In an effort to constantly improve the educational program that we offer our students, we have been exploring different ways to provide more support for all of our students. Our high school has used the practice of Interaction Time (IT) for many years now, and it has proven itself to be an effective way to give our students more time with teachers.
Essentially, IT is a 30 minute period at the end of the day where students can meet with teachers for a variety of purposes. This time could be used for students to connect with a teacher for a class that they missed due to an absence or music lesson, to make up a quiz or test, to complete a lab, or for an extension of the classroom experience. In addition, it would provide an opportunity for our students to access our computer labs and library. This is much more than working on homework, this is about improving how we support all of our students in a time of tremendous change in education. After working closely with the Director of Transportation on the logistics and presenting this information to the Board of Education last week, we are happy to tell you that we are ready to implement IT at the start of the 2013-14 school year.
We have created a series of FAQs at the bottom of this blog post that will help you understand IT. Please keep in mind that the
times are approximate until will solidify transportation schedules. Please feel free to call or email us should
you have any questions.
We Celebrate Learning!
Beth
Lozier
Principal,
CMS
blozier@westgenesee.org
Phone:
672-3159
What will the middle
school hours be next year?
The day will begin at 7:35 a.m. and end at 2:10 p.m.
Interaction Time will occur from 2:10-2:50 p.m. There will be two bus runs, at
2:10 and 2:50 p.m.
Will my children have
to get up much earlier with the new start time?
Most students will have to be out and ready for the bus
approximately 5-13 minutes earlier than this year.
Will some middle
school students be riding buses with high school students?
Yes, depending on the bus route some Middle School students
will be riding with High School students on both bus runs. There is often a
perception that the behavior of older students will have
a negative influence on the younger students on the bus and some parents have
expressed an initial concern with having them ride together. First and foremost
we have terrific high school students and generally have few issues on our High
School bus runs. In addition, we currently have our parochial students (over
300) in grades K-12 ride the buses with High School students each day and we
have not had any behavior or other problems with younger students riding with
older students since combining those bus runs in 2008. The other piece to this
that Elementary and Middle School parents are typically not aware of is how few
High School students actually ride our buses.
On average we have 17 or fewer students riding any of our High School
buses to or from school and our buses hold at least 55 students. The majority
of our bus runs for next school year will be primarily Middle School students.
Will Interaction Time
occur Monday-Friday?
Students will have IT on Tuesday-Friday. On Mondays, IT will be used for staff
development and faculty meeting purposes. Students who participate in modified
sports, clubs, school musical, etc. will stay on Mondays and attend a
supervised study hall until 2:50 p.m. at which time their practice or club will
start.
How much
instructional time was lost as a result of creating Interaction Time at the end
of the day?
None. With careful planning and looking at scheduling and
transportation in a different way we were able to maintain the current amount
of teacher-student instructional time and make better use of some dead time
that existed on the front end and during the school day.
