After two years with a simple schedule, students at Jim Thorpe Area High School were issued a new schedule, for the 2017-2018 school year to try a schedule that many schools around the state have; a modified block schedule.
“It’s an alternative to full block scheduling that combines the benefits of block scheduling and traditional scheduling. It’s challenging for teachers and students to adapt to a varied schedule,” said Mrs. Schaeffer, a teacher at Jim Thorpe High School, when asked what she thought about the new schedule.
The modified block schedule is a schedule comprised of five days. Days one, four, and five, being a regular schedule day, forty-five minute classes, and days two and tree, classes that last approximately ninety minutes.
“No. I think it would be exhausting to have a 90-minute period for a subject every time. If you had a modified block (every other day) you might lose some continuity. If you had a 1/2-year block with new subjects in the second half, you could lose continuity over time (example – if you took Spanish 1 in Fall of Freshman year and didn’t take Spanish 2 until Spring of your Sophomore year),” said Mr. Ellison, a teacher at Jim Thorpe High School.
Though classes are longer, dismissal time has shrunk by seventeen minutes. It may not seem a great deal of time shaved off the school day, but it lets kids who live farther from the school get home a little earlier than usual.
“I would change day two mostly because I think kids still should have pods at the end of the day since most kids have sports, me being one of those kids,” said student Madison Santos, a freshman at Jim Thorpe High School.
Be the first to comment on "Fusion scheduling comes to Jim Thorpe High School"