End of summer vacation :(

[pirate]

I probably won't get much sympathy here other than from fellow educators, but my summer vacation ended today. Tomorrow is the first day of school, and it's back to work. Hard to believe that the summer break is over, I don't know where it went. I'm looking forward to a new school year and seeing the kids. For the most part, we have great kids in our system, and I enjoy working with them.
Got some great trips in on the Nomad this summer. We went to the Black Hills of SD, Fergus Falls, MN; Teddy Roosevelt National Park here in ND, and many local rides. So far I've got 6900 miles on the Nomad since May, so my goal of 10000 miles in a summer is still a ways off, but attainable. My riding time gets greatly reduced now once school starts, and our riding season usually ends around Halloween time.
To all fellow educators, have a great new school year! And to everyone else, ride on!!

PC

[MarkG]

Be happy that you don't teach in Chandler, AZ. School ended the beginning of June and started in late July. Kids can't even get a summer job with just a few weeks off. Your riding mileage would have been greatly reduced in this district. Glad my son is in college, he finally has a real summer vacation.

School starts here today. Everyone be a little extra vigilant for the little ones.

[revmrq]

Where did Summer go???? We started last week. I also drive a bus for the school. I was going to pick up my first Student, when a sad realization came over me. I realized that if I picked her up, Summer vacation was officially over for me. :'( Well only 169 days to go after today.
On a serious note, have a good and safe school year.

MarkG...are you on a 'year around' school yr? We used to be when my daughter went to school...I'm glad they changed it...but it is still a short summer...june 18 to aug 6th...it's kind of a combo traditional and yr round schedule...

[pirate]

Wow, that is a short summer for many kids. I won't take our full three months off for granted!

[MarkG]

Yes Sue, Chandler goes year around. Seems like there are breaks every few weeks, which causes all sorts of havoc with parent's schedules. Several of the other districts stay on the standard school year. IMO, it really screws the kids and the teachers in the long run. The kids don't have the chance to play, socialize, get summer jobs as they get older, and a host of other things. Teachers that would go and get specialized training, don't bother either.

Things get really confused when they belong to organizations with other kids being on a different school schedule. My son's grades dropped off in high school because he lost all motivation and just didn't give a crap anymore. His first year of college was pretty rough because of it. I think this year will be a little better for him. After a real summer break, he is actually looking forward to going back to college.

Guess I can identify with the students. I finished my Bachelors, then went on for my Masters and completed it in 2007. The two degrees took four years with no break doing it the University of Phoenix route. At most, I got a week off every now and then. Even as an adult, I had to work at staying motivated. A lot of people dropped out because they couldn't take the continuous pressure.

I think it is wrong to have the year around school for elementary, junior high, and high school students. Let them be children for a while. For all the teachers out there on the traditional program, fight to keep it. The hype about students forgetting things over the summer is so much crap. All of the parents will thank you for it. My wife and I are glad we don't have to go through the hassle anymore. All we have to do is get my son packed and wave goodbye as he goes back to Flagstaff for his 2nd year of college the end of the week.

[rksaw]

I think "year round" is difficult too, however, I do think a shorter summer just a little longer than Sue was talking about would be good (Mid-June to Mid-August?). To make up for the time I think students should get a full week off at Thanksgiving, three weeks off at Christmas/New Years and two weeks off for Spring break.

I do know that I am glad summer is almost over...my kids are getting bored and are ready to go back to school!

[ells]

A friend of mine just retired from teaching grade school. This is the first fall since she was 6-years old, 50 years ago, that fall didn't mean going back to school for her.

[cactusjack]

Many thanks to you and the other educators here who perform one of the most important, yet underappreciated jobs in our society.

+1 for that!!!

Yeah...I didn't like year round either...since here in ca some schools were and some weren't...and so maybe one of your children would be reg and one would be yr round..I think that is one of the reasons they changed it to what it is today!

[cactusjack]

They had the elementary schools on year round in our district in Utah, but the middle and senior high schools were on a traditional schedule. I had kids in all 3 schools and it was a huge PITA! The older kids were in school when the youngest was off-track, so instead of them watching him, we'd have to take him to a daycare, and they didn't like just having them for a short period of time, nothing but hassles. Every time he was off-track, they'd charge us an registration fee for the daycare because he didn't go there regularly.

[coacha]

Didn't see this thread till today. I've been back since August 4th. Teachers came back the 11th, kids on the 18th. We have already had one 1/2 day and one day cancelled due to the storm so my planned trip south over Thanksgiving may be cut short.

[hollywood]

Yep - I go back to work officially tomorrow - ugh. Back in the Saddle Again. I also did a bunch of riding this summer and I have 2 more trips to look forward to - Hill Country of Tx this weekend and Lonestar at the end of Oct.

The bike keeps me sane for my students

[coacha]

Amen on the sanity claim hollywood. Being a dean, I only see the troubled ones and sometimes that weekend ride gets me reoriented for the coming week.