online classes on Labor Day??

[kristin0713]

I guess this is a thing?  We are doing several live online classes this year for the first time.  CLRC and AIM Academy both appear to have class on Labor Day.  (CLRC told me it is up to the instructor.  I haven't heard back from AIM, but their calendar does not list it as a holiday.)  I'm so surprised!  I grew up not even going back to school until after Labor Day.  I don't mind starting my kids in August, but...I kind of feel like it's akin to having them do school on the Fourth of July!  

[Dmmetler]

Federal holidays always being on Monday is a real pain for once a week classes, because if you don't take the holidays, a lot of people will miss them, and if you do, your Monday class either sticks over the end or has fewer sessions. This can be a real problem, especially in fall where you have Thanksgiving and Christmas which are hard breaks, plus many instructors have kids of their own and ha e to deal with fall break schedules. Schools that don't begin until after Labor Day generally are either closing out a semester in late Jan, or are doing shorter semesters (as many colleges do). Neither works well for high school online semester classes where they really need to be enough sessions to be credit worthy and often students are changing their schedule almost entirely for the second term.

 

 

[JennyD]

The university where I teach has classes on Labor Day.  

[kristin0713]

4 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Federal holidays always being on Monday is a real pain for once a week classes, because if you don't take the holidays, a lot of people will miss them, and if you do, your Monday class either sticks over the end or has fewer sessions. This can be a real problem, especially in fall where you have Thanksgiving and Christmas which are hard breaks, plus many instructors have kids of their own and ha e to deal with fall break schedules. Schools that don't begin until after Labor Day generally are either closing out a semester in late Jan, or are doing shorter semesters (as many colleges do). Neither works well for high school online semester classes where they really need to be enough sessions to be credit worthy and often students are changing their schedule almost entirely for the second term.

 

 

This makes perfect sense.  CLRC has three weeks off over Christmas which is a really nice break, but they have to get the days in somewhere.  

I'm glad I'm realizing this now so I can just plan for it.  I won't have them miss class, but since we are currently living with my parents, there will most certainly be a BBQ going on in the back yard that day. 

[cintinative]

One provider we have used sets it up that if you have class on Monday you watch a recording of another class session. The problem is that the homework is still due the same day as normal, but you might not be able to watch the video until a couple of days after your normal class day. It seriously stressed my kid out the first year we took a class with them because we didn't know when the class would be available to view. 

[kristin0713]

7 minutes ago, cintinative said:

The problem is that the homework is still due the same day as normal

Yeah, it would be more trouble than it's worth just for a day off and a BBQ.  They will still have work due for other classes that week, too.  I guess that is one problem with outsourcing with several different programs.  

[teachermom2834]

MPOA did that last year and a lot of people complained but I get it. They have several sections of the same class all on the same schedule and taking Monday off but not the rest of the week really makes it complicated. With MPOA it was all or nothing. Either the whole week off (Thanksgiving and Easter) or days off.