Block Scheduling

[Ru'Thor]

I have a new reason for despising my school. It starts with a 'block' and ends with a 'scheduling'.

My school, sucking as it does, has decided to go with a '720' plan, whatever the hell that is. They're switching us to block scheduling year-round next year. Today and tomorrow we're testing it out.

And it SUCKS.

Basically, we have four eighty-four minute classes a day and alternate each day. We have ten minute breaks in between classes. Ten minutes is not as long as it sounds. At all. I was ready to kill myself by the end of first period. Even Spanish, which I normally love, loses its charm after about forty-five minutes.

And they've added to the misery- we aren't allowed to use the hall pass during class anymore. Which means no bathroom. For crying out loud, they're selling us drinks in between classes! We don't have to go to the bathroom in ten minutes! They claim that we can use the breaks to take care of business, but I went into the bathroom, and there were ten people in line. Downstairs? More. By the time I got back upstairs, my break was over and I had to sit in class for another eighty-four minutes with a full bladder.

I AM GOING TO KILL MYSELF.

The "good" news? My dad also thinks that it's gay and he says that if my school really does switch to doing block year-round, he'll send me to cyber school. It's a step up from the local Catholic school, which was his first choice, but I want to have a life! I need to socialize or I will have an internal meltdown! Now that I think about it, maybe Catholic school would be better than cyber school... at least there would be PEOPLE there...

SABS: Students Against Block Scheduling.
President: Ru.

[Shira]

Oh, Ru, I cn'at believe how much that sucks. And I thought my classes were long, and they're about 45 minutes each, with five minute breaks between each. If Econ Honors was 84 minutes long...... jeez.

And NO KILLING YOURSELF. You're only playing into the school districts hands.

It's stupid to think that kids are going to pay attention for 84 minutes in a row. I can't even pay attention to a movie that's 90 minutes, and movies have flashing lights and swear words in it.

And if you have to go that bad, think of the nastiest thing you can think of (like no internet for the rest of your life) and teach yourself to make your face go pale. Then say you're going to be sick. This works much much better if you're standing right next to the teacher, so you can pantimime throwing up on their shoes. Unless you have a teacher like I used to have, that made us all pick puking buddies to puke on so his classroom wouldn't smell the rest of the day.

If anything, do a sit in with all the kids that dissagree with the scheduling, in a big place, like the gym. Teacher's can't move you.

Otherwise, try hanging on there. If anything, you can think of new ideas for roleplays, or continue your NaNoWriMo story longhand.

[Lali]

*stays well away from this and says nothing*

*has most lessons in two-hour blocks with five minute breaks after the first hour*

*gives in and speaks*

It's tough if you're not used to that sort of thing, I admit. And they should definitely let you go to the toilet. But otherwise it sounds much like the English system in the later school years. We did used to have two hours of Spanish without a break, but by complaining a large amount we managed to get the five minute break back...

Whatever you do, don't do a petition. Write a letter and have lots of people sign it, perhaps (people in my school got loads of stuff changed like that) or have the parents do much the same. A sit-in might work, but getting lots of politely angry letters flooding into the admin department is bound to have some effect...

[Ru'Thor]

We don't have any breaks. That's the real bummer. I spent half the day in the band room yesterday. T_T

But, the good news is, I talked my dad out of Catholic/cyber school.

Gooder news (see, block scheduling has fried my ability to use proper grammar!) is I also managed to talk him into writing a letter to the school board. So... *crosses fingers*

[Lali]

How's that going?