![]() ![]() “It’s so easy to get bored and lose interest if you’re being taught the same subject for almost 2 hours every period.” “The periods are so excruciatingly long sometimes,” she says. Jonathan Schoelkolf, sophomore, says “I don’t like how some classes feel like they drag on forever, but I like we have more time to get projects done in groups.” Stillman agrees that the classes can be too long. “All the scheduling mishaps and flaws are fixed as of right now,” Donovan said, “but next year we’ll probably open a whole new set of mishaps, but I wouldn’t call them flaws, just things we have to figure out.” However, he added he believes that any scheduling issues will be resolved for next year. If I have an observation to go see a teacher, and then I miss it, I can’t just go in the next day, unlike last year,” Donovan says. “It has been a little hectic for too because when they were going in to observe teachers they had more opportunities to do it. ![]() ![]() For teachers, this meant configuring lesson plans for the 83-minute classes, students had to adjust to sitting in a longer class, and the administrative side had to adapt to new teacher observation rules. Students, the administration and teachers have had to adjust to the new schedule. “We’ve been thinking about block scheduling for around 10 years now,” he said. This was one of the reasons principal Dan Donovan switched to the block schedule, where there were 83 minutes per class, so teachers did not have to rush through the class to get through what they wanted to. Juliane Armentano, an English teacher, and the union’s building chair, says that “When just had 45 minutes, it wasn’t enough time to get through a whole class discussion and talk about the multiple choice and explain how to improve.” I don’t like how some classes feel like they drag on forever, but I like we have more time to get projects done in groups.” However, with 5 minutes from both ends of the period gone, that left 35 minutes for instruction and classwork time. Under the past schedule of eight 45-minute periods, teachers typically took 5 minutes at the start and end of the period to do housework items such as check and assign homework, collect classwork, and take attendance. “It’s easier to manage the classes you’re in when you have more time to complete the work, and it allows more time to do your homework since the classes are only every other day,” Stillman says. Sophomore Brooke Stillman prefers block over the eight 45-minute periods. Michelle Passarelli, a Social Studies teacher and chair of the teachers union’s Advisory to the Principal Committee, said she likes the fact that “classes are longer, and we can do more in class.” Now that the year is almost over, teachers, students, and administrators are weighing in on how it went. This switch was from eight 45-minute periods to three 83-minute blocks and two 45-minute periods - flex and a skinny block. DHS implemented a new schedule this year. ![]()
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