http://fieldtrips.blogspot.com/2004/09/hells-bells-sometimes-less-really-is.html
The first blog discussed the addition of bells between classes at Johnson Creek's upper school took about 15 minutes to write and questioned the value of bells in today's educational setting. It also suggested that the previous lack of bells was a non-monetary asset, a characterisitic to which many of the nation's leading schools aspire. Ironically, many reviews say that it is one of the characteristics that schools will want to replicate.
Since then a minor amount of additional research has yielded more information, if only to see how the matter fits in context. As it turns out it is usually a factor or a descriptor that people use to tell, write or brag about their school. It is a situation which adds to a school's percieved and educational value.
In the last bell blog one school was used as an example of what many schools are aspiring to. It referred to New Tech High School near Napa, California, using their lack of class change signals as an initial bragging point.
Find more about that school here:
http://www.scholastic.com/administrator/novdec03/articles.asp?article=spotlightschool
A School Design Planning site called Learning By Design again has the assumption that school can exist without class change signals, especially in the small school environment.
In an essay entitled Smaller, Saner Schools it talks about
"...
a rural school board (that) agreed to authorize what has become one of the nation's most noted secondary schools: Minnesota New Country School (MNCS). This secondary charter school enrolls about 125 students in grades seven through 12. It is run as a co-op, with faculty members "owning" the school, setting their own salaries and working conditions.
Each school year starts with a family/student/advisor conference. The conferences help students develop a plan for how they will make progress toward graduation, which is based entirely on demonstration of skill and knowledge.
There are no grades or bells. Each student has a workstation with a computer. Students work individually or in small groups on projects that help them achieve the required mastery. Teachers see themselves as facilitators and coaches, moving from student to student throughout the day. Every six weeks the school has a presentation night, during which students share information they've learned. Each student makes a presentation at least three times per year. The presentations often include computer graphics and PowerPoint. Students have become so sophisticated that some of them have been hired by local businesses to create Web sites."
This site can be found here: http://www.asbj.com/lbd/2002/inprint/smaller.html
In another article, Kathleen Cushman writes:
It's all too easy to bury oneself in the details of the schedule and forget the kids themselves. If we think hard about how they learn best, we must confront some uncomfortable truths. The clock does not direct or control learning, nor do the artificial cycles of terms and tests and report cards. In fact, sometimes those things-all integral to the very idea of a school schedule-often interrupt and impede the way kids learn.
"The simpler a high school schedule is, the better," asserts Ted Sizer. "Just because it's so complex, it must be solved as a matter between particular teachers and particular kids. Why not create a few long blocks, then keep all decisions about the 'bells and whistles' as close to the kids as possible? If I'm teaching history and some students need to go to band, I would just keeping on doing something special in class with the kids who don't go."
To create such conditions, schools might have to undergo a fundamental attitude shift. A learner's individual needs would matter more than the orderly processing of groups. The emotional investment of students in their work would matter more than what time they start and stop it, or where they carried it out. We would think of learning as continuous and connected, not delineated by bells, course boundaries, or exam dates. And everyone in a school community would be doing it all the time.
By the way, this site touches on many educational issues about scheduling. Read it here:
In St. Louis' Carr Lane Middle School is known as the 'school without bells' and it's mission statement describes the school "...where students are viewed as valued present and future citizens of a global society."
It's unfortunate that we take for granted one of several characteristics that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (yes, that Bill Gates) is pushing for in funding the establishment of new small schools. They began the initiative after studies indicate that large urban schools, and schools which have a higher enrollment as a result of excessive consolidation, have higher dropout rates and that there is a direct link to poverty and a lack of achievement as a high school enrollment becomes excessive. But it isn't the school population alone which has this impact - it is the infrastructure and the non-educational aspects that can have a negative effect on education.
In the web site "Students Learning in Small Schools" a report indicates that many of these new schools are pushing to have what already exists in many Wisconsin rural schools, or is readily available without any cash outlay. It says:
More than personalization and the absence of bells
What first catches the eye when one enters a small school is the personalization it affords. Both the needs of individual students and the passions of individual teachers seem to find uncustomary breathing room. A first-time visitor might also be struck by what appears to be less structure than larger high schools employ: students and adults may mix more freely; no bells may mark the start and end of classes; courses may break from curricular conventions or may not even exist at all. Repeat visitors learn that in most small schools a complex infrastructure actually puts order in these freedoms.
This site has fascinating information about findings regarding the assets of small schools. Read more about it here:
http://www.whatkidscando.org/portfoliosmallschools/portfoliohome.html
Alright, you are already at your computer reading this blog so all you have to do is click on the links provided to read about one characteristic of what the leading schools are including to enhance the educational environment (or print it out and take it with you to read later). Additionally, there is information there on many of the other characterisitics of these schools, many of which Johnson Creek already has in place. But are they at risk, too?
Just as education never ends, neither does homework. If nothing else, read the info, and just be aware of factors that can have an impact on education. It's exciting to see what is happening as these new schools develop - it's just as exciting as the educational efforts put forth locally. Let us do nothing to limit those local efforts.
Best to all,
Lloyd
27SEP04
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