Timetable

Please provide
us your
questions,
concerns,
comments.
We need the
good as well as
the concerns.

(Online Survey
Available)

Here are a few of our frustrations:

Our current timetable is
confusing, with rotating blocks
on rotating days.

By May, students are still
confused about which day it is
and what the block order is on
that particular day.
Some students have simply
given up and just look for
classmates to follow.

Secondary time-table
model does not work
the way our minds
work.

Excerpt from
college and
university
student papers

• Our current timetable does not work for
middle school minds: Secondary timetable model
does not really work for Middle School. Subjects are
separate and provide no context. With no reason to
remember content, other than for a test or specific
assignment, content is easily forgotten and becomes of
no use to students.
• Another example of what happens when information has no
context or importance to a student:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg

Circles

Are you one of
the very few
people who
would know how
to figure out how
much cement you
will need for a
circular
foundation for
this structure?

In school, you were
Circles
taught (several
times over a few
years) how to figure
out the area of a
circle and the
volume of a sphere.
Do you remember?
Is it important to
remember?

Across = 4 m
Depth = 10 cm

• Separating general topics into subject areas has
advantages, in that it allows one to go deep
into a topic without the distraction of context
and is easier to teach. (Example: Solving an equation for x is
complex enough, with all sorts of rules, to confuse the issue with why
one would do this and when.)

But...
• Providing context, personalization, meaning,
and usefulness to the concepts means they are
not just floating around the brain, un-tethered
and not useful. (Example: Create a spreadsheet that
automatically figures out the PST and GST on the product you created
for your business – and then provides a total to the customer – this is
the same as solving for x.)

• Students had too many teachers for the
teachers to effectively monitor them and to
develop deeper relationships with them. This
was affecting student success, as students in
middle school need to have stronger adult
connections and more continuous
accountability.

Foundation and Structure – the Pods
• We broke the school up into grade-specific pods,
where each student would only have three core
teachers for the whole year, and where each
core teacher is responsible for 90 students during
the whole year.
– Example:
• The grade 9 Pod has Grant Taylor teaching Science and PE,
Lance Lloyd teaching Math, Health and Careers and as the
Pod’s learning assistance teacher, and Avi Luxenburg
teaching Humanities (English and Social Studies).
• Most of the week is Pod time, where the separate subject
areas are taught, but with teachers in constant
communication regarding the needs of the students and in
continuous integration of the subject areas. Next slide
shows a potential example.

Grade 9 Student Schedule Example
Block Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Science /
1 PE Mixed HCE/Science Humanities Math /
Humanities

2 Math Humanities Inquiry Mixed Inquiry

Multi-Age
3 Elective Science Math
Elective

PLC

Multi-Age
4 Humanities PE Electives
Elective

Foundation and Structure – the Pods
Benefits of the Pod:
• There is immense flexibility in how things are handled. Since there are only three teachers, it is much
easier to coordinate integrated studies and projects.
• The Pod has its own Learning Assistance Teacher (Lance), who is responsible for 90 students, not 270.
• The teachers have fewer students whose progress needs to be monitored, and so there is going to be far
more accountability with the students.
• Much easier for teachers to get to know the students; and therefore, provide more personalized
instruction and support.
• Much easier for teachers to adapt to a need. Example: if the teachers find there is a math concept that is
absolutely necessary and that students simply are not “getting”, the pod teachers can swarm the problem,
providing different contexts to the issue. For instance, while the math teacher is developing formulas for
Cartesian coordinate systems, the Science teacher and the Humanities teacher (who is also the computer
teacher) can provide context for Cartesian coordinate systems (Video game development, archeology....)
The teachers can more easily “get together” to discuss the needs of the group and adjust to them
together.
• The flexibility allows the pod teachers to adjust the timetable for special work. For example, the grade 9
pod teachers have decided to have two “mixed blocks” a week. In these blocks, Grant Taylor will pull the
leadership students for leadership work, Lance Lloyd will pull small groups of students who need learning
assistance support in specific areas, and Avi Luxenburg would work with the rest of the Pod in areas that
the teachers have determined there is a need. Perhaps we have decided to have students create stop-
motion animations that teach younger students math concepts, such as how to find the area of a circle,
how to find the volume of a sphere, how to solve for x...
• During four blocks in the week, an Art Specialist and an Education Technology Specialist will join the pod to
help with integration of subject areas.
• ...

Grade 9 Student Schedule
Block Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Science /
1 PE Mixed HCE/Science Humanities Math /
Humanities

2 Math Humanities Inquiry Mixed Inquiry

Multi-Age
3 Elective Science Math
Elective

PLC

Multi-Age
4 Humanities PE Electives
Elective

Inflexibility of timetable made working together very
difficult:

• When teachers wanted to work together to integrate
topics, which research shows helps teachers develop
more engaging learning environments, it was almost
impossible to coordinate due to the inflexibility of the
timetable.

• Students were limited to the cohort with which they
travelled. Although this could help build deeper
relationships, it was also limiting in that it was more
difficult to find others with similar interests and goals
with which to work. In the new model we wanted both
deeper relationships and flexibility.

Teacher collaborative planning was near impossible to
coordinate:
• When teachers wanted to plan together and provide
integrated projects for the students, it became more
and more difficult to plan and coordinate. Teachers
were not able to schedule times to coordinate
everything that needed to be coordinated
(Example: teams of teachers meeting with the Learning
Assistance teachers to discuss modifications and
adaptations required for special projects.)
– Coordinating team-teaching was near impossible (like
herding cats – watch this video to see what it is like).

Teacher collaborative planning was near impossible to
coordinate:

• Coordinating team-teaching was extremely difficult.

• As we attempted to create more integrated (and
therefore more meaningful) projects, we found a
greater need for coordination between educators.
Sometimes it became too much and we had to give up.
Example: We could not complete the ICAN project with
more a couple of classes.

• It has become more and more difficult to have students complete
homework. Many reasons for this...
– Busy lives
– Parents working and unable to provide support for school work in
addition to providing everything else that their children need
– Lack of motivation and engagement
– ...
• We were desperate to figure out a way to take this on for parents
and to provide time for students to complete work at school. Work
completion means that students are developing good habits, able
to go deeper into topics, and are experiencing more success. The
current timetable does not allow time for students to complete
work they have not finished in class, AND does not provide
additional time for challenge and enrichment for students who
need it.

PLC (Professional Learning Communities) - The Mortar
• More and more schools have solved the near impossible problems
around school coordination of planning, integrating, providing
powerful and engaging projects together, and student personal
engagement and accountability with the implementation of PLCs.
We now have an elementary school and a secondary school in the
valley that have embraced this model and are finding it to be quite
effective in improving student engagement and success.
• One afternoon a week we will be building and coordinating the
programs for students. For a good portion of the students, this
will be a time for completion of school work and of projects (at
school). For another portion of the students, this will be a time for
enrichment, with activities that include theatre arts, physical
activity, community service and much more (at school). For some
students, where the parent concurs, this will be an early dismissal
time (if they have earned it and are already experiencing
enrichment outside of school time).

The New Role of Inquiry-Based Learning (21st Century Learning)

• Masses of research is showing that Inquiry-based learning is extremely
powerful in engaging students and providing natural context and
meaningfulness to the learning experience.

• The current timetable has little room for the kinds of self-organization,
coordination and support that is needed for inquiry-based learning.
Inquiry-based learning is risky for teachers, as they have been trained to
and are accustomed to planning every step of the learning process for
students. The Inquiry model often yields results which are unplanned for
and can be quite marvelous.
We need a model that provides inspiration and support for Inquiry
learning, and that also provides students opportunities to understand how
they learn and interact with their environment before releasing them to
lead their own learning.

Inquiry – The Inspiration and Design
• There is simply too much research on the power of Inquiry-based learning
to be ignored. Context seems best created by starting with a question
rather than content; by having students take ownership and control of
their learning.
• Example: Humanities 9 next year has an overarching umbrella question:
“What makes a good life?” Student exploration of the Social Studies and
English topics will have that overarching question as a filter with which to
experience the content. So... Social Studies learning outcomes around
exploration of the new world, aboriginal lives and issues, and revolutions
(industrial, political...) will be handled through personal explorations of
questions that choreograph student engagement back to the main
essential question. For example, when looking at revolutions, students
will be asked questions like: “How has the industrial revolution improved
our lives?” “How has it ruined our lives?” “What matters to us?” In this
model, students build their own context for the material, and their own
understanding. All topics are personalized.
• Another example of Inquiry is the I-CAN project. View this 22 minute
documentary Video on last week’s event in School District 71.
• The new timetable formalizes time for student inquiry.

• In our new timetable model, inquiry is offered two blocks a week, with mixed age
groups. For the first year, we have broken down the inquiry projects into four
different projects, all followed by presentation of the material to the school or
community in an expo. The projects allow for a gradual release to more and more
student-led learning. The four areas are:
• I AM – When teachers were asked which skills, abilities and traits they felt were
important for students to have when they leave Lake Trail, one of the most
prevalent wish was that students know themselves better: how they learn,
personality, goals... and more. The I AM project has students engage in activities
that generate deeper self-understanding and where they create a presentation
about themselves.
• Science Fair – Students will generate a Science Inquiry question, research,
experiment, and present to the school and community.
• Heritage Fair – Students will generate a question around a heritage topic (family,
history, provincial, national...) and prepare a presentation for the school Heritage
Fair. This Heritage Fair will lead to the district Heritage Fair and, for some students,
beyond.
• Self-Chosen Inquiry project. Students will now be ready to select their own inquiry
topic based on their own interest.
• Teachers will act as consultants and support the student processes. As these are
multi-grade groupings, Grade 9 students will also provide leadership and support
for younger students.

• Little to no elective choices:
A small school trying to run a secondary
timetable model means that students get
little to no choice regarding electives.
This year we had several divisions that
were simply given an “elective”, such as
Gardening or Multi-Media, without being
given any choice in the matter... just
because they were with a specific
travelling group.

Electives – Variety of Interest
• Not only will students have real choice with
regard to electives, we will be offering multi-
grade electives every Friday, with variety that is
only limited by the imagination. Teachers will
provide electives in areas of their expertise (Art,
Theatre, Photography, Gardening, Animation,
Video, Basketball, Video Production... and the list
goes on). This is the time in which community
members will also be able to provide electives to
students (with teacher support).

We need your comments
• Please let us know what you like.
• What concerns do you have?
• What comments do you have?
• We will collect your comments and questions and take
them to the timetable team. We will put together a
document that shares your questions and our answers.
• It is important for us to get your feedback, concerns,
comments, questions. Often folks will only provide
concerns. We really, really need all of it... your concerns
are important to us, but we also need to know what you
like about the new timetable (otherwise we get a skewed
perspective and the information we gather is essentially
unusable).
• Link to feedback survey.

Timetable

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