Reply to APS Block Schedule - 90 minute core classes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a HS teacher and have never taught anything but block. We don’t lecture the entire 88 minutes. In my class it looks like this: warm up activity/attendance question, [b]independent reading,[/b] maybe a [b]journal prompt[/b], mini lesson and group practice, [b]independent practic[/b]e. Or, warm up/read/journal prompt, “workshop” time where some kids are drafting, some are revising, some are in a small group with me while I reteach something.  [/quote]

So study hall for half the time. [/quote]

Um, no. Independent reading is important for building reading endurance, vocabulary, comprehension. It has measured and proven benefits. Journaling does as well, when students are writing to a prompt they are practicing the writing muscle and developing ideas they’ll later use in their formal written pieces.  Independent practice = the graded work on whatever skill we are currently working on. Maybe if you guys knew what words meant and what teaching looks like you wouldn’t be losing your minds over 88 minute classes. [/quote]

What are you doing while kids do independent work?[/quote]

OMG can we please stop second-guessing and armchair quarterbacking teachers?  Go look at that thread on FCPS teachers who are all miserable and want to quit!

This teacher probably has a million other things to do while kids are reading, including perhaps grading papers or planning the next lesson!  Why is there so much complaining.  Do we want our kids to have subs all year?[/quote]

Your response gets to my point. The county does not give them adequate planning time or support, and thus are allocating class time for administrative tasks to save money. That’s why the county likes block scheduling. [/quote]

Okay, so you prefer traditional scheduling where they have no time during the day at all to do those things and have to work all night at home?  That's why we are losing teachers![/quote]

I support the model where we have regular periods so kids spend more of their time at school engaged and learning, and then h[b]iring support staff and adequate teachers to allow teachers to be fully engaged in class time and not being work home[/b]. Stop putting words in my mouth. [/quote]

Sure, but that isn't happening, so pick your poison.[/quote]

My preference is to prioritize instruction time, and then teachers can advocate for more support.  Rather than downshifting expectations for in class instruction to gain paid planning time.[/quote]

So when are the teachers supposed to plan lessons for this instruction time[/quote]

The way the did for last centure, in a planning period.[/quote]

Read that FCPS thread about teachers quitting and how they talk about the increased demands from administration, more and more mandatory meetings and committees, not to mention IEP meetings and parents wanting to meet.  It's changed a lot over the past century and now appears to be at a tipping point.

Can we not just be grateful that teachers are trying their best no matter what the schedule is?  Why try to cut them down picking apart the 90 min. block as if they are wasting that time or getting away with something?[/quote]

My point is that it is too difficult for a teacher to fill 90 minutes classes, it’s tiring for both teacher and student. I am only bashing the argument that they need the block for planning — that’s some administration should fix. [/quote]

Why do you think it’s too difficult for a teacher to fill 90 min? 
[/quote]

They are filling it!  The teacher a couple pages back described exactly how - some presentation, some independent work.  That is all part of teaching, it's just some people don't want to accept this for some strange reason.[/quote]

Because in their 80s/90s childhoods, teachers stood at the blackboard and lectured for an hour a day and they demand that model come back (spoiler alert:  it never will).[/quote]

High school English for me was mostly discussion based with no long lectures and no independent reading time. It assumed kids had done the reading at home. Did everyone do this? No, but then they just didn't participate in the discussion. Maybe they learned about the book from the discussion, maybe they crammed it in before a test or paper, or maybe they never did. But the class moved on, without treading water while kids who didn’t do the homework read.

A high school teacher earlier said that kids who have recently learned English are motivated and are reading - it's the kids watching videos on their phones who are not. It's a shame to ask motivated, likely lower-income kids to accommodate less-motivated, middle class kids on phones by carving independent reading time out of active instruction and discussion time. It seems like we're bringing instruction down to the level of the least motivated student. This doesn't reflect on teachers, but rather the overall system that pressures schools to pass everyone and have everyone hit minimum SOL achievement levels even if it means using class time to do homework to ensure it gets done.

If kids playing video games never face any penalty from doing so and continue to pass their courses, why stop playing video games? Better to keep class moving without the fallback of independent reading/homework time in class.  Maybe the video game kids get a bad grade or don't pass an SOL as a result. That might convince them to put the video games down.[/quote]

It’s actually funny to me when parents on here freak out about there being EL students in their kids’ classes. Sure they need a little more scaffolding and assistance but that comes from the teacher’s time , not the other students’. The EL students are SO motivated to learn. They increase the engagement level in their classes because they want to participate and learn. School is not a “given” to them and learning how to read and write and speak and understand a speaker by listening are skills they see immense value in and want to build. Take a regular Gen Ed class and a class with EL students in it (and I would know because I teach both), and the one with EL students is a better environment overall. They add to their classes, not detract, but so many parents don’t see that and would never believe it. [/quote]

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