2 is the same as having them go to a homeroom meeting point, really. ‘I am Juliette and I’m in 9PR, which means I go to basketball court three.’
I’ve seen the panic when something trivial like a big spider appears in a classroom. If there were a real fire, the panic would be enormous. Having everyone know exactly what to do and where to go is the only way to deal with it- you don’t want people being forced to think through their timetable while there’s smoke coming down the corridor.
This makes me wonder: are there any studies whether fire drills work at all to prepare people in the event of a real fire? How many children take the drill seriously? I certainly know it’s easy to walk down in orderly rows without confusion if you know it’s a drill, the teacher knows it’s a drill, there’s no smoke and no fire anywhere. But how does that prepare for the real confusion of a real fire with smoke filling the corridors?
Not that I’m saying teachers should light little fires before sounding the drill - but maybe some smoke bombs that are harmless? Maybe instead of fire drills, bomb and other threats (those are becoming more real, and evacuation procedure is similar, right?) Like a couple of dressed up cops show up as scare and later the teachers look if the students stayed calm? Or would this increase the chance of accidents due to panic?
Surely some people have considered how to make training more realistic to better prepare while still keeping it a safe training exercise, yes?
Works beautifully if the fire started with a short circuit at the server.
We had two actual fires last year- one in the 6 th grade public school cafe (only 6th grade) and one in the middle school my daughter attends. In both cases the kids did great, despite knowing the danger was real. Exited just like they were supposed to with no panicking. Happily they were both small, contained fires, but these were younger kids and were scared. Anecdotally, the drills seemed to have prepared them.
The school had the first fire drill today with the new system, and sadly I was not there, sigh. From what I have heard, it was a huge failing cluster fuck.
For example-
I forgot to mention that there is a tech center attached to the high school, with students from our school and 6 others. The students in tech center classes stayed with the tech center teacher, and the advisory teachers had no idea where they were, not knowing their schedules.
Can’t wait to get more details to share here.
I was going to let this drop because you and I must have different school experiences and are thus making different assumptions, but because you mentioned it again, I’m curious.
I grew up with, and my kids experienced, schooling in which the first period of the day is a subject teacher as well as every other period of the day. All periods are equal, all teachers have X groups of students to memorize. Whether you are the first period teacher or the 7th, it’s all the same.
What were your experiences that cause you to bring up this point about “subject teachers” not knowing the students as well as ______? I put “subject teachers” in quotes because those are the only teachers I’m aware of, there aren’t any teachers that aren’t “subject teachers”, at least in my experience. If a school wanted to have dedicated “homeroom teachers” they would have to hire about 60 additional teachers (for the average 3 year high schools I am familiar with).
That reminds me of the old Soviet joke describing the Red Army regulations on what the soldiers were required to do in case there was a nuclear attack alert. The regulation was to extend your arms and hold your rifle out so that the molten metal wouldn’t drip on your uniform.
I taught school for 26 years. The only problem with exiting with the teacher the kids have at that time would be at lunch. Just let the students go to the spot they’d be at with the teacher they go to after lunch and the problem’s solved.
Posters have mentioned times when the kids aren’t in class during the school day- other than lunch, just when are these times?
In the case of a real fire, the fire department will ask 2 questions:
“Is everybody out?” and is “Everybody accounted for?”
Depending on the answers this will change their response and their priorities.
You stated that:
I would assume that this was so that in addition to the teacher, the students could also aid in accounting for each other during an emergency.
In my school board we do not evacuate for a bomb threat or similar emergencies,but go into a lockdown procedure. The rational being that a bomb would most likely be situated in a common areas, hallways, stairwells, etc.. For example, hidden in a locker or garbage can, in a washroom or at an entrance to the building. Therefore, to have all the students crowding the halls, stairwells, and doorways is unsafe. They are safer to remain in their classrooms until the situation can be diffused and/or evacuated individually.
This has also cut down on prank calls of bomb threats because there is no evacuation.
I have heard of some schools having a “Free Period”, presumably periods that students needing remedial classes (or who want to take extra electives) could do so without needing summer school.
Mainly though, this would be the breaks between classes where students would go from one class to the next.
My high school had few free periods a day, if you didn’t have extra electives or such. You chose if you wanted lunch, go to library, be outside on the grass. Medium sized public school back in the 80s.
That’d be hilarious. 
Sadly, I can’t see it happening.
I bet there are studies on whether fire drill is effective or not, but I’m too tired to look them up. Knowing where the fire exits are and where the assembly points are - knowing from having been there before, not just being told so having to picture the route in your mind - would have to help at least a bit, I would have thought.
The homeroom teacher would see the kids every day. The subject teachers probably wouldn’t see them as often as that - perhaps as little as once a week.
All the teachers have subjects they teach, but from the student’s POV Mr Jones is their English teacher, Ms Hall is their maths teacher and Mrs Smith is their homeroom teacher; she might also teach them in a class (meaning she’d know them even better), or she might just take them for homeroom.
I agree that it would be insane for a school to hire specific teachers for homeroom; you misread me.
That tells the student where to go, but doesn’t tell the teacher which students to look for. It’s likely that a high school has multiple lunch periods. How is the fifth period teacher to keep track of the fact that Jimmy has lunch fourth period and therefore the teacher should expect him to assemble with his fifth period class while Sally is in the teacher’s fourth period class and has lunch third period ? How is the teacher even supposed to know if Jimmy or Sally came to school that day?
Ah, now I get it. There are still a lot of schools, my own high school included, in the US that have never adopted block scheduling, and have all their subjects every single day for 50 minute classes. To people more familiar with this sort of schedule, suggesting that the homeroom teacher would know kids better is kind of odd since the kids see their other teachers just as often.
Wouldn’t that mean you could only take 5 or 6 subjects a year? That’s a bit limiting. Or do the subjects change each semester?
If the homeroom teacher wouldn’t know them better, it’s still better for them to be the one taking attendance after a fire because you have to choose somebody, and taking attendance is a large part of their job anyway. Then the kids all know exactly where to go to at any time of day, the teachers know exactly who’s going to do the checking and who they themselves should check, and it’s all done and dusted. In the event of a real fire I’d hate to have several hundred panicked teenagers unsure of where they’re supposed to go.
My son has block scheduling. He is a junior and takes AP Physics, precalc, AP history, English, photography (half year, will take photog 2 second half), Spanish and personal finance (requirement). Physics is a double period to do labs, so that would be a free period as well. He has lunch, gym during the second half of the year and 3 study hall periods over each week (1 every other day or so).
I’m curious how non block scheduling would differ.
Non-block scheduling would be something like the schedule I had in high school. 8 50 minute periods per day. if you were scheduled for English first period , it was at the same time every day and you attended every class every day.
I wasn’t clear. I know what non block is, but the question was asked if those kids had fewer subjects per year. I put my sons schedule up as a basis of comparison for # of classes.
Traditionally you have 6 periods a day and you attend every class every day at the same time. Some classes – e.g. general English, math, science, history, band/orchestra, etc. – are two-semester classes. Other classes are one-semester – e.g., phys ed, typing, drivers ed, drama/theater, yearbook, and specialized literature, science/math, and humanities (British lit, U.S. government, trigonometry, western civ, etc.)
And I lost part of my response. Assuming that a student attends for 8 periods per day, non-block scheduling would allow for 7 full-year subjects and lunch.Some subjects might be taken for only one semester - for example music the first semester and art the second so a student might have 5 or 6 full year subjects and 2 to 4 single semester subjects but the total number is also going to depend on how you define subjects - if a kid has economics first semester and sociology the second , is that two subjects or two courses in a single subject of social studies ?