Advantages of Block Teaching

Heather Mock, Associate Head of School/Director of K-8
August 29, 2016
 
Hi everyone,
 
Welcome to the new year!  We are off to a great start, and I love having students back in the classrooms, in the halls, and on the fields.  The energy is fantastic!  Especially exciting this year is the implementation of our new daily schedule.  I am already seeing the positive effects.
 
On Wednesday, lower school faculty took advantage of the new flex period on Mustang Days by meeting together as a division, dividing into groups with students from every grade level, and doing a scavenger hunt around campus.  Second grade teacher Anna Vinson and I had a wonderful group of students, whom we got to know better as we wandered around campus visiting the various places students go each day.  Pairing the older students with the younger ones in our group allowed for everyone to feel comfortable and to begin to form strong connections across grade levels.  And, it helped new students feel more comfortable about their surroundings.
 
The middle school students participated in a full-day orientation with all sorts of fun activities involving teambuilding, developing leadership, and, on the more practical side, figuring out where classes meet!  Then Thursday was a more typical day, with students heading to classes.  One new aspect of the schedule is having advisory time four days a week, first thing.  This gives everyone a chance to touch base and ease into the day, providing students with a place where they feel comfortable sharing.  And the longer class periods (85 minutes) are encouraging teachers to engage students in deeper ways.  IT Director Jeff Ellenbogen took his class on a field trip to an exhibit at the Longmont Museum.  The exhibit was called How People Make Things. Students got to explore a variety of methods that have been used to make things throughout history. They made paper boxes and horses using a die-cut machine and saw how steel molds are used to make basketballs. Students experimented with hand-cranked 3-axis mills to carve into a block of wax. It was a great start to the year to get students thinking about projects they’d like to make this year at Dawson.
 
Other teachers commented that the time flew by and noted how nice it was to have time to dig deep and let kids explore their topics more meaningfully.  Students talked about their relief at not having to do homework for every subject each night.  And the built-in time for mindfulness allows teachers and students to pause and take a step back each day.
 
The longer class periods, spread out homework assignments, and built-in time for mindfulness are all changes that we hope will allow our students to explore topics deeply, to work on important skills such as critical thinking and collaboration, and to develop self-awareness.  This self-awareness helps kids figure out their strengths and challenges so they can more effectively advocate for themselves.  Our other goal with these changes is to reduce stress in our kids’ lives.  Interestingly, a great article just came out in the Atlantic discussing this very issue.  As it turns out, teaching our kids self-control is much more effective than tutoring or advanced classes in terms of helping them be successful.  Too much emphasis on achievement can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression.  You may have read the op-ed piece that a student from Palo Alto High School wrote so compellingly about this last year (http://www.almanacnews.com/news/2015/03/26/guest-opinion-on-school-stress-students-are-gasping-for-air).
 
It can be hard for us as parents, though, because we worry that if we back down from this achievement arms race and others keep at it, our kids will be left behind.  But pushing our kids too hard often backfires, whereas providing them opportunities to discover and explore their passions can teach them self-control in a more personalized way.  The author of the Atlantic article defines self-control as “learning to control one’s impulses in order to achieve personal goals.”  She goes on to say that people get better at self-control with practice and so we need to let our kids explore what they love because their personal goals will then be just that: personal.
 
At Dawson, it’s always been the case that teachers make a point of connecting with their students in deeply personal ways and taking the time to really know them.  With our new schedule, we are allowing this to happen more readily.  Through frequent advisory times, flex periods for cross-division collaboration, and longer class periods, our students will be explorers, ready to discover not only the world around them but also the world inside themselves.
 
To read the article from the Atlantic, click here: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/08/helping-students-succeed-without-the-stress/495956/?_cldee=YWhlY294QGRhd3NvbnNjaG9vbC5vcmc%3d&recipientid=contact-5e5690273df9e111892400505683000d-5c60e11de03a41379d0dac55c62b6b58
 
Back