Wednesday 20 May 2009

Do we need bells?

The school that I am doing relief at has very little bells;
- one bell signals the start of the day, form class.
- the next bell is at the end of Interval
- next end of lunch
- last bell is at the end of the day.
They still have a 5 period day, however there is no bell to signal the end of class and move to the next class. It works well. I like it because it gets away from the bell and cell structure of the school day. Why do we need bells at the end of each class?

I can see some teachers taking advantage of this structure, "oh there is only 5 minutes to go, I might as well let my class go." But after a while things will settle down and get to where there is no abuse of this. The students would be more settled and the teacher has the control of the class.

We have periods where there are no bells at my other school, there seems to be a more calm feel around the place where there isn't that sudden ringing. You don't get bells when you are work. Why do we have bells in school?

Sorry, something was brought up at a meeting I went to earlier in the week,
I caught a conversation that was happening with a couple of teachers and it has got me thinking. Primary school and Intermediate teach there students literacy and Numeracy in the morning, And topic in the afternoon. Secondary schools teach Literacy and Numeracy when? Well we teach it right throughout the day, why, because that is the way it fits into our timetable structure. This had me thinking, The year 9 students we get at school have been taught english and maths for 8 years in the morning, they hit us and are expected to be able to do these subjects at all times of the day. Is this fair? I think of those junior classes of the low ability students, are they really that low ability or is it that we tested them in the afternoon? Could the school structure be allowed change to allow junior students to be taught Literacy and Numeracy in the morning?

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