The Holiday Rush on Learning

At my school, we have a semester system with two semesters of perfectly equal length.  One of them begins in August and ends with final exams in January.  This system, with final exams falling after the Winter Break has taken some getting used to for me.  It makes the time between Thanksgiving and Winter breaks different than my academic experiences.  It was always a time of rushed work, stressful tests, racing to get to that endpoint when I drop it all and then headed off to vacation.  That "freedom" was a joy of the vacation. 

But here, we calmly re-enter academic life after  a four day weekend of giving thanks.  Then, we have three full weeks of classes.  They are "normal", the pace is not hurried (or any more so than usual). When we break again the students are not given permission to drop it all, as they have tests to prepare for in January about a week after their return. 

In the past, I have tended to grumble about this thinking that the kids need a break, they need to go out and be kids over the vacation.  But the more I learn about teaching and learning, the more I think maybe it is a good thing that they are held accountable for their learning up to and through the holidays.  If we hope that what we teach is enduring and transferable, shouldn't they be able to communicate all that they have learned since August in January with little or not attention to it over the break? Yes!

Coming Soon:  What does this mean for Final Exams?  What should they look like in this set-up?  Does it nudge us to make them more meaningful?  (I think so!)