Back to school. Those three words are exciting for many students. But for other students, those words bring up feelings of discomfort and anxiety. You may remember what it was like a few days before the new school year started. New supplies of book bags, pens, pencils, and paper. [...]
You might be reading this blog post because you’re a student or parent who noticed a new class on the schedule that you know nothing about. Maybe you’re a teacher whose school is rolling out a new advisory program and you’re doing some research. You might, also, be an administrator [...]
There are often times in school schedules when there is a planned period of non-academic studies. For example, middle schools and high schools sometimes allow students to have an activity, advisory, flex, or study period. However, there may be questions about how to use this time productively, while giving [...]
“An intervention period? There’s no time for that.” “Flexible time in our bell schedule sounds great…but I don’t know where to start.” There’s no denying it: school schedules are busy. Between classes, passing periods, lunches, activities, pep rallies, and drills…every minute at school is precious. Given this, administrators, teachers, [...]
WIN (What I Need) time is an effective tool for middle and high schools. But what is it, why does it matter, and how can WIN work in block schedules? Let's dig in, and talk a little bit first about block scheduling. Decades ago, before the internet and smartphones, [...]
High school can be a very stressful time for students. You are often juggling a lot of different responsibilities between school, work, and family life. For any student, a lack of ability to focus in the learning environment can have a major impact on your performance. If you're struggling [...]
Many educators have grown accustomed to a traditional period schedule for middle school. However, there are several different types of schedules that schools currently use. The schedule your middle school uses may be slightly or even starkly different from the schedule of a nearby district, or perhaps even another middle [...]
If you work in public education, or have a child attending a public school, you likely have experience with advisory. Unfortunately, like many buzzwords in public education, the advisory period sometimes gets turned into study hall, tutoring, or a free-for-all. While these are all valid options for students, they [...]
Many high schools have an advisory period, but are there high school advisory program models that can help your school make advisory more effective? Below we'll examine what advisory is, what it can be used for, how you can structure it within your high school schedule, and what will [...]
Having a study hall or other flexible period in which students can complete make-up work for a course can greatly improve student success. This can best be achieved by creating a clear structure for the operation of study halls and by ensuring that the established structure is present in [...]