Every weekday except for Wednesday, students need to focus for around an hour and 20 minutes. From the students surveyed, 67 percent said that classes are too long and should be cut down to 60 minutes or less per block. Right now, our classes are too long and should be changed to 60-minute blocks.
Many students believe that it is hard to focus for a long period of time and it would actually benefit their learning if the block times were cut down. “I would benefit if classes were 60 minutes long because I would pay closer attention to what the teacher was saying,” said grade 8 student Jack Cutler. “Classes are too long because I find it really hard to focus for the whole time.”
Another grade 8 student, Dylan Petrillo, agreed. “It is really hard to stay focused on one topic for 80 minutes. After a while, I find the class boring and I get distracted which affects my learning in the class,” said Petrillo. “It would be easier to pay attention and I wouldn’t miss crucial information that I would miss in a really long 80-minute class.”
One way to have classes shortened to 60 minutes would be to bring back a 20-minute break between first and second block. This would allow for students to release some energy in the playground. Having this 20-minute block would also allow for students to confer with their teachers. Many teachers are having to stay in their rooms for lunch and recess because kids are constantly asking them questions. This could happen since the twenty-minute break would act as a time for students to catch up on missed work, or ask teachers questions about homework so that the teachers could enjoy their lunch breaks with the other staff. In addition, 83.5 percent of students surveyed said that bringing back the 20-minute morning break would be helpful.
Out of the 252 students and faculty, 22 faculty members responded. Their responses for how long they want classes to be ranged from 40 minutes and 90 minutes. On average they wanted 67 minutes per class. Also, 81.11 percent of answers said that they would want to bring back the 20 minute morning break.
Overall, the majority of the student body and some faculty members believe that classes are too long for students to learn what they need to without getting bored and distracted. They also believe that the 20-minute block would highly benefit students’ learning.
