Why Two Years of Algebra? Why ten months?

Shawn Cornally asks in this post, "Who decided that it takes an equal amount of time to teach every subject?"

No one decided.

What happened was that the time involved was "decided" upon by each school on its own and each one gradually came to the same conclusions: The summer months were too damned hot in NYC and all points south of Boston - since that was where the decision-makers were, that was the decision. Time off for major holidays and the occasional week or two here and there - Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter - and the rest is school.

Sorry to all you "It's all based on the agrarian calender" believers - it's obvious you were never on a farm. The summer months are busy (the definition of farmer is 'a busy man') but nowhere near as busy as other times of the year.  Planting and harvest are kinda important, and that's May and October. The winter months have their own flow - it's not like farmers are sedentary during all but the 10 weeks of summer break!

The class time has varied from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours, yet everyone who thinks about it usually comes to the same conclusion: "If I have to choose, it's 50 minutes, all year. That seems the best compromise for all the students." Since the classes are all mixed up, you have to find a compromise.

Once the times were decided, the courses expanded or split to fit the available hours. If a school tried a new initiative, the courses all shifted to fit. Books were written to fit the prevailing choice with a couple extra chapters of overlap so they could sell them to more people. Teachers who finished something early would add a topic or expand a earlier one. Teachers who went over made some resolution to move faster. Look at the way AP is 1 month shorter than the rest of the school yet somehow those teachers make 2x the work fit.

Then the time became flexible and the courses changed again, slightly. A chapter was added to the math class, another Shakespeare play was included.  It was decided that 1 year was too little for all the Great Ideas of Algebra, so let's do 2, etc.

When block scheduling became all the rage, the total hours were kept constant and the material shifted to fit the new format. If the course syllabus changed radically, the new would always be compared to the old because the old needed to be fundamentally similarity to the new.

Shift, change and adapt --- Evolution, baby.

Additionally, the expectations of a particular course become centered around the transcript, i.e, does a grade of "A" in a course labeled "CP Physics" taught by a guy named Cornally in the Midwest using SBG mean what I think it means and include what I think it should include?  Do I schedule this kid for a remedial physics class before allowing him to matriculate or do I throw him right in and let him become a Physics major at my Uni?  Do I hire him based on this report or not?

Given all that, it's surprisingly consistent from student to student. Match up the "A" students in CP Physics from 80 different schools and they'll be amazingly similar and their abilities and knowledge pretty damned predictable.

No Bells - part one

David Wees feels that School Bells Interfere With Learning. I beg to differ.

"I hate being interrupted ..." and "The clock itself isn't evil, but the way we use it in schools has serious ramifications on how our students learn."

I hate being interrupted, too, but this has little to do with the bells and a lot to do with the location of the clock and the habits of the teacher. No matter how long the class is, whether you have a 4x4 block system or 7x50min or 8x40min, 1hr per day, or 2hrs per day, each class needs to end sometime. If the teacher can see the clock, it shouldn't take him by surprise.

Mrs. Curmudgeon's school is considering the switch back to bells every period. For years they had no bells between classes, just at the beginning and end of the day. There were the problems you might expect: groups of kids milling in the hall chatting, kids who show up 10 minutes late because the other teacher didn't notice the time or just wanted to keep going. The bathroom is a favorite excuse.

Students aren't going through the day in lockstep with all of their classmates and we must keep to a schedule so that everyone's time and preparation can be utilized most effectively. One freshman may take Honors Algebra2, Spanish 3 and H.English but the other takes CP English, CPAlgebra1 and Spanish1. The only course they have in common might be a Freshman History. You really can't expect every other teacher to make adjustments to fit that teacher's teaching whim of the day.

"I am always getting interrupted by the bell" and "It just never seems long enough" are not reasons to get rid of bells. "Kids are always late" is not one either. I've taught classes that were 40, 45, 50, 60, 80 and 90 minutes long; seminars and workshops lasting from 15 minutes to 6 hours. They always have definite schedules.

The only way to allow for extended time is to have large time gaps between classes, a la college scheduling. Even in this scenario, few classes are ever extended. You have an hour, so you plan for an hour. Extensions are done during "office hours" or during that time after class when the student catches the teacher and asks a question.

It wouldn't be a proper 21st century school reform piece if it didn't mention the dreaded "factory-model" analogy and dream wistfully about flexibility and "learning opportunities," so here goes:

Clocks are part of the systems world of a school but they have come to rule our life world. We have let ourselves become subject to fixed schedules, daily routine, and the drudgery of a factory-like system. I'm not saying that we can do without the clocks, but maybe we need to find ways for our system to be more flexible, to allow the learning to extend when necessary, and even send off kids early for another opportunity to learn, when their lesson with us is done.

So my group of 15 can't all begin at once because you are keeping 12 of them for a necessary extended learning opportunity? "Necessary" to whom? Will you send them to me when I have my AP calculus kids in their own "extended learning opportunity"?

If any student can be late at any time by merely invoking the "I didn't know what time it was", then what kind of message are we sending about responsibility? When your kids can deliberately steer you into a digression so they can be "legitimately" late to their next class, what societal good are we accomplishing? If promptness no longer matters, then few students will ever be prompt and the school will deteriorate.  You'll accomplish less than you do now and eventually go back.

Maybe we could do the 21st century skills, uber-techno-geek thing and program every student's iPhone, iPad, netbook ... to sound an alarm to signal the end of periods.

New Policies that will work SO well ...

It's goofy season again in our district, the time when rules are made to be broken, then changed. Last week the announcement was made that "all students who live in (one of our sending towns) would be dismissed from last period five minutes early to ride the bus." No one else.

That'll work.

Schedules from Around and About

Mrs. H asked and we happened to have this information available and here is much easier to format than the silly little comment window. Some information is not available and few schedules include a lunch because all of the schools have an extra long period during which a 20-minute to 30-minute lunch is extracted. Simplicity dictated we not mention lunch. If this is helpful to anyone, have at it.

This is mostly boring and is hidden below the jump:

4 Block ("4 by 4") BFA-Fairfax

80 A A A A A
80 B B B B B
80 C C C C C
80 D D D D D

BFA-Fairfax
4 Blocks
semester-long * 2 = 8 credits/year
80 min * 90days = 120 hours
80 min + 5pass +30min worktime/TA + 30min lunch
School Day: 8:30 – 2:45 6:15hr



4 Block (Sorta "4 by 4") Black River

43 A A A A A
42 B B B B B
85 C C C C C
85 F F F F F
85 G G G G G

BRHS 4 or 3+0.5+0.5, semester-long = 8 credits/year
85 min * 87.5 days = 124 hours
85 min + 5pass +10min bagel break + 30min lunch
School Day: 7:45 – 2:15 6:30hr



4.5 Block Twin Valley

40 A A A A A
40 B B B B B
80 C C C C C
40 D D D D D
80 F F F F F
80 G G G G G

TV
4.5 Blocks, semester-long = 9 credits/year
80 min * 87.5 days = 117 hours
80/40 min + 3pass + 25min lunch
School Day: 7:45 – 2:32 6:45hr



5 Block Rutland

80 A A A A A
80 B B B B B
80 C C C C C
80 D D D D D
80 E E E E E

Rutland
5 Blocks, * 2 semesters = 10 credits/year
80 min * 90 days = 120 hours
80 min + 5pass + 20News + 20min lunch
School Day: 7:45 – 3:00 7:15hr



Alternating Block S.Burlington, Woodstock, Essex, OVUHS

80 A E A E A
80 B F B F B
80 C G C G C
80 D H D H D

South Burlington, Essex
8 Blocks, Full year schedule = 8 credits/year days alternate: "Blue" and "Gray"
80 min * 90 days = 120 hours
80 min + 5pass +25TA + 30min lunch
School Day: 8:40 – 3:20 6:40hr

Woodstock, OVUHS
8 Blocks, Full year schedule = 8 credits/year days alternate: "Green" and "White"
88 min * 90 days = 132 hours
88 min + 8pass + TA + 25min lunch
School Day: 8:00 – 2:45 6:45hr

Essex allows the blocks to split for labs or health. One assumes the other half is study hall. Also, some classes run a full block, 1 semester, 0.5 credit.



2 period + 3 Alternating Block Mt. Mansfield

40 1 1 1 1 1
80 3 2 3 2 3
80 5 4 5 4 5
80 7 6 7 6 7
40 8 8 8 8 8

Mt. Mansfield
2 + 3 Alternate = 8 credits/year
80 min * 90 days = 120 hours
School Day: 7:45 – 2:15 6:30hr


Traditional 8 Period Fair Haven, Springfield

40 A A A A A
40 B B B B B
40 C C C C C
40 D D D D D
40 E E E E E
40 F F F F F
40 G G G G G
40 H H H H H

Fair Haven 8 periods, full year = 8 credits/year
40 min * 180 days = 120 hours
40 min + 3pass + 15TA + 20min lunch
School Day: 8:20 – 3:05

Springfield 8 periods, full year = 8 credits/year
45 min * 180 days = 135 hours
45 min + ?pass + ?TA +?min lunch
School Day: ?



Traditional 7 Period Proctor, Northfield

7 periods, full year = 7 credits/year
50 min * 180 days = 150 hours
50 min + 5pass + 10TA + 20min lunch
School Day: 7:55 – 2:45 6:50hr



Modified Block Mill River

40 A A A B A
40 B B A B A
40 C C C D C
60 D D C D D
40 E E E F E
40 F F E F F
40 G G G H G
40 H H G H H

8 periods, full year = 8 credits/year
40 min * 180 days = 120 hours
40 min + 3pass + 15TA + 20min lunch
School Day: 8:20 – 3:00 6:40hr



Modified Block Badger HS

45 A A B A A
45 B A B B B
45 C C D C C
45 D C D D D
45 E E F E E
45 F E F F F
45 G G H G G
45 H G H H H

8 periods, full year = 8 credits/year
45 min * 180 days = 135 hours
45/90 min + 5/10pass + 10TA + 20min lunch
School Day: 8:00 – 3:00 7:00hr



What the Heck Block Schedule Burr & Burton

7:50 7:50 8:10 7:50 7:50
90 A B C A B
D
90 D E D E E
C
90 B C A B A

90 C A B C
2:30 2:30 2:30 2:30 12:35

Lunch slots into the third block.
TA happens on Tuesday and Thursday.

Since these are defined by the week: 180/5 = 36 weeks.
A, B, C are semester classes: 18*( 90 + 90 + 90 + 90 + 50 ) = 7380 min = 123 hrs
D, E are year-long classes: 36*( 90 + 90 + 50 ) = 8280 min = 138 hrs

D and E are randomly chosen. They are not predominantly English or Math.