Over the years during Harlan Community High School's time, the passing period lengths have changed multiple times. Being 3, 4 and 5 minutes at different times. During Mr. Brun’s first couple of years at Harlan the passing period was 3 minutes long. The school then had a testing period where they had either 3 minute long passing periods with 2, 15 minute breaks throughout the day. Or they could have 5 minute passing periods with no breaks. The teachers and students voted on the 5 minute passing periods. It then got changed to 4 minutes. And then finally it has been 3 minutes for the past two years.
Some pros of longer passing periods would be people could finally have enough time to go to the bathroom and fill up water bottles. If a student ever needed help on homework, instead of staying after class to talk with a teacher. Which would result in students being tardy to their next class. They could talk to a teacher before class because of the extra minutes. The halls would also be less crowded as students would leave classes at different times. But some pros of shorter passing periods is we get out earlier. During the time when the school had 5 minute passing periods the school day was from 8:15 to 3:30.
Now some cons of both; longer passing periods result in longer days. Students also have more time to mess around and get in trouble with teachers. Some cons for shorter passing periods are students have no time to go to the bathrooms and fill up their water bottles. Also having classes on opposite sides of the school is a struggle. It’s hard to get to the next class in just 3 minutes, and students are counted tardy if they're late.
If you could choose how long the passing periods were, how long would you say(1-10 minutes)?
Would you have longer passing periods but a longer day or a shorter day with shorter passing periods?
Do you agree or disagree with the time the passing periods are currently?
Mr. Bruns
Replies
Great topic choice and super job Emercyn!
Currently, I disagree with the current passing period times because I think that it doesn't give students enough time. Alot of students are usually tardy because they aren't able to go to the restroom, grab what they need for the class, or even arrive to their class.
Yes I would have longer passing periods because we need the break from some teachers. I would also have longer days even though I'm not a big fan of school. I think how the passing period are now are too short, and should be bumped up to at least 5 minutes.
I would have to choose 5 minutes. 5 minutes will allow for students to do everything they need to do in a passing period. I chose shorter passing periods if that meant shorter day. I disagree with the passing periods in place right now because it barely gives enough time to get to class if it is on the other side of the school.
I think that the passing periods should be 5 minetes long. I think that gives kids plenty of time to use the restroom with out getting into to much trouble. I do think that they need to be longer because I can hardly get to class sometimes. When I talk to teachers when I leave half of the time the bell is ringing when I leave that class I just had.
5 minutes is a good time I think as well. This does give lots of time, but kids should not get into lots of trouble in just 2 extra minutes. I agree, it doesn't take that long to talk to a teacher. So even with the extra 2 minutes you hsould have plenty of time to get the things do you wanted to in those 3 minutes, which would then be 5 minutes.
I think that the passing periods should be as long as when we have semester tests. I believe that that would be around 5 to 10 minutes. That way we have time to go to the bathroom and mentally prepare for our next class. I also feel like this would make classes less stressful and feel shorter in comparisson.
That is a good point when looking at semester test schedules. We get 5 minutes to go to class periods during that time so why change that now. I think the mental aspect of it has to do with what time we should do as well. Making it 5 minutes gives us time to prepare and get ready for the next class.
I think the passing periods should be longer. It would give us more time to use the bathroom and fill up water bottles. Also it would make the teachers happy because we would not need to use the bathroom in the middle of class.
I never thought of that but that is a point about the teachers. We need to not only think about the kids, but also how the teachers react to the passing periods. By making them longer the kids could go to the bathroom without annoying the teachers with being late. And also missing more in time class time, this could reduce teacher and student stress.