Every day at school, we have three 90 minute periods and one 49 minute period. Many teachers and students feel that halfway through a 90 minute block, it’s time to move on to another subject. The truth is that it is challenging to focus for such a long period of time, even in classes that you enjoy.
Why are the classes still so long at our school?
When we returned from COVID-19 lockdowns in Fall 2020, we had a hybrid or full virtual schedule with longer blocks. These allowed for us to stay in our classes for a longer period of time, and prevent exposure to other people in crowded spaces and hallways. A block schedule with longer classes was a better fit for life during COVID.
Nearly five years later, we are still on the same schedule with blocked classes. All three Arlington high schools follow the same schedule.
Some teachers are adamantly in favor of switching back to a more traditional schedule with shorter classes that we have every day of the week.
“There is nothing positive about the block schedule. That’s as concise as I can say it,” English teacher Troy Olsen said.
Olsen emphasized that a major problem with the block schedule is the challenge of focusing for such a long period of time.
“I hate teaching for 90 minutes. It sucks. It’s really hard. I can’t imagine as an adult what it would be like for anyone in high school,” Olsen said.
Block scheduling can be challenging for teachers and students alike when we have a day off, because it can be difficult to catch up. It can sometimes be a week before you see a specific teacher again. Early releases also present this challenge because they lead to less class time for certain periods compared to other periods of the same class. This is similar to students missing a day of school for an illness.
Despite these challenges, block scheduling can be beneficial for learning. English teacher and Head Football Coach Alec Hicks was also concerned about focusing for 90 minutes, but thinks it can work.
“There are ways to vary it up…I think that when you break up your blocks [into] manageable chunks of work… it works better for the kids,” Hicks said.
For example, students can work on a 20 minute warm up, a 20 minute lesson and two activities for 20 to 30 minutes.
Additionally, if you miss a day in a blocked schedule, you only have to make up four 90 minute classes. This is advantageous because some work, like labs and tests, is difficult to make up.
The possibility of having many tests in one day decreases with block scheduling as well, decreasing stress.
“It’s kind of like a double edged sword. If you miss a block day, you’re really missing like two periods worth of instruction…As far as having more time to catch up on it, you have an extra day and a half to do your work as opposed to just the 24 hour turnaround,” said Hicks.
Block scheduling also limits the number of transitions from class to class, decreasing time spent in the hallway. This extra time can be allotted to other activities, like longer classes or Patriot Period.
When our school was on an alternating schedule with block scheduling on some days and traditional scheduling on others, Patriot Period only existed on days with block scheduling. This period is beneficial for students because it allows for time to make up tests, get help from their teachers and do homework.
Some teachers also feel that it is easier to teach in a block schedule.
“One thing that I didn’t like about [a traditional schedule] was I felt like I was just repeating myself five times in a row, and by the last class, I didn’t really have my emotions in it. I was just kind of getting through the day and repeating what I had just done the other periods and trying to stay on the script,” Hicks said.
Since all three Arlington high schools follow the same schedule, this helps make the county-wide career center program possible.
“APS has told us that we have to be on a [blocked schedule]… we send about 300 to 400 kids to [the] career center depending on the year, and [the] career center aligns with the schools,” Clark said.
Ideally, our school could use a hybrid between a block and a traditional schedule. This would help take advantage of the benefits of longer periods, but also have a schedule where we don’t have every class every day. Clark thought that an anchor day could help bring out the benefits of both schedules.
“There’s a vocal contingent [of teachers] that feels strongly against the block [schedule]. They’d much rather see their kids every day, or even something intermediate like having an anchor day where you’d have 7 periods,” Clark said.
An anchor day would combine the benefits of both a block and traditional schedule. One day a week with all seven periods would lessen the time between classes of long block periods. It could also help students focus on each individual class and catch up on homework.
Ultimately, with a traditional or block schedule, or even a compromise, there is still the same amount of time we spend in school. Every schedule has the potential to work effectively if we adapt to it. Especially for a block schedule, there needs to be several different activities to work on during a class to spread focus over separate topics. Our school needs to use an effective schedule that teachers and students are in favor of.
