I used to envy my other interning associates at schools where they have "POD" English classes - two periods of English, twice as much time, all that jazz.
But today - I'm grateful for my measly 45 minutes every day.
Don't get me wrong, I still love the idea of a block schedule and I know it was ten times more effective for me as a student when I got to high school, but when you switch it up so suddenly on the entire student body, there's bound to be an explosion.
So periods 1-4 came through my door today.
And yes - my prep is 5th, so I'll start with that tomorrow! YEAH! While mourning the loss of a prep today. Sad face.
90 minute periods. Yikes.
How many times did my third period class ask me when my class ended? Nearly 12. Serious. Even after I answered their question with one of my own: "Does anyone know what question Mrs. Brown hates the most?" I probably should have just answered the darn question. I just didn't want them looking up at the clock for 90 minutes. Poor kids. I tried to do a more lively activity, but it was too much so I abandoned it after first period.
Oh well.
No wonder students need ORDER and REPETITION in their lives. When you throw a curveball like a block day, things are bound to be off.
But, despite it all, we're doing good. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
I'm reading your posts in backward order, so don't know yet why you had a block schedule, but I did my student teaching in a classroom that had 105 minute classes every day and one thing that was REALLY effective was having a 5 min exercise break somewhere in the middle. Be creative and think of activities that require the kids to move, even just a little, and don't take much in the way of equipment. We had a couple of small beach balls for playing volleyball as a class, bouncy balls for the kids to bounce to each other (they loved this and it was not as chaotic as you'd think), pompoms and cups for the kids to toss and catch with, lots of cards for making a house of cards, etc. It was fun, and really did help.
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