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Bellerose loosens up

With school, homework, part-time jobs and extra-curricular activities taking up most of their time, many Grade 12 students at Bellerose Composite High School are more than happy to have a 70-minute “flex block” in the middle of the day, f
Bellerose Composite High School is one of 16 schools in Alberta that are experimenting with using fewer class hours. Bellerose has created a 70-minute "flex
Bellerose Composite High School is one of 16 schools in Alberta that are experimenting with using fewer class hours. Bellerose has created a 70-minute "flex block" that lets students study

With school, homework, part-time jobs and extra-curricular activities taking up most of their time, many Grade 12 students at Bellerose Composite High School are more than happy to have a 70-minute “flex block” in the middle of the day, four times a week.

“A lot of us work more than just one job so it just gives you time during the day to do other things besides school that you need to do,” said Kailey Bray, a Grade 12 student at Bellerose.

“In Grade 12, it gets really stressful. I’m busy a lot. I have four things to do every day that includes sports and whatnot, so flex block is a really good time for me to do what I need to do that I don’t necessarily have to do at home,” said fellow Grade 12 Brooke Meunier.

Flex block is one way that Bellerose is taking part in Alberta Education’s High School Flexibility Enhancement Pilot Project, which includes 16 schools across the province.

The purpose of the four-year pilot project is to determine if Alberta Education should maintain the 25 hours of face-to-face instruction time per course that is currently required.

Like the other participating schools, Bellerose has been given the freedom to organize its schedule without the current time requirement mandated by the province.

Just don’t call it an experiment.

“We did not want this to be in any way an experiment because kids only have one year, in a lot of cases, in each of the grades,” said principal George Mentz.

Only after there was tremendous support from parents, students and staff did the initiative begin to take shape at Bellerose, Mentz said, beginning with a Grade 11 English class (ELA 20-2).

Last year, Mentz approached students about the possibility of reducing the number of hours in that particular class.

Students were told that if they demonstrated their commitment to the course by showing up regularly and getting a decent mark (60 per cent or higher), they’d be let off a month early. This involved reducing the number of classroom hours from 125 to 90, but making the subject matter in ELA 20-2 more concentrated.

“Their eyes lit up,” said Mentz, after he initially told students.

He said teachers were able to reduce some extra areas in the course and just teach core subject matter.

“By doing that, we had almost 100 per cent completion,” said Mentz.

“What we’ve been careful with is we don’t want to race kids through high school. That’s not the intent,” he said.

Bellerose also adjusted its Knowledge and Employability programming last year to include physical education as part of math and science classes. Mentz said this allowed teachers to meet phys-ed and math outcomes in the same block.

“Certain kids needs are such that they can sit less than others,” he said.

“We found that kids who are reluctant phys-ed participants within a large group, within this smaller group, they were more productive in phys-ed, then came back and were more productive in math.”

This past September, class time in each block was reduced in order to create an extended period of flex time during the middle of the day.

During the 70-minute period, students are able to do a number of things that include getting help with their homework, writing exams, eating their lunch or running errands they otherwise wouldn’t be able to after school.

“Even though I’m a pretty liberal guy and I believe in kids making their own decisions, you’ve got 950 kids that don’t have a place to go,” said Mentz, who said there was some initial hesitation about the introduction of flex time.

“They naturally did what we hoped what they would do. Not everybody, and we are still working with a few,” Mentz said.

In addition to allowing kids to get caught up on their homework, he said flex time is also teaching students how to make good decisions with their time, something that will help prepare them for post-secondary school.

Other initiatives at Bellerose introduced as part of the pilot project haven’t caught on quite as well as flex time.

In one math class, students were asked if they would prefer to extend the course to 10 months instead of the usual five or if they were interested in a highly concentrated three month course.

Mentz said neither of the alternatives was very popular because students either didn’t like the idea of having math for the entire year or didn’t want the concentrated course to take precedence over other subjects.

“You float trial balloons. You give them to the kids and then they say, ‘I don’t think so,’” he said.

In October, teachers at Bellerose were surveyed about the pilot project and were asked to share any thoughts and concerns.

“Generally speaking, the feedback from them is positive overall for sure and they’re seeing many benefits,” said Ken Yaremkevich, a humanities teacher at Bellerose.

One concern he’s heard is that teachers want more time to view the project and to see how it might work in the long run.

Yaremkevich said many teachers have had more students come in for help during flex time and are consequently busier than they had anticipated.

“Teachers are allowed to choose how they are doing it but as a department, they sat down and came up with a plan,” said Mike Hutchings, a science and physics teacher.

While the English and Humanities department had teachers remain in class and set up a time when they could meet with students, the entire math department has made themselves available for the first two-thirds of flex time.

Hutchings said the science department has opened a science help room and makes sure to always have four teachers (physics, chemistry, biology and general science) on hand during flex time.

“We’ve had tremendous success with the science department. We’ve had a full class of 30 to 35 students almost every single day coming in to get extra help,” said Hutchings. For him, the rotation works out to two flex time shifts per week.

While the majority of students at Bellerose have embraced flex time, Mentz said some students have found it difficult.

“You’re going to have some kids wandering more, you’re going to have some kids that really for whatever reason, have a hard time with this kind of freedom. We’ve had to rein in some of those kids and I prefer to say that what we’re trying to do is educate them on time use,” he said.

“The change in culture has to happen. When everybody is where they should be, at a certain time, it’s a very comfortable kind of situation.”

Although the pilot project will continue to evolve at Bellerose over the next few years, Mentz said he would recommend that flexibility enhancement be open to all schools in the province.

“It’s kind of turned everything on its ear. It’s made all of us look at education and teaching differently,” Mentz said.

“It’s giving the kids a lot of credibility whereas before they were locked in boxes in terms of time anyway. Now we’re able to be more flexible at that end and put a bit of trust in them too.”

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