Time as a Resource: The School Schedule

It's the time of year when I begin to get calls from principals interested in revising their school's schedules. Lots of things drive interest in a new schedule---declining enrollment or resources, curricular changes, organizational shifts and school improvement plans. Regardless of the motivation it is critical to remember that time is a resource, albeit a finite one, and time can be used in ways that either inhibit or promote your school's instructional program.

Principals are always looking for ideal schedule. Hundreds, indeed thousands, of good schedules exist, but there is no single perfect schedule. Each schedule reflects the uniqueness of a school community, the philosophy of its teachers and administration and the priorities of its community.

So where do you begin? You start by clarifying your school's values and priorities. Virtually anything can be scheduled, but everything cannot be built into the same schedule. It's about choices. That's where priorities are so important. Take time to work with teachers and other stakeholders to clearly identify what you want to achieve with your schedule. Most importantly value collaboration. Participation in planning a schedule builds support and serves as a form of professional development. While planning make sure you have a balanced review of the options. Investigate all options and have a thorough discussion of advantages and disadvantages.

But no factor is more important than the vision that teachers and administrators hold for your school. Without a vision, and without clearly identified priorities, the schedule is nothing but a tool for organizing students and teachers. With a clear vision you can create a schedule that positively impacts students and their learning.

Here are four basic principles about scheduling.

• Schedules reflect a school's values and priorities.
• Most effective schedules are anchored in a shared vision.
• A quality schedule emerges when teachers and administrators work together in its design.
• With clear goals the schedule becomes a powerful tool to positively affect teaching and learning.

I'd enjoy hearing from you about your school's schedule and how you use it to improve the educational experience of your students.

Tips for Flipping Classrooms

"Flipping" a classroom is a new trend designed to provide more time during class for discussion of concepts, to work on gaps in learning to clear up misunderstanding and for the teacher to work more intensely with students who need additional instruction or support. for a teacher to work individually or in small groups with students needing extra support. When a classroom is “flipped” students’ homework is introduction to new learning through reading materials and watching online videos and other content prepared by their teacher. Labs and other application of learning occur during class when the teacher is available to respond to questions, provide clarification and assist and support students.

In flipped classrooms students take more responsibility for their learning. They watch videos or online lessons, read online material, and complete assignments and assessments outside of class. Specific instructional activities vary based on an individual teacher’s style and preferences.

Edutopia (www.edutopia.org), a site sponsored by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, reports that “flipping” the classroom results in far more individualized learning for students. They described how students move at their own pace and teachers have more time for one-to-one work with students in need of greater support. Students who are absent find it easier to catch up because they can watch lessons and access other materials online. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (2012), among the first teachers to "flip" their classroom found that students demonstrated deeper understanding of course content, assumed greater responsibility for learning, and became far more self-directed.

Flipping the classroom alters instruction by shifting from in class delivery that is often very teacher centered to a class that involves far more discussion and analysis of student learning. The model shifts the role of both teacher and learner as students assume greater responsibility for completing learning activities outside of class.

Useful tips for how to "flip" a classroom were provided by eSchoolNews in a recent article. They include the importance of beginning with two or three things and expanding as you become more comfortable. It's also important to recognize that almost everyone who "flips" their classroom experiences some discomfort because the role of the teacher changes. Finally, they discuss the challenges when students have limited access to the Internet outside of school. Two websites provide other resources on flipped learning. They are http://flippedclassroom.org and http://www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html. 

Solving Tough Scheduling Dilemmas

Last year I completed a project at Royal Oak Middle School in Royal Oak, Michigan. Faced with declining resources a group of teachers, administrators and parents were asked to resolve a perennial middle school problem---how to reduce the total number of minutes of planning time so that distinct individual and team plan times did not exist, and at the same time, continue their exemplary interdisciplinary teaming model.

It was a tough problem with serious implications for both teacher workload and the student day. However, people of good will find a way to persevere and meet the challenge.

I worked with the group to agree upon norms of collaboration, to review the research, to identify priorities, and to develop several alternatives. Balancing competing priorities proved to be the most difficult task.

Over time agreement emerged on a strategy. The length of the school day remained the same but the day consisted of six rather than seven classes. Each class was approximately 75 minutes long. Longer classes provided teachers with additional instructional time, particularly important in language arts and math. Teams continued to be part of the program at each grade level.

Teachers have one daily planning period of 75 minutes (375 minutes weekly). That provides 250 minutes for individual planning and an additional 125 minutes for team planning.

A unique feature of the schedule was addition of a seminar period at the beginning of the day. This period will include several interest-based electives, time for remediation, and allow scheduling of some cross-grade elective classes.

Most importantly, the group reached consensus on the model. Striving for consensus was a powerful indicator of the goodwill everyone brought to the discussion. Consensus almost always assures a successful implementation of any recommendation.

Royal Oak continues to struggle with declining resources and they continue to search for a way to balance their collective commitment to a high quality education with the financial reality faced by the district.

My book Scheduling to Improve Student Learning offers other tips on dealing with complex and contentious scheduling issues. It is available from the National Middle School Association.