Anchor Days in MS

[Anonymous]

So much of a 90 minute class is wasted time. You can't absorb 90 minutes of a math lesson at once, for example. Much easier for teachers and students to learn one concept, go home and practice it, and return the next day for another concept. Teachers know this - that's why my kids report the last 30 minutes of many classes is devoted to chatting with friends, watching movies on school issued laptop etc. Utter waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anchor days used to be the norm. Having every class, every day used to be the norm. Block scheduling is the new approach.

Yup, MS had each class every day before the pandemic. They went to block for MS during virtual school and never went back. It’s a very bad model for MS kids. That long of a class doesn’t work and skipping each class every other day makes it hard for many to keep track of things.

What planet are you on? The MS was using block scheduling way before the pandemic.

There were a few not using block scheduling before the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much of a 90 minute class is wasted time. You can't absorb 90 minutes of a math lesson at once, for example. Much easier for teachers and students to learn one concept, go home and practice it, and return the next day for another concept. Teachers know this - that's why my kids report the last 30 minutes of many classes is devoted to chatting with friends, watching movies on school issued laptop etc. Utter waste.

Did you ever have a 90 minute math lesson? I did. Went to TJ in the 90s and we had Monday anchor days and block scheduling Tues-Fri, like OP is describing. I loved block days and hated anchor days. You can sort of do a flipped classroom without the flipping with block scheduling. Either practice than lecture or lecture than practice. Of course nobody had a laptop to distract them back then.

OP the point of the anchor Monday is so your kid doesn't forget whether Monday is odd or even or whatever your school calls it. Every week has the same classes on each week day. It's easy. My kid is at a school with block scheduling where the Mondays alternate and I am dreading it. When you need a calendar to keep track of what classes you have when, the school has gone too far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anchor days used to be the norm. Having every class, every day used to be the norm. Block scheduling is the new approach.

Yup, MS had each class every day before the pandemic. They went to block for MS during virtual school and never went back. It’s a very bad model for MS kids. That long of a class doesn’t work and skipping each class every other day makes it hard for many to keep track of things.

What planet are you on? The MS was using block scheduling way before the pandemic.

I feel like sometimes the FCPS haters just throw random lies around and see if any of them stick.

[Anonymous]

Our MS started block scheduling during the pandemic. So, it’s still fairly recent. The HS was using block scheduling before then though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this prevent you from pulling your kid on Mondays? They likely won’t have tests on these days. I’m more likely to make appointments on anchor days since they won’t have to take a backpack with both odd and even day supplies. The backpacks are so heavy as it is.

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Anchor day would have all 7 classes so you would actually need both the odd and even day supplies all in one day.

Yes that’s my exact point. My 7th graders backpack ripped last year, it was so heavy. I’m not looking forward to her needing to carry both odd and even day supplies plus a laptop to school on the same day. I will purposely try to schedule appointments on anchor days to miss this day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this prevent you from pulling your kid on Mondays? They likely won’t have tests on these days. I’m more likely to make appointments on anchor days since they won’t have to take a backpack with both odd and even day supplies. The backpacks are so heavy as it is.

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Anchor day would have all 7 classes so you would actually need both the odd and even day supplies all in one day.

Yes that’s my exact point. My 7th graders backpack ripped last year, it was so heavy. I’m not looking forward to her needing to carry both odd and even day supplies plus a laptop to school on the same day. I will purposely try to schedule appointments on anchor days to miss this day.

Just use the locker if it’s too much to carry. This is all nonsensical. You are overreacting. Block scheduling is a new phenomenon. Having a complete schedule all 5 days was the way for decades and decades prior. They can manage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this prevent you from pulling your kid on Mondays? They likely won’t have tests on these days. I’m more likely to make appointments on anchor days since they won’t have to take a backpack with both odd and even day supplies. The backpacks are so heavy as it is.

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Anchor day would have all 7 classes so you would actually need both the odd and even day supplies all in one day.

Yes that’s my exact point. My 7th graders backpack ripped last year, it was so heavy. I’m not looking forward to her needing to carry both odd and even day supplies plus a laptop to school on the same day. I will purposely try to schedule appointments on anchor days to miss this day.

Just use the locker if it’s too much to carry. This is all nonsensical. You are overreacting. Block scheduling is a new phenomenon. Having a complete schedule all 5 days was the way for decades and decades prior. They can manage.

They didn’t use to have heavy laptops on top of binders though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this prevent you from pulling your kid on Mondays? They likely won’t have tests on these days. I’m more likely to make appointments on anchor days since they won’t have to take a backpack with both odd and even day supplies. The backpacks are so heavy as it is.

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Anchor day would have all 7 classes so you would actually need both the odd and even day supplies all in one day.

Yes that’s my exact point. My 7th graders backpack ripped last year, it was so heavy. I’m not looking forward to her needing to carry both odd and even day supplies plus a laptop to school on the same day. I will purposely try to schedule appointments on anchor days to miss this day.

Just use the locker if it’s too much to carry. This is all nonsensical. You are overreacting. Block scheduling is a new phenomenon. Having a complete schedule all 5 days was the way for decades and decades prior. They can manage.

They didn’t use to have heavy laptops on top of binders though.

They didn't used to have laptops, but they had textbooks, which are much heavier than a laptop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would this prevent you from pulling your kid on Mondays? They likely won’t have tests on these days. I’m more likely to make appointments on anchor days since they won’t have to take a backpack with both odd and even day supplies. The backpacks are so heavy as it is.

This doesn’t make sense to me at all. Anchor day would have all 7 classes so you would actually need both the odd and even day supplies all in one day.

Yes that’s my exact point. My 7th graders backpack ripped last year, it was so heavy. I’m not looking forward to her needing to carry both odd and even day supplies plus a laptop to school on the same day. I will purposely try to schedule appointments on anchor days to miss this day.

Just use the locker if it’s too much to carry. This is all nonsensical. You are overreacting. Block scheduling is a new phenomenon. Having a complete schedule all 5 days was the way for decades and decades prior. They can manage.

They can manage but it’s not easy. For DC1 in middle school, lockers were not issued. For DC2 they were but no one used them. The school is huge and the kids are right, there wouldn’t be time in between classes. The lockers usually aren’t centrally located.