School Schedules

            A classroom practice that I believe should be changed is high school schedules.  Our school district is currently on the trimester schedule where each student takes five classes per trimester.  Each of the core classes (Math, Science, English, and Social Studies) are taken for two out of three trimesters.  I teach in a typical math classroom and also in the engineering program, which is a magnet program within the normal school day, so students are placed together for math, science, and engineering electives at various points in their high school career.  As a program we are able to change the schedule and manipulate it in any way that we feel best serves the students.  I feel I can serve as a leader to move the idea of an alternate schedule forward in this aspect of the high school schedule. 

            One of the problems that we encounter as teachers in the trimester schedule is the student’s schedules have to change radically after each trimester.  A math student almost never has the same teacher from one trimester to the next.  This only gives us about 3 months to get to know each student’s learning style.  I believe the teacher-student relationship is one of the most important parts of student success and this is not enough time to really understand each of our students.

            Another problem is that students only have the core classes for two-thirds of the year.  It may happen that a student has math 1^st and 2^nd tri one year and then 2^nd and 3^rd tri the next year.  Math has a very specific scaffold and it is difficult to take a break from it for 9 months and then continue on at the same level.  

            A final problem is that there is no time built in the school day for intervention.  The students who are struggling just get pushed through the class until they fail or barely pass.  If they are unable or unwilling to come in before or after school, it is very difficult to give them the attention that they need. 

            We have looked at a few different options for alternate high school schedules.  A school in a suburb of Chicago has a rotating schedule where each day is different for each student.  It has times built in to each day that are for meeting with their teachers and working on content that they need help with.  Each day is different and each teacher has different office hours during the day that students may drop in and get help.  If they don’t need help there is areas in the school for studying and working on other work.  This has worked very well for intervention within the school day, but it is a complicated schedule and it puts quite a bit of responsibility on the students to seek help when they need it.  I think it could be modified and work well for our school.

            Another model that I have seen is one that the state of Massachusetts has recently implemented is a split of core classes and elective/lab classes.  One week student are in their core academic classes and then the next week they are in lab classes that consist of electives or science, math, and engineering lab classes.  All students take all core classes all year and are able to fit in more electives along with having the support of all-year-long core classes.  This could also be modified to fit our needs at our school.

            There is no perfect answer to the student-schedule question, but I think with how technology has changed, we need to better fit the current needs of our students.  Hopefully I can be part of that change in our engineering program and then help foster the idea as a whole school or district.