Will we ever move away from block scheduling?

[Anonymous]

We love block scheduling. Gives the kids two nights to complete homework and less homework in one night. Would hate to go back to regular. Would be open to one day being all classes meeting for 45-50 min (M) and then block the rest of the week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love block scheduling. Gives the kids two nights to complete homework and less homework in one night. Would hate to go back to regular. Would be open to one day being all classes meeting for 45-50 min (M) and then block the rest of the week.

Sure. You prefer block scheduling for your weeknight convenience but you don't care about the lesser education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love block scheduling. Gives the kids two nights to complete homework and less homework in one night. Would hate to go back to regular. Would be open to one day being all classes meeting for 45-50 min (M) and then block the rest of the week.

Sure. You prefer block scheduling for your weeknight convenience but you don't care about the lesser education.

DP. You keep saying this as fact, but find me one study that shows block scheduling reduces education. You won't be able to find anything legit, because You're talking out of your limited experience and your a$$

[Anonymous]

And to that PP's point, my student can really dig into meaningful homework and assignments and reading when he has only two-three classes a night instead of 4-5.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Longtime teacher here. I was in college to become a teacher in the mid 90s and had my first teaching job in 97. All of my education classes and all of my jobs have only been with block schedules. I greatly prefer it to my own middle and high school experience, where teachers gave homework every single class period M-F when I had daily classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Longtime teacher here. I was in college to become a teacher in the mid 90s and had my first teaching job in 97. All of my education classes and all of my jobs have only been with block schedules. I greatly prefer it to my own middle and high school experience, where teachers gave homework every single class period M-F when I had daily classes.

+1

[Anonymous]

The private schools do block scheduling right with one day for all classes and the other four block scheduling. If there is one day off foe the week I believe they drop the all classes day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love block scheduling. Gives the kids two nights to complete homework and less homework in one night. Would hate to go back to regular. Would be open to one day being all classes meeting for 45-50 min (M) and then block the rest of the week.

Sure. You prefer block scheduling for your weeknight convenience but you don't care about the lesser education.

DP. You keep saying this as fact, but find me one study that shows block scheduling reduces education. You won't be able to find anything legit, because You're talking out of your limited experience and your a$$

I've seen it happen so I would guess if there was a study this would be the correct assumption amd outcome but it's also difficult to track because schools teachers and kids have many variables to compare against. You are really measuring the kids ability to absorb information and practice which is different than just the lessons.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

+1 Class of ‘96 here from FCPS. This is what our high school did when they transitioned to block scheduling. They called one day the “anchor day.” Students would go to all periods for 45-50 min on this day. They made Mondays anchor days so teachers could set the assignments and tone for the week after the weekend. Then you had your block classes either M/W or T/Th. The next week it was the same.

I think absences are easier to deal with when you miss block days personally. You can miss Tuesday and Wednesday back to back and only miss only one whole set of classes vs two days of the same class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

Why? My first thought as a teacher is this is the day I’ll give the test. They rarely need an entire block. Your kid might have 3, 4 or 5+ tests on a day if others think the same. I’m glad my school doesn’t have this schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

Why? My first thought as a teacher is this is the day I’ll give the test. They rarely need an entire block. Your kid might have 3, 4 or 5+ tests on a day if others think the same. I’m glad my school doesn’t have this schedule.

Somehow other schools make it work so I assume that not all tests are on the anchor day. Maybe it isn't even allowed. Such black and white thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

Why? My first thought as a teacher is this is the day I’ll give the test. They rarely need an entire block. Your kid might have 3, 4 or 5+ tests on a day if others think the same. I’m glad my school doesn’t have this schedule.

How are your tests not taking the entire block? How are you asking any meaningful questions? The AP exams are 3 hours, it makes sense for unit tests to take close to 90 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

Why? My first thought as a teacher is this is the day I’ll give the test. They rarely need an entire block. Your kid might have 3, 4 or 5+ tests on a day if others think the same. I’m glad my school doesn’t have this schedule.

How are your tests not taking the entire block? How are you asking any meaningful questions? The AP exams are 3 hours, it makes sense for unit tests to take close to 90 minutes.

At our HS, 9th graders cannot take AP classes. And neither can MS students, who also have block scheduling.

Block scheduling may be appropriate for juniors and seniors - but not for younger students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I like the point about tests being spread out and more time to complete homework. It just really stinks when you miss a class.

I like the idea of doing block scheduling 4 days a week and one day with all the classes.

Why? My first thought as a teacher is this is the day I’ll give the test. They rarely need an entire block. Your kid might have 3, 4 or 5+ tests on a day if others think the same. I’m glad my school doesn’t have this schedule.

How are your tests not taking the entire block? How are you asking any meaningful questions? The AP exams are 3 hours, it makes sense for unit tests to take close to 90 minutes.

At our HS, 9th graders cannot take AP classes. And neither can MS students, who also have block scheduling.

Block scheduling may be appropriate for juniors and seniors - but not for younger students.

It also seems to be more of a problem with this generation. I’ve been teaching MS for 15 years, and it was less of a problem when I first starting teaching…the complaining alone is so annoying.