Reed 'Day Six' Solves Some Problems, Creates Others

A new schedule at the Reed Intermediate School has generated some "buzz," according to Principal Sharon Epple.

This, combined with an unexpected enrollment increase at the school of nearly 3-percent, has led to crowding in special area classes and larger-class-sizes-than-usual in the regular classrooms.

Enrollment jumped over the summer from 865 — last year's number and what was expected again — to 900. There was no discernable pattern to the influx of students, Epple said.

"They came from in-state, out-of-state, New Zealand," she said.

This pushed up average class sizes to 25.

The scheduling change at Reed  began when a physical education teacher and a music teacher were eliminated in the budget, said Assistant Principal Anthony Salvatore. Those teachers had taught Project Adventure in fifth grade and Music Technology in sixth grade.

The remaining specials classes were made larger, which is affecting physical education instruction, said Epple.

"It would be foolish to think they can deliver the same thing they did last year with one fewer staff member," she said, adding that because of safety concerns and time spent waiting for a turn, students "can't play as many of the competitive games that kids at this age enjoy."

The school's schedule was compressed from six days to five, because there weren't enough teachers for six days of specials.

"With the number of staff we had, we went from a six-day schedule to a five-day schedule. There were fewer places for us to send kids," Salvatore said. "We added a seventh period to the day, and that caused the periods to get shorter."

Class periods during the five regular days are 42 minutes this year, down from 50 minutes last year, said Epple.

A sixth day was added to the schedule because teachers were concerned that the instructional time for science and social studies had been shrunk in the five-day schedule, Salvatore said.

 "It wasn't a top-down decision," he said. "It was an attempt to respond to what they said they needed."

The day includes longer time blocks for instruction.

"There are so many things teachers need to do that take more than 40 minutes," said Epple, who gave science labs as an example.

She said that while teachers and administrators are still working out glitches, "It's been primarily positive for those academic blocks."

James Roodhuyzen, who teaches sixth grade, said he used the 70-minute instructional blocks in the first two Day Sixes for science labs.

"It gave me time to instruct students on the use of the triple-beam balance to find the mass of objects, leading to an understanding of density," he said. "My class this year has gotten it much quicker than in any year past."

He said that his teaching partner, Matt Dalton, was able to complete a project with students for Constitution Day, putting the Preamble onto license plates.

"My partner and I feel that this is a plus for us," Roodhuyzen said. "We have a flexibility that both of us, being relatively creative guys, can determine what we should do on a Day Six that's going to benefit students the best."

For one, he said he plans to have students follow the downhill flow of water from the Reed parking lot to Deep Brook to show them that pollutants run from parking lots into streams. In the past, he's never made it all the way.

The shorter instructional periods on the other days, however, have posed challenges.

"We're getting used to that," Roodhuyzen said. "I kept running out of time. I did have to modify my instruction so I know the end is coming so I can give them a summary and send them on their way with their homework assignment."

Day Six also has time blocks dedicated assemblies for each grade. In previous years, these events would take place during normal instructional time, Epple said.

"It's been an opportunity to have assemblies without taking kids out of their regular instruction," she said.

Each grade level comes together for behavior workshops, arts performances, student council events and the annual geography bee. During assemblies, the specials teachers supervise students while classroom teachers have planning meetings.

For the first three Day Six days this year, Salvatore has instructed students about behavior strategies.

The first assembly included telling students about the location of the bully box in the school, which under state law is a way for students to be able to anonymously report acts of bullying or meanness over time.

The box, in the library media center, provides forms to fill out to identify a person who might be a bully, by asking about their physical and verbal behaviors, and also asking what they have done to combat the behaviors. Salvatore said Reed averages between 12 and 25 reports each year.

"Our students have never abused it. We tell them that abusing it is as bad as bullying," Salvatore said. "Some of the reports are not bullying. They are just bad social skills: friendship issues, relationship issues."

Students were also instructed on how to defuse potential conflicts using a technique called "HA-HA-SO," which stands for: asking for Help, Avoiding the situation, using Humor, being Assertive, using Self-talk to tell yourself that it isn't you who is doing something wrong, and "Owning it" by accepting a situation and moving on.

The third assembly "was tying together the first two assemblies we had, talking about our core values and our expectations, which we do every year," Salvatore said.

He organized students into groups of four, and they worked together to simulate a car — acting out the idea that their actions are powered by thoughts, emotions, and physical responses.

This type of intentional behavior instruction is known as Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, PBIS for short, he said, and it includes collecting data to see how behavior and learning affect each other. And just as the school intervenes intensively with students who don't meet academic goals, behavioral tutoring may be in the future for the small percentage who don't respond to the group instruction, he said.