Saturday, September 08, 2007

The New Schedule - a Sample

I've had a number of people ask for the details on our new schedule this year, so here goes.

7:05 - 7:30 - Homeroom/Breakfast
7:30 - 8:15 - First Period Academic Class
8:19 - 9:04 - Second Period Academic Class
9:08 - 9:53 - Third Period Academic Class
9:53 - 10:17 - GPA = Binders, study tips, etc.
10:17 - 10:47 - Lunch
10:53 - 11:38 - Fourth Period Academic Class
11:42 - 12:27 - Fifth Period Academic Class
12:31 - 1:16 - Kids go to related arts, teachers have personal planning time
1:20 - 2:05 - Kids go to second related arts, teachers have team and subject planning

Keep in mind, this is the 7th grade version of the schedule. Sixth and 8th grade are pretty much the same except they have GPA/Lunch and their planning times at different times than we do. Other than that, it's pretty much the same thing.

Some positives:

  • No split lunch - that was hell on earth
  • We have large blocks of time to work with other teachers
  • We don't lose our planning due to parent meetings
  • We have time to work with kids on their binders, hand out paperwork, check homework, read, whatever with our GPA kids.
  • Kids get more related arts and physical education
  • We can have data chats about our benchmark tests without having to arrange for one teacher to have a sub - it used to be that two of a grade level team was on one schedule and the other was on a different one. We never used to all have planning at the same time.
Drawbacks:
  • Shorter class periods.
So that's it in a nutshell. Hope this makes sense!

4 comments:

Miss A said...

I like this schedule. I really appreciate that they scheduled in time for departmental get togethers for planning. I wish they could do this in high school, especially with the focus on PLC's in my district.

Mrs. T said...

You eat LUNCH at 10:17??? Ack!
And the kids come at 7:05???
And the "related arts" teachers? Do they not have any classes until the afternoon? Or do the 6th and 8th grade classes have related arts at a different time?
This looks like a GREAT middle school schedule (except for the early part- yawn!). Would not like it for high school, however.

Mrs. Bluebird said...

Yup, the related arts teachers teach the 6th graders and 8th graders in different blocks. I think the 6th graders go first, then the 8th, and then our kids have the last two periods of the day. Related Arts, BTW, is phys ed, art, computers, chorus, band, all that sort of thing. Some of our targeted at-risk kids get one related arts, then a class on study skills and remediatoin that only has 6 kids in it.

Yeah, lunch is early (we're learning to bring a healthy snack for later in the day), but we love having the last periods of the day for planning.

We've always had the kids arriving starting at 7:05...which is why I'm up every morning at 4:45 am. You do get used to it after a while.

Jane said...

I think it's wonderful that the kids get the "binder" time and all that related arts in the afternoon. I would love this schedule. Also, for me it would significantly cut down on traffic.