50 Minute Periods Are Killing Teacher Creativity

I’d love to do [fill in the blank with some creative idea or activity], but I just don’t have time. My classes are only 50 minutes.” I hear this lament frequently when I lead professional development. Teachers get super excited about integrating technology or want details about a project, assignment, or routine I do with my own kids. When they find out that my school is on a 90-minute block schedule, they sigh and tell me that they just don’t have that kind of time with kids. Ironically, I see my students for about the same total amount of time because we are on an A/B schedule and our class meets every other day. However, the length of a class period has a huge impact on the way teachers plan their lessons.

Source: 50 Minute Periods Are Killing Teacher Creativity

What do you feel about scheduling? I think this is more of an issue at the middle and high school level, but I don’t really have any ideas on a solution. I like block scheduling, but some teachers treat it as two periods, not as a longer period.

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