Change is Coming: Block Schedule
(This article originally appeared in the Belen Jesuit Magazine, summer 2019 edition.)
With the usual onset of changes that will be made to the next school year, one of the biggest will be going from the regular schedule to block schedule. With block scheduling, class time is doubled and students see their teachers less frequently, more like the college classroom setting. In reality, block schedule is not new to the Belen community. It has been a topic that has been brought up many times for discussion and even voted on by the faculty and administration over the past 20 years. It is a change that affects everyone in the community, and therefore it required that everyone be on board with the plan.
The new schedule will include four blocks a day with an hour and a half time periods, while also keeping the A/B flipping of the last period. Also, it will include one day of a regular schedule during the week when students see their teachers in shorter classes. The new schedule will also include one day every week that will be free of any assessments so that students can take a breather and the school can arrange for activities that will not interfere with testing.
The main purpose of the change is to reduce the stress level for all students as there will be only four classes per day. Stress for teachers would reduce as well as they would have more time to prepare for lessons, have a longer time frame to teach the lessons, and have the opportunity to engage the students for a longer period of time.
"This schedule will give both teachers and students more time to learn the lesson and to dive deeper into it,” said school Principal José E. Roca '84.
The administration plans to have a meeting for the parents when they will release the new schedule and discuss any questions parents may have.
With this change come many positive things. For example, science lessons can now include the complementing lab, all in the same class time. English classes will have the ability to dive deeper into the books, practice writing, and work on vocabulary all in one day. Electives such as yearbook or broadcasting would have more time to create their products at a much higher quality. Semester classes such as Economics and Philosophy will remain the same by having one of the classes per semester.
Another positive change is that the teachers have been instructed to not give more homework, but instead focus on giving more dedicated classwork that will efficiently engage the students. Essentially, this schedule gives teachers more options for teaching the material and students more time to learn it.
"I remember my time here in Belen and how stressful the fast schedule would be. This would have been the schedule that I would have loved to have while I was at school,” said Mr. Roca. As with all changes, there are also many concerns such as teachers who will struggle with the concept of breaking up the time to teach two to three lessons per block, or those who might attempt a class-long lecture. To avoid any potential problems, the entire faculty has been undergoing professional development sessions after school that is geared towards teacher training in block schedule. The training sessions have been led by a group of faculty members who have taught in block scheduling previously in their careers.
"I think the block schedule will help with all the homework we are given and it will give me more time to prepare for tests," said eighth-grader Aiden Suarez.
While change can be scary and difficult, the faculty and administration are embracing the new schedule and looking forward to the positive aspects of a longer class.
"We have always been a school to face change head-on and welcome adversity," said Mrs. Ana Suarez. “Once we adjust and it gets rolling, the students will benefit tremendously from this both inside and outside the classroom.”
BELEN JESUIT PREPARATORY SCHOOL
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
500 SW 127th Avenue, Miami, FL 33184
phone: 305.223.8600 | fax: 305.227.2565 | email: communications@belenjesuit.org
Belen Jesuit Preparatory School was founded in 1854 in Havana, Cuba, by Queen Isabel II of Spain. The task of educating students was assigned to the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), whose teaching tradition is synonymous with academic excellence and spiritual discipline. In 1961, the new political regime of Cuba confiscated the school's property and expelled the Jesuit faculty. The School was re-established in Miami the same year, and over the next decade, continued to grow. Today, Belen Jesuit is situated on a 34-acre site in western Dade County, just minutes away from downtown Miami.