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North Quincy High School. Student Guide to the New Schedule. What is happening?. As you might have heard, NQHS is adopting a new daily schedule in September of 2014.
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North Quincy High School Student Guide to the New Schedule
What is happening? As you might have heard, NQHS is adopting a new daily schedule in September of 2014. This new schedule has many new features that will require some getting used to. Those features are highlighted in this presentation.
What do we have now? Before looking at the new schedule, let’s think about what we’ve done up to now. The arrangement for each student has been that you take seven classes in asix-day cycle. Each day there are seven periods; three of them create a morning rotation and two of them an afternoon rotation; the two periods in the middle remain fixed in place. Every class meets six times in the six day cycle, except some science classes and classes in Chapter 74 programs (Patient Care, Early Childhood Education, etc.) that meet for additional time in the six day cycle. The next slide shows the current schedule in graphic form.
What are the problems with the current schedule? Students receive equal credit for classes that meet an unequal amount of time. Science labs sometimes require a missed day of another class each cycle. Students are often unable to take some courses because science is taking up two of their available periods (class plus lab). We schedule science classes first, leading to uneven class sizes in other departments. Our overlapping lunch periods create building-wide disruptions.
What’s the solution? The key is to fit lab science classes into a single period. But we have to have a period that is long enough to do the labs required in the science curriculum. In other words: we need a longer period.
How do we create longer periods? A lot of schools use a full block schedule in which three or four classes meet per day in long periods. The classes that meet today don’t meet tomorrow and vice versa. This creates discontinuity in students’ and teachers’ day-to-day routine. Our goal was to add a single long period per day, while keeping the remaining periods about as long as they are now.
What did we come up with? We’ve added a fixed long period that stays in the same position every day. Each class gets one “turn” in this long period during a cycle. A different class gets dropped each day in order to make time for the long period. The result: a seven-day cycle with six periods per day. On each day, five of your classes will meet for about 50 minutes, one for about 90 minutes, and one will be dropped from the schedule. The next slide shows what this looks like.
Look again If you look back at that slide again, you will see that each class gets its turn in the long period 4. You will also see that one class is dropped each day. Finally, notice that the morning periods still move in a rotation and that the afternoon periods do as well. However, unlike in the current schedule, the middle periods are included in the rotations as well.
Changing to letters instead of numbers In the current schedule we use numbers to refer to time of day (first period is 7:55 to 8:48, for example) and to label classes (“English is my first period class”). This means we say funny things like “third period is first today” or “second period is third.” To simplify matters in the new schedule, rather than use numbers to label classes, we will assign classes a letter designation using the letters A through G. We will use numbers to refer to the six periods, which are fixed points in the day. The classes (letters) rotate their position in the periods, depending on what day it is. So first period is always first, second period is always second, and so on. It will be the classes (letters) that move. Now you will say “C is first today” or “F or sixth.” The schedule from two slides ago is translated using the new letter system on the next slide.
Example Let’s see what all that means for you. Think of your schedule this year. Whatever you call “period one” will now be “A.” The class you know as “period two” will now be “B.” And so on, right down to “period ten” will now be “G.” Pretend that your classes are the ones on the next slide:
Sample Student A English 11 B Chemistry C Spanish 4 D U.S. History E Study F Choir G Algebra 2
Sample Student If we put those classes into the graphic representation of the new schedule, your day-to-day schedule would look like this (remember, you’re reading down the schedule for each day of the cycle):
Check again On each day, one class is missing. That class is the one that met in period 4 (the long, 90-minute period) the day before. Each class on your schedule (A through G) gets its one day in the long period.
Bells Let’s add the bell schedule to this: Period 1 7:45 – 8:42 Period 2 8:46 – 9:38 Period 3 9:42 – 10:34 Period 4 with first lunch 10:34 – 11:04 lunch 11:08 – 12:38 class Period 4 with second lunch 10:38 – 11:22 class 11:22 – 11:52 lunch 11:54 – 12:38 class Period 4 with third lunch 10:38 – 12:08 class 12:08 – 12:38 lunch Period 5 12:42 – 1:34 Period 6 1:38 – 2:30
When do I have lunch? In reality, the long period 4 is actually a 120-minute period, with 90 minutes for class and 30 minutes for lunch for all students and staff. We will continue to have three lunches, each one taking up a different 30 minutes within the 120-minute period 4. Students will go to lunch based on what class they have during period 4. We have not finalized the details, but assume classrooms will be assigned a particular lunch according to the following system: All first floor classrooms and all math and foreign language classrooms: First lunch All English and social studies classrooms: Second lunch All fourth floor classrooms: Third lunch
Lunch When you are in a classroom that is assigned first lunch, you go to lunch for 30 minutes after period 3 ends, then to the period 4 class for 90 minutes. When you are in a third lunch classroom, you go to your period 4 class for 90 minutes followed by a 30 minute lunch before period 5 starts. Second lunch is tricky. For these classes, you go to your period 4 class for 44 minutes. Then you go to lunch for 30 minutes. Then you return to the same period 4 class for another 44 minutes to complete the long period.
Lunch It’s certainly different, and probably confusing. You will always need to be aware of the day of the cycle and what class you have period 4 on each day. This also means you will eat lunch at different times each day. Let’s take a lunch quiz using the sample student schedule from before. Look at the schedule again on the next slide and predict what lunch this student has each day. Remember, you need to look at the class in period 4:
Quiz answers The student has first lunch on days 4, 6, and 7 because choir is a first floor classroom and math and foreign language are designated as first lunch classrooms. The student has second lunch on days 1 and 3 because social studies and English are designated second lunch classrooms. The student has third lunch on day 5 because science is a third lunch classroom.
Quiz answers What about when the student has study on day 2? It will depend on who the study teacher is and what department the teacher is a member of. If the study is with an English teacher, that means second lunch on day 2. If it’s a science teacher, that means third lunch on day 2.
What happened to homeroom? Homerooms will still be assigned based on grade level and last name. But homeroom will not meet each day at 7:45 am. Instead homeroom will meet about once per month and at a later time of day. This means that at 7:45 am, students must be in their first period class. Teachers will report attendance to the office using the Aspen system. Tardy students will sign in and report to class with a pass. There will be homeroom to start the day on the first day of school. We will explain more about how homeroom will work at that time.
Wrapping up This is a lot of change, but all of it for the better. The new schedule is a more efficient way to manage our time and will lead to a smoother process of scheduling each year. This means we can give you more of the courses you want and still maintain desirable class sizes. As you look this over, you will have questions. Email Mr. Shaw at any time with those questions (robertshaw@quincypublicschools.com).
