Block Scheduling a Go or a No?

There’s been a rumor that block scheduling is being considered for next year’s schedule, and there hasn’t exactly been a surplus of enthusiasm from the students of SHS. However although the student’s position is clear, we have yet to ask the faculty what they think. There has been a multitude of feelings brought up by the new for of scheduling and here are only some of the opinions.

The elective teachers seem to be more in favor of the jump. Art teacher Module Downer feels that with the new scheduling she will have “more hands-on time,” being that she teaches yearbook. The kids often have to cram their book crafting into a shorter amount of time, however, with the new scheduling she would have more time to address more work in class.

Jon Ringel, teaching both an elective (Journalism) and a core class (English) isn’t really sure yet how the new transition will affect him. In this aspect he thinks, “It will be a challenge,” but he has “heard a lot of good things about it”.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the core teachers, more of them are straying away from the idea of the new scheduling. Doug MacLehose, a history teacher here at SHS says that he is “Not a fan” of the idea, and adds that “we would have to radically change our curriculum” to accommodate the linger classes. He feels that the longer bocks would take away from the learning and he would have to cut some notes out. He also thinks it will be a challenge to keep his students focused.

Lisa Rich, a Spanish teacher, also feels the same way – that it will take away from all that she can teach. She feels that there would be less opportunity to present new material and that since more work would be done in class, there would be less homework which is crucial to the memorization of the language. With the activities done in this class, she said she was worried she “would simply run out of things to do.”

It’s not written in stone yet but there’s definitely a heavy choice to make. The impact of this new jump could be dramatic.