Eliminate Homeroom

[monsterkitty]

We call our home room "Academic Enrichment" or A/E for short and it's 30 minutes every day. It's not just used for announcements and each day has a specific topic.

Every teacher in the school has an A/E which is assigned by grade level and only has 20 students.

First 5 minutes is announcements while students eat their breakfast. Three days a week is help on assignments or they can silent read. Students in low-income areas don't always get the help they need at home so we do it here. Two days are social/emotional, which is required by the state department of ed. There will be times when they do a school-wide unit, such as how to balance a check book, or career education. You know, things people complain about that aren't taught in schools. We put it in A/E so it doesn't take time away from other subjects.

On Fridays students return to their A/E class the last 10 minutes of the day so that food backpacks for the weekend can be distributed. Sure, the last period of the day could just do that, but I often had 45-55 kids in my band or orchestra and that would take the entire class period. I also did not have room in my class to store all those backpacks where I did have room for 20.

The student contact day is from 7:00 am - 2:30 with a half hour lunch. They have four core classes and two electives, which are all a little 61 minutes long followed by a 4 minute passing period.

A/E is used for more than just these examples.

I really think it depends on the needs of the students on whether a "homeroom" is a good use of time. Also, if you're not in the school and seeing how it is truly used, you really don't know if it's a good thing or not.

ETA, this was middle school.

 

[dez1978]

I think they should take the extra time they might gain from eliminating it and put it towards recess/physical activity for younger students, and something like study hall for the older students. The younger ones need more kid time and play, not more hours of instruction. And the older kids could use more school time to be able to complete school work instead of spending all day in "instruction" then coming home and having hours of homework to complete. We need to stop adding hours of kids being in a seat with a teacher talking and add more hours where kids can be kids whether that is doing 6 year old kid stuff or 15 year old kid stuff.

 

[GreatLakes]

For my kids, homeroom is 5 minutes at the end of 2nd period.

This is what my high school started doing when I was in 10th grade. It went from a separate short period between 3rd and 4th period to extending your 2nd period class and that last few minutes (I can't remember exactly if it was 5 or 10) counted as home room. Each period also separately took attendance.

I'm not sure how this impacted the lower grades because I went to private school through 8th grade and we had homeroom first thing in the morning.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think they should take the extra time they might gain from eliminating it and put it towards recess/physical activity for younger students, and something like study hall for the older students. The younger ones need more kid time and play, not more hours of instruction. And the older kids could use more school time to be able to complete school work instead of spending all day in "instruction" then coming home and having hours of homework to complete. We need to stop adding hours of kids being in a seat with a teacher talking and add more hours where kids can be kids whether that is doing 6 year old kid stuff or 15 year old kid stuff.

For our younger ones (definitely before middles school and possibly during), homeroom was built into your first period class. Even the kids who changed teachers for specific lessons had "homeroom" for 5 minutes or so, then went into the lesson of the day.

 

[OneOftheB's]

My son just started high school and they only had homeroom the first three days of school, otherwise it doesn't exist. I'm of two minds: great, more academic time! and that would have been a nice opportunity for my son, who is new to the district and only knows a small handful of people, to get to know a few more kids.

Back in my day, I had the same homeroom teacher & pretty much the same group of students for my 4 years of high school. My HR teacher was a character. He taught part time at my high school and part time at the local college. He was a health nut, which was great for me as he brought multiple bags of rice cakes to school each morning to feed us. I was on the swim team in high school and October- March had practice before school most mornings and was starving by the time I arrived (often late) for home room. It was nice to have that long term teacher relationship in high school and I know that I benefited from the continuity of seeing the same teacher & student for 5-10 minutes each day.

 

[Kae]

Our schools don't have homeroom or announcements.

 

[daisy2013]

My kids have an extra five minutes for 1st period for home room.

 

[kdonnel]

Not sure how elementary and middle school work now but high school has the 2nd period class as the assigned home room teacher.

2nd period teachers are the ones responsible for taking the official present or absent count and where things like yearbooks, pictures, and such are sent for delivery to the students.

I don't think any additional time is granted to 2nd period as the home room duties that take up time are rare.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

My kids don’t have homeroom in California

 

[wvjules]

That's when I finished my homework! lol

 

[Mysterian]

With homeroom out of the way, there will now be more time for detention. It's like Studio 54 for the groovy kids.

 

[bjscheel]

My kids had Flex, something like homeroom in that you were assigned a teacher's room to use as a base. A chunk of time in the middle of the day in which you could meet a teacher to ask questions, have a short group meeting or rehearsal, or just have a study hall. It was pretty nice for them to have that flexible time.

 

[Kitty 34]

Back in my day (oops wrong thread ) we didn't have homeroom, we had Study Hall.....boring and run by a drill sergeant wannabe.

 

[Dead2009]

For me in high school, we had 1st period and then 15 minutes of homeroom. It was mainly done to prepare for the next class.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Our homeroom was just our first period. We did block scheduling, with 4 classes a day. But we had 1st period every day and it was shorter (about 45 minutes).

 

[smokeyblue]

Homeroom is like the meeting that could have been an email. It's just preparation for entering the workforce.

 

[DisneyOma]

I suggest that secondary schools in the United States should eliminate homeroom. Announcements can be posted online (or posted on a screen in the school, or handouts can be given during 1st period), attendance should be taken per class period (or just taken in the first period, I guess. Some districts take attendance once a day in period 3. Whatever). Kids can go right to 1st period. It adds 12-20 minutes of instruction per day for a total of 36-60 more hours of class time over the course of the year.

Very curious on your angle with this - parent, teacher, student?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Only homeroom I ever had (many years ago) was in Junior High. Homeroom was 1st period. Whatever class you had in 1st period was homeroom.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Back in the 90's when I was in High School, we watched Channel 1 News every day. We went to homeroom first thing to watch Channel 1 and take attendance - I think it was 10 or 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure that the HS I went to doesn't do homeroom anymore.

 

[Calee]

My kids don't have homeroom. They go straight to first period. There are announcements just after the bell rings for first period. Attendance is taken in every class period.