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Special double-message as there will be no
d.tech download the week of Novemeber 22.
If your time to you is worth savin’, Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’ -Bob Dylan.
At the meeting on Friday, the d.tech staff decided to make some important changes to the schedule. This week we are a prototyping a new bell schedule. Start and end times remain the same, but we have made the following changes: 1) built in additional break time on Monday and Tuesday as both students and teachers were getting a bit worn out by the end of the day with very limited breaks, particularly our teachers who do not have a traditional prep period, 2) made Thursday and Friday lab days, 3) eliminated mandatory Friday F.I.T. We made these changes to better support students learning self-direction and working on curiosity projects.
Starting this week, on Wednesday teachers will assign students to lab time if the students are falling behind on their work. Students will then report to labs as assigned. If students are not assigned lab time, the expectation will be that they are working on world language or a curiosity project. Students will still be able to work independently on Friday afternoons, if needed. Although students no longer have the incentive of an early release to stay on pace, they now have the incentive of extended time to work on curiosity projects with more support. And even more importantly, we hope students are more driven to learn the material than earn an early release.
These changes were needed because we observed that while Friday F.I.T. may have been a strong motivator for some students it had only about a 50% success rate in keeping students on pace. We know this because roughly 50% of students were assigned to be at school on our opportunity days last Thursday and Friday. Every policy has trade-offs, and we felt that the trade-off for a 50% success rate was a culture that was becoming overly focused on performance and compliance, rather than learning and self-direction. Many students seemed to only care about powering through their work early in the week to meet the Wednesday 1:15 deadline. This is not a sign of a culture focused on learning. Also last Thursday and Friday we were testing whether or not students would show up to school to work on curiosity projects if it were optional and if we provided support for them. Most did not, indicating to us that we need to try different ways to support students during the school day in getting started on curiosity projects. Thursdays and Fridays are now for getting help from teachers and working on curiosity projects, with all students required to attend. Our empathy work also found that many students were not starting curiosity projects because they did not have predictable extended time to work at school. These changes address that need as well.
We will test out this bell schedule through December and make a decision whether or not to continue this iteration in January. We realize that some parents really liked the Friday F.I.T. assignments because it motivated their children to stay on pace. We hope these students have built good habits that will continue, but also that everyone recognizes our ultimate goal is to teach self-direction, not obedience. This is much harder to achieve and can be more frustrating, but ultimately, it’s what will distinguish a d.tech student from a student in a more traditional factory model school.
Flex Scheduling Returns
In other scheduling news, we have a prototype of an algorithm we can use to resume flex scheduling beginning the week of November 29. Flex scheduling is a system in which teachers schedule students into their classes based on student need. We were able to do this by hand last year using Google sheets and Galen’s brain. This was not going to work with 140 additional students. We now have something ready to test, so students will have new schedules beginning Nov. 29th. Flex scheduling is a key component of the d.tech model as it not only helps students receive instruction better tailored to their needs, but as we learned last year, it also helps build community because students are constantly meeting new people in their classes. We are very eager to re-implement flex scheduling.
We are excited for these changes and in the spirit of our upcoming break, we are thankful to be part of a community willing to change. Too many times in schools people are only willing to make changes in August even when data and empathy show that changes should happen more immediately. We realize that it is a bit unorthodox to change schedules in November, but we firmly believe that change should be driven by the design process and not the calendar.
Charter Update
On November 19, the San Mateo Union High School District board will consider revisions to our charter. The presentation can be found here. We need to revise our petition to allow us to locate on the Oracle campus. Everyone is welcome to attend, and if you wish to speak in support of the change, the board will allow for public comment. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
Have a great week. The d.tech staff wishes you and your family a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Ken
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