jswadl01 wrote:
We are currently under the block schedule (alternating days). I love it. We have one period every other day called "Advisory" for students to receive help from teachers, obtain make-up work, do homework, etc. With that period, extended time to make up work is alleviated. The only change I would make in our block schedule is teachers only receive one conference period between the two days. It would be helpful to have a conference period each day.

menke wrote:
The school my sons go/went to has the alternate day blocking. I think that this system is fine, although I do have to question whether a lot of the teachers have fully utilized the additional time. You do have to plan carefully if your student is going to have to miss time because of a medical appointment or something else important. And I can imagine that it could be devastating for someone who was occasionally absent and it just happened that it always fell on the same classes.

The 4/4 system, which is used at the school where most of the students we have in our class go, doesn't do nearly as much for me. There is too big a gap of time between classes that should be sequential. There is too little time between interims, marking periods, etc. The gap time is crucial. My 16-year-old, who is not an overly outstanding student, made the comment recently that it would be smarter to go to school evenly spaced through the year, with several 2-3 week breaks instead of the current system. He sees it as non-efficient, and he is right. And, the 4/4 system makes it worse.

The only good thing that I can say about the 4/4 is that if a kid wants to jump ahead into the "fast track" in math, he/she can take 2 math classes in one year and accomplish that. That can also be accomplished by taking summer school in the current 10-month system.

lovettes wrote:
I believe that block scheduling can be a great benefit for the following reasons:

1. The students/teachers have longer periods to complete more detailed projects which could enhance the learning process.

2. They will have longer to expound on their answers on tests or essays, hopefully increasing the quality of their work.

3. They will adjust better to the college schedule, which has been and always will be block scheduling.

4. The students will be have extra time needed to research, or simply acquire additional help to tackle those problem areas.

Even though I find that there are several benefits to block scheduling I also find that they can be completely nullified by the pitfalls. The students/teachers must be prepared for the change. It must more of a benefit than problem creator. First of all, I think that it should be a true block scheduling process. All classes must be either MWF or TTH and not alternating weeks as our school attempted a couple of years ago. The students simply spend a longer time in their TTH classes each and every week. More like the block scheduling at all college campuses that I am familiar with. The students and teachers alike will be able to adjust to this type of scheduling much easier than an alternating schedule. For with an alternating schedule, a student may not return to the same class for as many as four days. This would occur when a MWF class is alternated to a TTH class.

In closing, all teaching techniques can be quite successful if applied properly. Addressing the needs for both teacher and student is a must. No technique can be successful without the full cooperation of both parties.

soplip wrote:
It's amazing that the first question of the contest is about something that I have not only had experience with but have a definite opinion about. My son is a senior in high school. His high school started this kind of scheduling last year, his junior year. I will tell you at first it was very hard for the students and the teachers to get used to. They have it set up as one day is a blue day and the next is a white day. Those by the way are the school colors. Each class is 85 minutes, 4 classes a day. So there are 8 classes each semester. At my sons school they have what they call a school within a school. Where different schools in our district specialize in different things. The kids that are interested in the arts spend part of their day at his school and those interested in health and science go to another high school in our area. There are others, but this is an example. So that is how it is done at my son's school. As long as everyone is organized and the teachers keep things interesting for the kids in that long class time, this is working great in our school. My son is getting more exposure to different classes because he is getting 4 more classes per year than he did with the conventional scheduling. After the initial shock the time doesn't seem to be as big a factor as it was when they first started. The students have adjusted nicely and most of them enjoy having a little more freedom that they are getting having only four classes per day. The homework isn't piled up for five or six classes only three or four. Believe it or not they have more time for each subject but less homework time. Well that's how it is working in our school. I hope other schools are having as much success.