Aurora might want to try a block schedule

Aurora High School has an eight period day; each period being about 50 minutes. There have been small changes such as flex time, but the schedule, for many years, has remained the same. Other schools are not like this. Both Hudson High School and Twinsburg High School run block periods. This means their schedule changes from day to day with longer periods.

At Hudson, the schedules look like this:

Here is Twinsburg’s schedule:

Is this better for students? Which do they prefer?

Senior Maddie Schmidt from Aurora says, “I like the regular schedule because you get to see every teacher every day rather than only seeing them every other day.”

Junior Henry Schuellerman from Hudson says, “I like the schedule we have because I like having both schedules.”

Sophomore Audrey Cash from Hudson says, “I prefer the regular schedules because block is too long to sit in the same class.”

Senior Adam Greonke from Twinsburg says, “I like the block schedule because there’s less homework. Also the teachers have more time to teach what they want and how they want and it just seems more laid back.”

Junior Kelsey Boron from Twinsburg says, “I prefer block… having class for only 45 minutes wouldn’t accomplish much of anything.”

And what do teachers think?

Aurora English teacher Kathleen White, who previously taught at Hudson states, “Have you ever been in the middle of a great conversation in a class, had the bell ring, and then never get back to the deep thinking in which the class was engaged? Teaching on a block created a fantastic opportunity for me to engage students on a deeper level with the material. My experience was a modified block, however, where we only met with students for 90 minutes once a week, and the rest of the schedule as a regular 50 minute class. I think this approach is beneficial because students can take a class all year long. In a true block, students might not benefit in some courses like math or Spanish.”

When looking at all this information, it’s hard to decide which is better. Students at block schools prefer block, but students at regular schools prefer regular. Of course, teachers prefer the longer periods of time to teach, but it may be too much time for certain classes.

Maybe there is no clear answer, but when looking at the great work Twinsburg and Hudson does, it might be in Aurora’s best interest to try integrating a blocked schedule.