I put this on the General forum but thought some parents here might be interested. One thing to note, not all kids get "walk and talk" for the entire recess - it can be assigned in laps or in times.
Here goes:
Many of us have kids who still NEED that time at recess to let out excess energy. It still seems to be the reaction of school to take recess away if a child has not gotten work done or has not been paying attention.
I have never seen any time when this resulted in a child who paid attention better after recess, and i challenge anyone who says that they have to prove it. It just makes no sense.
Our state legislature passed a law a few years back that says that recess may not be removed for lack of performance in the classroom. Children must be taken to recess unless certain temperatures are met or storms/snow are present.
WHAT would a teacher do if they couldn't remove recess?? MANY of our teachers had FITS over this because they had removed recess for decades.
Now we have "walk and talk" recess for anyone in trouble. A playground monitor will keep kids in trouble walking in a big circuit around the playground. Not in the way of games, but making a big loop around. they can speak quietly to anyone walking near them, but they MUST walk for the entire recess unless they need a drink (many kids take water bottles to recess, and if they are doing walk and talk they must take a bottle with them per school rules).
It does a LOT of good. The "free choice" aspect is taken away. Kids still have a chance to work on social skills via the talk aspect. Kids work out those wiggles at an appropriate time. Teachers find a LOT better behavior from those kids in the afternoon. There is a lot less resentment of the teachers. Performance in classes after school has gotten much better. The people who teach "specials", aka art, music, etc... stay a lot longer witht he school district because the kids are a lot more pleasant than when recess was taken away.
It is somthing that you may want to suggest to your children's teachers, or the entire school, as an alternative to taking away recess.
I noticed that a couple of kids have already lost recess and thought I would post this so that all of uss could try to get our schools to use this instead.
Here goes:
Many of us have kids who still NEED that time at recess to let out excess energy. It still seems to be the reaction of school to take recess away if a child has not gotten work done or has not been paying attention.
I have never seen any time when this resulted in a child who paid attention better after recess, and i challenge anyone who says that they have to prove it. It just makes no sense.
Our state legislature passed a law a few years back that says that recess may not be removed for lack of performance in the classroom. Children must be taken to recess unless certain temperatures are met or storms/snow are present.
WHAT would a teacher do if they couldn't remove recess?? MANY of our teachers had FITS over this because they had removed recess for decades.
Now we have "walk and talk" recess for anyone in trouble. A playground monitor will keep kids in trouble walking in a big circuit around the playground. Not in the way of games, but making a big loop around. they can speak quietly to anyone walking near them, but they MUST walk for the entire recess unless they need a drink (many kids take water bottles to recess, and if they are doing walk and talk they must take a bottle with them per school rules).
It does a LOT of good. The "free choice" aspect is taken away. Kids still have a chance to work on social skills via the talk aspect. Kids work out those wiggles at an appropriate time. Teachers find a LOT better behavior from those kids in the afternoon. There is a lot less resentment of the teachers. Performance in classes after school has gotten much better. The people who teach "specials", aka art, music, etc... stay a lot longer witht he school district because the kids are a lot more pleasant than when recess was taken away.
It is somthing that you may want to suggest to your children's teachers, or the entire school, as an alternative to taking away recess.
I noticed that a couple of kids have already lost recess and thought I would post this so that all of uss could try to get our schools to use this instead.
