Has anyone had experience with teaching ADHD children in a high school with block schedules? My son has one year of middle school left before he moves to the high school. He’s have difficulty keeping organized and staying focused. The idea of an 80 minute class makes me wonder if he’ll be able to handle it.
Re: Re: Block schedules
Wow, great ideas ;-) Taking notes here, for my college dudes that have MWF and Tu-TH classes…
There are some advantages to the longer period - you’re not shifting around as much. SOme teachers make the wise adaptation of making sure that in their long block, they’ve scheduled several activities. When I taught ninth & tenth grade LD history, I had a routine of four “blocks” within the block that worked well.
I agree, a system of checking which day it is and getting that stuff is the key :-) Try to bring in support - somebody at key points to give constant consistent feedback on whether the right stuff was at the right place - and don’t expect it to be an on/off switch that means BOING! things are organized, you can back off… be sure you build in ***positives*** so that if things improve from one day out of five having stuff to three, it’s not just “only two days were horrible, not all five.” If you can, figure out a backup system… but then you want to build in independence from that backup system. (As in, a spare book in the classroom, a buddy to call for the assignments, etc.)
[Modified by: Sue (Sue) on June 01, 2006 12:06 PM]
Personally in high school the block schedule was hard at first… As far as orginization goes try an A day and a Bday notebook rather than a notebook for every class thats just more for him to lose… 2 notebooks rather than 8 is what worked for me. But I was also having to do a daily progress report that my teachers signed every day… that really kept me on track… if i got an x in one of those boxes I was in major trouble no tv no phone nothing all day… so I have a copy of that if you wanna try it… i can email it to you…. I also had an A day Bday book bag…. my aunt also had on the calander whether it was A day or Bday that way she made sure which book bag i was supposed to be taking…. Make sure he takes at least one class that he really enjoys… that made it so much easier for me to sit 90 min through a class… for me that class was ROTC…. have any questions or want that daily progress report email me at [email protected]