Master Schedule

Each year we critically review our school’s master schedule.  Many activities in the Efficiency component of our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan are devoted to offering high flexibility for teams to meet the instructional needs of students, greater versatility among exploratory classes, creative scheduling, and allocation of personnel based on teacher strengths and assessment data, while protecting and valuing instruction time.  This is a collaborative effort between administrators, teachers, and the SBDM Council.  We have maintained the same master schedule for two consecutive years.  After much deliberation and discussion, our staff and Council agreed that our current schedule offers the best options for our students at this time.  Our schedule is quite unique in that it offers a variety of course offerings that meet the needs of our students while maintaining equity and opportunity for all. 

Exploratory Schedule:

Our exploratory schedule runs on an A/B day that is similar to a college schedule.  Each student has two exploratory classes each semester.  One meets on “A” day, the other meets on “B” day.  This allows our Band and Choir students the opportunity to take more classes and be exposed to more curriculum.  The Band and Choir also have performance groups for those students who excel in these areas.  Students may participate in performance class before school starts during the breakfast/homeroom/advisory block each morning.  The performance groups meet every other day so as not to interfere with each other and a “grab and go” breakfast is made available for these students so they may participate.  In an effort to better meet the academic needs of our students, we have attempted to offer more variety and high interest exploratory classes.  Last year, we implemented a CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) class to support the math and science curriculum.  With the focus on the STEM initiative at the state and district levels, we have replaced CSI with an Engineering class this year that again focuses on math and science.  Students were identified for this class using ILP data that indicated this was an interest area and/or they were gifted in the areas of Math and Science.  To meet the needs of struggling students, we implemented an intervention class called AIMS (Achieving in Middle School).  The focus of this class is to help students improve learning through goal setting, completing assignments, redoing assignments, and daily monitoring of grades.  Continually, we offered an additional Fitness class this year to support overall health and well-being for our students through the use of a fitness center in the gym.  Other course offerings in exploratory include Dance/Drama, Computer Applications, Physical Education, General Music in Piano Lab using state of the art “Yamaha Music in Education” pianos and software, Band, and Choir.  The Exploratory team publishes a calendar of events and schedule each month so that all staff is informed of their A/B schedule and any upcoming changes to the schedule to accommodate performances, classroom activities, guest speakers, etc.  All classes in exploratory operate on the A/B schedule.

Team Schedules:

All teams create a classroom schedule that accommodates their instructional needs.  They submit a team schedule before school starts and have the versatility to make changes to their schedule as appropriate.  If a teacher needs additional time within the day to complete labs, presentations, projects, etc., they may do so by making arrangements with their team teachers.  Each class is the same amount of time in length and all restroom and locker breaks are included and deliberately scheduled to avoid large numbers of students in the hallway.  Teams work together to ensure class change times do not interfere with each other.  All teams have homeroom and advisory at the same time.  At the 6^th grade level, all students receive Math, Science, L.Arts I & II or Reading, and Social Studies.  In 7^th grade, all students receive Math, Science, Social Studies, L. Arts I & L. Arts II with Practical Living integrated.  In 8^th grade, all students have five classes to include Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Geometry or Art.  The Geometry and Art teachers are attached to both 8^th grade teams.  While the Art teacher is on one team, the geometry teacher is on the other.  The teachers, not the students, switch teams every 4 ˝ weeks or at mid-term of each grading term.  This allows them to see all 8^th grade students an equal amount of time before testing to ensure equitable instruction time to all students of critical core content.  All teams have a collaborative teacher attached to their team.  Advisory class is the same time each day school-wide.  Each team submits a weekly plan for Advisory activities.  We also offer “Go Figure” math tutoring during the homeroom/advisory block which is available to all students needing assistance with math homework or classwork.