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Imagine if you will:
1. Two breaks a day to collaborate with teachers.
2. Fifty minute lunches.
3. School delayed one day a week to accommodate a weekly faculty meeting.
This is not a fantasy. This is real life in New Zealand! What are these two breaks exactly? This is a customary "teatime". Students get "teatime" as well. The writer of this article went around during this time to talk to teachers and students and he found that the "adults felt like they had time to share concerns with peers, grow philosophically, innovate." The students also felt that they could decompress from class time, take a break, and get ready to learn again. The writer himself witnessed this in the classroom shortly after teatime. The best thing about this schedule is that " teachers and students in New Zealand have roughly ten hours of collaborative professional development time built into the schedule." Any time for professional development built into the schedule in the United States would be a luxury.
Another philosophy that I thought was interesting was their idea of homework. The writer interviewed a Head of School (or a principal) about homework and they said, "Our job is to inspire them to want to learn, not to work them to death. When you're that busy and that stressed, it's a recipe to hate education, to hate learning, to hate school." I feel that in the U.S., as a whole, we don't feel this way.
Would it be hard to implement this kind of school day? Would it work? It is interesting, and I would definitely be willing to try it.
Provost, Adam. ""School Time" in New Zealand." Weblog post. Edutopia. N.p., 6 May 2013. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-time-in-new-zealand-adam-provost>.
I read that same article too. I definitely thought that the New Zealand model was worth looking in to so I shared it with a co-worker. We both thought that students could greatly benefit from something like it. Too bad most US schools are too stuck on doing it the traditional way. A reform in the way we do school is in need and I believe it is coming. It has started with online schools and because of that, as that option increases, the traditional public school will have to do something differently or risk losing students which means losing $.
ReplyDeleteThis would be great! As of right now, I don't even have a planning hour! Having extra time to bounce ideas off of other teachers would be a wonderful thing!
ReplyDeleteWow... my jaw dropped when I read those first few lines! I'll have to go read the entire article. This certainly would be a luxury. We scramble to find time to collaborate with other teachers and to improve our techniques in order to increase and support student learning. I can't imagine having time on a weekly basis to do that during the school day. I am often after school for several hours a week in order to collaborate.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the article in terms of the homework. The majority of work is done during the school day for students in my classes given the subject matter. However, when I do assign homework, it is generally work that students want to do. That's important. However, a lot of my students do speak to me about the stress they feel from their course load homework. Even just moving a little towards the direction of New Zealand and the philosophy of learning may benefit our students!
This sounds amazing. I wonder if they have school year-round. I would love to change to year-round school where rather than a long summer break, the break time is distributed throughout the school year.
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