The Liberty schedule tends to be pretty consistent year after year, blue and red days rotate throughout the week, leaving Fridays uneven since there’s five days in a given week. The school’s solution is to alternate Blue and Red days every Friday, however; this schedule tends to be inadequate and causes classes on specific days to either be ahead or behind schedule. A simple solution would be to include Silver days as the schedule for Fridays; that way all classes are on track and learn the curriculum at the same time.
The main issue with our current schedule is the fact that every student has a different class schedule everyday. Leading up to Thursday, this is okay since there is an even amount of class periods to fluctuate the days of the week. However, having different schedules on Fridays puts other classes behind. Considering two hour delays, assemblies, and those who don’t attend school on Friday: this would in turn make the classes unproductive and cause an extra burden for lesson plans to accommodate that extra day in the week.
For those unfamiliar with Silver days; they’re exceptionally rare, in fact, only happening around one time at the beginning of the school year on the first day of school. If we implemented a silver day every Friday, this could ensure all classes are caught up and the time can be used for studying or shorter lesson plans to accommodate the shorter class period.
Additionally, Studies have shown that students tend to benefit from shorter class periods; according to Around The Block, which states, “Traditionally, secondary school schedules include six to eight courses daily, typically ranging from 40 to 55 minutes. In a block schedule, classes range from 75 to 95 minutes, and students attend fewer classes per day. Longer classes give teachers more time to build relationships with students (Pate et al., 2022). The short classes in traditional schedules can cause teachers to resort to lecture.”
Many schools across the country implement different schedules; and although they both have their benefits: I believe that shorter classes on Friday are preferable and more beneficial compared to longer class periods. Not only would Silver days be more productive; but they’d allow for students to catch up on work and grant teachers more time for planning periods.
Moreover, how might implementing Silver days on more of a daily basis impact students? Regarding the mentioned article by Around The Block, it further states, “professional development should be specific to either traditional 45-55 minute classes or longer block classes. Keeping students engaged for up to 90 minutes is a challenge, and teachers need support in choosing the most effective strategies for their content, grade-level, and subject.”
An issue that becomes problematic in education is the constant need to keep students engaged. Longer ranged classes reduce attention and often make students become easily bored or disengaged. Thus, if Silver Days were implemented on a more day to day basis; or just Fridays at the very least: It’d give students a bit more variety and strengthen interests in different subjects.
