School schedule proposal

[Macintosh Sauce]

I am going to be posting this on my personal blog on Monday afternoon...

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School Schedule Proposal

http://www.jamesnrhodes.com/personal/schoolscheuleproposal1-reflection-small.png

From what I experienced during my high school years (Grades 10, 11, 12), this weekend I realised that the American academic schedule needs to be changed radically and as soon as possible. The current ways of scheduling are not working very well.

I cannot fathom why many middle/high schools think it is good to start classes at 7:30 a.m. and end the day at 2:30 p.m. with only 30 minutes for lunch for students and teachers. When I was in high school, we started classes at 9:00 a.m. and got out at 3:30 p.m., and yet we still had one hour for lunch. No wonder many students and teachers are so completely burned out in today’s public school system.

A one-hour lunch allows students to:


Relax before their afternoon classes;
Complete their morning homework during lunchtime; or,
Play in some sport activity during lunchtime.
When you think about how stressed out teachers are today with so many demands being placed upon them, this hour long lunch break would do wonders for many teachers as well. Thirty minutes is just not enough time for a teacher to relax and have lunch.

Last night I devised a new schedule that I hope many middle/high schools would seriously consider implementing. In my proposal, I have listed only four periods per weekday. There is a 10 minute break in between Periods 1 & 2, and Periods 3 & 4, to allow all students to make it to their next class on time. I have seen schedules with only five to seven minutes in between classes, which is not enough time for students to another class. This is especially true for disabled students.

As you can see in the graphic above, a student would only take four classes per day for one semester. So with there being two semesters per year, a student would complete eight courses per academic year.

An 80 minute class allows a teacher to properly engage students with lessons that have more substance to them. A 50 minute class does not leave much time to teach anything in great detail.

Also, an 80 minute class allows students to complete assignments during the class. This lets a student seek help if they are having a problem with the course material. For example, this would benefit Mathematics students greatly.

School administrators and teachers also have to realise that most households have one or two parents working until 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. By letting students out later in the day at 3:40 p.m., the chance of students getting into trouble is decreased dramatically.

Can schools change the academic schedule? All it takes is some courage to implement it, and one will see the results of it within weeks.

[whistlerspa]

I have worked for over 10 years in a school which has this type of timetable with 80 minutes. It is not great and we quickly abandoned the two afternoon periods for just one after lunch due to the poor concentration by students in the afternoons. Ditto the idea of 10 minute breaks and we now have only the one between period 2 and 3 (and an interval between 1 &2 for 20 minutes.

We have 40 minutes for lunch and believe me you don't want the afternoons to be any longer than possible.

Also no one really teaches for the full 80 minutes of any period. Student attention spans don't allow for it. I've found that there's a lot of time wasting in this system. Give me a 5 X 1 hour or so timetable anytime.

[mips]

Trying to concentrate on one subject for 80mins is a bit rough.

Over here when I was in School we had 30min or 40min periods. Sometimes two 30min periods were combined for one subject. Breaks were about 5min between periods so we could get from one class to another. Besides that we had a 10am tea break followed by a later lunch hour (or it was 45min long?) School started at 8am and by 2pm we were finished.

On Thuesdays & Thursdays we had sport or other activities until 3pm. If you werent interested you could go to the library and do you homework or read etc. I usually opted to go to the library, finish my homework and go to the beach when i get home to go surf. My normal routine use to be to get of the bus, start stripping before I was home, grab my bag 7 board and run down to the beach.

Kids spend way to much time in school due to wastage of time. School has become a substitute parent orginisation. If I think about how much crap I was taught in school that I never used it is shamefull. Thing is, after school when I studied engineering I think they ran through our high school math & science syllables in a matter of like 3 weeks or something stupid like that.

[Macintosh Sauce]

I am a Substitute Teacher right now, and I can see that the current schedule used in most middle/high schools in my area is not working.

A teacher cannot teach something worth learning within 50 minutes - that is reality. Gee... May be it is high time we get rid of the politically correct BS in schools. That would be a start IMO.

Students are supposed to be in school to learn something useful, not listen to iPods or text on cell phones.

[Mazza558]

At our school (UK), it goes something like this:

9 am = Get to form rooms (Registration) (25 Minutes)
9:25 am = Period one (1 Hour)
10:25 am = Break (15 minutes)
10:40 am = Period two (1 Hour)
11:40 am = Period three (1 Hour)
12:40 pm = Lunch Break (1 Hour, 10 Minutes)
1:50 pm = Afternoon Registration
2:00 pm = Period four (1 Hour)
3:00 pm Period five (1 Hour)
4:00 pm = Home

Here in the UK, it's 5 lessons a day, with school starting and finishing later. I have no idea how people in the US cope with school at 7:30 am.

[Sayers]

Ehm, Yeah school for me in middle school even I was burnt out by algebra. Which was 6th hour. And worst of all they gave you so much verbose repeating homework. I also had history first hour, I can easily cope with the morning because it only takes 40 minutes to wake up really. I like getting out early but yes I was burnt out and found it hard to think 6th hour.

[Fbot1]

I bet none of you can match my school's awesome schedule:

7:20 - **** around
10:30/11:00/11:30/12:00 - Eat
10:50/11:20/11:50/12:20 - **** around
14:30 - Relocate
15:00 - Start stupid HW or project
15:00:14 - Zone out
20:00 - Restart stupid HW or project
22:00 - Go home

[Engnome]

Just wanted to say that in our school we have that schedule. But 20 minute breaks and a 50 minute lunch break. It works great! I love it.

We start at 8:30 though so we finish a little earlier. :)

EDIT: We also have fewer subjects per term. This term I only have Math, physics, Swedish and programming. But we have alot more and finish one 50 point course in one term. (We have three terms/year)

I love my school:D

[mips]

Ehm, Yeah school for me in middle school even I was burnt out by algebra. Which was 6th hour. And worst of all they gave you so much verbose repeating homework. I also had history first hour, I can easily cope with the morning because it only takes 40 minutes to wake up really. I like getting out early but yes I was burnt out and found it hard to think 6th hour.

I find stuff like Math & Science best to do in the morning when your mind is fresh. History is great for the afternoon so you can doze off :)

[neoaddict]

My high school (Canada)'s awesome schedule. :P

8:30 AM - 9:27 AM - Period 1
9:32 AM - 9:47 AM - Homeroom
9:52 AM - 10:49 AM - Period 2
10:54 AM - 11:51 AM - Period 3
11:51 AM - 1:05 PM - Lunch
1:10 PM - 2:07 PM - Period 4
2:12 PM - 3:09 PM - Period 5

5 minute breaks between each period. ^_^ 57 minutes per each period. And lunch is 1h 14 min. ^_^ :guitar:

[userundefine]

I cannot fathom why many middle/high schools think it is good to start classes at 7:30 a.m. and end the day at 2:30 p.m. with only 30 minutes for lunch for students and teachers. When I was in high school, we started classes at 9:00 a.m. and got out at 3:30 p.m., and yet we still had one hour for lunch. No wonder many students and teachers are so completely burned out in today’s public school system.
Because schools are preparation for the working world America, where people get 30 minutes for lunch and it isn't paid time, and the working day never truly ends.

Trying to concentrate on one subject for 80mins is a bit rough.
I guess you never experienced block schedule then, where classes run for 1h30 to 2h.

There are so many problems with the American school system that hours of operation would probably be relatively low on my list.

[teet]

I don't think adding MORE time to the school day is the answer.

Think about it. I went from spending ~35 hours a week in school during high school to ~13-17 hours a week in class in college. Yet, I learned WAY more stuff in one year of college than all of high school. Why? I studied more on my own.

-teet

[Lux Perpetua]

My most fondly remembered schedule is the 6:30 - 2:10 school day:

6:30 - 7:25: period 0
7:30 - 8:25: period 1
8:30 - 9:25: period 2
9:30 - 10:25: period 3
10:30 - 11:25: period 4
11:30 - 12:10: lunch
12:15 - 1:10: period 5
1:15 - 2:10: period 6

That was my freshman year of high school. They moved it one hour later for the next two years, though, and the fourth year, they threw it out completely for a block schedule of only 4 classes per day, alternating 'A' and 'B' schedules.
A teacher cannot teach something worth learning within 50 minutes - that is reality. You're kidding, right?

[Ultra Magnus]

My Old school schedule

8:00 - bus didn't come

11:00 - "Sorry miss bus didn't come again (I live in wales - a land far far away)
12:30 - lunch
1:30 - Lesson
2:30 - Lesson
3:00 - Go Home

I'm not joking, I lived up a mountain and maybe 3 times a week for 7 years my bus just didn't bother coming so I had to walk to school (Just the one bus a day) - Once the bus did come but then the engine actually exploded and I got to school a bit before I had to go home

[Henaro]

In my school we had the "block" schedule up until this year where the school decided to throw away all of it's funding for the block schedule to fund a new football field.

Now we have an 8 period day. 48 minutes per period school starts at (I think) 8:40 and ends at 3:45.

The fourth, fifth and sixth periods are lunch periods and, depending on your homeroom teacher/schedule you goto lunch during that period.

After being on block (90 minutes per class, four classes a day) I can say that with out a doubt the "regular" schedule blows. The lesser time of instruction leads to more homework that is given out. Last in year in Japanese we'd have 30 minutes of class to do a group project where we would write a sketch and use new vocab. We no longer have this time during class and the teacher assigns more homework.

Not to mention the classes are all jumbled and my brain has to switch subjects every 48 minutes. It would be a bit better if I had all my math and science classes one after the other, then my lit class, then Social Studies classes then foreign language the elective. But instead I have World Lit, Broadcast Productions, Sociology, Physics, Trig, LUNCH, Japanese then finally US History. I'm actually surprised I could list those out with out looking at my schedule print out.

Thank god I only have to deal with it for one more year. Then I'm out of high school and onto (hopefully) a college of some kind.

[LookTJ]

My schedule is like this:

day: 7:50am-2:40pm

Type: Odd/Even days

periods: 8

so like....

1,3,5,7 or 2,4,6,8....

Btw I don't have a problem with my schedule...used to have a 10 mins break between 1,3/2,3....we have a 40 mins lunch between 6,8/5,7.

[whistlerspa]

Now that's the sort of timetable i'd like to teach