Will we ever move away from block scheduling?

[Anonymous]

I get that there are a lot of pros, but I feel like the cons outweigh them for this schedule format. It's so frustrating to only see the teacher two or three times a week if something is going wrong or there are questions. And if you miss a day for illness, a school-sanctioned activity, snow days, etc., it's really hard to catch up.

Can someone convince me that it's really the best way vs. having every class every day for a shorter amount of time?

[Anonymous]

I don't know the answer to your question, but it also is a terrible schedule in terms of focus and the ability for kids to pay attention for the entire block. It also sounds like there is a lot of wasted class time (based on my HS'er) because teachers aren't filling the whole block. I can't wait for my kids to be done with FCPS (for many reasons).

[Anonymous]

DD's backpack weighs 20 lbs. (I weighed it) on her heavy days. She doesn't even have the space to put more things to into it, so I'm good with her only having to carry half her stuff to school at a time.

I know it's a silly reason, but I'm good with block scheduling. She has never had issues with catching up, and teachers have generally been responsive to questions.

[Anonymous]

^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

[Anonymous]

Every day is a much better way for anyone and everyone to learn. Every other day is not.

Math classes, music classes, foreign language classes know this and explicitly prefer traditional period scheduling. English classes and science classes want longer classes for labs - but those don't happen every class.

Block scheduling is one of the several reasons for the decline of education and resulting lowered test scores of the past 10-15 years. Why do educators choose methods that reduce learning and education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

Basically this. DD has separate binders for each of her classes (required), with each binder having different sections. She also has textbooks and workbooks in two classes, so just for those, there are 4 books plus two binders.

My understanding is that the kids aren't taught for the entirety of the block. They are taught, then given problems or other materials to see if they understood what was taught, which is then gone over. They also go over quizzes, tests, and homework, so the additional time allotment is useful. In classes involving writing, they have essentially moved to all assessments being done in class. Too many kids cheating, made much, much worse with AI help. Also helped by longer classes.

As it is, DD can have 3 tests on a given day. She will be mortified if she ends up with even more, which can happen with the every class every day model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

Basically this. DD has separate binders for each of her classes (required), with each binder having different sections. She also has textbooks and workbooks in two classes, so just for those, there are 4 books plus two binders.

My understanding is that the kids aren't taught for the entirety of the block. They are taught, then given problems or other materials to see if they understood what was taught, which is then gone over. They also go over quizzes, tests, and homework, so the additional time allotment is useful. In classes involving writing, they have essentially moved to all assessments being done in class. Too many kids cheating, made much, much worse with AI help. Also helped by longer classes.

As it is, DD can have 3 tests on a given day. She will be mortified if she ends up with even more, which can happen with the every class every day model.

Exactly. Under the block schedule, students ultimately get less school. We are purposefully shortchanging our kids.

Why? Why are they not allowed to get as much school as we did? Why do they not deserve to learn as much as we did?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every day is a much better way for anyone and everyone to learn. Every other day is not.

Math classes, music classes, foreign language classes know this and explicitly prefer traditional period scheduling. English classes and science classes want longer classes for labs - but those don't happen every class.

Block scheduling is one of the several reasons for the decline of education and resulting lowered test scores of the past 10-15 years. Why do educators choose methods that reduce learning and education?

I was block scheduled at TJ over 20 years ago. And in college as well. Having block scheduling in high school prepared me for the way my college courses were going to run.

I don't remember any class every being too short for the allocated time with spare time in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

Basically this. DD has separate binders for each of her classes (required), with each binder having different sections. She also has textbooks and workbooks in two classes, so just for those, there are 4 books plus two binders.

My understanding is that the kids aren't taught for the entirety of the block. They are taught, then given problems or other materials to see if they understood what was taught, which is then gone over. They also go over quizzes, tests, and homework, so the additional time allotment is useful. In classes involving writing, they have essentially moved to all assessments being done in class. Too many kids cheating, made much, much worse with AI help. Also helped by longer classes.

As it is, DD can have 3 tests on a given day. She will be mortified if she ends up with even more, which can happen with the every class every day model.

Exactly. Under the block schedule, students ultimately get less school. We are purposefully shortchanging our kids.

Why? Why are they not allowed to get as much school as we did? Why do they not deserve to learn as much as we did?

If there is downtime in a block schedule, then there will be downtime in an every day schedule. This is reality.

Our kids are getting just as much schooling as we did. It is nonsense to think otherwise just because it is different than how we were educated.

And as a PP said, it also helps prepare for college learning. And it certainly helps manage the homework load.

[Anonymous]

My kid switched schools from block to every day schedules. She greatly misses the block schedule. Having all seven periods in one day means more wasted time to transition between classes. It means having four or so tests in one day. It means having less time for taking a test or quiz.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

Basically this. DD has separate binders for each of her classes (required), with each binder having different sections. She also has textbooks and workbooks in two classes, so just for those, there are 4 books plus two binders.

My understanding is that the kids aren't taught for the entirety of the block. They are taught, then given problems or other materials to see if they understood what was taught, which is then gone over. They also go over quizzes, tests, and homework, so the additional time allotment is useful. In classes involving writing, they have essentially moved to all assessments being done in class. Too many kids cheating, made much, much worse with AI help. Also helped by longer classes.

As it is, DD can have 3 tests on a given day. She will be mortified if she ends up with even more, which can happen with the every class every day model.

Exactly. Under the block schedule, students ultimately get less school. We are purposefully shortchanging our kids.

Why? Why are they not allowed to get as much school as we did? Why do they not deserve to learn as much as we did?

If there is downtime in a block schedule, then there will be downtime in an every day schedule. This is reality.

Our kids are getting just as much schooling as we did. It is nonsense to think otherwise just because it is different than how we were educated.

And as a PP said, it also helps prepare for college learning. And it certainly helps manage the homework load.

Ask some longtime teachers. They don't get through as much material under the block scheduling. Children cannot learn for 90 minutes but they can learn for 45 minutes.

As for preparing for college - no. Middle schoolers don't need to prepare for college. Neither do many high school kids. Maturity takes time. High school kids aren't ready for college, so we don't need to treat them like they are.

[Anonymous]

I teach middle school. I hate block. It’s too long for the kids to pay attention and it’s a huge pain if I’m out sick for a day or if there is a schedule change. I think admin does it because there are fewer transitions, meaning fewer conflicts in the hallways. The majority of teachers at my school preferred every day classes, but admin refuses to consider going back to the old schedule.

[Anonymous]

Preparing for college is not a real argument.
You need to be academically ready for college.
Class times are easy enough to adjust to especially as you are older and more developmentally ready. Some schools use a modified block schedule which is nice because you have 3 regular days and 2 block days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^

How would your dd's backpack be affected? There are no more textbooks. At most it would be some notebooks. Could get a binder with dividers.

One of my DDs friends went to a middle school that was AB (all classes) AB. So every Wed they had all classes except advisory. Maybe more schools could consider this. I too find that it makes for less learning because the kids can't be taught for 1.25 hours. And also if they are sick it is a mess

I'm not the PP, but my kids have different materials that they need to bring to different classes. They change out their Odd and even day binders/inner bags based on the classes they have that day.

Basically this. DD has separate binders for each of her classes (required), with each binder having different sections. She also has textbooks and workbooks in two classes, so just for those, there are 4 books plus two binders.

My understanding is that the kids aren't taught for the entirety of the block. They are taught, then given problems or other materials to see if they understood what was taught, which is then gone over. They also go over quizzes, tests, and homework, so the additional time allotment is useful. In classes involving writing, they have essentially moved to all assessments being done in class. Too many kids cheating, made much, much worse with AI help. Also helped by longer classes.

As it is, DD can have 3 tests on a given day. She will be mortified if she ends up with even more, which can happen with the every class every day model.

Exactly. Under the block schedule, students ultimately get less school. We are purposefully shortchanging our kids.

Why? Why are they not allowed to get as much school as we did? Why do they not deserve to learn as much as we did?

If there is downtime in a block schedule, then there will be downtime in an every day schedule. This is reality.

Our kids are getting just as much schooling as we did. It is nonsense to think otherwise just because it is different than how we were educated.

And as a PP said, it also helps prepare for college learning. And it certainly helps manage the homework load.

Ask some longtime teachers. They don't get through as much material under the block scheduling. Children cannot learn for 90 minutes but they can learn for 45 minutes.

As for preparing for college - no. Middle schoolers don't need to prepare for college. Neither do many high school kids. Maturity takes time. High school kids aren't ready for college, so we don't need to treat them like they are.

I really hate this argument. We aren't talking about 5 year olds, we're talking about 14-18 year olds. In prior centuries these people would have been apprentices working 10 hours days learning a craft or something. Why do we act like they can't focus for 90 minutes?