Movies in school

OK, my boys are in a half-day Kindergarten. It's 3-3 1/2 hours. They've been coming home telling me that they watched a movie during school. Yesterday, they came home and said they'd watched 2. Granted, they are being kept indoors because the smoke from all the fires is so horrible, but 2 feature length movies!? That's pretty much the entire day! How about reading them a book? Doing a special craft?

I guess my real question is, who do I complain to about this? Do I send an email to the teacher? Call the principal? The PTA? I do think that the school is great and everything, but if they honestly can't do better than plopping the kids down in front of cartoons (Peter Pan and Scooby Doo were yesterday's offerings), then maybe they need to ask for more parent help or hire assistants?!

And then there is the constant fund-raising. I understand that the school's need money, but they are using the kids to do so much of the work. For instance they give out "Seal Bucks" for good behavior (a seal is the school mascot). If they get 20 Seal Bucks they get a prize from the treasure box. Fine, it's incentive for good behavior, I'm all for that. But, yesterday my boys came home and said they would give them each a Seal Buck if they brought a baked good to the bake sale this weekend. That does not sit right with me. The school (or PTA) can ask ME for that, but to spend class time dangling what should be behavior-based rewards as incentive to pressure the parents seems so wrong!

:angry:

 

Personally, I think I would first talk to the teacher about it. There is no reason that they shouldn't be doing something more productive. A craft, reading books, maybe tumble time in the gym or something. I can understand sometimes, but not two movies in a row! If you don't get anywhere with the teacher, then go to the principal. (Of course, not having school age children, I am just coming from what I hear from my sisters).

 

I guess I don't understand what they would be missing from the fires? If they are only in 1/2 day kindergarten, then I don't know why a recess would be warranted? If it was, then it shouldn't be equivalent to a feature length movie!

Did you get a curriculum for their day? If so, can you see things that the movie would be replacing?

Our schools, both the daycare & grade school will do a movie if the weather is bad outside - ONLY - if the gym is already occupied. Most of the teachers I've talked to would rather let the kids do a physical release anyway, instead of plopping them in front of a TV.

Honestly, I can't come up for any reason for 1/2 day K to spend so much time in front of the TV. They shouldn't really have recess, and their teacher shouldn't require a "planning" time during the 3.5 hours. Unless I'm missing something, I would approach the principal about the curriculum.

 

I just emailed the teacher and will wait to hear back from her before I contact the principal.

ETA: Thanks for the feedback -- it's good to know I'm not completely mis-reading this. And edited again to say that I just posted as you posted, Amy. Thanks for the teacher feedback. Exactly what I was hoping for! And I'm relieved that I did what you would hope I would do.

 

For the movies I would contact the teacher first. As a former teacher it really bothered me when parents bypassed me and went straight to the principal. The teacher can let you know why they are watching the movies. Do they go along with the curriculum? If you are not satisfied after speaking to the teacher, then contact the principal. I would think 2 movies in one day is a bit much though.

ETA-We posted at the same time.

 

I hope you get a satifactory answer from the teacher. I would actually assume with all the fires going on that there might be a lot of kids missing from class and they don't want the kids to get left behind by continuing on with school work. I agree they could be spending the time doing fun crafts or something better than 2 movies. As for using the gym, with all the smoke in the air it may not be safe to have the kids exerting themselves to much even indoors. I have a hard enough time breathing next to a campfire and I only have very mild asthma like symptoms, I don't know what I would be doing there.

 

OK, I just got off the phone with the teacher. Turns out, despite trying really hard to get the kids to clarify just how much of the movies they actually saw, they only watched 10 minutes before lunch and 10 minutes after. That's the time they would normally be running around the playground. The teacher was very nice and agreed that maybe some nature videos or other educational shows might be a better choice, but, like Jenn assumed, being out of school the first part of the week and inside all week has been really hard on the kids and the teachers wanted to give them a treat. Fine, I totally understand and agree. This has been a tough week. I wasn't concerned so much about this week in particular, but the fact that it seemed to be a regular thing. And, that's true, but only 10 minutes and only on days when the kids can't go outside because of rain or whatever.

It's also good to remember that no matter how sure I am that my kids are telling me everything, it's safe to assume that a lot is getting lost in the telling.

 

Huh--it surprises me to hear that they are watching any TV in school, especially in only a half-day class....

 

I'm glad you got some clarification!

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Oct 25 2007, 05:27 PM) [snapback]467310[/snapback]
It's also good to remember that no matter how sure I am that my kids are telling me everything, it's safe to assume that a lot is getting lost in the telling.


You are so right on this one! That is good advice for us all to remember.

 

I'm glad it wasn't as bad as you thought. I used to go in to Jackson's 1st grade class every few weeks to help, and it astounded me how many times the teacher put on a movie! There I was, willing to help, and there were kids in that class who still couldn't count past 10 (honest!), and she was having them watch Air Bud! I guess I should thank her, because she's the reason we transferred Jackson to the gifted school, and it's outstanding.

QUOTE
If they get 20 Seal Bucks they get a prize from the treasure box. Fine, it's incentive for good behavior, I'm all for that. But, yesterday my boys came home and said they would give them each a Seal Buck if they brought a baked good to the bake sale this weekend. That does not sit right with me.


Jackson's current teacher does something similar. She requested magazines and board games for her classroom for rainy-day recess, and when I sent a few items, Jackson told me he'd get a certain number of "tickets" for each thing I sent, which later can be redeemed for prizes. I like positive reinforcement, too, but it's not fair to the kids who's parents don't have the time/money/desire to participate in that way.

 

I'm glad you found out it wasn't the full movie they were watching. I can understand that the fires caused a bit of scrambling for what to do during recess. I know at our school two days ago, the district faxed a memo saying the kids had to be kept in during recess and lunch and it was announced after school had started, so the teachers didn't know about it ahead of time. I think going to the teacher first was definitely the right thing to do. As summerfun mentioned, teachers often are frustrated when we parents go above their heads without giving them a chance to discuss it first and it's always best to try and stay on good terms with the teacher. Also, the PTA would most likely not have been able to help you with something like this. As for the fundraising issue, I can understand your frustration, but I know what it's like being on the PTA side of things as well. I've been the PTA president at our school for the last two years and we do often offer incentives to the kids for fundraising. It can be so difficult to get parent participation and usually if you get the kids excited about stuff, they go home and talk to their parents and the parents are more likely to respond than if we just send home a flier. I have to admit, though, that it can be especially difficult when you have twins and you want each of them to be getting the incentive prizes which usually means buying even more stuff that you really don't need. This year we tried doing a jog-a-thon as our first fundraiser and we'd hoped that we'd raise enough money that we wouldn't have to do many other fundraisers the rest of the year, but we only had 180 kids out of 480 return pledges. The PTA at our school helps pay for a P.E. program and also provides assemblies and other programs to supplement the stuff the school provides, so fundraising is really important. Okay, I'll get off my soap box now. :FIFblush:

 

I quietly fought the "movies in school" thing when my kids were in first grade and won rather easily.

Movies had been a staple of indoor recess, typically with a couple of classes getting together to watch. The rule was that only "G" movies were allowed, but the rule was largely ignored, resulting in my kids, who were very sensitive to scary stuff, coming home from school traumatized by having seen "Spy Kids", a PG movie (and frankly, rating has little to do with it, as another mother told me her child had found "Finding Nemo" too scary).

In this case, I DID bypass the teacher and go to the principal, because it was a school-wide activity: all of the classes were watching movies in one classroom or another on indoor-recess days.

The principal was pretty shocked that the kids were watching PG-movies, and was just as concerned when I told him that it is actually illegal -- in all states -- to show movies in school UNLESS they are being shown for educational purposes, or unless permission has been sought and granted by the studio. It's a violation of federal copyright law. It's fine to show a movie as part of the curriculum, but NOT as entertainment.

Here's a good link:

http://www.movlic.com/k12/faqs.html

Hope this helps! Our kids now play quiet games or do arts and crafts during indoor recess time.

 

I was actually given that link at a recent PTA Presidents' meeting because sometimes PTA's will offer a movie screening to raise money or to have as a prize for classes that raise the most money in membership drives or fundraisers and they were telling us we need to subscribe on that web site so that we're covered legally for showing movies.

 

very interesting! Thanks

 

QUOTE(Jennifer916 @ Oct 26 2007, 08:23 PM) [snapback]468991[/snapback]
I'm glad you found out it wasn't the full movie they were watching. I can understand that the fires caused a bit of scrambling for what to do during recess. I know at our school two days ago, the district faxed a memo saying the kids had to be kept in during recess and lunch and it was announced after school had started, so the teachers didn't know about it ahead of time. I think going to the teacher first was definitely the right thing to do. As summerfun mentioned, teachers often are frustrated when we parents go above their heads without giving them a chance to discuss it first and it's always best to try and stay on good terms with the teacher. Also, the PTA would most likely not have been able to help you with something like this. As for the fundraising issue, I can understand your frustration, but I know what it's like being on the PTA side of things as well. I've been the PTA president at our school for the last two years and we do often offer incentives to the kids for fundraising. It can be so difficult to get parent participation and usually if you get the kids excited about stuff, they go home and talk to their parents and the parents are more likely to respond than if we just send home a flier. I have to admit, though, that it can be especially difficult when you have twins and you want each of them to be getting the incentive prizes which usually means buying even more stuff that you really don't need. This year we tried doing a jog-a-thon as our first fundraiser and we'd hoped that we'd raise enough money that we wouldn't have to do many other fundraisers the rest of the year, but we only had 180 kids out of 480 return pledges. The PTA at our school helps pay for a P.E. program and also provides assemblies and other programs to supplement the stuff the school provides, so fundraising is really important. Okay, I'll get off my soap box now. :FIFblush:
Ditto to most everything Jennifer said.

However, as a PTA parent (and I served on the exec board for several years), I was never a fan of fundraising in any capacity. Parents complain to no end about it and, truthfully, I did too. However, we tried instituting a once per year donation to the school PTA fund and it failed miserably. When they weren't getting anything tangible in return, parents did not want to contribute. I personally was happy to write a check as a donation to the PTA and be done with it, but amazingly many people did not feel the same. So back to fundraising it was. Ugh. A necessary evil here. At the middle and high schools, there is a foundation which does a telephone drive for donations once per year. It is very successful and raises a lot of money without those silly fundraisers.

Our teachers at the elementary level rarely used movies for the kids except in an extreme situation. All had games and activities the kids could do while stuck inside on a rainy day or whatever. At least it wasn't as bad as you had feared. Our school district seems to be pretty strict about the whole movie thing as well. We have to sign a paper listing approved movies choices and when they might be shown throughout the year. It's really a pretty rare occurrence.

 

Ellen, have you ever heard a teacher say, "I promise not to believe everything your children say happened at home if you promise not to believe everything they say happened in school."? And like you said, it's pulling the details all together from what they tell you that's tricky!

I was glad to see someone point out the copyright issue. As a school librarian, I feel like I'm often on my own with that. Our district did purchase a license agreement, which relieves me of a lot of worry, but I still have problems with teachers wanting to show movies that belong to students -- that's a big NO!

 

I teach third grade and am not a fan of filling time with videos. I play maybe 1-2 "fun" movies a year that students earn through good behavior. These are owned by the district, not students and actually have some educational value-ie "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which we watched after reading the book and then did a compare/contrast activity. There are so many educational videos out there to play instead. Our librarian is trying to get our PTA to provide funds to order more math videos so that is an option for "filling" unexpected time slots like cancelled specialists.