Every Monday during lunch, someone asks: “What block comes next?” The answer is counterintuitive: block 7, followed by block 6. That doesn’t even take into account the 4-day week schedules, which include block 3 meeting first on the third day and block 1 meeting as the second block of the day, both of which never happen in any other schedule. So, how was this schedule built?
The week-by-week schedule was primarily driven by a desire for consistency. This way, if a student misses a Monday, for example, they will know exactly which classes they are missing for that day ahead of time, rather than having to figure it out in a rotation.
It was also important to divide class time as equitably as possible, especially during short weeks. Previously, if there were short weeks, that would just be missed class time that couldn’t be made up. CJ Eckhardt stated, “Even though it might feel wonky or a little disruptive… You at least have an equitable amount of time in every class.”
Dividing class time equitably was also important, as there are so many short weeks to start the school year. Having classes meet at different times “made it hard to have classes start getting traction because it was harder to get to know students if you only saw them twice a week,” said Sarah Warren. “It meant that students didn’t really sort of settle in. You can’t do assessments as quickly.”
The order in which classes meet needs to be consistent due to a large number of adjunct teachers who only teach in the morning or afternoon. Warren explained, “We wanted to be able to have them schedule the other parts of their life.” This is why Blocks One, Two, and Three are typically before lunch, Block Four is typically in the middle of the day, and Blocks Five, Six, and Seven usually meet later in the day.
However, classes are not always at the same times every day. According to Warren, “There was a desire, which doesn’t maybe work perfectly, to not have the same class first or last every day.” Seeing students at different times in the day helps maximize productivity on some days. She provided an example: “[If] I’m doing a discussion, I might try to put that on the day my class meets second because kids are a little more awake.”
