which our students and teacher's have really come to like. It is not =
often that both groups are in agreement!! But this is our 3rd year now =
of this scheduling rotation and things are more smooth than ever.
=20
For the middle school (grades 6-8), the student's take 8 classes and the =
teachers teach 6 blocks in the rotation. The advantage of this schedule =
is that our students get a little flavor of the block schedule as well =
as the traditional meet every period, every day type of schedule. We =
have a similar program in our upper school (grades 9-12), which I will =
attach just in case. We wanted to be sure that the schedule has some =
rotation to it, because we found the same student's missing the same =
classes to go to athletic contests early, etc., so that is the rationale =
behind the rotation.
=20
The use of the AA time (academic advisory) and the GSH (Guided Study =
Hall) has worked for the most part. The AA time is used for all program =
elements like health talks, character education, and assemblies. It can =
also be easily switched with the GSH period if needed most of the time.
=20
The idea behind the GSH was to give each core subject area (English, =
Spanish, Math, Social Studies, Science) a block of time where they could =
meet with the students all at one time, give a grade level test at one =
time, or have a special guest lecturer into school. For the Middle =
School, we have grade level teams, so all of the 8th graders, for =
instance, are taught by the same 9 teachers. We have only one teacher =
who overlaps all grade levels in the core subjects, and she just works =
with us, very easily on those days as a floater. The other classes =
students take (Computer, Music, Art, PE), are all a part of the team as =
well, but do not use the GSH except for rare occasions. But, to =
continue, all teachers are assigned a group of students (14-15) per =
class by the grade levels they teach. At the GSH study hall time, the =
Science teacher, for instance, could schedule a unit test. He hands out =
the unit tests to the teachers who have all his students, and the =
student's are taking the test all together, but in the separate =
classrooms. The science teacher, has one of the staff members (we use =
aides, secretaries, etc.) to sit in his room as the proctor, and then he =
walks around to the classes to answer questions if need be. If he =
wanted to have a guest lecturer, then he could choose to use his week to =
have that person come in to talk to the students. Two huge advantages =
to this type of use of time is that the teacher's all feel that they =
have more class minutes in the year to use, since they have a "testing =
block", and the incidents of possible cheating, or of students "knowing" =
what is on the tests has reduced dramatically. Also, the assignment of =
the GSH day to which subject area, was done at the very beginning of the =
year. That way, teachers are able to plan their units to work with the =
testing period if they so wish (which they do), but I have also seen =
them switch weeks around.
=20
I've attached this type of schedule as FINAL MS Daily Schedule =
2007-08.doc.
=20
The Upper School, which has 7 classes, follows much the same idea, =
except for the GSH. There is one study hall time per week, that is used =
pretty much the same way that the AA in Middle School is used. We =
should probably change the name of the block, but haven't gotten around =
to it yet. You can see their schedule in the document called FINAL US =
Daily Schedule.doc.
=20
The final thing I will add, is that this was much easier to sell to =
teachers, because of a rotation and a semi-block that all met within a 5 =
day period. Having to have a schedule rotation that went out over more =
than a week's time is difficult to keep up to begin with, and if there =
are changes, such as snow days or in our case, hurricanes, due to school =
closings, re-configuring days lost is hard to keep up with. Also, =
having the "all-block" meeting days, helps for days like the Monday and =
Tuesday before Thanksgiving -- we ran a Day 4 and Day 5 schedule -- and =
everyone got a chance to meet without some classes losing class times.
=20
Hope this helps and if you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. =
Good luck with your process.
=20
Anne Skipper
Special Projects
Testing Supervisor
The American School of El Salvador
San Salvador, El Salvador
=20
www.amschool.edu.sv <http://www.amschool.edu.sv/>=20
=20
=20
________________________________
From: A forum for independent school educators on behalf of Greg =
Feldmeth
Sent: Tue 12/11/2007 8:37 PM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Upper school schedules
ISED listmembers,
We are beginning the process of discussing the overhaul of our upper=20
school schedule and would like to see other ISED upper school=20
schedules as a comparison. If you send me either a Word or pdf file=20
via email or a fax (626-796-2901) of a blank student schedule, I will=20
scan and combine all of the submissions and send them out to all=20
interested as a pdf.
Thanks,
Greg Feldmeth
Assistant Head of School
Polytechnic School
Pasadena, California 91106
626-792-2147
626-796-2901 (fax)
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, =
attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
