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 The Block 
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Now that the block system has been in effect for a few years now in numerous school systems, do you personally think it has provided a better quality of education or is it just a choice thing?

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Elizabeth Puckett


Wed Sep 08, 2004 5:19 pm
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In high school, I went through the block system all four years. I liked it a lot better than middle school where we went to 6 classes all year. I only had 4 books per semester and could only get homework in 4 classes which was nice. If I didn't like a class, it would be over with by Christmas including final exams and in spring, I got 4 more classes.
The only problems I've ever heard with the program is students transfering in from schools with 6 periods a day had to drop 2 classes or make them up in the local alternative school. All the high schools in Beaufort Co.(my county) are all on block scheduling. Students can even go to the community college for classes one period a day, with the class being free minus your book cost, and the college classes start the same time a regular class would at our high school.

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Beth Koplin


Mon Sep 13, 2004 10:34 am
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I see only one problem with the block schedule, that I tend to lose what I don't use. I would venture to estimate the same is true for most with math ideas, so we spent the first two weeks catching everyone up to where the rest of the class was because it had been almost a year since they had math. But to be truthful don't we do that in most classes anyways, I mean spend time reviewing what you did last year. I had block classes in High School and flexible blocks in middle school. From the teacher standpoint I must say that it is a plus, make fewer lesson plans per day, and less papers to grade, fewer names to learn and keep track of...

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David Smith
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Appalachian State University
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Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:36 am
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My freshman and sophmore year in high school, we were on a six classes a day schedule. I enjoyed this because we only had to spend about an hour a day in classes I didn't like. :D I also felt more relaxed and not so hurried to learn the material. My senior year at that high school, we were on a block schedule. It was nice to be able to spend an hour and a half on subjects i enjoyed, but the ones I wasn't so fond of got real old real quick. I also felt like I needed to be learning twice as much a day to keep up. The block schedule does allow for more elective classes, but at the same time, budgets are being cut to get rid of fun electives (i.e. theater, art, and even some languages). If I had to choose which schedule I wanted to be on, I would have to choose the six classes a day.

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Amy Middleton


Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:33 pm
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Hey,

I think the block is a valuable system. Today, as we all know, the fast pace of life effects every aspect of our lives, and especially the lives of children and adolescents. Breakfast and supper can be quick on the go occasions most of the time. TV and its half hour shows with 50 commercials inserted into each half hour slot is deffinately fast pace. SO, my point being that these long classes might seem grueling to those who can not pay attention or sit still, but it can balance out the day. Creative, zealous teachers can really make a difference in block classes.
Cheers,
Nina :D

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Nina Pinto


Fri Sep 17, 2004 3:59 pm
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Hey,
I think the block system is great if used correctly. My high school used block all 4 years I was there and I loved it. I think just having 4 classes a semester is good. You can concentrate more each class and I made better grades than in middle school. I also think it gets you ready for college. I didn't have to adjust to just having 4 or 5 classes when I got to college that were an hour and a half long because I was already used to it. I really like the system.

Kendall

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Kendall Holland


Sat Sep 18, 2004 5:55 pm
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I prefer the A-B block, which is what is being used in Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

You have four 90 minute classes a day. One set of 4 classes is on A days and the other set is on B days. You switch back and forth between A days and B days, so your classes last the entire year.
I liked it as a student because it gave me two days to complete an assignment :)

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Jon Barth


Sun Sep 19, 2004 9:41 am
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I went through the block schedule in high school. I really liked it. I was able to get more work done in class and had more free time outside of school. If I would have had the traditional day, then I would have had a great deal more homework and it would have been more stressful trying to get to class on time. The first few weeks of school would have been very stressful with trying to find my various classrooms in enough time. I think that block schedules are a great idea for high school. In middle school, we had three different teams for each grade level. They were named with different animals. In seventh grade, I was a chamelon and in eighth grade, I was an alligator. Each team had their own teachers for each subject, although each student had a different schedule of classes. I enjoyed it because it kept us within our team and made friends easily. :D

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Jessica Peters


Sun Sep 19, 2004 1:41 pm
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I went through block all four years in high school and thought it was pretty good, except for the classes that seemed like eternity. An hour and a half is a long time for a high school student to sit still no matter how good the teacher is. I liked block for the fact that you just have classes for half the year and then get new ones, but I agree with David and think that you also forget a lot easier. I think block scheduling prepares students more for college, because college classes are set up similar to the block system. I think overall block scheduling is better, and I think that middle schools should incorporate this scheduling into their school day.

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Leslie Woody


Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:00 pm
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I also had block all four years of High School, and in Middle School I had 6 classes a day. I liked block a whole lot better, because it was a lot easier to concentrate and you did not have to worry about remembering or working on six different subjects of homework at night. Also with block, it does prepare you for college and sitting through an hour and a half or more of class a day. I currently have 4 classes that are two hours or more, so being in block during high school prepared me for this. Also in college you don't necessarily take 6 different subjects in one week, not even in one day. So with the block scheduling it also prepares you for college in that you only have 4 classes and you only have to focus on those 4 classes in one day/week.
Another advantage to block is that you can get a lot more taught in an hour and a half than you can in just 50 minutes. I remember in middle school always having to carry things over to the next day because we did not finish everything. This is hard for both the teacher and the students, because as a teacher it puts you behind in your schedule and in the end the students may not learn everything they are supposed to learn that year. In block you have that extra 30 or so minutes to finish up a lesson or make sure every student understands the lesson before ending for the day.

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Katie Houser


Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:35 pm
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I agree with Katie. I had block all throughout high school, and I loved it. It helped make homework easier. There wasn't alot pushed on a student at one time. I htink it should be kept in the school systems.

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Elizabeth Cooner


Thu Sep 23, 2004 9:52 am
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As was alluded to earlier, i have found that having had block scheduling in high school has made college a lot more bearable. Many if not most of college courses are fifty minutes at a time. Since I was used to having much longer classes in high school, I found that college courses flew by.

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Justin Stagner


Mon Oct 04, 2004 10:58 am
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