Horrendous Days...

Our school is on a modified block schedule. We have 4 85-minute classes and 1 60-minute class every day. We have an A-day and a B-day schedule. Math and language see their students daily and all other classes (except those meeting for 60 minutes) see their kids every other day. I LOVE IT! Our high school is pretty much on this same schedule. They don't love it. Next year, they will be going back to the traditional 7-period day. Because this is a money saver for the district, many people think we will lose our block schedule as well. I don't want this to happen. (If it does, we will lose 4 math and 4 language teachers.)

Because of the possibility--and terrible morale on our campus--our principals decided we would have "The Great Experiment." Two 8-period days with 45 minute classes. UGH!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS AWFUL!!!!! I felt so rushed through the class periods. It was as if we just started class and the bell was ringing to end it. If we were to go to this schedule, I would not see my kids twice as I did during the experiment. To let the kids know what it would be like, I treated the A-day classes (in the morning) differently than the B-day classes (in the afternoon). I purposely gave the students homework in both classes--about the amount they would receive if this was the real schedule. I wanted them to KNOW what it would be like. Unfortunately, other teachers didn't think like I did. So, the kids just thought they had way too much MATH homework instead of too much HOMEWORK. (Right now, they complain about having too much homework every night. They could get homework in 4-5 classes a night with time in class now or work in 7 classes a night with not time in class. Hmmmmm...that should be a no-brainer! I also know for a fact that math is the only core subject my students have homework in at night. We have a history teacher who has commented to the kids "If your teacher gives homework, then he/she isn't doing his/her job. No teacher should ever give homework." SAY WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?)

At the end of this ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING experiment, I was dog-tired, crabby, cranky, irritated, annoyed, fed-up with the kids, and had written 2 office referrals for bad behavior in class--which is one more than I had written in an entire semester of school!