Personal Narrative: A Change In School

Studies show that over-working students can actually hurt their learning by wearing the students out. Everyone could still get the same amount of learning in that day. Teachers would be able to assign more homework and more projects because students would have extra time after school. Shorter school days would lead to healthier students. Because of the shortened school days, students would have more

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

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

Many schools are now organizing school day schedules to maximize instructional time and minimize non-instructional time, such as recess (Pellegrini & Bohn, 2005). Schools made this shift in response to increased state testing and the associated pressures of funding. Some also believe that the shift to more instructional time and less non-instructional time was worsened with the adoption of Common Core standards in elementary schools. However, this may not be the best move for schools or for long-term student success.

School is never very exciting for most students, the day is long and most of the time very boring. I believe that the days are too long and should be changed.

Students wouldn't be late for class if they had the time to get ready, sleep longer, and eat breakfast. When some students aren't ready, their parent or guardian leaves them behind causing them to either not go to school or be late. There would not be as much skipping school from tiredness and laziness from having to wake up so early, and there would be less zeros in the grade book for late papers. Classes could even do group activities for students being there. Teachers frequently complain about absences, so why not help out with the

School should start at 10:30AM because this gives students an opportunity to get more sleep. “Research suggests that adolescents require about 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep, but only 14% achieve this goal, and approximately 70%of adolescents obtain less that 8 hours of sleep on a typical weeknight,” according to Julie Boergers, Ph.D. (Boergers, 2015). With early school start times, students usually don’t get enough sleep. Also, later school start times can help improve a student's health and ability to function (Boergers, 2015). If school is started at 10:30AM and ends at 6:30PM it gives students an opportunity to get the sleep they need. Later school start times can improve a student’s ability to learn, but so can block scheduling. With block scheduling, longer and more efficient lessons can be taught everyday, and there will not be as many students in each class, so the teacher can help each student individually (2002-2015). Although block scheduling may help a student, it can also be a disadvantage. All lessons taught in an average semester would have to be taught in one quarter (2002-2015). Since block scheduling would reduce amount of students in each class, there should be an average of 16 students. Small classes help improve a student's academic achievement and their behavior. Also, they give teachers the opportunity to teach a longer amount of time. Class-Size Reduction is trying to reduce classes sizes from an average of 25 down

One issue we stand upon is how early our school day starts. If school starts later, then their brain will function better and they will learn more. Another think students could really use is a longer lunch time. Currently, students can not finish lunch because of how later they start serving. For example, if your zone is called last on a short schedule day, you may only get 15 minutes to scarfe down you food, which is not enough time.

Schools should start later so that students can sleep more, which leads to them paying better attention in their classes throughout the

Those 20 minutes could be saved and utilized to work towards a plethora of options ranging from improving test scores to regular class work to more in depth lectures. Rearranging instructional times in favor of Core tested programs prevents the affected classes from succeeding in teaching their students the best they can. They aren’t able to give the students what they need to succeed in a weakened instructional period, which prevents them from achieving to the best of their abilities and thus denies them from an equal education where all students have the same opportunities.

In a study by Allen and Mireable (1989), “students were on average least alert at about 10:00 AM, while 50% of the students reported being most alert after 3:00 PM. Thus, most students were in school during the period they reported being least alert and were released from school at the time they were reaching their peak alertness” (School Start Time Study, 2001). Because of the fact that this research does not apply to all students, schools should administer flexible scheduling. “A schedule is a timetable of class meetings that should help to achieve the purposes of a school” (Deighton, 1971). The purpose of school is to teach the student and have them comprehend the information being given to them. “There are two fundamental types of schedules: conventional and flexible. In practice,

Have you ever wanted more time? Have you ever wanted to go to your lockers after every class? Have you ever forgotten anything because you don't have enough time in class? THen you agree with us to change th 8th grade schedule to match it with the rest of FCHS. Think about all the things that would be better, there will be no more sore ankles, more time in class to learn, best of all lockers after every class. The 8th grade schedule will not prepare us for the later years in high school, because we can't go to lockers after every other class. We don't have a lot of time between classes and walking a lot. Finally we don't have enough time in class.

Missing the bus is a common issue for most students. Most of the time students barely make it to the bus stop on time. Sometimes, they do not even bother to go to school anymore because their parents are either working or mom/dad might not know how to drive. Sleep is a beautiful thing but too much can cause you to run late to school. Students would not have to worry about that anymore. No more oversleeping if school simply started at 9:00. Also, it would give more students a chance to come more prepared. Being organized is the key of getting through school instead of having to shove papers into your backpack.

When classes are longer students are given more time to actually think and actively engage in learning. Students who are on traditional scheduling, one short class after the next, tend to feel ‘the frantic assembly line environment.’ Come to think of it releasing hundreds, even thousands of young emotional adults in the hallways every 45 minutes for 5 minute passing periods could easily result in need for disciplinary action. Along with students, instructors also benefit from extended class periods; pedagogical time is more efficient because less time is lost for each class. "... many school districts have adopted 'block scheduling,' which is premised on teachers doing less lecturing and instead, engaging students in discussion, role-playing, and active learning pursuits, but which in practice, often amounts to teachers taking time off while their charges use the school day to do homework, watch films, or surf the Internet.

By the time we get to first period we’re still tired and drowsy. Some of us barely learning anything because we’re half asleep. Our students would get better grades in our school work if we wake up late, not to mention our teenage bodies need more rest before we reach adulthood. For example, people who get enough sleep end up doing better in tests than those who don’t. Reason why, is because we end up memorizing things better with some proper rest. These students have jobs already to learn how to work once they finish school, but they barely