

Well, oh my god. The kids did homework waiting in the airport, on the plane there, on the plane back, and at one point my oldest daughter was begging us to leave Epcot so she could go back to the room and work on an essay. The whole time, I'm going "hey, if it doesn't get done and you get an F, well, there's the whole rest of the year to recover."

At the end of the trip, as we did our "family trip evaluation", the two teens informed us point blank that they didn't want to miss school for Disney again. EVER. They felt too overwhelmed, worrying about homework, to enjoy the trip. A hotel room with Mom, Dad and littlest sister was not conducive to working effectively. They felt guilty every time they went to the pool, they felt like they should have been working on homework.

On our return, as I had suspected, 12 out of 16 teachers didn't even care about the homework and hadn't really expected them to do it. In two out of 16 classes, the teachers had been away due to flu and the class had not yet been assigned what my daughter had already completed. And in one...

Daughter had missed a Math test, which she wasn't allowed to make up and got a 0 for. (that's fair, we knew the risk) On first day back, there was a second Math test that she did poorly on, due to the fact that she hadn't been in class the previous week. Her November report card, as a result, showed a 50 in Math, for a kid that had never gotten a 50 in her life. (in spite of this, her overall average was 84%)

The 50 in Math solidified that daughter's resolve (even though her mark as of today is in the 80s) No more trips to WDW during school please.

So even though I'M okay with it, and probably always will be, I have to respect the kids' wishes, and their commitment to their schooling. Looks like future trips will be mid-summer, or the week before school starts.

Shelley
************
Read my Disney blog!
http://www.movershakerbirthdaycakebaker.blogs.com/remember_the_magic

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I guess it depends on if grades are important to your children, if they're going to want to get into a challenging college. Don't think that it doesn't affect them...it does. Especially 2 weeks, but even a week can set them back quite a bit. Average students, especially, need to be able to stay on track.

I determined to set my "family vacations" around what is best for ALL members of the family. Sometimes that means going at a time that is less than optimal financially, or a bit too crowded for your liking. JMHO.

 

[hockey mom]

I pull mine out but only for 4 days at a time. I plan our trips around long weekends to minimze the amount of work missed. So far my kids have done well with this arrangement.

 

[nepean]

I guess we have been lucky. We usually go right after the New Year and it has always worked out. DD had all her school work for the first week of school done before we left. Missing a week in a non-semestered school is not that much. If a teacher gave a huge assignment I would question if all of the students were going to have the same assignment. I have found that some teachers just give a different assignment than normal class work. DD art teacher was amazing. He informed her that there was a big photography unit coming up in about two months and she should do it and be ahead. She got the assignment and is happily snapping hundreds of pictures for it. She has had lots of different locations to use and will have unique project. Math was straight forward just work ahead. History had a major research project which was going to use 2-3 weeks. English teacher assignment part of the novel work etc. The only problem we usually have is missing piano. DD is in Grade 9 RCM and we sometimes take the portable keyboard but not this trip. She wanted a total break. We know that when we get back she will not have as much free time as usual but should be caught up in a week. It all depends on the teacher. I do feel confident that DD can do this and has for the past 15 years. She is an honours student and works well on her own. I have found that teachers are under a great amount of pressure and I wouldn't dream of asking them to provide extra help for work missed. We help her ourselves. Havng said all this there is one more major item. DD is a -student with AMDEC which is Ontario's on-line high school. There are many students who are on Canadian National Sports teams, musicians, models etc. who all miss time and I think the teachers are used to it. This is not to say that they don't have dead lines to meet and if they are not met they are out.


Nepean

 

[CharlesTD]

Having never hesitated to take the kids out of elementary school, we took two of our daughters out for a week-long Disney trip in early October. (grade 9 & 11) The school year was only a month old, and it's a non-semestered school, so they were only missing the equivelant of two and a half days of their classes. Both kids are strong students.

Most of their teachers gave them homework, which was a nice gesture - we knew there was no obligation for the teachers to do so. It was a little disappointing- we left on a Tuesday, and if the teachers had given them the work on the Friday, they could have done it on the weekend before we left. Instead, all 16 teachers left it until the Monday.

Well, oh my god. The kids did homework waiting in the airport, on the plane there, on the plane back, and at one point my oldest daughter was begging us to leave Epcot so she could go back to the room and work on an essay. The whole time, I'm going "hey, if it doesn't get done and you get an F, well, there's the whole rest of the year to recover."

At the end of the trip, as we did our "family trip evaluation", the two teens informed us point blank that they didn't want to miss school for Disney again. EVER. They felt too overwhelmed, worrying about homework, to enjoy the trip. A hotel room with Mom, Dad and littlest sister was not conducive to working effectively. They felt guilty every time they went to the pool, they felt like they should have been working on homework.

On our return, as I had suspected, 12 out of 16 teachers didn't even care about the homework and hadn't really expected them to do it. In two out of 16 classes, the teachers had been away due to flu and the class had not yet been assigned what my daughter had already completed. And in one...

Daughter had missed a Math test, which she wasn't allowed to make up and got a 0 for. (that's fair, we knew the risk) On first day back, there was a second Math test that she did poorly on, due to the fact that she hadn't been in class the previous week. Her November report card, as a result, showed a 50 in Math, for a kid that had never gotten a 50 in her life. (in spite of this, her overall average was 84%)

The 50 in Math solidified that daughter's resolve (even though her mark as of today is in the 80s) No more trips to WDW during school please.

So even though I'M okay with it, and probably always will be, I have to respect the kids' wishes, and their commitment to their schooling. Looks like future trips will be mid-summer, or the week before school starts.

Shelley
************
Read my Disney blog!
http://www.movershakerbirthdaycakebaker.blogs.com/remember_the_magic

What we do for ours is set aside time in teh evening after dinner for them to do the homework. Mind you we drive and it is almost all done during the drive down and the one hotel stay we make on the trip down I75. Last trip in May we were away during provincial testing so the teacher didn't give her anything to do and she had to take the test when we returned they gave her 2 study days prior and she had no problems.

 

[crazee4mickey]

December 2004, we took all 4 kids out of school for 3 weeks(Nov. 28-Dce.17), 2 were in high school--one was in grade 12 and the other grade 10.
I gave each teacher a humourous type letter trying to rationalize our trip to WDW in September(3 months in advance-I work in a school so I know they like to have lots of notice), each teacher appreciated this and periodically I would ask if there was anything for them to do----nothing!
DS in grade 10 had to give an 80 minute presentation on his trip to WDW which covered 14 states, complete with pictures for geography---he had a great time with this as the teacher did it more for fun than anything else. He just stood up there and talked while showing pictures on a big screen.
Other than a little reading for the 2 in grade 1 and grade 2, the kids didn't have anything except wishes from all of their teachers that they have a great time--which they did!

 

[Tiger926]

Just to clarify something posted above by CharlesTD just in case other parents are thinking they can do the same thing regarding provincial testing - I am the test administrator at our high school (have been for training around the province as well as marked tests), and students under no circumstances are allowed to retake the test - not even children who have terminal illness and may miss school are allowed to retest, so certainly not for kids on vacation. Schools will get into serious trouble for deviating from any of the test protocol whatsoever. Students can retake test the following year, and if this is the last time before graduation than no vacation whatsoever should be scheduled. Just wanted to clear this up as your school absolutely should not have allowed that to happen, so I would keep that to myself but as a test administrator that does anger me a bit, especially since it was for vacation purposes. Sorry, but your school should not have done that and as a parent you never should have asked them to.

Tiger

 

[CharlesTD]

Just to clarify something posted above by CharlesTD just in case other parents are thinking they can do the same thing regarding provincial testing - I am the test administrator at our high school (have been for training around the province as well as marked tests), and students under no circumstances are allowed to retake the test - not even children who have terminal illness and may miss school are allowed to retest, so certainly not for kids on vacation. Schools will get into serious trouble for deviating from any of the test protocol whatsoever. Students can retake test the following year, and if this is the last time before graduation than no vacation whatsoever should be scheduled. Just wanted to clear this up as your school absolutely should not have allowed that to happen, so I would keep that to myself but as a test administrator that does anger me a bit, especially since it was for vacation purposes. Sorry, but your school should not have done that and as a parent you never should have asked them to.

Tiger

When we booked our trip we had no idea when the testing was we didn't find out till a month before we were leaving and there was no way in hell we were changing our plans then. The school and her teacher were fine with it and she did the test when we got home. We asked if there was any material for her to cover while away as we let the school know in Sept when we started the new school year and not even then was it brought to our attention that the test was during that time. Also not to sould preachy but this may come out wrong and sorry if it does but this is my family and I will not have a school tell me when I can and can't go on holidays with my children and her school would never dream of standing in the way of it. They feel it is great family time and a big value to the children and their parents to spend the quality time together apparently he school ranks up there is parent appreciation as is evident in what the childrens parents do for the school on thier own time and the way the schools shows it's appreciation of the parents.

 

[damo]

I have taken my kids out of elementary school for vacations but wouldn't do it for any extended period for high school. 2-3 days max. Missing two weeks is missing an entire unit. Even though I am a qualified high school math teacher and my kids' averages are in the 90's, I can easily get the kids caught up on the math that they miss but I am not a qualified Chemistry, history, etc. teacher. I respect the effort that goes into catching up on an entire unit and the material that is probably required for subsequent units.

Two weeks is just too long. Especially with semesters.

 

[Tiger926]

The dates for the test are posted in the summer of that year - so we have known that the literacy test is going to be in March since last July.

I guess we'll have to disagree on taking your kids out of school for vacation - it may be a good learning activity and family time is imporant, but kids continually taking time off of school for 2 week vacations is problematic with semesters especially. This is why many educators are tired of this type of behaviour - most parents want us to teach their kids right from wrong (because they didn't do it themselves), teach them to read when they've plain out refused to get them testing that would have helped their kids a ong time prior and allow their children to take academic credits and fail when our professional assessment has determined that this isn't the best pathway for their children, yet they threaten us to allow their children to be taken out of school for vacation. Sorry, but parents can't have it both ways - the school year is the school year and should be respected as such. I can't imagine you telling your boss that he/she better let you go on vacation or else - you wouldn't have a job. Sure there are instances when vacations may be warranted, but standardized testing is a requirement for graduation and is therefore very important, a vacation during that year can be rescheduled. I would never judge your school or your parenting skills, but there is definitely something wrong if you only found out about a standardized test that has been in place for 7 years one month before. All information can be found on the eqao website at all times throughout the year for parent and student access or by calling your school board.

Tiger

 

[CharlesTD]

The dates for the test are posted in the summer of that year - so we have known that the literacy test is going to be in March since last July.

I guess we'll have to disagree on taking your kids out of school for vacation. This is why many educators are tired of this type of behaviour - most parents want us to teach their kids right from wrong (because they didn't do it themselves), teach them to read when they've plain out refused to get them testing that will help their kids and allow their children to take academic credits and fail when our professional assessment has determined that this isn't the best pathway for their children. Sorry, but parents can't have it both ways - the school year is the school year. I can't imagine you telling your boss that he/she better let you go on vacation or else - you wouldn't have a job. And by the way, please don't say, "You pay my salary," because that's old and tired - all most teachers want to do is teach your children during the school year that is scheduled for them. Sure there are instances when vacations may be warranted, but standardized testing is a requirement for graduation and is therefore, very important, a vacation during that year can be rescheduled. I would never judge your school or your parenting skills, but there is definitely something wrong if you only found out about a standardized test that has been in place for 7 years one month before. All information can be found on the eqao website at all times throughout the year for parent and student access.

Tiger

I wasn't going to say I pay your salary because even though I do with my taxes the same can be said of myself and my job I work in teh insurance industry for TD so your bank fees and insurance premiums pay my salary just as many other people who work in some way we all pay each others salary so that argument is truly a moot point. Paiges school is a wonderful school and they encourage family holidays wether they are during the school year or otherwise it is also French Immersion which adds to the work load. I still have no quams about taking them out of school for holidays and as for the telling my boss I want my holidays they to are very good at making every effort to fit in all the requests people make. I have even turned down jobs because of holiday dilemas. My family holidays are very important to myself and my family it is the time I get to spend with them together. I work afternoons and my wife works days we see each other about 15 minutes a day and I see the kids even less so our time together is important and the schools understands this and has no problem at all with our holiday schedules regardless of testing schedules we will agree to disagree on this issue and that is fine as we are all supposed to have opinions on things wether they are the same or different that is what makes the world great.

 

[Tiger926]

Sorry, you read my post too soon as I didn't mean to put in the paying salary comment as it didn't sound right. I will agree with you on one thing though, family vacations are very important (and it sounds like in your case they are even more so as shift work takes its toll on many busy families), but just as your family vacation is very important, so is my family vacation time with my child and husband, but my job doesn't allow me to take any vacation time during the year because I need to be available to teach your child and the best way for me to do this is to be available on a consistent basis and be totally committed to my vocation as teacher. The only way for this to happen is for me to be there during the school year. We as teachers ask that parents respect this as it makes us feel that our roles as teachers aren't valued because believe me, most teachers (especially those of us who go to Disney World often) would love to be able to take family vacations during the year instead of at peak times, but we can't and that is fine as it allows for us to be there to teach on a consistent basis. I know of teachers who can't take any family vacation time at all because their spouse's jobs only dictate vacations throughout the year. I bet parents would be up in arms (as they should be if this happened) if school boards allowed us to take vacations during the year. Just a different persective for you to think about.

Hope all goes well for your child in school this year, Tiger