Best of April 07

"180?" was a great blog/presentation. I thought it was really interesting how the teachers both saw the differences in the classroom and how this project was inspired because of one classroom's reaction to the "Shift Happens" video. The slide show for 180? days simply takes a look at whether students actually get 180 days worth of instructional time. Once you subtract all the time that we take off for getting class going, wrapping it up, and everything in between, actual instruction time is cut down to 120 days. And is that really enough time to get everything that we're supposed to accomplish throughout a school year done?

It's an interesting question, and I really don't feel like 120 days is enough time to complete everything that needs to be completed in the classroom. Students need time to adjust and time to actually sit down and understand all the different aspects of their classroom, and with 60 days (on average) that each child misses instructional time, they really are given less opportunities to do their best.