ERIC Number: EJ1455889
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 7
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0094-0771
EISSN: EISSN-2327-6223
The Power of Scheduling in Middle School Teaming: Flexibility, Creativity, and Student-Centered Learning
Daniel W. Sheppard; Shannon Saunders
Middle School Journal, v56 n1 p4-10 2025
At Mayfield Middle School, in order to create personalized and more meaningful learning experiences for the students, it was realized that a typical, traditional schedule was not always conducive to the types of learning experiences teachers wanted to create. Teachers had great ideas for projects and practices that would incorporate more critical thinking, communication, and creativity; they also had a vision for interventions that would meet students where they are. But teachers kept running into the same obstacle: time. There were too many transitions that sapped momentum, and students had little to no agency to decide how their days were spent. It was too difficult to carve out space and time to truly intervene with small groups or individual students. As a result, the authors began to reconsider how time should be spent throughout the day. They realized that, at times, it was needed to break free from a "traditional" schedule-one in which students cycle through 45- to 50-minute periods with time allocated for lunch and electives. Instead of always following a traditional schedule, they were challenged to look at time differently--flexibly. Teacher teams have about five hours with students per day. The authors wondered, "How can the time be used it differently?" "How can it be used better?" They began asking questions like, "Do kids need to be in each class for the same amount of time every day?" "Do they need to travel in their predetermined class groupings at all?" "Could teachers work together to give more time to literacy and math skills?" In an effort to answer these questions, teams and teachers were given the agency to restructure the day to best suit their instructional goals. Rather than trying to squeeze their vision into a daily bell schedule, instead the authors made the schedule fit their vision.
Descriptors: School Schedules, Scheduling, Middle Schools, Creativity, Student Centered Learning, Team Teaching, Middle School Teachers, Learning Experience, Middle School Mathematics, Literacy, Time Factors (Learning)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A