Scheduling Input
As we begin the mad dash to the end of school, there are many extremely important tasks to be completed, among them scheduling for next year. I know that in Special Services we are fairly hands on with scheduling of students on our caseload, but I am wondering if that generalizes to the rest of the faculty. So here is my litany of questions: Do you feel you have adequate information to recommend courses/levels for students? Have students come to you for class/level recommendations? Were there students in your class at the beginning of the year who were obviously misplaced above or below their ability level? What has happened to those students? Have you heard from parents regarding scheduling? Have you been "over-ridden" for scheduling by a parent at another school? Was the outcome positive or negative for the student?
I guess I am trying to figure out who really has influence on student scheduling. Is it the students, teachers, parents, or counselors? I am interested in finding out how you all perceive the scheduling for next year at Arapahoe.
I guess I am trying to figure out who really has influence on student scheduling. Is it the students, teachers, parents, or counselors? I am interested in finding out how you all perceive the scheduling for next year at Arapahoe.
posted by kratcliffe at 1:35 PM
9 Comments:
This is an interesting topic for me. I do feel like I have adequate information on many students to recommend them for a course/level. The major problem for me and the rest of my department is that we do not have different levels of classes excluding one advanced weights class and one volleyball 2 class. Other than these two classes there are no prerequisites for our classes and we do not offer any other less advanced/more advanced classes. Instead we have extremely advanced students and extremely low students in all of our classes. I wish we could offer our students a class where we could allow them to be in a learning environment where they are not feeling bored and not feeling overwhelmed. The way our classes operate as of now I do the best job possible of not getting too basic and not too advanced. Therefore the students that are on either of the extreme ends of being very advanced or very low in their ability levels get misplaced or struggle a bit a times. I’m still new at this whole thing and I’m trying to tailor my lessons to do the best job possible of meeting the needs of all my students. This would just be easier if we could offer classes that could be taught at different levels.
As far as being over-ridden, yes that has happened to me. The only way this does take place however is when I’m over or at the limit of students in a class and I’m told that one, two, or three extra students get placed in my class anyways. Because of the fact we don’t have different levels in our classes there is no other way for me to be overridden. I hope this was not too much of a rant. Have a great weekend.
I have not had any information given to me about the scheduling of classes for next year. I am sure that the members of my office will fill me, like they have all year. The science department has been very helpful with many other topics. The only students that have had concerns are my Experimental Physical Science students. There only concern is, what will they take next year since E. Life Science will not be offered? I have had several students this year that were misplaced into biology. Students that fail ERE should not be able to take biology. As a new teacher I did not know how to find there transcripts from last year, so I could not have a discussion with the counselors. However, next year I will do a better job of checking my roster for misplaced students.
I am still in the process of learning the schedule process. I do not know what the values are for how AHS approaches the schedule process for students and teachers. I am used to helping students build their schedules and choose courses, but I am fairly clueless here. I am excited to do arena again. Northglenn used to have arena and they went to all computer registration about 7 years ago. I always missed the opportunity to work with students on building a good, balanced schedule and am looking forward to arena this spring.
In special services, there seems to be a lot of "pre-work" in order to lessen the work in the fall. But it is in my experience that no matter how much thought and work you put forth in the spring, there will still be the need for changes in the fall. This is mainly due to the unforeseen changes to schedules (student and teacher). It is my hope that the more I do now will limit the amount of changes in the fall.
Being new to the school and district, I am trying to learn the process of scheduling and the course offerings. The “veteran” teachers in my department are a valuable resource for scheduling.
I would agree with Jackie, I feel like I don't know much about scheduling. I would find a meeting about it helpful either through inservice or induction.
It's good to hear that I am not the only one who feels like as a new teacher I am of very limited use to my students when it comes to scheduling. I'm sure we all do our very best, but having more information about how scheduling works and what our roles are would be incredibly helpful. Sometimes when a school has done something one way for a long time it just is what/how it is, and the specifics of how it gets done get lost in the shuffle.
When it comes to students being in the wrong class I did find it had happened because a student was overwhelmed, but sometimes you don't learn this until it is too late. As a foreign language teacher I think it would be great if there was testing, especially from the 8th grade. I do what I can do assist the needs of my students, but in rare case we can't help everyone fully. This is where we need to find a way to bridge the gap for students who aren't prepared and students who are overprepared.
One thing the Social Studies Department has done to help with scheduling is each teacher teaching a elective next year, was asked to type a brief summary/”advertisement” for their class that was then e-mailed to all the teachers in the department. Then, after the counselors visited each class to discuss scheduling, we had a conversation with our students about scheduling for Social Studies and read the descriptions of each elective. This helped to promote the department’s electives and hopefully cleared up any confusion for our students. As far as what “core” Social Studies classes students are required to take, our curriculum is fairly straight forward and students don’t have too many options as to what and when they should take specific classes, thus eliminating a lot of confusion. Overall, I like the way scheduling is done at Arapahoe, for it gives students a say in what classes they want to take and it puts responsibility on them to create a “workable” schedule for them and if they go to college, will be a valuable skill to have.
Scheduling was stressful. I felt like I understand enough of the other levels from speaking with my coworkers to recommend classes. The hard part was listening to kids suggest certain teachers and my colleagues reputations were in front of me. There are at least three diferrent teachers that teach each level so kids have a choice with whom they take the class. I almost wish it was a random system of placement because then it wouldn't hurt teachers feelings or even give negative perspectatives to our coworkers. One mentioned to me that it was being said by many students that certain teacher(s) are easy which made that person question the teaching of the other. Kids talk but it still is a stressful sitation to be in. I do wonder what they were saying about me. The other thing is, teachers told me and kids even say it, they choose "new staff" because they think that teacher will be easy.
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