Block scheduling vs 7 period day

gosmom
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:53:45 +0000

S & D had block in their public middle school—I HATED IT! Very unproductive, many teachers could not keep class going for 80 minutes and allowed kids to do their HW in class, therefore less actual teaching time. Not that many middle school kids can focus for 80 minutes, so many discipline issues arose. Also, it seemed like every week there was some teacher workday, or holiday, Monday off, etc., that it was quite possible a kid could go 5 or 6 days without math, English or foreign language. And they wondered why their test scores went down!!! As others mentioned above, it was difficult for teachers to also cover the required material before standardized testing began.
Google Block scheduling…there is a wealth of info about the negative effects of BS especially wrt math, languages. I waged a war against BS, but no changes were made until my kids had moved on…grrrr.
S&D moved to private HS with rotating 7 period 55 minutes classes…yes, they did have to practice good time management, but was much better all around.