Next year brings exciting new schedule
More stories from Alex Eitzman
The new schedule will implemented during fall 2014 for certain classes. “The intent is to have more time in the day, so students have more free time and more sleep at home,” said Dennis Lindsey. One of the creators of the schedule.
The 2014 school year brings with it a new type of scheduling for Stillwater Area, called the “Tree and Limb.” Outlined in the registration guide, the new schedule allows for four classes to be taken in the first three hours of the day, with two, 90 minute periods that alternate days in place of the four classes of before. This new plan will either allow students to take more classes, or have more time in the school day to relax or study, whilst still staying on pace for graduation.
Dennis Lindsay, SAHS director of bands, and one of the creators of the plan, described its purpose.
“The intent is to have more time in the day, so students have more free time and more sleep at home,” Lindsay explained.
One of the other reasons for the new schedule is to make the school day more like a college setting for university bound upperclassmen.
“In college, the time you spend in a classroom in only a part of the class, and much of it is outside or online. The idea was to make a more college like atmosphere.
— Dennis Lindsay
“In college, the time you spend in a classroom in only a part of the class, and much of it is outside or online. The idea was to make a more college like atmosphere,” Lindsay said.
The new schedule has been on the drawing books for nearly 10 years, but was postponed until a few years ago.
“The discussion started back in the 2004-05 time frame, when myself and several teachers of how we could help students by developing a better, less stressful schedule,” Lindsay explained. “When we started with flex schedules and senior elective the discussion came up again to make a schedule with less class time, and more thinking time,” Lindsay added.
After the strategic plan of 2011 (vision 2014) was released for the district, a committee was formed and scheduling options where discussed.
“There was a scheduling committee of teachers in all subjects last year to put this schedule into service,” Lindsay said. “We looked at scheduling as one of the goals, for alternate schedules, we wanted to give more choice to students,” Lindsay added.
Although currently only a few teachers at the school are using the schedule next year, Lindsay hopes to see it grow in the future, and expand throughout the school.
“Right now there are several classes that are doing it, I would hope about 30 percent of courses eventually will use the schedule,” Lindsay said. “If the first year works, then I think in the second year, it will expand quickly,” Lindsay added.
Lindsay explained why he believes the discussion about schedules to be important.
“Its all about time. The only resource we can easily control is time, and it is important to look at the best way to control and organize our time to best meet the needs of teachers and students,” Lindsay said.
Maddy Boettner • Mar 3, 2014 at 8:02 am
Headline really caught my attention! It was a topic a lot of people were interested in and you wrote it well enough to keep my attention. You had some really good quotes that explained everything, and I liked how you included the history of when the schedule started becoming an idea.
Alex Pierson • Feb 20, 2014 at 2:00 am
Very well written article. Great quotes and a very interesting topic. The headline caught my attention immediately. Can’t wait to see how well this works!
Eric Bromback • Feb 19, 2014 at 4:24 pm
Great direct and informative lead. The article keeps the reader interested and provides facts and information to help the reader understand the new changes to the high school next year.
erin dickie • Feb 19, 2014 at 4:04 pm
I thought that this headline was very good and it pulled me in to read this article. I also thought it was nicely written and informational on what would happen with a block schedule.
Sabrina Storms • Feb 19, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Great headline and article, kept it interesting. Caught my attention and did a great job of telling how it would affect the students.
Nick Spiess • Feb 19, 2014 at 1:58 pm
This was a great topic to write on. The article was very interesting and I like how you got all the facts on this new schedule and put it all together for the reader to figure out.
nick Wanovich • Feb 19, 2014 at 5:07 am
Great headline. It really pulled me into the article. And good job keeping the article interesting the whole time since I can see how this could be a little hard to keep interesting the whole way through.
Alex Weil • Feb 19, 2014 at 5:02 am
Great headline, article keeps reader engaged throughout also i like how you included the infograpic.
Kenz Hendrickson • Feb 19, 2014 at 4:43 am
I thought this was a great article! I think this catches the readers attention right away from the topic. Very well written and very clear on the what is going to happen with the block schedules.
Karlee Stennes • Feb 19, 2014 at 3:29 am
I thought this article was really interesting and had good quotes! But I wish it would have been more in-depth with on what students will have the new schedule.
Kenzie Monson • Feb 19, 2014 at 2:48 am
This article is very interesting and many students will be interested in this. There’s a lot of new opportunities that can be made from this schedule change. This was really well written!
Brooke Gedatus • Feb 19, 2014 at 2:17 am
This was a very clear article and you made it easy to picture what the next year schedule option will be like, and answered all the questions. I would just recomened getting interviews with the students as well.
Katie Wilmes • Feb 19, 2014 at 1:52 am
This article did a superb job of explaining exactly what the block scheduling is going to be, how it is going to be implemented, and what the overall purpose is. Although I would’ve liked to have seen more of a variety of interviewees, the quotes that you do have are very substantial and add a lot to the message.
Danny Ekstrand • Feb 19, 2014 at 12:47 am
Headline caught my attention but I really wish that there was a more interesting photo, I know that’s asking a lot. The article itself really explained what was going to be taking place and how it would work and affect the students.
Brinna Dochniak • Feb 19, 2014 at 12:13 am
This article is interesting and well-written. I liked that you got quotes from teachers but I would recommend getting interviews from students to see how they feel about the new scheduling and also some students and teachers that don’t feel that it is a good idea. just show the other perspective to the block scheduling
Rose Bruchu • Feb 18, 2014 at 9:41 pm
The headline caught my attention and the lead and nutgraph kept me reading! I am still curious about what classes are doing it and how it will affect me personally, but it was still really informative with out being too overwhelming. Good job!
Megan Aller • Feb 18, 2014 at 7:49 pm
The headline was definitely a good one! There are really good quotes but I would have personally liked if it went more in-depth on who will be offered the new schedule but overall it is a well written article!
Adam Johnson • Feb 18, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Good job making the article an interesting read, and explaining the reasons this schedule was implemented. However, after reading the article, I still don’t understand how this schedule gives students more free time, or how exactly it works. I would have tried to get a quote explaining more clearly how this is going to work.
Travis Johnson • Feb 18, 2014 at 5:08 pm
The headline pulled me in immediately! This article is very well written and it does a great job of explaining the new schedule. Lindsay’s quotes were great, but I would also make the suggestion to interview one or two more people who may not agree with the new scheduling. Overall, it was very well done.
Sofie Wicklund • Feb 18, 2014 at 2:11 pm
This article is interesting and well-written. The headline immediately caught my attention and the article thoroughly explained the new plan. The quotes from Mr. Lindsay are compelling, but I would recommend getting interviews from other teachers and from students to see how others feel about the new scheduling- maybe some don’t feel that it is a good idea.
Alex • Feb 18, 2014 at 5:50 am
Very interesting subject. I can’t wait to see if this works. I think you could have improved this story by getting some additional interviews with students and or other teachers with differing views about the schedule.