Horizon Room Season 2, Episode 6: The Power of People: Master Schedule Shifts to Make Time for Teaching

In this season we’re continuing the journey with leaders in education and providing experience and learning around critical mindset shifts necessary to remain relevant in today’s evolving definition of “school.” We’ll jump in with an examination of Digital Arts and Sciences as it relates to the survival of our schools in the information age and then follow pathways to address transformational change from a range of perspectives.

We all know the block schedule, maybe even an A-B weeks and an A-B days schedule complete with multiple tracks. So complicated and yet so purposefully classroom-and-staffing-centric. If you read any of the guidance around scheduling the movement of teachers and students through their learning day, you’ve seen the process start with teachers and courses rather than learning time. Perhaps a nuance, but in practice, can mean the difference between a rich learning experience and an impersonal routine. In our push to move away from ineffective industrial models of school, successful schools are using time to their advantage, creating mashups of previously sacred class times, and making way for flexibility, personalization, meaningfulness and learner agency. This episode digs into scheduling shifts that can not only enrich student and teacher experience but alleviate some of the staffing issues our schools are facing today and into the future.