GREENFIELD — Greenfield High School students will see longer class periods next year, but the school’s administration hopes it will allow teachers to dig deeper into their subject matter.
Next year, the school will replace its current seven-period, 45-minute class schedule with a 90-minute class modified block schedule on four of the five school days. Fridays would remain the same.
The Greenfield School Committee approved the change this week after a few details in the teacher’s contracts were smoothed out with the Greenfield Education Association.
The contract was modified with a memorandum of understanding to ensure teachers continue to receive the proper amount of preparation and professional development time. The change was approved by union members 31-9.
Principal Donna Woodcock said the new schedule would give more time for science labs, projects and other class activities to be carried out, deepening students’ educational enrichment and reducing the need to rush a lesson.
“You get momentum, and then you’ve got to stop,” said Woodcock, referring to the current scheduling configuration. “Culinary class, technology classes — they just get started, then they’ve got to stop. It takes time to settle in and get going.”
Grade 8 English teacher Ariana Lal said having short periods makes it tough to differentiate instruction to accommodate students at different academic levels, while longer periods would make that much easier.
“Everyone knows differentiation is key in education right now,” she said. “The only way to meet varied needs is to run multiple things at the same time, and that’s hard to do in 45 or 46 minutes.”
Yearlong courses would remain yearlong and semester-long courses would remain that way, too, under the new format, and the school day’s start and end times wouldn’t change either.
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