Movies at School??? - Page 3

[bobandjess99]

Yes, they show them here. ti gets really cold here..and they cant send kids out if it gets below a certain temp..i cant remember what...so they stay in and watch movies.

[Tigerchild]

Originally Posted by ecoteat

I'm surprised by the number of schools that send kids back to their rooms for indoor recess. Don't they have gyms? Or are they the multi-purpose room type that has a different group of kids eating lunch in there at that time? At my school the kids use the gym during indoor recess since they don't eat lunch in there--the art room is also the lunch room.

At our school, the gym is being used for gym class during the recesses. The recess times are staggered by grade, so there are only 2 grades out at a time (there are 3 lunch time recess periods).

There is no cafeteria--students each lunch in their rooms or in the common areas outside the rooms (or outside, near their rooms if the teacher is okay with it).

[ecoteat]

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

At our school, the gym is being used for gym class during the recesses. The recess times are staggered by grade, so there are only 2 grades out at a time (there are 3 lunch time recess periods).

There is no cafeteria--students each lunch in their rooms or in the common areas outside the rooms (or outside, near their rooms if the teacher is okay with it).

Oh right--there are gym classes in the gym too.

I'm finding people description of how their schools handle lunch, recess, and PE so interesting. We are a tiny school with 5 PE classes being taught on the days the teacher is here. There are 2 lunches and 2 recesses and the K-4 kids and 5-8 kids just swap locations after 30 minutes. There are no classes happening during that hour.

[bandgeek]

Originally Posted by kimellett

DH commented that the logic of cancelling recess (when kids get energy out!) and plopping them in front of a tv is severely lacking....

I agree. When I was a kid, they'd have us in the gym for recess (when it was free). Or move the tables and play duck, duck goose in the center of the room, or do a craft project or some other activity where we were allowed to get up and roam the room a bit. Sitting them in front of a TV doesn't help them get out that energy which is the POINT of recess.

[prairiebird]

My Kinder gardener has a movie every Friday, every rainy recess, and they show a movie every morning when the kids are getting to school and have to wait in the mutli-purpose room. It's really annoying, but I don't think there's anything I could say to make a dent in that. If I complained, they'd probably send her to sit in the pricipal's office by the secretary to color or something.

So I understand how you feel, I just don't know how to approach it. I wish they would do alternative things, like offer games or free time or something. But my DD's K class doesn't even have toys in the room other than the math manipulatives, so I'm wondering if they don't have any free-play type games either; just ones associated with lessons.

(She's actually my only one in a public school right now, and it's one of the reasons I ended up pulling my older ones out to homeschool (along with all the candy they were getting- it was ridiculous!). Obviously, that's not an option or a desire for everyone, but I'm hoping there's some step you can take.)

[kimellett]

After addressing it with the teacher twice (and obviously not getting anywhere!) I sent an email to the principal.

In the last 2 months, she has shown Ice Age (whole movie), Peanuts Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas specials, Grinch, Rudolph, some movie about frogs who wear clothes (DS didn't know the name) some movie about dogs on a airplane (DS didn't know that one either), Polar Express (whole movie) and possibly one or two more I'm forgetting. None of these are educational (she showed Polar Express, then read the book to the kids, and had them vote which they liked better, then made a graph--seems like a pretty big stretch to make it educational and there have to be other "movie-less" ways to reach that objective!).

Anyway, it's not going to be my hill to die on, but as it's only Jan, there are at least 4 more months of cold/wet/snowy weather, and I don't want every day to be movie day!! I am all about a movie here or there as a treat, and we like to watch a movie as a family once a month or so, but it stops being a special treat for us when he's watching them all the time at school.

We'll see what the principal says...

[Rosebud1]

Kimellet, what did the teacher say when you spoke to her?

I agree, this is excessive! She's got to get a little more creative.

[MamaMonica]

When my son was in public K they watched educational movies a few times a week. Which is a lot considering he was only there 2 1/2 hours a day. I thought they could have gotten by without TV for 2 1/2 hours, or maybe watched one once a week at the most. I also came in on the tail end of an educational reading movie, which didn't seem that educational to me and had advertisements encouraging them to buy Scholastic books. It seemed less about reading and more about selling stuff to impressionable five year olds.

He did not go back to that school for first grade.

[kimellett]

Originally Posted by Rosebud1

Kimellet, what did the teacher say when you spoke to her?

The first time, she agreed, and said that she'd only show educational movies, and that the other kindy teacher put Ice Age in, and so both classes watched. The second time she said something like "well, I need my break/plan time, and the gym is not often available, so I have to do something to keep them occupied".

Still no reply from the principal, and it's been 2 days since I sent the email. How long to wait?

BTW, DH is a teacher at the same school, so I have to tread lightly...

[St. Margaret]

The kindy classes at the school up the street show 30 minutes of TV every day! My neighbors (who are pretty crunchy) were so angry, and it was presented in a very dishonest way-- first it was just b/c they wanted the teacher to do one on one evals of kids after school started, when they had a relationship with her... then it was going to be during evals throughout the year... but it ended up being all year long. This is a major reason we're not going to be using that school when DD is of age. Oh, and the TV they show is just random stuff like a PBS kids show, nothing educationally tied to the curriculum.

I teach high school, and certain schools have really hammered us NOT to show films unless they're directly tied to curriculum. I certainly show the film versions of the books we read, to sort of buy time as the kids are finishing revising essays for homework (I don't like to start a new unit while they're still sweating their essays). Plus it brings the books to life, we can cover the compare/contrast genres standards, etc. And it's one movie for 14 year olds every couple months. I do show Romeo and Juliet 20 minutes or so at a time, every day, but Shakespeare was meant to be performed/watched, not read.

I think it's bound to happen that elementary kids will see short bits of TV and movies every once in a while, and no notice will be given, but there definitely are excessive uses of TV going on in schools, too.