A Day in the Life: Dragged out classes and Boredom

In any case, waking up and getting ready for something you don’t want to do is always a struggle. Wanting to get up and ready for school has always been a problem for me and many other students. In the morning I get up and leave my house by 7:40 am. Our breaks and lunches are broken up into two groups. What break and lunch you are in depends on what class you have. I have a second break and lunch both days so I have two classes then break another class and then I have lunch and following that I have my last class. In my school, we have a D1 and D2. Each day goes between those two days and each day we have different classes. Where as my friend in Tennessee has a different schedule that consists of, “having the same schedule everyday, classes one through five, then lunch, then classes six through eight, each class lasting forty-five minutes, one of those classes being a Bible class.  This is all different however on Wednesdays, we have chapel between third and fourth period”. 

Hopkinton High School schedule

Zion Chirstian Academy schedule

In my school we have very smart teachers and coaches and we are all very fortunate. Smaller schools don’t have the same situation. For example, my friend from Tennessee who goes to a private christian school has had another experience. She wrote, 

“Because we are such a small school we have many issues. One being sports, this year our football team only had eighteen players. Currently our girls basketball team only has seven players. Our best sports team is our softball team, even being the best team at Zion, the farthest we have made it was when we won our district tournament my freshman year. Our school has also never won a state championship, which I know is very different from your school which won nine in one year. Another huge issue Zion has is that we do not have much money, we are in so much debt. This causes us to have a lack of teachers. My sophomore year, my spanish teacher became my math teacher, let’s just say I learned absolutely nothing about math that year. My current math teacher was not intending on becoming a high school math teacher, believe it or not he was only a manager at our local sporting goods store, who I believe was only minoring in math, not teaching”.

 Coming back to my school, each of our classes last 75 minutes. Personally our teachers drag out one topic just to get through one class. Then after two weeks of dragged out material we have a test. Most of us can’t even remember what we learned the first day because of how long they dragged it out and how fast you lose focus because of boredom. An attention span of a high schooler is 10-12 minutes, so paying attention for a long period of time is almost impossible.

Bored kids in class

According to “What is the Real Ideal Class Length?” One of the advantages to overcome boredom is having shorter classes. The teachers dive straight into instruction as soon as the class started, with fewer interruptions for maintenance. Students who have shorter classes are constantly shifting classes break up the day and prevent boredom. The teachers know that the time is maximized so they work quickly to incorporate the day’s necessary instruction. Each class is different so Instruction is fresh and changed on a regular basis. Students lose focus easily so having shorter classes students actually receive more total class time as a result of shortened periods.

Works Cited

bored kids in class. 15 May 2015. K12, 15 May 2015, www.learningliftoff.com/causes-and-cures-for-classroom-boredom/. Accessed 13 Dec. 2019.

"What is the Real Ideal Class Length?" Tenney School, 2105, www.tenneyschool.com/what-is-the-real-ideal-class-length/. Accessed 11 Dec. 2019.

Local and Global Issues

One of the barriers we face today according to the article, 10 Barriers of Education around the world, is classrooms or lack thereof. Classrooms are a privilege to have. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa kids are squeezed into overcrowded classrooms, in Malawi, there is an average of 130 children per classroom in first grade. (Ruekert), there are classrooms that are falling apart, or students are forced to learn outside. Inside the classrooms, they are lacking textbooks and normal school supplies and other tools needed to work. Teachers are also lacking supplies needed to prepare lessons.

Lynch

Another issue is not just the lack of classroom or supplies, but the lack of bathrooms and running water. In Chad, only 1 in 7 schools have potable running water, and 1 in 4 schools have a toilet; and only one-third of the toilets that do exist are for girls only. (Ruekert) Many times where girls don’t have a safe or private area to use the bathroom, they are often harassed and attacked.

 
Another issue is being denied education. Being a human you have the universal right to an education, but being denied access to school education is common for the world’s 93 to 150 million children with disabilities. In the world’s poorest countries, up to 95% of children with disabilities are out of school. (Ruekert) To do well in school you need to go to class and have good attendance in school. Kids with disabilities have lower attendance rates than their non-special education peers and are more likely to be out or leave school before completing primary education. They are suspended or expelled at a rate more than double the rate of their other students. (Ruekert) Most teachers have a hard time teaching kids with disabilities because it makes them use different methods so the students can learn and understand.

Izquierdo

According to the article In New England, Efforts to Rethink Educational Practices Grow, kids learn differently. That’s a fact. There are three main categories of learning. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual is learning by seeing and watching; auditory is learning by hearing; and kinesthetic is learning by doing, touching, and interacting. A school in Rhode Island has taken this into account and has begun to do something. Providence school started using the Summit Learning Program, which is an approach to personalized learning development. This all started when Andrew Frishman, the co-executive director of Big Picture Learning, located his organization at its first school, The Metropolitan Regional Career, and Technical Center, in Providence. (Field) This new way of learning is a great way to help students who learn differently excel and make them a better student. I think it’s important that we have access to something that can help us with our own needs. The program has built a network of 65 “student-centered” schools over 20 years. (Field)

Students post at the Met High School in Providence, Rhode Island. The public
     school, which offers students intensive internships and individualized learning opportunities prioritizes equity and diversity in its admissions practices. (Big Picture Learning)

Works Cited

Feild, Kelly. "In New England, Efforts to Rethink Educational Practices Grow." EWA, 14 Jan. 2019, www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/new-england-efforts-rethink-educational-practices-grow. Accessed 26 Nov. 2019.

Izquierdo, Silvia. A visually impaired student reads braille in Rio de Janeiro. 2 Sept. 2016. Global Citizen, 13 Aug. 2019, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-barriers-to-education-around-the-world-2/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.

Lynch, Kelley. Students try to get the teacher's attention to answer a question in Sudan. Global Citizen, 13 Aug. 2019, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-barriers-to-education-around-the-world-2/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.

Ruekert, Phineas. "10 Barriers to Education around the World." Global Citizen, 13 Aug. 2019, globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-barriers-to-education-around-the-world-2/. Accessed 3 Dec. 2019.

Education needs to Change

Over the past 53 years teaching style hasn’t changed. Dr. Canada says in his Ted Talk “Technology has changed, but education hasn’t.” Teachers are still teaching us how to do map graphs and teaching us to know that a certain curve is called a bell curve. As we get older we need to know how to do taxes, buy a house, and make a savings account. If we had this many college graduates wouldn’t be living with their parents and or getting help from their parents. How do teachers think that what they are teaching us will be valuable later on in life?

"Our failing schools. Enough is enough!"

The style of teaching also needs to change. Kids don’t all learn from the teacher ranting off facts we need to memorize. Kids like me, for example, need more hands-on activities. Most teachers have the mentality that “one size fits all, if you get it, you get it, if you don’t, you don’t.” Dr. Canada stated in his speech. Another underlying fact is inner-city schools and poor kids don’t get the same education as wealthier students do. Dr. Canda made this one of his main topics because he grew up and went to school in the inner city.

John, Andrew

A bigger statement should be that this generation is the future so if they don’t teach us the essentials what is the future going to look like? From personal experience, everyone is reliant on phones and technology. How are we supposed to better the future? I need to know how to make a living for myself. I don’t need to know how to graph a line and solve logs. I understand we need to have a foundation for college and future jobs. Looking at the whole picture, what’s really more important. Learning Shakespear and analyzing what he was thinking when he wrote it, or know how to be stable for the future?

Kiema, Kinjo

According to Sir Ken Robinson, “every country on earth, at the moment is reforming public education.” There are two reasons. One being Economic, how do we educate our children to take their place in the 21st century. The second being Cultural, how do we educate our children to have a sense of identity. Sal Khan said in his speech “Lecture, homework, Lecture, homework, Lecture, homework, and that will go on for two weeks and then a test. Someone will get 75%, 90%, and 90% and the class moves on.” What about the percentage that the students got wrong? Teachers move on and the next year when we have to apply this to something else we feel like we are dumb and can’t do it. It is very rare for a student to get 100% on a test. Why don’t teachers spend time making sure students get what they are being taught?

Cherry, Kendra

Works Cited

"Changing education paradigms." TED, uploaded by Sir Ken, Oct. 2010, www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Cherry, Kendra. "What Do Do If You Fail Psychology." Very well mind, 16 Sept. 2019, www.verywellmind.com/failing-psychology-2794786. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

John, Andrew. "Education advocate Emma Fraser Pendleton says top teachers avoid inner-city schools." Metro, 20 Aug. 2011, www.cleveland.com/metro/2011/08/education_advocate_emma_fraser.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Kiema, Kinjo. "As Schools Lift Bans on Cell Phones, Educators Weigh Pros and Cons." neaToday, 23 Feb. 2015, neatoday.org/2015/02/23/school-cell-phone-bans-end-educators-weigh-pros-cons/. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

"Let's teach for mastery- not test scores." TED, uploaded by Sal Khan, Nov. 2015, www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_teach_for_mastery_not_test_scores. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019

"Our failing schools. Enough is enough!" TED, uploaded by Geoffrey Canada, May 2013, www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Mental Health in Students and Teachers

The article 10 Challenges Facing Public Education Today is about 10 challenges or problems that schools have been facing. One of those challenges is mental health. According to Reamy who is the NEA School Counselor said: "he had more students the past year hospitalized for anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues than ever". Reamy also states "there is so much going on in this day and age, the pressure to fit in, the pressure to achieve, the pressure of social media". Personally, this statement is very true.

Sheehy, Kelsey

In my experience, the pressure to achieve is so high. My high school came up with a new grading system. If you don’t pass a competency you get an NCC, which means not competent on competencies, or you have a grade that is below a 70, you can’t play sports or participate in other activities. To most athletes and students that participate in other activities, is something that is taking a toll on our sleep schedule. Sleeping is very important but after practice, it's hard to want to focus on schoolwork let alone study, because of this you either don't do your homework or study of you do it and go to bed very late. Mental health is very important. Amanda Litvinov writes, 93% of elementary school teachers report that they are highly stressed.

Chesser, Lisa

The mental health of teachers is also something to look for too. Teachers always say to get a good night's sleep. 6-8 hours, when they are getting little to no sleep. My economics teacher, Mr. Merrill, says most classes how he was up until 3am due to anxiety, and stress. Mr. Merrill says he's up late most nights due to grading or coming up with a plan for his next class. For example last class he didn't get enough sleep and had us do an activity so he didn't have to use a bunch of energy.

Works Cited

Chesser, Lisa. "25 Tricks to Stop Teacher Burn out." InformED, 18 Mar. 2014, www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/25-tricks-to-stop-teacher-burnout/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

Litvinov, Amanda, et al. "10 Challenges Facing Public Education Today." NeaToday, 3 Aug. 2018, neatoday.org/2018/08/03/10-challenges-facing-public-education-today/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.

Sheehy, Kelsey. "Tip for Parents to Help Teens De-Stress." U.S. News, 28 Jan. 2013, www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2013/01/28/tips-for-parents-to-help-teens-de-stress. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.