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Teachers Suggest Ways To Use Time During Longer School Day

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A group of Chicago Public Schools teachers have made suggestions on ways to best use the extra 90 minutes being added to each school day starting next year.

As WBBM Newsradio's Pat Cassidy reports, 11 teachers involved with the group "Voices, Ideas, Vision, Action," or VIVA, used input from a total of 600 other teachers to present a list of 49 ideas to school chief executive officer Jean-Claude Brizard, and some are pretty creative, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Pat Cassidy reports

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Among the ideas are that the Chicago Public Schools should begin the day with clubs or extracurricular activities to get kids to show up on time, double physical education periods even if it means students climbing stairs, or have recess that parents could supervise, the Sun-Times reports.

Another suggestion involves doubling math minutes and increasing art and music. Opening computer labs early, and requiring high school freshmen to take technology courses in such subjects as Web design and PhotoShop, are also among the suggestions.

The idea one deemed most "controversial" involves making all schools year-round, with all schools air-conditioned, the Sun-Times reports.

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