So I was looking through a friend of mine’s online journal, and she posted her class schedule. I took one look at it and it confused the hell out of me. The columns were labeled A through H, and the rows 1 through 6. I could not comprehend how this worked out…was there 8 periods a day, and a 6 day school week? No, she only goes to school 5 days a week. So I asked for an explanation, which completely baffeled me. Say school starts on Monday, that’s an A day. Tuesday’s B, Wed is C, all the way back to Monday, which is F.
Now I just graduated a few years ago, and never noticed any problem with having the same classes every day. It was easy to remember where you were going next and never ended up in the wrong classroom, except for maybe on the first few days of school. What, then, caused some administrator to look at the current scheduling system, and say “Hm…this isn’t near complicated enough. Maybe if we make 8 seperate schedules, none of which land on the same day, then the students can somehow learn more, in addition to wandering around the school all year round wondering where they’re supposed to be.” Seriously, are there any benefits to this, or was it just some crackhead’s plan to cause confusion?
In my middle school, we had an 8 day cycle. I.e., Monday=1, Tuesday=2, Wednesday=3, Thurs=4, Fri=5, then Monday =6 and then so on. And actually, each class would have a letter. Your math class might be block A, and your English might be block B. And on some days certain blocks would “drop” and you wouldn’t have them. Plus, the order would alter; some days you might have English after lunch, and other days before…actually, I’m beginning to realize why it is I learned so little in middle school.
In high school, it was a little less screwed up. We had 80 minute classes, and they all happened at the same time, but with alternating days. This time, it was a six day cycle. But for the most part, all odd days were the same and all even days were the same.
But yeah, I’m kind of glad to be in college now that you mention it…
I spent three weeks substitute teaching at a private school which had a similar plan, only there were seven days with different schedules – A through G – and yet another schedule for days with assemblies. By the end of the last day, I had sort of figured out which students I would be seeing when.
Also, there were some random visiting Australian students who were technically on summer break from their school back home, only every now and then they decided to wander into a class – just for fun, I guess.
It was all a bit surreal, but then again, I preferred the atmosphere to my own public high school, where we did exactly the same thing every day and God help you if you did anything else.
In HS, we had eight classes total, one of which could be a study hall when you were a junior, two when you were a senior.
1st and 8th we had every day. 2nd, 4th, 6th we had Monday and Wednesday, I think, and 3rd, 5th, and 7th we had Tuesday and Thursday. I might have those reversed. And then everything for 50 minutes/class on Friday.
Mine was pretty simple compared to the one you have up there, but you get used to it.
In middle school we had 6-day schedules, but then they added a 7th day so the music dorks (like me) could rehearse more. It confused me greatly the first week or so, but I caught on eventually.
In high school we have nice, simple 5-day schedules, with the same classes every day (except for gym/study hall.) Simple, but boring.
When something like this was implemented at my old high school, the motivation was to have longer class periods. As I recall, they went from nine periods (one a lunch) down to six. What’s the motivation if you still have eight periods?
If you want longer class periods, go to block scheduling. Four classes, one and a half hours long each, you finishe the credit at the end of the semester, and take four new classes. It’s alot simpler, and doesn’t mess with your brain.
My last high school was on block scheduling, 6 blocks of 105 minutes each. “A” days and “B” days. “A” days were blocks 1, 3 and 5. “B” days were blocks 2, 4 and 6. And each B day came directly after an A day. Very easy to figure out.
Oh man, that was so sweet. You get two days to do your homework for each class.
My nephew’s school and the school my daughter’s starting in September have this type of schedule. But one ( I think, it might be two ) period are dropped each day. Say there are eight periods per day. There are nine classes. Each day, one period is skipped. So they still have eight periods a day, but are taking nine courses
Hmm, at my HS we had a super-simple schedule. 2 classes in the morning, 2 classes in the afternoon. Same classes, same time, everyday… then 2nd semester and a new set of classes. Rince, repeat.
Wow, those are some pretty complex schedules in some schools. In my high school we had six periods, 5 days a week. That’s it. No ‘even/odd’ days, no letters, just 6 classes a day 5 days a week.
I rather liked it- as someone with Attention Deficit Disorder, its hard for me to stay focused on anything longer than 1 hour, or any general task longer than 6 hours. So my school operated on my threshold of attentiveness.
incubus: that’s what we had too. But to be honest, I think they’d do better going on a more college-like schedule:
3 days of shorter period classes (ones that are better taught in short bursts or need frequency, like math)
2 days of longer period classes (ones which are better taught when there’s more time, like english)
Or they could always drop Fridays and give the local economy (mall) a little boost, LOL.
At my school the first two years, we did it by weeks. We had the periods (A, B, C), etc., and each week would be one of the letters. So if it was “A” week, we’d do A, B, C, D, E, F…“B” week would be B, C, D, E, F, A…
It was madness, especially as a fresman. Imagine having a week to figure out where to go when, then they change it around on you.
In elementary (public) school in Winnipeg, each school district had a 6-day cycle, which was announced on the radio, along with which garbage day it was. I believe it was the same for my middle/high (private) school in Winnipeg. Both schools used clock time to schedule the classes within the days, though.
I’m pretty sure my high school in Montreal used days of the week, and I know that cegep did and university does.
Mine was a little less screwed up then the rest of yours.
My HS had 6 periods.
monday = 1,2,3,4,5,6 all 50 minutes
tuesday/thursday = 2,4,6 110 minute classes with 45 min study hal between 2 & 4
wednesday/friday = 1,3,5 same 110 classes with study hall
It actually worked out well, didn’t have to do homework everyday if you planned your classes right. not like I did homework anyway but in ‘theory’ you see.
In my middle school, we did the A-F thing. We took 8 classes a semester, but only had 7 periods every day. So every day we would “drop” a different class. It was actually pretty nice because you didn’t have to see every teacher every day, and you get used to it in like 2 weeks. (Plus they’d have signs and stuff up: A day, B day, etc.)
My high school was just regular (8 periods a day), but there were a few people campaigning for block scheduling, so they may switch to that in a few years.
The thing with block scheduling is…if you get stuck with a teacher you hate, or that is boring as hell, you have to sit there for 90-120 minutes. It’s a friggin nightmare.
Omg my brain is hurting from computing all these schedules!
My high school had things on a 6 day schedule, and yeah you had things on even or odd days, but it usually referred to the lab period of your science class which alternated with your gym class.
It was a 10 period day, 42 mins each. 1st period was reserved mainly for band, orchestra, some gym classes (which sucked ass at 7:45am), and driver’s ed.
I took driver’s ed my junior year. In my senior year, they created a Period 0 that started at 7am to accomodate more people wanting to take driver’s ed. I forget if they used it for road time or lecture time, but either way it sucked. At some point they added Period 00 which started around 6:30am, and that was probably for lecture. MAN am I glad I took the class before all that insanity started.
I think they have also since added a period 11. My school has gone mad.
Oh, I forgot one thing, with the schedule we used in my school, we also had “Assembly” (miss the first period) and “Pep Rally” (miss the last period) schedules. So it MAY be A, B, C, D, E one day and the next it might be B,C,D,E and the NEXT it might be A,B,C,D…
