A new daily schedule
Beginning this fall, Gordon’s daily schedule will move to a rotating block schedule in every grade. The schedule redesign was an eighteen month process that grew out of the school’s strategic vision’s goal of “designing academic schedules for each division that enhance collaboration, interdisciplinary connection, and reflection."
The new schedule introduces new flexibility into the daily schedule, reduce transitions and interruptions in the day, and allow teachers more time to plan, strategize, and connect.
Last spring, Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning Alethea Dunham-Carson held a series of talks reviewing the process behind the schedule and the impact on the student experience. These previews can be viewed at the links below.
While parents should understand the benefits of the new schedule, the practical impact on families’ daily routine will be fairly straightforward:
• Classes will begin every morning at 8:10am.
• Dismissal will be 3:20pm every day, including Fridays. No more 2pm Friday dismissals!
• Daily schedules will follow an eight-day rhythm.
The school’s printed calendar and online calendar will include the number associated with each day, and there will other strategies in place so that students can track which day is which.
Zoom video conversations from last May
Next year, Gordon will be piloting the next stage in the evolution of the daily schedule, a leap that will impact the experiences of every student.
Ms. Dunham-Carson previewed the changes to the schedule and the impact they will have on each grade in a series of lunchtime Zooms in May.
These Zooms were targeted by grade level, and they were held last May, so some of the language about which grade is which may be confusing. But the basic themes, goals and results remain true.
If your child is entering...
Nursery and Preschool view the recording
First and second grade view the recording
Seventh and eighth grade view the recording
Young Kindergarten and Kindergarten view the recording
Fifth and sixth grade view the recording
Third and fourth grade view the recording