Wednesdays

I'm sure I have never really explained my school schedule. It's pretty cool. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fridays are block scheduling. The students take eight classes, so we see them twice a week for class. One of our distinctive features is Wednesday. We have Choice period (8 - 9:15 am) where students choose what they want to study, plan the whole class themselves and also plan how they will be measured on how well they reach their goals of the class. We then have Academic Time (9:30 - 11:40am) where teachers can sign up to have a class for more time. For example, in Language Arts 8 we are doing a Spoken Word poetry project. We sign up to have the class on a Wed too (on top of regularly scheduled class time) so that we have more time for the project. Then, after lunch we have Activity Period. The past three months we have been alternating community service and wellness activities (like rock climbing, swimming ...). I've been involved with the Animal Shelter community service project.



Every other week I go with some Institute II students (9th and 10th graders) to an animal shelter about 20 minutes away from school. The first time was absolutely chaotic and wonderful. We walked into a loud and smelly room full of caged dogs and were told to grab one and spend the next three hours walking them around (there is a beautiful beach close by). So we did :)
It was a really hot day and after a bit the puppies (and humans) got tired and decided to take a break.