Block Scheduling Pros And Cons

Day after day, late students are punished or end up in detention due to short passing periods. Having short passing periods can make a student’s grade go down or worse when students are late to class. This can be prevented by extending passing periods to 10 minutes. Although the staff at H.P.M.S may disapprove, but in the long run, they will see the effects of having longer passing periods has on students. Because of the short time of passing periods, students at Happy Place Middle School are petitioning to extend their passing period time to 10 minutes. In short, some of the positive effects are that students can get to class on time, and gives students and teachers time to prepare.

All these voices come from the same people. Students wishing for longer passing time in the halls. Now Smithville Middle School joins the fight, but this school isn’t using a barrage of exclamation points. It’s time somebody got to the root of this argument. ‘How can short passing times affect middle school life?’, ‘Does it affect student behavior?’, and finally, ‘How many minutes are really needed?’

Education is very important. Students being able to concentrate and focus in school is very important. The problem is that we can’t meet everyone’s satisfaction. Dress code, SOL testing, and many other things are issues. One such issue is class scheduling. I believe 4x4 scheduling would be a better option for everyone.

Adding just an extra ten minutes to each class, the new schedule would create the potential for students to have more homework time, lab time, learning time, and/or valuable free time to read for pleasure, relax with music, draw, etc. (Hadfield). Especially as students get older and more involved in extracurriculars and rigorous academic courses, the need for any spare moment to get assignments done, study, or even sleep increases. When this time is unavailable or extremely hard to get, students are more likely to fall asleep in class, miss school due to illness, misbehave, cheat, hand in incomplete assignments, or drop out altogether. The same is largely true for teachers. The more homework turned in by students, the more grading has to be done by teachers who are already exhausted from a long, often repetitive day of work. Therefore, it is important to emphasize the fact that this extra time should not be used to cram in larger quantities of learning standards or homework problems, but rather to enhance the quality of the already demanding school regulations that are in schools

A low income school in New Haven, Connecticut started the new year telling students they would be attending school until 4:15 P.M. four days a week. New Haven teachers in an unprecedented move allowed their teacher unions to take over the rewriting of their contracts. This provided the teacher with more freedom with curriculum and time management. Although the final outcome was beneficial the origins of the extended day was not welcomed.

What is your least favorite class, the one you dread most? Picture yourself walking into that class, taking a seat, and watching the clock move slowly as you suffer through the next 90 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly. Imagine being stuck in your least favorite class for an hour and a half! This is a reality that many high school students experience every day. It is block scheduling. “Unlike traditional bell schedules - which typically comprise six to eight class periods per day, lasting anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes - block schedules contain just four daily class periods, with each one lasting an average of 90 minutes” (Block Scheduling in Schools 1). Although designed to increase student achievement, block schedules carry a number of disadvantages that make them an inadequate method for offering high school students a successful learning environment. Despite its few benefits, block scheduling works in direct conflict with most human attention spans, creates more scheduling problems than it solves, and lacks any solid evidence of improving student learning. In a world where educational practices come and go, block scheduling is a fad that should never have arrived in the first place.

Sommerfeld, Meg. "More and More Schools Putting Block Scheduling to Test of Time." Education Week. N.p., 02 May 2016. Web. 24 Mar.

Eyes watching the clock, praying it could move faster. The students are full of joy when the bell finally rings. Only to wake up tomorrow to repeat it over again. Some teachers and students want to go to block scheduling for the upcoming school year. Having Advanced Composition in either of the block schedules has its advantages and disadvantages.

Anaheim High School, a beautiful campus filled with intelligent students all around. You may tell yourself that but do we really have some of the best grades? Anaheim has too many days off for vacation and not enough school time for students to learn. In order to increase student success at Anaheim, we should have longer class periods so that students understand the material without having to be rushed and start class earlier or extend school release time until 3:30 or 4:00 pm. In the article, “Marita’s Bargain" by Malcolm Gladwell, he states, “The day goes from seven twenty-five until five pm” (9). Students at KIPP Academy are starting their classes at seven twenty-five and get out of class at five pm. They are getting longer classes which allows them to focus on their academics without having to be rushed to move onto the next topic. Anaheim High School is struggling with students being rushed and not understanding the

When I say time, I mean students getting to school on time, classes starting on time and transition time between classes. For some classes there is about a 10 minute gap between when class actually starts and when class is supposed to start according to the schedule. This leaves a lot of “free time” in between certain classes or inside of a classroom without nothing going on because the teacher has not started instructional time. As a student I love it, but as a principle I would feel as though the school is losing productivity with a teacher just sitting in another room or not even being there at all while the students loiter or just aimlessly wonder through the hallways or sit in front of the door. Another thing I find to be interesting is how some students leave during lunch to make sure they get to class on time while the teacher is still down the hill in the main building, I don’t take that class but what do the students do while they are up there and their teacher is down here? Do they go into the class room and just sit up there by themselves? Or do they do the same thing some of the students in the RVEC building do and just sit outside door. As a student I don’t know what goes on like that, but as a principle I would think that is another way lunch time transitions can be better managed so that the students and teachers are where they need to be when class needs to

According to a U.S. News report, the top two schools in California are Whitney High School and Stockton Collegiate International Secondary School. When I looked over their schedules, I found that both of these schools follow a block schedule and, while it may seem like a distant goal, these schools represent the possible advancement of the LCHS district if given the opportunity to explore the block schedule. Dr. Nesa Sasser of the Hearst Newspaper, recently wrote an article about the benefits and downfalls of the block schedule. She wrote that, by starting a block period schedule, teachers will be able to plan lessons more effectively, connect with their students on a deeper level, and there will be better time management. During block periods, teachers become less limited in how they plan their lesson. They are able to go in depth about concepts that are important and are given time to give examples to further the students’ comprehension of these topics. Using these examples, teachers are then able to see where the class is falling short, and reteach confusing lessons, allowing for a greater understanding of the overall subject. By decreasing the amount of classes per day, students would then be able to focus on the homework they are given for their next classes, reducing the amount of homework they have to complete and the information that needs to be learned for that specific night. Students will also be able to go to sleep earlier, increasing overall health and focus during class, providing long term

School is not the most desirable place that a teenager would want to be at seven hours a day, five days a week, 180 days a year, and even more problematic is that for them to get to school on time, they have to fight their biological clocks (Hansen). Many schools have started pushing their start times back by even just an hour, and helped with the students grades and mental health by giving them the time they need to sleep (“4 Good Snooze”). Pushing start times back a good idea because it will give students the rest they need to be successful.

Imagine sitting at a desk all day listening to a teacher drone on and hand you a worksheet right after that. Well if your school day was 9 hours and 30 minutes instead of 8 hours, then that's what you would have to do. You would be there till 4:30 in the afternoon. Who wants to be there for that with only lunch as a break? Every class would be about 18 minutes longer. Which is why I don’t agree with schools extending the day because it can cause sleep deprivation, result in more kids getting in trouble, and more kids zoning out.

According to a report from the New York City district, a school that received funds for longer days fared better on standardized tests. This school had seven percent more students scoring at or above grade level in reading, when two other schools had increases of five and six percent. In math, three percent of students scored at or above grade level in a school with a longer day, compared with one percent for a low performing school and an average of one percent for other schools (Brett 1). This information is one example of many studies that illustrate that long school days have a great positive impact on school performance. The main school goals are improving students’ knowledge and building different skills that will help them in the future. Therefore, if longer school days support these educational goals, people should be concerned about improving schools by lengthening the day.

Good afternoon students and teachers, thank you for coming today. I am here to talk about our schedules. I feel as though we don't have enough time in our classes and that we have too many classes a day. with the shorter class periods us, students have a harder time understanding the lessons being taught . Many students including me, have been overly stressed as we are trying to balance our class work/ homework with other extracurricular activities. I feel that with more class time students would be able to finish their work faster and not have to stress about it after school. There are schools that have tried switching to this new 4 block schedule and they have said that it's been successful. This new system would benefit the students so