Exploratories?

[Pat Megivern]

Hello all,

My school currently is a K-6 elementary school, and 7-8 run as a
middle school in the 7-12 HS building. Next year is a transition
year, so we will run as K-5 elementary, gr. 6 as a part of the middle
school housed in the elementary building, ... and the following year
we will be a K-8 building with K-5 as elementary and 6-8 as middle
school. I've got one foot in each camp, and am struggling with 6th
grade as an "exploratory".

The plan for 6th grade next year is to have exploratories on a
quarterly basis, an hour every day for nine weeks, all meeting at the
same time. Kids will rotate through 2 quarters of PE, and one quarter
each of art, music, and library-media. The students will be divided
into 5 groups, with the library group considerably smaller than the
rest. This means that I (as librarian) will teach fewer than half the
students during the year ... and my groups will miss art, music, or
one of the two PE rotations. This seems inequitable, and there
doesn't seem to be any way around it.

So, my questions for you: Do all of your students get the same
exploratories, or do some miss something due to scheduling? If not
all students get "everything," how is the decision made as to who
misses what? Do you have a schedule that allows for PE all year, and
still fits in the other exploratories?

Thanks,
Pat

[ddd...@aol.com]

Pat,

We have a K-8 building with K-5 on their own schedule and 6-7-8 as a
group that changes. I too am doing an exploratory for the first time
next year to 7th and 8th graders (trimesters). Our students will have
their exploratory each day and not miss another class. It is up to
the exploratory teacher in regards to what he/she is going to teach.
We have PE all year, three times a week for our students. We have
eight 40 minute periods a day. Hope this helps.

[Jocelyn Smith]

Hi Pat,
We have a 7-12 school with the 7/8th graders on a separate schedule
from the HS. All kids have four core classes per day plus a block of
either Unified Arts of PE (every other day) and an exploratory.
Unified Arts includes art, technology and health class. All kids get
all three. Exploratories, however, differ widely. Some students take
a foreign language and band or chorus all year. Others are in reading
or math labs. Others take poetry or cooking or swimming. The kids do
not get the same stuff during exploratory at all. It depends on their
needs and interests.
Jocelyn

On Jul 13, 10:25 am, Pat Megivern <pmegiv...@mtsd-vt.org> wrote: