Does your High School have this schedule?

[HM]

Yes, we have a block schedule at our school. It saves the district a lot of money and allows the kids to have more classes over their four years. (they are required to have 28 classes and usually end up with 32).

The AP courses take all year (instead of the semester) and run every other day. So you have to double up on those and take two together. Other classes run on a semester basis.

 

[maddiel]

Our high school runs 2 4-course semesters, but the schedule is a little different - they have 5 1-hour classes on Monday to Thursday with the first class and the last class each day being the same subject; the schedule rotates through the week. Fridays they have four 75-minute classes.

She's an IB student and they use the same schedule with a few modifications (some courses share a scheduling block in some semesters.) I think band is offered as a shared block over the full year as well.

Fewer courses to keep track of at a time is definitely an advantage, as is the added flexibility in choosing courses. High school in Nova Scotia is only a 3 year program, so the flexibility is very welcome. Long gaps between math courses is a disadvantage, but the longest gap should only be one year (Grade 10 Math in Fall/09 then Grade 11 math in the Spring/11, for example)

M.

 

[Aimros]

That's how it was at my high school - and I LOVED IT! I couldn't imagine going to a school and having to take more than 4 classes a day, which a lot of my friends in other districts did. I definitely felt like it prepared me more for college, because college is set up similarly where you only take 4 or 5 classes a semester. I think it was a great way to learn time management. Honestly, 90 minutes never seemed like that long in one class. I received a wonderful education (in a public high school) that I wouldn't change for the world, and I know a lot of that is attributed to the block scheduling we had. I took AP classes (that lasted a year), and my younger sister took AP classes that only lasted a semester scared1:, they changed the "rules" when she became a junior), but she still scored a 4 (out of 5) on the exam.

My philosophy is that high school can only be as good as the student makes it. Good luck!

 

[kamik86]

I haven't had this type of a schedule (I went to a technical high school so went spent one week in classes (math, english, etc) and then the next week in our choosen shop (IT, electricity, carpentry, machine tech etc). This did mean that when we were in acedemics required 4 year courses (english and math) had double periods and were 90 min long each day to fit in the required amount all year. Classes only required for 2 years (history) was one period all 4 years. So I have had somewhat similar teaching in having to do a whole section in one day and then have homework then do something else tomarrow, some people fell behind in math due to this freshman year. After that most of them went back to the normal school since most of the kids wanting to do things like IT, electricity, etc and were good at them, were good at math. Our english curriculum was a joke though.

The biggest benefit I see to this is that it is like college. In college I went to a school with three trimesters each year so you took a class for 10 weeks, had finals, then a week off and took another set of classes. Most students took 4 although some took only 3 at a time. One reason I like this is that I tend to be all gung ho for a class at the start, do all the reading, really try, take notes etc for the first two weeks and then it slowly tapers off until I do the minimum to keep my grades where I want them. However in this system that 2 weeks is 1/5 of the course!! I liked having new topics all the time.

 

[mumom95]

I think it's interesting that some people are posting that the block schedule saves there district money.

Our district just went away from it because it costs too much money. They were able to let go quite a few teachers when they went away from the block schedule. The shortening of the teacher's prep period allows the teacher to teach more time during the day which means less teachers are needed.

I wonder if the size of the school has anything to do with it. Our graduating classes are about 700 kids per class.

Wonder what the difference is.

 

[tar heel]

There are definitely flaws, but it's been great for all three of my sons. They were able to take three strong academic classes and one elective (all arts for two of them and a real mix for the other). This enabled one to develop a skill and expertise in drafting that led to competition in VICA contests -- an interesting thing to show on a college ap. One's passion is visual art and he knew he would be doing that in college -- he had an art class in high school every semester after freshman year in addition to his college prep classes. The third is a junior and is taking three rigorous honors/AP classes and a theatre class this semester. Next semester he will have Honors Chorus and three very academic classes.

 

[golfgal]

Our HS has this schedule and it has worked out very well for my girls. They aren't overwhelmed with homework since they have only 4 classes at the same time. My older DD took AP classes including Calculus and had no problem with the breaks between math classes. She got a 5 on the AP exam, the majority of the class got 4/5 (they had Calc the fall semester and took AP test in April). Since they had extra time in class they started on Calc II - she says it has really helped her this year in college since her Calc II teacher in college isn't as good as her HS teacher was.

The ability to make up classes also works to your advantage and depending on a students interests it can make it easier to take specialized classes. One of my older DD's friends was interested in theatre and was able to take it every semester in HS, my younger DD is interested in art and should be able to take art every semester in essence giving her 8 yrs worth of credits in art and lots more variety than she would have been able to do otherwise.

One of the 1st things my oldest DD told me after starting college is how quick those 1hr classes seemed. Since she's been on the long schedule for so long she said it just seemed like not enough time to really get into the material.

All the parents I know like the schedule too, takes a bit to get used to but just seemed to work very well.

I might be confusing you with another poster but didn't your DD really struggle in middle school with a learning disability??? If so, KUDOS to her and her fantastic AP score!!!! Even if it wasn't her I am thinking of, KUDOS!!!!

 

[golfgal]

There are definitely flaws, but it's been great for all three of my sons. They were able to take three strong academic classes and one elective (all arts for two of them and a real mix for the other). This enabled one to develop a skill and expertise in drafting that led to competition in VICA contests -- an interesting thing to show on a college ap. One's passion is visual art and he knew he would be doing that in college -- he had an art class in high school every semester after freshman year in addition to his college prep classes. The third is a junior and is taking three rigorous honors/AP classes and a theatre class this semester. Next semester he will have Honors Chorus and three very academic classes.

A traditional schedule would actually allow them MORE opportunities to take AP and electives though. Most of the college bound kids here take 5 AP/CIS classes junior/senior year and 2 electives. If a student wants to go to college to major in music, for example, they might only take 4 AP classes and 3 music electives. Our twins are sophomores and they have 3 AP classes right now, 2 electives, one honors class(no AP choice for this class) and PE, so our twins have AP English, AP US History, AP Biology, Honors Algebra II, Band, Spanish III and PE. They have this schedule all year-PE classes have a different focus each trimester, health one trimester and PE the other two.

Next year they will have an AP History, AP English, AP math, AP Chemistry and then have room for 3 other classes-or 9 others if they take trimester long classes. They have 3 choices for AP History and 3 choices for AP English and 2 choices for an AP math so I don't know exactly what they will take yet. They will take band and Spanish again so they will have one period to take each trimester for other electives. Our oldest took classes like Architectural Drafting, Computer Programming, creative writing, Humanities, Modern Am Literature. They could also take wood shop, auto shop, Home Ec type classes, choir, modern dance, journalism, and a whole bunch of others.

 

[bookgirl]

Sort of similar but some of the HS here do a block system. They have A days and B days with 3 classes per day. Basically double the time every other day per subject. The only everyday class was music (band, orchestra etc) or sports/gym.

My goddaughter had it and loved it. They could really go over material and spend more time learing concepts. She said 50 minute clases she would always start to get it towards the end but then had to stop and move on and by the time she got back to it the next day she always had to review before moving on to the next concept. It just seemed like a longer study time made it easier..

 

[janette]

I might be confusing you with another poster but didn't your DD really struggle in middle school with a learning disability??? If so, KUDOS to her and her fantastic AP score!!!! Even if it wasn't her I am thinking of, KUDOS!!!!

It is the younger one that has a learning disablity, doubt she'll be taking AP classes except for Art. She's a sophmore and the one who will get to take more Art courses due to the scheduling, since she wants to go to an Art School it will work out very well.

My older DD is a college freshman this year and she took a few AP classes, not as many as her friends but she is very strong in Math & Science not as good in English or History so concentrated on those subjects. Scored great on all her AP exams and the schedule seemed to prepare her very well for college. She's adapted better than I'd hoped even with a Bio-Chem major, all we heard at the orientation was how hard it is but so far her only B is in English.

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

yup, my sister had this schedule and she liked it a lot. It actually prepared her for college b/c thats what you will do in college (4 or 5 classes each semester). When me and sis went to college though she had 1 class for 3hours and that was it for that class for the whole week. Unless it was math, we'd meet twice a week for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I liked that though, once i was in the zone, I was in the zone lol.

 

[MrsPete]

I should say that the science teachers LOVE the 90 minute periods because they can do the lecture/lab all at once but other than that, yuck.

We are on a trimester system and THAT is a great system too. Kids can take up to 21 classes/ year. Freshman/Sophomore years there isn't much room for electives (2 periods/day) but junior and senior year there is a lot of room. Most classes are a year long but not all and they could take 3 different writing classes, for example, one year if they want.

Not just science: Throw in Home Ec, PE, auto mechanics, masonry, cabinetry . . . all the classes in which you'd benefit from extended work time.

21 classes/year? 180 school days x 360 minutes of instructional time (this excludes lunch, class change time, homeroom). That's 1080/hours per year. That measn they're only getting 51 hours per class. How can they earn a Carnegie unit for that?

Back when I started teaching, we had 6 classes per day, and students had a total of 150 hours of instruction in each class. Now that we're on block scheduling we have only 135 hours of instruction in each class, and I can see the loss of that 15 hours in my students' grades and achievement.

I'm sure I'm missing something here.

A huge concern here is that we have a very transient population-- families move in and and out throughout the year and many coming in choose our town because of the excellent schools. However this is going to make it nearly impossible for the high school kids coming in. How do you come into a district where they are 1/2 way through Algebra 2 by November and you were only at the beginning in the district you came from?

We've not discovered the answer to that problem yet, though it's not something that's unique to block scheduling. Before we did this, we had kids move in from up North, where they typically start school later than we Southerners . . . so those kids wouldn't have covered as much material yet. Or vice-versa. And we're only talking about a few kids who move in/out during the semester.

 

[NotUrsula]

There is one private HS here that my DS was recruited for that uses it, and another that he is considering that uses a modified version. The modified version keeps the core classes on M-W-F each week year-round, but structures the electives on T-Th for 90 minutes per class for only a semester. The mix lets the kids get more choice of electives, but keeps them from getting out of practice in the core subjects.

As to college being like this, well, yes and no. College does make classes finite for a semester or trimester period, but in colleges there normally is greater continuity in particular subjects over the course of your academic career, and the classes are designed to cover a correspondingly narrower range of material. That is a bit harder to set up well when dealing with a whole school of kids who all have to meet the same state-mandated secondary curriculum requirements.

I am all for splitting classes on a M-W-F and Tu-Th schedule, which gives more time for each class period. One thing that is HUGELY difficult for my DS is his current school's system of doing certain enrichment classes only every 3rd week, etc. He really needs the routine of "if it's Tuesday then 3rd period is Chemisty" in order to be able to remember to be properly prepared for class.

 

[golfgal]

Not just science: Throw in Home Ec, PE, auto mechanics, masonry, cabinetry . . . all the classes in which you'd benefit from extended work time.

21 classes/year? 180 school days x 360 minutes of instructional time (this excludes lunch, class change time, homeroom). That's 1080/hours per year. That measn they're only getting 51 hours per class. How can they earn a Carnegie unit for that?

Back when I started teaching, we had 6 classes per day, and students had a total of 150 hours of instruction in each class. Now that we're on block scheduling we have only 135 hours of instruction in each class, and I can see the loss of that 15 hours in my students' grades and achievement.

I'm sure I'm missing something here.We've not discovered the answer to that problem yet, though it's not something that's unique to block scheduling. Before we did this, we had kids move in from up North, where they typically start school later than we Southerners . . . so those kids wouldn't have covered as much material yet. Or vice-versa. And we're only talking about a few kids who move in/out during the semester.

We are on a trimester system, classes are 57 minutes long, no homeroom each day and 4 minutes of passing time . We have 7 class periods/day.

 

[tar heel]

A traditional schedule would actually allow them MORE opportunities to take AP and electives though. Most of the college bound kids here take 5 AP/CIS classes junior/senior year and 2 electives. If a student wants to go to college to major in music, for example, they might only take 4 AP classes and 3 music electives. Our twins are sophomores and they have 3 AP classes right now, 2 electives, one honors class(no AP choice for this class) and PE, so our twins have AP English, AP US History, AP Biology, Honors Algebra II, Band, Spanish III and PE. They have this schedule all year-PE classes have a different focus each trimester, health one trimester and PE the other two.

Next year they will have an AP History, AP English, AP math, AP Chemistry and then have room for 3 other classes-or 9 others if they take trimester long classes. They have 3 choices for AP History and 3 choices for AP English and 2 choices for an AP math so I don't know exactly what they will take yet. They will take band and Spanish again so they will have one period to take each trimester for other electives. Our oldest took classes like Architectural Drafting, Computer Programming, creative writing, Humanities, Modern Am Literature. They could also take wood shop, auto shop, Home Ec type classes, choir, modern dance, journalism, and a whole bunch of others.

Your "traditional" schedule is very atypical, at least for this part of the country. Here, the "traditional" schedule was six classes a day for the entire year, making it impossible to take six academic classes and two arts classes.

 

[tar heel]

I'm not sure what "passing time" is, but we only have homeroom a few times a year.

 

[scrdofbugs]

My DD (freshman) school does the 12-week trimester. They do 5 classes each 12 week period. The classes change each trimester but math, english, etc is 2 trimesters but you have to pass each one to get the full credit. So she is taking Honors Geometry this trimester and the last trimester so she will haev 12 weeks of another class in between. It scares me that she might forget everything during that time. We will see in time. Her school is doing this as a trial for our district.

 

[golfgal]

Your "traditional" schedule is very atypical. Here, the "traditional" schedule was six classes a day for the entire year, making it impossible to take six academic classes and two arts classes.

Not really, most schools around here have 7 class periods a day-some have 6 'official' class periods and a 'zero' hour where kids can take a class before school 'starts' but most have 7 periods. Many districts also offer AP classes over the summer if kids want to get more classes in too.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm not sure what "passing time" is, but we only have homeroom a few times a year.

Passing time is the time alloted to move between classrooms to go from class to class. In most high schools it is about 5-10 minutes, give or take, for each class change.

 

[honugirl]

I was in one of the first classes to have this schedule when I was in high school. A full year class took half a year. It was nice because you really did have more time to go in depth with subjects. The schedule wasn't all funky as well. I don't get those schools that have A, B, C, pep, etc. schedules. I need the consistency. I actually really liked it. It meant too that if you hated the class, you only had to stick it out for a half a year instead of the whole year.