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 1st and 2nd tri one year and then 2nd
and 3rd 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.
