Take a minute and help a teacher - quick question

[DCbride]

My school where I teach (South Jersey) follows this schedule for specials:

a six day cycle with 40 minutes for each special

gym meets with students 3x in 6 day cycle and art, music, spanish each get one day

library is schedule for the language arts teacher (2 homerooms team teach- 1 LA/SS the other Math/Sci) gets a 40 min period for each of her classes every 2 weeks

each 6 day cycle both teachers have a 40 min computer time where they drop kids off so they have 1 extra pd in a cycle for team planning

band and chorus meet the last 20 min of the day

I teach gifted and talented and hate the years that I have to defend my position! Good Luck!

 

[poohs_hunny]

Third grade teacher from CT here! Our specials times are as follows:
Music - 1 hour per week
Art - 45 minutes per week
Gym - 1 hour per week
Computer Lab - 35 minutes per week (scheduled time with teacher - is available for additional time if wanted)
Library - 30 minutes per week

Good luck!!

 

[Aliceacc]

I'm a secondary math teacher on Long Island.

My kids have a 40 minute special each day. Gym twice a week, music, art and library each once.

But I think you're asking the wrong question.

I think that even if you have evidence that most other schools have double the time yours does, the answer will still be that: a) something has to be cut and b) "specials" aren't on the NCLB list of priorities.

I think you should be doing research showing the importance of the material you teach. Find studies that link music training to math or language performance. Find out how many of the Intel semi-finalists also play an instrument. Find all the literature that shows that kids who learn to exercise early tend to make a lifelong habit of it, and that these adults are less likely to suffer from weight-related problems like diabetes and high blood pressure.

Speak to them in the language they want to hear. Show them that cutting specials will negatively impact test scores or will do some other measureable harm to the kids.

Good luck!!

 

[smphbear]

I teach at a private school in Louisiana. We are PK3 - 8 with right at 700 students.

K - 3 all go to PE 2 days a week. We have a computer lab that these students use with a computerized program to work with them on their level in Math and Reading every day. They go to Art every day for half of the school year. They attend Spanish every day for half of the year.
3 - goes to Band to learn to basic music and play the recorder

4 - Attend PE 2 days a week. They come to my computer lab 2 days a week for 45 mins. to learn the use of computers, programs, and peripherals.
Spanish, Art, and Band are the available electives. Band is for the full year. Art and Spanish are taken for half the year.

5- 8 They attend PE for half the year. They come to my computer lab for half the year. They get to choose from Band, Art, Spanish, and Journalism as electives. We also have a tutorial class for those who need additional help. The kids need permission to attend tutorial.

Good luck! These classes are really important for the kids.

 

[Aliceacc]

Here's the kind of stuff I'm talking about:

http://www.amc-music.com/research_briefs.htm

One small sample from the link:

"Middle school and high school students who participated in instrumental music scored significantly higher than their non-band peers in standardized tests. University studies conducted in Georgia and Texas found significant correlations between the number of years of instrumental music instruction and academic achievement in math, science and language arts.
Source: University of Sarasota Study, Jeffrey Lynn Kluball; East Texas State University Study, Daryl Erick Trent"

Get more info like that-- how is an administrator going to argue that the kids should NOT get that instrumental music instruction if it will help those all powerful standardized test scores???

Here's another study:
http://www.kansan.com/news/2007/jul/11/music_program_quality_and_test_scores_linked/

 

[Stephres]

about 30 min's of PE everyday. i would say all these others are 30 min one day per week: music, art, library, computer room

We are in a public school in Florida with the same schedule, except they combine library/computer lab.