From: Kevin Kinsella (kkinsella@woodside.k12.ca.us)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 10:49:03 PST
From: "Kevin Kinsella" <kkinsella@woodside.k12.ca.us> Subject: block schedule Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2002 10:49:03 -0800 Message-ID: <000501c19875$24c6f9e0$e601a8c0@woodside.k12.ca.us>
Mike,
I teach 5th-6th science at a K-8 school in Woodside. Our upper grades
(5-8) adopted a new schedule this year that accommodates blocked time.
It is sooooo nice to have 90 minutes for science class! It's a little
bit tricky and although it creates some appropriate and worthwhile class
time it has some drawbacks. I am not an expert on how it works but will
investigate to find a more knowledgeable person for you to contact.
The basic idea is that students meet for longer class periods (90 min.)
every other day. We have an 'A day' / 'B day' schedule, which doesn't
work well for some classes such as math and language. Non-core classes
such as P.E., music and Spanish meet for shorter periods (45 min.)
during a particular time of the day. We also have two electives that
meet twice weekly, i.e. Mon. and Thurs. or Tues. and Fri. We have early
dismissal on Wed. to accommodate staff and department meetings.
Electives are 45 min. long.
While this schedule is generally working, it required quite a bit of
give and take in the beginning. Many issues were raised about equity of
student contact time but those were 'resolved' with a commitment to make
sacrifices for the benefit of the students, i.e. we decided it was worth
it to pursue because it greatly enhanced the students' classroom
experience. There was/is bickering but hey, we're teachers, that's what
we're good at.
Kevin Kinsella
Science Explorer
Woodside Elementary School
650.851.1571 x256
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