I posted the wrong response and had to move it to the correct question. This is my reply to the brainstorm. My brainstorming didn’t help – I came up with nothing, so I searched the web. In his book Wasting Minds, Ron Wolk said, “Except for organized religion, no social institution has changed less in the past century than public education.” We are so encased in tradition, it’s hard to think outside our bell system of class changes. Through incorporating technology and revamping schedules, we should have more time for student learning. (2011). Reimagining the School Day: More Time for Learning. Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/summer-and-extended-learning-time/summer-learning/Documents/Reimagining-the-School-Day-More-Time-for-Learning.pdf.
I think education is getting a little better at changing but we still have a long way to go. Sometimes I think we are going in the wrong direction as far as curriculum expectations for students. The little ones are being asked to do and know more while their 'play' time is being taken away. Play time is the time for them to learn social skills and problem solving. I wonder if the rate of students being put on behavior plans is on the rise. I also don't think we give enough time for things to be implemented and found to really work or not. I know in this profession there are little minds at risk but changing curriculum methods (in drastic ways) are hindering teachers and students a like. The teachers can never get things completely down and comfortable before they are being told to change curriculum and learn something completely new that they have to implement now.
I agree 100%. While tradition is a beautiful part of our foundation as a nation, it is one of the things that hinders us the most. We have such a hard time imagining things to be any different than they already are... and when it comes to education, we have a hard time breaking away from old practices. Technology is here to stay - while there is value in tradition, there are ways to marry the old with the new. We need more teachers to see the connections and take the initiative to incorporate the old practices with the new.
One thing I can remember years ago when I first came to this district is at the high school they had zero hour. It was a time that students could come in and take an addition class for credit. It was for those students that were highly motivated and wanted to push themselves. Some magnet schools work on the concept of kids working at their pace and they move through the curriculum when they are ready but that does take a lot of time management and flexibility on the teacher’s part. I like working with my kids in a one on one pull out setting or small group setting when we can just work on the concepts they are ready developmentally ready for and move forwards as they are ready.
Your post reminded me of a section in the introduction of the book where the author posed the questionof why we make our students move grade level to grade level every 12 months with the same peers.I believe that students would succeed when being allowed to move at their own pace and staying "behind" in their previous grade should not be so taboo.
Amy, Zero hour was only for a few select students. The district paid instructors for the extra class. Weights, music, and I think a math class were the only ones offered. It’s too bad money gets in the way of opening doors for students.
Hannah, I agree fully with what you said. Why do kids have to be held back if they know the material and be stuck with the same kids all their school careers? I ran into this into one of my districts of why couldn't someone be accelerated in English and the reply was "we just don't do that with English, only math." The only drawback I can see is if a child isn't mature enough to be accelerated with older peers.
Amy, Zero hour was only for one math class, strength training, and band. It cost the district quite a bit, those teachers were teaching an additional hour to their contracts. I don't see it happening again until our budget is in better shape. Jerrie
Hannah- I agree with your comment about students being allowed to move along at their own pace. I'm working with a kiddo right now whose family wanted to accelerate him a grade because he's SO far beyond the material being provided to the rest of the class. When the family talked with the district about this, the idea got shot down, but the only reason given was because "We just don't do that. I can only remember skipping 1 student in the past 25 years I've been here." Logical right??? ;-)
I kind of like the idea of a class within a class concept. You can explain/teach the lesson and then allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the concept in a way that makes sense to them. They could be doing individual projects if they are ready and if not they can receive more intensive instruction from the teacher with others work. This would hopefully allow everyone to work at a pace that is beneficial to them.
Amy: I like the idea of zero hour. It would allow for some freedom for students.
Cara, I love the idea of project-based learning. I don't think that it's a technique to use all of the time, with every student, but I think that it allows for more curriculum differentiation. And, many projects allow students to select a topic or theme that piques their interest.
I like the idea of Google 20. This time period allows the students to learn about a topic they are interested in. Being at a high school level, this allows students to explore different jobs and see if that is something they are truly interested in before they spend a lot of money on college. I also like the idea of flipped classrooms. This would take some practice and investigating to figure out how to really do it. Making lessons via youtube or ShowMe app or something similar that the students watch at home and then they come with questions for clarification and the class time is for remediation or expanding and asking questions for clarification. I can see this done a little easier in a math class.
My daughter had a flipped math class a couple of years ago. She was expected to watch the lesson being taught by the teacher on her computer. Then the next day she completed the work in class. I liked the idea of being able to get help from the teacher during class, but my daughter never watched the videos.
I also like the idea of a flipped classroom. It would be something that would, as all things, be developed over time. As Deanna pointed out, it could be just as easy for students to not watch the lessons as it is to not do assigned work. However, the flipped classroom offers greater flexibility in teaching by forcing the teacher to create an interesting - but short - and effective lesson for students to watch. Class time can then be spent in a more project-centered manner. Yet in some districts this could be problematic if not all students had regular access to the internet.
I think it would be amazing to see a school scrap the class schedule and have a project-based approach, even for 1 week a semester. I don't know how to organize it, what content to focus on, or even how to pay for the materials students would use in their projects, but I could imagine the creativity and critical thinking that could take place. I also know that the whole staff would have to buy in for it to be successful.
I would be interested to see that too. I agree that the staff would have to buy into it. I don't see that happening very easily. Depending on the grade level, I think the students would choose the project. Or, they are given a general topic and then the student does a project that shows understanding of that topic.
I think that would be awesome. Hands on and a topic the students are interested in. This is something that I think has been discussed by teachers have a hard time with the idea because it is the kids kind of leading the discussion and teachers want to teach.
I am not sure where you find more time in the schedule. I have been in districts where students do not go to PE and music everyday. I believe both are important for development, but that would give an extra 20 minutes for my districts' students. I don't believe the teachers would like it though! One less time slot to get their work finished.
While I was reading this chapter I kept thinking "block scheduling would be simple and effective," then once I got to the reflection at the end of chapter 1, Lichtman referred to that as a luke warm option... I like the idea of having one or two core classes per day with PE, music, band, art, etc. still at their regular times and lengths. With four core classes, we could extend the school day and have four day weeks. I have read that four day weeks save districts significant amounts of money and are very beneficial to school sports, as well as teacher planning time. Allowing students to focus on a subject for over an hour could produce wonderful results. I personally believe that having two subjects per day would work best; focusing on mathematics all day or science for 5 hours may be a bit much for elementary aged - or even high school aged students.
We have recently reorganized the end of our day, recently being in the past 4 or so years. The last 34 minutes was traditionally seminar, where every student was assigned to a teacher and they did their homework. We kept those 34 minutes and changed the time into a program called ADED (all day every day- a student named it). Every day a core content department meets, for example ELA on Mondays, Math on Tuesdays, Science on Wednesdays, Social Studies on Thursday, and Guiding Coalition- the lead PLC on Fridays. Then each teacher has an intervention time during that time. For example on Mondays 6th grade math, 7th grade science, and 8th grade social studies where teachers can pull students into their classrooms for interventions, not ELA because on Mondays that PLC is meeting and those teachers are unavailable. This goes on Monday- Thursday with interventions, each grade has 3 content areas running interventions when the other content area is in PLC time. This gives our core teachers a chance to meet weekly! Fridays is reserved for club meetings and guest speakers. We also have 2 homework sites- one for students who want a place to do their homework and one for students who are behind- they do not get a choice in this site. All the other students go to enrichment areas (fun sites) with everyone not in a PLC or interventions in charge of those sites. This program took alot ot organization and was tweaked over a period of 2-3 years and caused much much growing pains!!! Some teachers did not like it all, not sure if they still do. But giving teachers time every week to meet and collaborate with each other and giving them time to meet with students who are struggling was the priority and that was made consistently clear every year, to the few teachers who complained, they were going to have to comply, we had given our teachers time and we were not going to take it back!
I like all of the examples that the author gave on examples of how others districts have been creative in giving teachers time to collaborate. One of my schools has an hour every Wed morning where certified staff meet with a set goal/task at hand and when I have been a part of these, they have been productive. The classified staff are responsible for the students in divided book clubs. There have been several times that I wish the certified staff member could be a part of the learning/collaborating because as most of us know in special education, they are the ones that spend most of the time with the students we serve. Definitely a stretch of the traditional time model in schools but worth looking in to!
Having a more free flowing system would use time more wisely overall - but it asks teachers to change the way they think about their position as "teacher". If teachers team taught and/or used special teachers more often they wouldn't have to spend nearly as much time in large group instruction - where many students get lost in the language. Team teaching, using support staff and creating differentiated centers allows students to progress more naturally at their own pace.
I am speaking specifically about in the elementary grades. Something like a zero hour that was mentioned earlier would obviously be of little benefit at the elementary level and vice versa. This is another piece to the brainstorming - that not all grade levels are created the same and that how one level might "find time" another wouldn't. Thus making blanket changes to "the system" might also not be the best solution..
I completely agree with you that not all grade levels are created the same. Different grade levels would definitely be able to find time in different ways. High school versus elementary school is a huge example. Maybe that is the point that needs to be made that each level should work to find time is a way that is appropriate for their level or their building. I really liked the idea from the book of giving a deadline to find a solution to the time issue. Just brainstorming the ideas could be a huge process. :)
When I brainstorm ways to find more time within my day, I often think about the schedules of my teachers. One of the most difficult scheduling factors, other than time itself, is that all teachers are doing math and reading at approximately the same time. Thus, it is difficult to schedule in class support for multiple students during math and it is also difficult to schedule pull out when you do not want to pull them during that math or reading time as well. I think if we off-set the times each grade, or of different teachers, then it may be beneficial for making our time more effective. Also, it some times works out that I can pull students from different classrooms, but at the same ZPD, at the same time to work together. In other cases, the schedules of the two teachers clash and I can not pull students from more than one teacher. Thus, I teacher two lessons that could potentially be combined into one. I also find that the paraprofessionals of our school would benefit from differing the specific math block to various times for different teachers.
That might be easy to do in the elementary school. It is going to be more difficult in the secondary setting. You almost, depending on the kid and their level of academics might have to do pull out for either part of the time and if they're really loud the entire hour. It would also depend on the cooperation of the classroom teacher as well including elementary as well as secondary levels.
I think as a collaborative group all the teachers in the school would have to be on board to make changes to the schedule and everybody would have to agree to it. Last year at our school and for the last several years they had in 30 minute intervention time where they specifically worked on reading skills and comprehension and that was an everyday activity. This year we did away with that and we were able to make our classroom periods longer. This year we have a new middle school math teacher that in the classroom she has the students in small groups trying to figure out the more difficult math concepts it is helping for them to think for themselves and to work cooperatively in group settings.
I worked in a district as a para where the superintendent messed with the minutes of the district took away a few minutes from lunch, added some time to class periods making it to where the classes where then 55 minutes instead of say 50 minutes. They were giving the students 5 minutes to get to locker and walk to class. Mind you this was a small district however they gave the students 2 minutes to get things and walk to class which gave them plenty of time to work with in adding extra time to class periods making classes longer but still getting out at the same time. They also voted on holidays such as Martin Luther King day and presidents day and choose to not take those holidays adding more days for instruction. I just think it takes a process to mess with the time in order to make it efficient.
I think we could find more time in the school schedule if, at the higher levels, we reorganized our day. In Europe, the fine arts and physical education are not offered after the age of 12. This affords more time to be spent in the classroom and allows for more applicable hands on job experience. While I am a large proponent of the arts (beings a singer and avid guitar player) I was able to see first hand the benefit of the additional time for their studies and offering a separate school and setting for the arts.
Time is such a hard thing to come up with in a traditional school setting. I think one way my district has come up with is the after school program. While it is not required, some students are highly encouraged to attend so that they can get tutoring and 1-1 help on the concepts they are struggling with. This has proven to be very beneficial to some of those students. During the school day, I think it would be hard to come up with additional time. The one way that I can think of would be to eliminate certain classes, like specials. However, I think that would be awful for those programs to be eliminated. For some kiddos, that is the only time that they feels successful during their school day. I would hate to see that ever go away.
I liked the idea of the project-based time slot that was brought up by the 9th graders in the chapter. Often, when I’ve been doing classroom observations, and students are given time to work on a project, the teacher goes to his/her desk to catch up on emails, grades, or whatever they need to get done. I know these tasks are important, but I can’t imagine any of these teachers would throw a fit if they were told this time would instead be used for collaboration, professional development, etc. Additionally, in one of my schools, we try to schedule staffings during the 30-minute study hall-ish period at the end of the day, because it’s fairly easy for 1 teacher to cover several other teachers’ students, so that those teachers can attend the staffing. I know the logistics of actually designing and implementing a schedule like that have to be more complex than what I’m imagining, but in my head, it doesn’t seem like an off-the-wall idea.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI posted the wrong response and had to move it to the correct question. This is my reply to the brainstorm.
ReplyDeleteMy brainstorming didn’t help – I came up with nothing, so I searched the web. In his book Wasting Minds, Ron Wolk said, “Except for organized religion, no social institution has changed less in the past century than public education.” We are so encased in tradition, it’s hard to think outside our bell system of class changes. Through incorporating technology and revamping schedules, we should have more time for student learning.
(2011). Reimagining the School Day: More Time for Learning. Retrieved November 4, 2014, from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/summer-and-extended-learning-time/summer-learning/Documents/Reimagining-the-School-Day-More-Time-for-Learning.pdf.
I think education is getting a little better at changing but we still have a long way to go. Sometimes I think we are going in the wrong direction as far as curriculum expectations for students. The little ones are being asked to do and know more while their 'play' time is being taken away. Play time is the time for them to learn social skills and problem solving. I wonder if the rate of students being put on behavior plans is on the rise. I also don't think we give enough time for things to be implemented and found to really work or not. I know in this profession there are little minds at risk but changing curriculum methods (in drastic ways) are hindering teachers and students a like. The teachers can never get things completely down and comfortable before they are being told to change curriculum and learn something completely new that they have to implement now.
DeleteI agree 100%. While tradition is a beautiful part of our foundation as a nation, it is one of the things that hinders us the most. We have such a hard time imagining things to be any different than they already are... and when it comes to education, we have a hard time breaking away from old practices. Technology is here to stay - while there is value in tradition, there are ways to marry the old with the new. We need more teachers to see the connections and take the initiative to incorporate the old practices with the new.
DeleteOne thing I can remember years ago when I first came to this district is at the high school they had zero hour. It was a time that students could come in and take an addition class for credit. It was for those students that were highly motivated and wanted to push themselves. Some magnet schools work on the concept of kids working at their pace and they move through the curriculum when they are ready but that does take a lot of time management and flexibility on the teacher’s part. I like working with my kids in a one on one pull out setting or small group setting when we can just work on the concepts they are ready developmentally ready for and move forwards as they are ready.
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of a section in the introduction of the book where the author posed the questionof why we make our students move grade level to grade level every 12 months with the same peers.I believe that students would succeed when being allowed to move at their own pace and staying "behind" in their previous grade should not be so taboo.
DeleteAmy, Zero hour was only for a few select students. The district paid instructors for the extra class. Weights, music, and I think a math class were the only ones offered. It’s too bad money gets in the way of opening doors for students.
DeleteHannah, I agree fully with what you said. Why do kids have to be held back if they know the material and be stuck with the same kids all their school careers? I ran into this into one of my districts of why couldn't someone be accelerated in English and the reply was "we just don't do that with English, only math." The only drawback I can see is if a child isn't mature enough to be accelerated with older peers.
DeleteAmy,
DeleteZero hour was only for one math class, strength training, and band. It cost the district quite a bit, those teachers were teaching an additional hour to their contracts. I don't see it happening again until our budget is in better shape.
Jerrie
Hannah-
DeleteI agree with your comment about students being allowed to move along at their own pace. I'm working with a kiddo right now whose family wanted to accelerate him a grade because he's SO far beyond the material being provided to the rest of the class. When the family talked with the district about this, the idea got shot down, but the only reason given was because "We just don't do that. I can only remember skipping 1 student in the past 25 years I've been here." Logical right??? ;-)
I kind of like the idea of a class within a class concept. You can explain/teach the lesson and then allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of the concept in a way that makes sense to them. They could be doing individual projects if they are ready and if not they can receive more intensive instruction from the teacher with others work. This would hopefully allow everyone to work at a pace that is beneficial to them.
ReplyDeleteAmy: I like the idea of zero hour. It would allow for some freedom for students.
Cara,
DeleteI love the idea of project-based learning. I don't think that it's a technique to use all of the time, with every student, but I think that it allows for more curriculum differentiation. And, many projects allow students to select a topic or theme that piques their interest.
I like the idea of Google 20. This time period allows the students to learn about a topic they are interested in. Being at a high school level, this allows students to explore different jobs and see if that is something they are truly interested in before they spend a lot of money on college. I also like the idea of flipped classrooms. This would take some practice and investigating to figure out how to really do it. Making lessons via youtube or ShowMe app or something similar that the students watch at home and then they come with questions for clarification and the class time is for remediation or expanding and asking questions for clarification. I can see this done a little easier in a math class.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter had a flipped math class a couple of years ago. She was expected to watch the lesson being taught by the teacher on her computer. Then the next day she completed the work in class. I liked the idea of being able to get help from the teacher during class, but my daughter never watched the videos.
DeleteI also like the idea of a flipped classroom. It would be something that would, as all things, be developed over time. As Deanna pointed out, it could be just as easy for students to not watch the lessons as it is to not do assigned work. However, the flipped classroom offers greater flexibility in teaching by forcing the teacher to create an interesting - but short - and effective lesson for students to watch. Class time can then be spent in a more project-centered manner. Yet in some districts this could be problematic if not all students had regular access to the internet.
DeleteI think it would be amazing to see a school scrap the class schedule and have a project-based approach, even for 1 week a semester. I don't know how to organize it, what content to focus on, or even how to pay for the materials students would use in their projects, but I could imagine the creativity and critical thinking that could take place. I also know that the whole staff would have to buy in for it to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to see that too. I agree that the staff would have to buy into it. I don't see that happening very easily. Depending on the grade level, I think the students would choose the project. Or, they are given a general topic and then the student does a project that shows understanding of that topic.
DeleteI think that would be awesome. Hands on and a topic the students are interested in. This is something that I think has been discussed by teachers have a hard time with the idea because it is the kids kind of leading the discussion and teachers want to teach.
DeleteI am not sure where you find more time in the schedule. I have been in districts where students do not go to PE and music everyday. I believe both are important for development, but that would give an extra 20 minutes for my districts' students. I don't believe the teachers would like it though! One less time slot to get their work finished.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading this chapter I kept thinking "block scheduling would be simple and effective," then once I got to the reflection at the end of chapter 1, Lichtman referred to that as a luke warm option...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of having one or two core classes per day with PE, music, band, art, etc. still at their regular times and lengths. With four core classes, we could extend the school day and have four day weeks. I have read that four day weeks save districts significant amounts of money and are very beneficial to school sports, as well as teacher planning time.
Allowing students to focus on a subject for over an hour could produce wonderful results. I personally believe that having two subjects per day would work best; focusing on mathematics all day or science for 5 hours may be a bit much for elementary aged - or even high school aged students.
We have recently reorganized the end of our day, recently being in the past 4 or so years. The last 34 minutes was traditionally seminar, where every student was assigned to a teacher and they did their homework. We kept those 34 minutes and changed the time into a program called ADED (all day every day- a student named it). Every day a core content department meets, for example ELA on Mondays, Math on Tuesdays, Science on Wednesdays, Social Studies on Thursday, and Guiding Coalition- the lead PLC on Fridays. Then each teacher has an intervention time during that time. For example on Mondays 6th grade math, 7th grade science, and 8th grade social studies where teachers can pull students into their classrooms for interventions, not ELA because on Mondays that PLC is meeting and those teachers are unavailable. This goes on Monday- Thursday with interventions, each grade has 3 content areas running interventions when the other content area is in PLC time. This gives our core teachers a chance to meet weekly! Fridays is reserved for club meetings and guest speakers. We also have 2 homework sites- one for students who want a place to do their homework and one for students who are behind- they do not get a choice in this site. All the other students go to enrichment areas (fun sites) with everyone not in a PLC or interventions in charge of those sites. This program took alot ot organization and was tweaked over a period of 2-3 years and caused much much growing pains!!! Some teachers did not like it all, not sure if they still do. But giving teachers time every week to meet and collaborate with each other and giving them time to meet with students who are struggling was the priority and that was made consistently clear every year, to the few teachers who complained, they were going to have to comply, we had given our teachers time and we were not going to take it back!
ReplyDeleteHaving time to collaborate is so important. It sounds like your school has found a good solution to that endless problem.
DeleteI like all of the examples that the author gave on examples of how others districts have been creative in giving teachers time to collaborate. One of my schools has an hour every Wed morning where certified staff meet with a set goal/task at hand and when I have been a part of these, they have been productive. The classified staff are responsible for the students in divided book clubs. There have been several times that I wish the certified staff member could be a part of the learning/collaborating because as most of us know in special education, they are the ones that spend most of the time with the students we serve. Definitely a stretch of the traditional time model in schools but worth looking in to!
ReplyDeleteHaving a more free flowing system would use time more wisely overall - but it asks teachers to change the way they think about their position as "teacher". If teachers team taught and/or used special teachers more often they wouldn't have to spend nearly as much time in large group instruction - where many students get lost in the language. Team teaching, using support staff and creating differentiated centers allows students to progress more naturally at their own pace.
ReplyDeleteI am speaking specifically about in the elementary grades. Something like a zero hour that was mentioned earlier would obviously be of little benefit at the elementary level and vice versa. This is another piece to the brainstorming - that not all grade levels are created the same and that how one level might "find time" another wouldn't. Thus making blanket changes to "the system" might also not be the best solution..
I completely agree with you that not all grade levels are created the same. Different grade levels would definitely be able to find time in different ways. High school versus elementary school is a huge example. Maybe that is the point that needs to be made that each level should work to find time is a way that is appropriate for their level or their building. I really liked the idea from the book of giving a deadline to find a solution to the time issue. Just brainstorming the ideas could be a huge process. :)
DeleteWhen I brainstorm ways to find more time within my day, I often think about the schedules of my teachers. One of the most difficult scheduling factors, other than time itself, is that all teachers are doing math and reading at approximately the same time. Thus, it is difficult to schedule in class support for multiple students during math and it is also difficult to schedule pull out when you do not want to pull them during that math or reading time as well. I think if we off-set the times each grade, or of different teachers, then it may be beneficial for making our time more effective. Also, it some times works out that I can pull students from different classrooms, but at the same ZPD, at the same time to work together. In other cases, the schedules of the two teachers clash and I can not pull students from more than one teacher. Thus, I teacher two lessons that could potentially be combined into one. I also find that the paraprofessionals of our school would benefit from differing the specific math block to various times for different teachers.
ReplyDeleteThat might be easy to do in the elementary school. It is going to be more difficult in the secondary setting. You almost, depending on the kid and their level of academics might have to do pull out for either part of the time and if they're really loud the entire hour. It would also depend on the cooperation of the classroom teacher as well including elementary as well as secondary levels.
DeleteI think as a collaborative group all the teachers in the school would have to be on board to make changes to the schedule and everybody would have to agree to it. Last year at our school and for the last several years they had in 30 minute intervention time where they specifically worked on reading skills and comprehension and that was an everyday activity. This year we did away with that and we were able to make our classroom periods longer. This year we have a new middle school math teacher that in the classroom she has the students in small groups trying to figure out the more difficult math concepts it is helping for them to think for themselves and to work cooperatively in group settings.
ReplyDeleteI worked in a district as a para where the superintendent messed with the minutes of the district took away a few minutes from lunch, added some time to class periods making it to where the classes where then 55 minutes instead of say 50 minutes. They were giving the students 5 minutes to get to locker and walk to class. Mind you this was a small district however they gave the students 2 minutes to get things and walk to class which gave them plenty of time to work with in adding extra time to class periods making classes longer but still getting out at the same time. They also voted on holidays such as Martin Luther King day and presidents day and choose to not take those holidays adding more days for instruction. I just think it takes a process to mess with the time in order to make it efficient.
ReplyDeleteI think we could find more time in the school schedule if, at the higher levels, we reorganized our day. In Europe, the fine arts and physical education are not offered after the age of 12. This affords more time to be spent in the classroom and allows for more applicable hands on job experience. While I am a large proponent of the arts (beings a singer and avid guitar player) I was able to see first hand the benefit of the additional time for their studies and offering a separate school and setting for the arts.
ReplyDeleteTime is such a hard thing to come up with in a traditional school setting. I think one way my district has come up with is the after school program. While it is not required, some students are highly encouraged to attend so that they can get tutoring and 1-1 help on the concepts they are struggling with. This has proven to be very beneficial to some of those students. During the school day, I think it would be hard to come up with additional time. The one way that I can think of would be to eliminate certain classes, like specials. However, I think that would be awful for those programs to be eliminated. For some kiddos, that is the only time that they feels successful during their school day. I would hate to see that ever go away.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of the project-based time slot that was brought up by the 9th graders in the chapter. Often, when I’ve been doing classroom observations, and students are given time to work on a project, the teacher goes to his/her desk to catch up on emails, grades, or whatever they need to get done. I know these tasks are important, but I can’t imagine any of these teachers would throw a fit if they were told this time would instead be used for collaboration, professional development, etc. Additionally, in one of my schools, we try to schedule staffings during the 30-minute study hall-ish period at the end of the day, because it’s fairly easy for 1 teacher to cover several other teachers’ students, so that those teachers can attend the staffing. I know the logistics of actually designing and implementing a schedule like that have to be more complex than what I’m imagining, but in my head, it doesn’t seem like an off-the-wall idea.
ReplyDelete