After 40 years of having a traditional six-period schedule, the Miami Sunset High School faculty voted for a change — a 4×4 block schedule — which will take effect next school year.
Although the 4×4 block schedule has a couple of potential drawbacks, the Sunset faculty agreed that the pros far outweigh the cons.
For starters, this block schedule model gives students the opportunity to take more electives. One of the issues some students had about Miami Sunset in the past was that they were stuck only taking academy electives and couldn’t branch out. Those days are now over.
With this block model, students now have extra time to do their homework for each of their classes. Students can be heavily involved in extra-curricular activities and they don’t have to worry about staying up too late to get something done for the following day.
The 4×4 block schedule also will give students a better opportunity to participate in the duel enrollment program. Being able to take college level classes is a big selling point for students and parents when choosing what high school to attend. Now, this schedule makes it easier for Sunset students to take the classes they want and not have to sacrifice something in order to enhance their academic resume.
The Sunset administration currently is in the process of creating the actual bell schedule. It is expected that classes will be 85 or 90 minutes long. The administration is considering a slightly longer lunch period in order to ease the transition into the new schedule for both the teachers and students. What is certain is that there will be an “A” day and a “B” day that will alternate throughout the week.
The major concerns about going to a longer class period and a block schedule are that students do not have a long enough attention span to stay engaged for the additional time and that there will be less contact hours between the teachers and the students since there will be more class periods taking up the same amount of hours.
However, many teachers are excited about the opportunity to have the longer class period, thinking they can get more accomplished. They may have to work a little harder to come up with creative ideas that fit the school curriculum and keep the students engaged for the longer time period. That is something that doesn’t seem to be a concern of the faculty, which voted overwhelmingly (91 percemt) for the change of schedule.
One of the reasons why teachers may be feeling confident about the change is because they will have more planning time, therefore, 25 percent of their time each day can be devoted to preparation and those planning periods will be 50 percent longer than they are now.
Other benefits of the 4×4 schedule include giving students a better environment for group project-based learning, creating more time to help students during class individually, and adding more multi-media elements to class to supplement the curriculum.
This change falls in line with all of the other improvements Miami Sunset has made during the past two years. The goal of principal John Lux has been to make Miami Sunset a destination school, and with the improvements to the building, the addition of several new programs, and now the 4×4 block schedule, Miami Sunset is looking to outshine its competition and bring great students into an exceptional educational institution.
Dominique Cortez is a student journalist at Miami Sunset High School.
