On our short walk to school, my wife and I were wishing we had a four day week. I mentioned that there were school districts in America where schools do have a four day work week for the purposes of saving money. Those are low cost Fridays – nobody has to fire up the boiler, prepare school lunches, or transport students to school. The downside is that the school day is an hour later and there isn’t any guarantee that this would be a more productive hour.
At the Partnership for the 21st Century, there is an interesting article about the outdated nature of schools and how learning environments do not necessarily have to be segregated by age, but instead can be ranked by ability. The idea of flex time is mentioned where students have a longer time line for assignments and projects.
After I read this article and recalling my morning conversation, I thought of having a “Work at home Wednesday”. This would be a time when the student would spend a minimum of four hours at home working on their computer. They could collaborate with classmates, follow guided lessons from their teacher, or otherwise be involved in independent study. The key to a program such as this would be accountability. Certainly technology could be created that would readily log all the academic activities performed by the stay at home student.
I would see a program such as this as beneficial for several reasons:
1) The students are given a “break” in the middle of the week.
2) Wednesday evenings are traditionally ceded to local religious organizations; therefore the sacred cow of education, evening sports competitions, would not be infringed upon.
3) The perennial problem of “snow days” would be solved. If the weather makes it unsafe for the students to go to school, the school can go to the students. There wouldn’t be the usual debate as to when days should be made up.
4) Schools will save money in regards to services they usually offer.
For this article alone, I found this a forward looking, worthwhile website.
What I found less valuable on the website was the throwing around of power words. “Skills” is mentioned incessantly in word and in the information video. I equate “skills” with “any verb you can think of”. There are breathing skills, eating skills, walking skills, skills in sleeping properly and spitting off a bridge skills. In today's political climate, to question the value of “skills” it to run the risk of being labeled a troglodyte. I feel that when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Once they explain what specific skills they are interested in, I will have a stronger opinion about their political agenda.
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Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI am fortunate to have a four day work week this week; but it isn't due to cost effective strategies, we just start our spring break. I think four day work weeks would be great so that students and teachers would become more refreshed throughout the week, but I agree that the extra hour to hour and a half would not necessarily be beneficial to learning. I teach at an elementary school, and I can see that the students are completely spent by the time the dismissal bell rings. I guess their bodies would readjust to the extra hour, but I could also see how it would be one less day of learning.
I agree that the website uses the word "skills" a lot. Since there are an infinite amount of skills to teach and learn, it would be difficult to name all of them. I think our views are changing to always wanting more. Regardless of what “more” is, we still want more of it. I think that is the mindset of the contributors to this website. They want educators to teach more, use more technology, find more ways to solve problems, achieve more in a smaller amount of time. The list is endless. Everyone just wants more, and more is not always the direction we should follow. I agree that there should be a better focus on the specific skills needed to help our schools thrive in the changing world today.
Enjoy your spring break. We still have two more weeks until ours :).
ReplyDeleteJeff,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of 4 day weeks! And it is so true about educators having to teach SO many skills. When I look at the framework of skills (http://tiny.cc/usgfp) and explore the specific components, I see a common thread which aligns with Bloom's taxonomy - critical thinking skills and practical life skills. I think if we examine these skills in context to lessons many can be woven into a single lesson. The challenging part is understanding and believing how crucial they are to making your lessons relevant. I am certainly not there yet as I am still wafting through all this theory.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI had thought of the work at home approach too. Because of the classes that we are taking, the idea of "distance learning" or at least a component where one day is spent with the physical school being shut down seems a good one. One issue that pops up is the lack of technology in some homes. While somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of my students have internet at home, that leaves some with the inability to fulfill requirements in a "stay-at-home" model. There would be a need to encourage the infusion of this technology to the places it has not yet reached. I did read in something recently that some countries are committed to making sure that everyone is connected. Maybe we need to make a greater effort in this country too. Maybe the future holds something as radical as the demise of "brick and mortar" classrooms altogether. Our district is already moving toward an "independent" learning model for some students where they meet once a week with an instructor and complete an assessment package before receiving the next week's "home work". Time will tell!