This week my group decided to do our survey on the topic of block scheduling. I am very excited about this because it's a very hot topic in my district right now. My first year teaching in Memphis I taught on a 4x4 block and then I was transferred to start a middle school for credit program. At the middle school I am on a 7 period day. However the rest of the district was given very short notice that they were moving to a modified block and it has caused quite the controversy. Teachers only get a planning period every other day. Supposedly the middle schools are all transitioning to this schedule next year. My group created our survey Wednesday night and we all submitted it to different teachers today and we already have 23 responses. I think it will be really interesting to see what kind of responses we received to our questions and compile the data.
As sort of an interesting side note I thought I would share the fact that we received about a half an inch of snow in Memphis today and you would have thought it was the storm of the century. Normally it's in the 40's or so this time of year in Memphis. Every district within a 25 mile radius was closed today, except mine. I was chuckling a little bit as I walked into school but I quickly realized that all the native Southerners were genuinely upset that school had not been cancelled for us, they truly thought the snow was terrible. I will admit that the city doesn't have any equipment for snow but it was literally a dusting, less than half an inch. Half way through the day we were notified that we would be releasing an hour early. I went home and took the dog for a walk because it's sunny and about 30 degrees. After spending 2 weeks in Wisconsin for Christmas the weather felt wonderful to me today. Anyways, I thought some of you Wisconsinites would get a good chuckle from hearing how the Southerners are so very afraid of the snow and cold.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed at the number of responses you survey received so quickly. I'll be very interested in how teachers feel. Block scheduling has generated strong feelings for decades.
Jim
That is a great snow story. lol You guys really did choose the right topic for quick, heartfelt responses. I've taught on both the block schedule and 7, 8 period schedules at both high school and middle school levels, and by far, I prefer a block schedule (even better yet a modified block) for high school math and science (physics, ecology). I can't imagine it at the middle school level, though. I wonder if it is developmentally appropriate. It sounds as though your administration needs to work a little harder on their management style.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing what technology can do for capturing input efficiently? I only wish we had this technology available in the early/mid nineties when my district was contemplating the switch to block scheduling. Maybe a year or so off the decision process.