Eliminate Homeroom

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I work at a high school and we don't have homeroom. 1st period is 3 minutes longer to allow for the pledge and announcements.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I remember homeroom just being a waste of time.

 

[low-key]

nooo, then I wouldnt have been able to enjoy Susan Lowery beautiful hair from behind for 9 mo

 

[AppleDumpling]

I had daily homeroom in junior high and high school. In junior high (grades 7-9) we actually had it twice a day: morning homeroom, and afternoon homeroom that was only a few minutes right before dismissal.

They still have it here in middle school (called Advisory) and HS. They do the Pledge of Allegiance, announcements, take attendance, and distribute/collect paperwork such as absent notes, signed permission slips, etc.

As to whether it should be eliminated, I think it depends on the school. Not sure they would make class periods longer. Lots of different types of schedules/class times, etc. in different states and local districts. Even something like the passing time for kids to move to next class (and maybe stop at locker) probably varies, as more time would be needed in a larger school building with a larger student body/more crowded hallways. I can tell you that kids here take more classes than I did back in the day. I had 8 class periods (including lunch, not including homeroom), now they have a 9 period day. (Not sure if the class periods are shorter or the day is longer ).

 

[Kittyblue]

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

 

[JenBush]

Back when I was in high school we had homeroom between 2nd and 3rd period for 20 minutes. It was a nice time to eat a snack, work on homework, meet with clubs, or meet with classmates for group projects. I have no idea what my high school does now, for all I know they could have eliminated homeroom.

 

[Texasfam4]

I’m sitting here wondering what “secondary school” means?

 

[NotUrsula]

Secondary school is high school. (If you major in secondary education, you train to be a high school teacher.)

My DD never had homeroom before, but just started at a high school that has it, and she likes it. Homeroom teachers there are a resource for the kids, someone to help them figure out logistics issues such as lunch money uploads, whether or not they need schedule changes, a person who centrally handles coordination of planned absences and service hours, and someone who takes care of making sure that all records are in order for the group of students for the year. It is kind of nice for them to have a daily teacher who is neutral in terms of expected performance; there is no subject grade transaction coming into play with this person, as it is purely a support role. (They make sure that no student has a subject teacher for homeroom, usually accomplished by giving teachers a homeroom that is different-aged than the grade level they normally teach.) Homeroom teachers also have kind of a mental health-monitor role, as they see kids every day in a low-pressure atmosphere, they are in a good position to be able to spot when something is off about that kid.

 

[cjlong88]

I’m sitting here wondering what “secondary school” means?

Teacher here. Secondary is grades 6-12. Primary is K-5.

 

[bcla]

Teacher here. Secondary is grades 6-12. Primary is K-5.

Depends on the district. Primary is K-6 here and secondary is 7-12. It's also not consistent. I remember after I graduated, there were a few schools that switched from "junior high" (7-8) to "middle school" (6-8). I knew someone who went to my old junior high (but renamed as a middle school) because it was turned into a magnet school for high achievers. The district only has middle schools now, but they're now 7-8. It's really odd because some of the neighboring districts have 6-8 middle schools.

 

[sasywtch]

Oldie here. High school in Sacramento early 70s. We had homeroom in junior and senior high school. It was the first class for 10-15 minutes. In high school it was the same teacher and same students all four years. It was alphabetical so I was in with the latter F's and G's. I had the typing teacher so had those big clunker typewriters in front of us. We took attendance, pledge of allegiance and the office did the announcements over the speaker. It's also where we got our report card that we'd take to every class to have the teacher fill out on report card day. We were trusted to take it home. I just remembered, in 7th and 8th grades we were put in homerooms by our academic scores. 8-1/8-2 was the 3.9-4.0 etc. I was in 8-4 3.5-3.7 We all went to the same classes except 4th period was electives, band, choir, art, orchestra. Then we'd meet back up again after lunch for 5th and 6th period. There is no way they'd be able to do that today but looking back, it made sense. We were doing geometry and college english while those in the lower levels were struggling with regular math/english. (my best friend that I met in choir was in 8-14 so knew what classes they were taking and struggling with). They did the same in junior high. attendance/announcements.

 

[RedAngie]

nooo, then I wouldnt have been able to enjoy Susan Lowery beautiful hair from behind for 9 mo

Exactly!!! Our homerooms went by alphabetical order and I didn’t have gorgeous hunk Kevin B. in any of my real classes.

 

[MamaMermaid]

We have 12 minutes built into 2nd period here in my high school. Sorry but NO ONE would watch announcements if they weren't forced to in class. Important info is shared that way.

 

[goodeats]

I never had Homeroom. One of our classes was a little longer and they did announcements and took official attendance.

My daughter is at a Catholic middle school and she has a Homeroom. From what I understand they treat it as a home base and that’s who they sit with for Mass or Assemblies. They have a longer day than the public school so I don’t think it takes away from instruction time.

 

[fly girl]

I had homeroom in middle school, 6-8th. I moved across the country in 7th grade and still had homeroom. High school, no homeroom straight to 1st period. They made announcements after lunch I think, but it was definitely not in the beginning or very end of the day. It was in the middle somewhere. And if I remember correctly, we didn't do the pledge in high school. FYI, graduated high school in '92.

My daughter has had homeroom in middle school. No clue about high school, that is next year and he she hasn't decided what school to attend yet. (shadowing 3 schools this fall) I believe her homeroom is only 10 minutes, beginning of the day. Personally, I don't mind it in middle school. No doubt, it is not productive educationally. However, it provides a few minutes where kids can chat and get a few moments to interact before they need to focus on schoolwork.

 

[unrequited23]

The last time our district had daily homeroom was in 1992. After that, special homerooms were at the beginning of the year, at the end of the grading period to distribute report cards and at the end of the year for locker clean out. Second period was extended by 5 minutes for announcements and official district attendance.

 

[prairie_girl]

I graduated in ‘94 and we didn’t have a home room. Announcements were done at 9 and if you didn’t have a class scheduled, you didn’t hear them. I don’t remember if things were repeated throughout the day.

A brief class that schools used to use for announcements and sometimes taking attendance.
It's outlived it's usefulness. (As you can see in this thread.)

We had attendance taken for every class. If you take it first thing every day, whats to say someone doesn’t skip all their classes for the day? The attendance would still show them present.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

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

Parent. K-12 technologist, former student.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Most secondary schools where I am require attendance be taken at the start of every period, even if it is a double period. Homeroom I do feel is necessary, but then again when I was in school my homeroom was attached to my first period. Whether it came before or after (they flip flopped every year) we all just stayed or went to our first period and that was homeroom.

 

[Mysterian]

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.

I remember that! Anderson Cooper was on Channel 1. In months he went from interviewing a cartoonist to suddenly being a war correspondent in the Middle East.