The new schedule is one of the biggest changes from last year to this year. Although there have been debates and discussions on the topic, there remains a perspective that is equally important yet often overlooked amongst the students. Our teachers also had to adapt to the changes to the schedule, and between the different departments, the views that teachers hold of the new schedule are as colorful and varied as the students’.
For example, one of the changes that the new schedule has brought to Parker’s day-to-day life is the reduction in the number of classes a student has each day, with the tradeoff that each class is longer. Furthermore, the first class of each day is a long block, with an extra 15 minutes. In some ways, this has been a very positive change. For art teachers like Ms. Gardner, those extra 7-8 minutes each class allow for extra time to set out materials or clean up towards the end. Furthermore, the long blocks in the morning allow for more dynamic activities: “Having to deal with when [the long block] falls can be really tricky, but having it is really nice when it does line up with something,” Ms. Gardner said, “For example, for photography field trips, like if we’re going out to Oz Park to shoot, we’ll do it ideally on one of those long block days.” The longer classes also allow her the time to give critique on students’ work and have them work on it in the same class.
However, to some STEM teachers, the trade off between class time and class frequency is less desirable. Ms. Webster, who teaches five classes of sophomores and seniors, points out a flaw with this new system. “Every now and then, [my students will] come in after a day where I don’t see them, and it’s like they’ve never seen the subject before…and that’s because of the gaps in the delivery of material.” This problem is exacerbated if one of those days lands on a Friday: “God forbid, I have, like, a Friday that’s my day seven. For advanced topics, my seniors, because that means I don’t — I see them on Thursday — I don’t get to see them until Monday. And fortunately, in advanced topics, it’s like little sections that build together. But if that happens with my sophomores, like, it’s almost like, ‘Hi, I’m Miss Webster up here. I’ll be your guide this year. Nice to meet you!’” In addition, if teachers have multiple classes of the same subject, the rotating schedule means that, depending on the days they don’t meet, some classes may be several lessons behind others, which may create extra headaches in planning lessons.
Another new change is the Flex blocks. For some teachers, the Flex block truly does bring more flexibility and allows them time to let students do test retakes, utilize extended time, or rewrite essays. Ms. Elliott is one of the teachers who have benefitted from the Flex: “those Flex blocks…have been used in a really good way, because in the past, we used to have to … find time before school or after school or during lunch, and now we have the Flex period to use that…and I think that I’m encouraging some students who wouldn’t normally do those things to do those things.” Art teachers also seem to share this view. “We all work at different speeds,” Ms. Gardner says, “especially my painters, so if they are a slow painter, then they just have an extra time to come in. It’s a catchup time, which I think has worked so well. If they’re slower painters, they have extra time built in, and then the other students don’t have to use it.”
However, other teachers have different perspectives. Dr. Riff reflects on the effects that Flexes have around the rhythm of his class: “Now, with the Flexes in the schedule… that feels disruptive for the classes that do meet during the Flex, because when you go along, you’re doing this stuff, and suddenly, oh, here’s this thing when I’m not supposed to assign homework, and again, it’s new, and I’m not used to expecting it, so I’m surprised by it sometimes.” Furthermore, for Dr. Riff, the Flex block’s intended purpose doesn’t feel like a novel idea. “In terms of flexible time for meeting with students outside of class and scheduling stuff for extended time, it feels more difficult than it used to. We used to have the science periods. That was a nice built in time, and it was available for a lot of people.” Dr. Riff estimates that his Advanced Calculus class, in comparison with previous years, is probably a week behind schedule. Advanced Calculus is a class that has a lot of content, and even last year they had to meet five times a week (when classes typically met four times) in order to cover the material in a timely yet comfortable manner.
One of the biggest selling points of the new schedule was that it would reduce the stress experienced by students and possibly increase free time and decrease workload. Whether or not the schedule accomplishes that goal is debated amongst students, and the same goes for teachers. “We have a lot more free time,” Ms. Elliott comments. “For us, it’s not like we have student government, so that’s like free time for us, that kind of stuff, like clubs. If your club isn’t meeting, then that’s a free time for you.” However, for other teachers, their workload can fluctuate depending on the day. “Some days I feel like I have a lot more time to, you know, finish projects, get things graded, get things organized, get my head on straight about solutions and labs and planning ahead,” Ms. Webster said, “and other times I feel like I cannot catch my breath…If you look at this schedule, this was today.”
Although there are many aspects of the schedule on which opinions differ from teacher to teacher, one opinion that many teachers seem to share is that the new schedule results in a tighter squeeze on what content teachers are able to teach. “The schedule for my discipline requires that we concentrate more on skills than content. And from the standpoint of a history teacher, there’s certain things we love to teach, but we don’t have the time to teach them anymore because we have to focus more on just skill building rather than content,” said Ms. Elliott.
For math classes, this effect has an even bigger impact, especially when compared to last year. “Last year, we changed the schedules from about five days a week because it was really hard to get through all the content. And that worked fantastically last year,” Dr. Riff said, “Now this year, we’re back to that being a segmentation the other classes and the new schedule, the meetings are less frequent, and it’s been harder to keep up the pace, perhaps, say, in general, I feel like I kept up the pace better than I might have expected, but I’m still about a week behind where I was last year I see, so that’s one thing that I’ve noticed.”
At the end of the first semester, our schedule is still new, and there are still plenty of creases to iron out before we can see the schedule’s true potential. Nonetheless, it’s important to recognize the difficulties that teachers have had in order to adapt their curricula and plan each day out with the new schedule.
