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About Me
- Robert Hankes
- PSPA President; PSPA Literary Magazines Evaluation Chair for many years; teaches at Big Spring HS in Newville, PA; co-advises the literary magazine Charisma with PSPA Vice-President Mike McVitty; married with three kids (23, 9, and 6).
7 comments:
When we were in the old building and still ate lunch with each other, I used to ask people the same question: "If I gave you a magic wand and you could change any one thing in this school to make it better, especially in terms of helping our students, what one thing would you change and why?" I asked this question all the time because I was curious as to what other folks thought. Finally, Kathy Shaker turned the tables and said, "You keep asking everyone else this question. So what's your answer? What one thing would you change?" I'm now ready to answer the question, but since it's my magic wand, I get to change more than one thing.
1. Start the school year two weeks earlier. This would mean that we would finish the first semester before Christmas break and then finish the school year two weeks earlier in late May. This would insure more continuity in fall semester and prevent us from coming back to school in January to take exams after a 7-10 day hiatus. This would also give us two more weeks of instructional time before the PSSA or GCA's or SAT's.
2. Start the day later. Research has shown that developmentally adolescents require more sleep. This would not impact vo-tech, but would rather benefit them. They would still go to vo-tech at the same time, but when they returned, it would allow them to take 3rd period as well.
3. Turn 3rd period into a time for rememdiation and enrichment. This is an ideal slot for the Math Enhancement class which should be taught in juxtaposition to students required math; it should also house the proposed Reading I course that is taught in juxtaposition to English so that those students who are not reading at or near grade level are reading every day all year long. Science may eventually have to create a Science Enhancement course. Other classes that could be taught during this time would include SAT Prep courses and dual enrollment courses like English 101 pr college level social science courses so that students can jump start their college experience.
4. Create a Reading I, Reading II, Reading III, and Reading IV "required elective" for those students not reading at grade level. The class should spend the majority of its time encouraging students to read self-selected novels. SSR is one of the best, one of the easiest, and one of the least intrusive ways of improving student reading. Research has indicated over and over again that reading ability is the highest predictor of academic success, and you only improve your reading ability by reading.
5. Schedule foreign languages so that students take a 4 year sequence 4 semesters in a row. That eliminates the problem with a lack of continuity, and allows use to leave block scheduling in place.
If i could change some things I would make it so that you could leave after finals like we used to because it's pointless to be at school all day and sit in class with nothing to do. I would also like to see school start later and have shorter school days because all of the other high schools get out before ours. I also think we need to have better food for lunch because nothing that they make looks good, and we need more food on the red tray lunch because we get the same amount of food as a kindergartener. That's what I think could be changed.
if i could change something in the school i would deffinatly change leaving after finals. also i would make 3rd period different because many athletes use this time to catch up on work and others use it to take tests and catch up after being sick. also this is a good time for extra classes such as prep classes and for students to get extra help with their studies. another change i would do is to make teachers focus on relating their classes to real life because this would further interst the students.
I have two things i think we should change.
First thing is that we need better lunch. we get the same amount as elementry school students and we pay more. we aint even allowed to get bulldog anymore. we dont get enough food for as much as we pay.
Second thing is we need less credits to graduate becase alot of students are foced to take some courses that htye are not good at or courses that htye did not choose to take and they have no choice but to pass because they need enough credits to graduate. i think we should only need to pass the core classes to be able to graduate because about half of us aint even going to college after high school.
I would change a couple things first I would change our scheduling to an A,B scheduling system. You would have 8 classes but u would have four classes one day and the four other on the next day. I would also change the length of the school day from 7:45 am to 2:00 pm after being in school so long at sitting at a desk u get board and aren’t focused anymore. And I would also have study halls they are very beneficial for the students who are in sports or have jobs after school its hard to go to school go to work and go home to do homework and have any social life.
I completly agree with you Dr. Smith. I personally think that we should be allowed a study hall so atheletes and people that were sick can make up work. That would also help people who have trouble with subjects get the help they need. I also feel that we need to be allowed bigger portions during lunch. I pay more for the same amount they feed my little sister its ridiculous. I think that leaving after finals is a good idea because then all people do is sit around and do nothing. Finally I feel coming in to school later in the day would help because us kids normally arent really "there" that early in the morning.
I agree with Dr. Smith on points two and three.
2.Our students would function better if we were to have school start at least an hour later. With that said, the same type of research shows that younger children do function well in the morning. Could we swap start times with the elementary schools?
3. I would love to be able to have my students use third period to get extra assistance and/or do homework. I stayed after school only yesterday with some of my students. Fortunately, we have a wrestling coach who values academics and they were allowed to miss half an hour of practice to work on a project. If they had not been allowed, they would not have had extra time to complete the assignment. I also have many students who work after school, thus making it impossible to stay after to get caught up on work. We could also use third period as a time for students to do community service projects (just another random thought!)
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