Block Scheduling Resources: Front Page. A collection of articles from MENC on this topic.

MENC MAY 2006 Question of the Month:

EXAMPLES/STORIES about music schedules

Elementary
Middle
High School
Miscellaneous, no grade level specified

ELEMENTARY

My partner and I travel across three K-8 schools teaching instrumental grades 4-8, total populaton in excess of 1200 kids. This decidely doesn't work.

8:45-9:25 Fifth Grade Regular Schedule
9:35-10:15 Fourth Grade
10:25-11:05 Third Grade
11:05-11:35 Planning
11:35-12:05 Lunch
12:05-12:50 Second Grade
12:55-1:35 First Grade
1:45-2:15 Kindergarten

Enrichment Day rotation for 1, 2, and Grades 3
8:05-8:45 All one grade
8:50-9:30 All one grade
9:45-10:25 All one grade
10:25-11:10 Chorus and Dance (4th and 5th graders)
11:10-12:10 Planning and Lunch
12:10-12:50 All one grade
12:55-1:35 All one grade
SOUTH CAROLINA

8:25 - 9:10 Kindergarten
9:10 - 9:30 Pre-Kindergarten
9:35 - 10:20 4th Grade
10:20 - 11:05 5th Grade
12:25 - 1:10 1st Grade
1:10 - 1:35 Pre-Kindergarten
1:40 - 2:25 2nd Grade
2:25 - 3:10 3rd Grade

Our elementary school has almost 1100 students. Only grades 1-5 come to music which means about 850 to 900. Our system-wide coordinator had planned for an extra music teacher for one day per week. This person would come from another school and would be on a five week rotation, ie a different person each week for 5 weeks then the same people would come again. I was totally against this. I could not see how children could learn anything with such confusion. Our principal worked a schedule that is actually a 2 week rotation. I see all classes but only every two weeks and for a longer time than previously. This has worked well and I hope it will continue. GEORGIA

The schedule proposals I have first and foremost take into account the need to have frequent contact with the students. In addition, it also takes into consideration the fact that the art teacher needs to have longer time with each class in order to meet the instructional needs of her content area. Secondary to the needs of the special areas content are the needs of the classroom teachers to have common and consistant planning time. The scheduling ideas are for K-5th grade, public school elementary music, PE, and art. NEW MEXICO

We see our elementary students on a 5 day rotation - music for 5 days, art for 5 days, physical education for 5 days.
Tuesday schedule is as follows

8:40-9:15 Grade 4
9:15-9:50 Grade 5
9:50-10:25 Grade 5
10:25-10:50 Grade K

then I have a break! And I'm out in a portable classroom, so to dash into the building quickly is not always possible, especially when one class is late and the next one is early. Clocks aren't all in synch in the building, and sometimes teachers drop off kids and turn and run cause it's "their planning period". It's a nightmare! SOUTH CAROLINA

A problem we have is scheduling band. The band director travels between schools and therefore is only at my school a short period of time. Currently, band meets during the "club" period, which includes chorus, art club, study hall and a handful of others. Band students feel left out because they have to choose 'band' or 'no band' and have no option for participating in the other clubs. Luckily, we have an administrative team who, along with teachers, are looking into this problem and trying to find a creative solution for next year. NORTH CAROLINA

This innovative schedule provided the impetus for our school to implement a music program for grades K-8. We started by providing basic music classes for grades 4-6 and reduced class room size for the teacher.
For example, the two fourth grade teachers divide their classes into two groups, A, B. On T/TH I take the A group from both teachers and W/F I take the B group, giving me a regular size class and relieving two teachers class size for small group instruction twice a week. I don't know any school, parent, or teacher that wouldn't go for a reduction in class size.
Parents of grades K-3 saw this program and wanted music for their kids too. Parents of our middle school asked for a piano elective.
Initially our program was funded through our school's on site council. Our program is now completly funded by our parents through their annual fine arts and sciences fundraiser. Parents are committed to continuing this program for their children.
CALIFORNIA

Here's one that has been proposed for "Tuesdays" at my school by grade-level teachers. I'm sure other music teachers will find this unbelievable/hilarious, especially considering the fact that I teach in a huge auditorium/gym, and my office where many of my teaching materials are stored is way down the hall from the teaching area.

Tuesday
8:00 Class 1
8:30 Class 2
9:00 Class 3
9:30 Class 4
10:00 Class 5
10:30 Class 6
11:00 Lunch/Planning
11:45 Class 7
12:15 Class 8
12:45 Class 9
1:15 Class 10
1:45 Class 11
2:15 Planning
NORTH CAROLINA K - 5

A typical day:
7:50-8:50 prep
8:50-9:15 Kindergarten
9:15-9:40 3A
9:40-10:05 3B
10:05-10:30 3C
10:30-10:55 2A
10:55-11:20 2B
11:20-11:45 2C
11:45-12:15 Lunch
12:15-12:40 prep
12:40-1:30 choir
1:30-1:55 5/6 mult-level
1:55-2:20 6A
2:20-2:45 6B
2:45-3:10 6E

This schedule does not work! I have a difficult time teaching 6 or 7 classes in a row without a break.

One scheduling thing I got changed going into the 2nd year was elementary band. The first year I had the 5th and 6th graders combined on a Tuesday afternoon for one hour. Anyone who knows students of that age realizes an hour to play their instruments is quite a long time. And with only having band rehearsal once a week, it makes it a real challenge to teach the kids anything they will remember and prepare for concerts.

7:35 - organize for day, move equipment to Cafeteria.
8:05 - Third Grade
8:35 - Third Grade
9:05 - Second Grade
9:35 - Third Grade
10:05 - Second Grade
10:35 - Travel to Gym
10:40 - Second Grade
11:10 - lunch
11:40 - First Grade
12:10 - First Grade
12:40 - Young Fives
1:10 - First Grade
1:40 - pack up and return equipment to storage.
2:00 - Monitor students in school assembly and lead song(s).

My situation is an alternating block with 70 minute periods. This schedule works merely OK for choir but is terrible for Band. Beginning Band students espcially need to be in Band every day. This means that some weeks I see my Band students only two times with as much as 4 days between rehearsals. Then, due to the schedule, if a student forgets his/her instrument it may be a whole week before they are in rehearsal. Not to mention the time students have an instrument in the shop - especially in a more remote area like mine. I have had students who go for 3 weeks or so and have not played. I think my schedule is completely not conducive to success in the music classroom. And then we wonder why students don't advance and lose interest. Then, 70 minutes - this is unrealistic in light of the fact that our students have low attention spans, anyway, and 70 minutes is a very long time for a teacher to be "center stage" with 5-8 grade students. All in all it is tiring for everyone. It does not provide the needed sequential, repetitious, reinforcing time frames required for basic leaning and also for performance preparation. The point is success. My point is that it is not happening. My students tend to be minimally engaged and parents are not satisfied with anything lower than an 'A' even if the student has not earned it. My administrators are not knowledgeable about music education. They tend to be judgmental and unsupportive. My program survives to some extent. I would love to see my program thrive. COLORADO

I routinely have classes (elementary) scheduled right after lunch since my room is located next to the cafeteria. While it is convenient for teachers to move their students, full bellies do not generate alert singers. Also, lunch boxes and bathroom trips interfere with classroom organization.

At my last school, the PE teacher and the music teacher see the same grade level at the same time, and then we switch classes. This is especially nice around the time of special events. We are able to work together to combine the classes for a dress rehearsal or a play day. It works well for the classroom teacher, also, since they are given a prep time together where they can collaborate. The specialists all share the same prep and can collaborate and plan then, also. Of course this only works in small schools w/ two classes per grade. WASHINGTON

We have a five day rotation:

8:10-9:00 Fourth grade
9:05-9:55 Fifth grade
10:00-10:30 Kindergarten
10:35-11:25 Third grade
11:30-12:25 lunch/related arts team planning
12:30-1:15 First grade
1:20-2:05 Second grade

My only complaint with this schedule is the time of the kindergarten classes. It is hard to adjust from teaching fifth graders and then teaching kindergarteners.

8:00-8:50 (6th grade)
8:53-9:43 (7th grade)
9:46-10:36 (8th grade)
10:39-11:29 (lunch/planning)
11:35-12:25 (2nd grade or 3rd grade)
12:28-1:18 (4th grade or 5th grade)
1:21-1:41 (Pre K, every other day)
1:45-2:35 (Kindergarten or 1st grade)
2:40-2:50 (planning continued)

I have a rotating schedule so that I see each class for 50 minutes one time a week, then every 4 weeks I see the class 2 times a week, which is on Wednesday. Our school has a 60% day on Wednesday for teachers' meetings, so the students go home at 1:00. All classes are only 30 minutes long. This schedule is confusing. There is a schedule for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Each week is numbered, so if the number for a week is 1, then you follow Monday's schedule. If it's 2, you follow Tuesday's schedule, and so on. The kids have adapted to it by the end of the school year, but it was extremely confusing at the beginning of the year.

We currently have 4 sections of each grade level. We meet once a week for 50 minutes, and this gives classroom teachers their plan time (ours is during the school day as well). The P.E. teacher and I split the K-1 classes so we see them twice a week for 25 minutes. On Fridays, we rotate, so one week we see the Monday classes, the next we see the Tuesday classes, etc. Next year, we will have 3 of most grade levels, and this will impact our scheduling. Don't know what it will look like next.

**We think our 4 day rotation schedule in our elementary schools in our district (Francis Howell, St. Charles County, Missouri) works reasonably well, esp. in the areas of giving all teachers in the building adequate plan time every day (one full hour every day). We were able to implement this schedule because of the addition of a 4th special area class, Writing, a skill that has become increasingly important in Missouri because of the performance event style questions that are a part of the standardized test in Missouri (Missouri Assessment Plan, commonly called MAP).

In addition, the one hour period for special area classes really gives a chance to "dig in" to material, esp. w/ the older grades. It helps facilitate long term projects, inquiry-style learning & group work, which can take a lot of time to get organized & sustain.

One drawback to this schedule is that we only see most (75%) of our classes once a week, making skill development more difficult to achieve. ***

An elementary school K-4 with less than 600 students:

8:30-9:00 K
9:05-9:50 1
10:00-10:30 EC
10:30-11:15 2
11:15-12:30 Lunch/Planning
12:30-1:15 3
1:15-2:00 4
2:05-2:45 Chorus/Elective

One change that our school has made this year is having elemenary band during the school day during recess and seat work time. The students don't like missing these 2 times but the alternative was making the band director lose family time.

I teach elementary music and have a band with grades 4-6. I meet with each grade twice a week for an hour. When I have the grade, the brass and percussion stay with me and the woodwinds work with my teaching assistant.

On Fridays we have two integrated arts periods- one from 8:30-9:30 and one from 9:30-10:30. In that time the students take one period of band for the whole year and then a choice of either dance, or art studio. I have half of my band from 8:30-9:30 (mixed grades 4-6) and the other half 9:30-10:30 (mixed grades 4-6). When we get close to the concert, we will do a few full band rehearsals during their class time. In exchange for that I let teachers take kids that they need to work with for extra help whenever so I can have that time before a concert to work with the full band. NEW YORK

Basically I have second grades four mornings 8:20-8:50; 5th grades 9:50-10:50 3 mornings, with the SLC class on two of the mornings; 4th grades 10:55-11:55 with a couple K classes inserted; 1st grades 12:35-1:35 with a couple K classes inserted; 2nd and 3rd grades 1:40-2:40. It's nearly parallel and somewhat blocked.

School Hours: (teacher) 7:45-2:45, (student) 8:00-2:30
My Schedule:
7:30 - 8:00 School Chorus (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
8:00 - 8:20 Prep time
8:25 - 9:15 Fifth Grade Class
9:20 - 10:10 Fourth Grade Class
10:15 - 11:05 Third Grade
11:10 - 11:40 Lunch
11:45 - 12:15 Kindergarten
12:20 - 01:10 Second Grade Class
01:15 - 02:05 First Grade Class

I teach at a Title One School in South Carolina, which serves a population of 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Our one special needs class (EDSC), is mainstreamed in the fourth grade music classes. Music is taught to four classes at each grade level for fifty minutes once a week. The four Kindergarten classes meet once a week for thirty minutes.

ELEMENTARY MUSIC - Gr. K-5 - 2 bldgs, a K-2, and a 3-5 - SIX DAY ROTATION
In Grades K-5 - with 6 sections ea. of K, 1, 2, and 5 sections ea. of 3,4,5. Kdg & 1st have 2-25 min classes every 6 days; Gr. 2, 3, 4 & 5 have 2-30 min classes every 6 days.
A 6 day rotation works if you have teachers who must be shared by 2 buildings. Every day in the school year is assigned a number, and that number does not change through the year - one advantage is that Monday classes are not always the ones that get cut for holidays like MLK, New Year's Day or Pres. Day. Our district makes up all snow days, so the make-up day is the same # as the one that was missed. Everybody gets equal time, or pretty close to it. INDIANA

At a previous school, where I taught, we had a 4 day rotation but Friday was also based on a rotation. Everybody always had their specific special on the same day, and then once a month you got an additional special. This was designed for a K-5 school, which also housed special ed. students. 55 minute blocks. Our lunch and prep period was during lunch time, due to lunch and PE using the same gym.
Example: for Music
Monday - Day 1
Tuesday - Day 2
Wednesday - Day 3
Thursday - Day 4
(this never changed)
Friday - Day 1, then the next week I would have Day 2, etc.
I liked it a lot, because we called it "Special Projects Day" and you could plan a specific lesson for each grade and then use the same lesson for 4 Fridays.
We also saw First and Second Grade 2 times a week for 30 minutes instead of once a week for 50 minutes.
I currently teach at an Elementary School in Germany.
The scheduled above was from a school in Michigan.

MIDDLE SCHOOL

One year, I saw my middle school instrumental classes every day, 45 mins. at a time, all year. That was the year we made the most progress. That is probably why in our school system, that the math and language arts classes meet every day. Repetition works.

6th Grade Band meets M W and alternating F for 47 minutes.
7/8th Grade Band meets M W and alternating F for 47 minutes.
During the days that I don't have band rehearsals I'm either teaching a 7th grade general music class or doing lessons. When students aren't in band they are either in Choir (which alternates with Band) or in study hall. Students who are in Band or Choir do not have to take a General Music Class. Next year our schedule will be different. Band and Choir will meet at the same time (6th graders at one time and 7/8th graders combined at another time) and the students that are in both Band and Choir will be alternated out themselves. So I have the potential to lose about 5-10 students every other day. This is still not ideal but I get to see my students everyday and this helps our administration who wants to get rid of our study hall and the general music classes. 5th Grade band is in lessons for most of the year at the elementary school at the end of the day. 5-8 Band / 7th Grade General Music; MINNESOTA

In addition to the comments above, at our school the music students and music teachers are continually supported by the staff. Arts education has been continually strengthened over the last 4 years. We currently have 4 teachers who are certified by NCLB rules in social studies, English and elementary ed that are working on a master's program with an emphasis on integrating arts into humanities curriculum. Our district has no special arts programs or planning in arts instruction, we just have a staff at this particular Middle School that believes in and understands the value of arts instruction at the middle school level. In the other middle school in our district, the opposite is the case. OREGON

have taught choir on block schedule, 7th-12th grade. Although the 90 minute class length is a nice, long rehearsal period, jr. high/middle school students' attention span is not conducive to success on that schedule. In addition, since I wanted (and was allowed to, in most cases) keep my choir kids all year, that meant that I could offer only 3 courses, one 7th- and 8th-grade class, and two 9th- through 12th-grade classes. I would like to have been able, at least, to have my advanced high school students in a class of their own. Because of scheduling conflicts with required classes, that was impossible. I have heard these types of complaints about block scheduling from numerous other music teachers, both instrumental and vocal

Not my present job--but I did work in a junior high that rotated 7 subjects in a 7 period day over a 6 day schedule. That meant the classes were at different times every day. It sounds confusing at first, but everyone's schedule always followed the same ORDER of classes. This meant no one always had math at 2PM, etc. Individual classes were more productive at different times! It looked like this:

DAY 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6 7
3 4 5 6 7 1
4 5 6 7 1 2
5 6 7 1 2 3
6 7 1 2 3 4
7 1 2 3 4 5

*****Band and Chorus meets everyday during "Silent Reading/ Tutorial". The Music department has their rehearsals while everyone else gets to read silently or get extra help. The teachers may also be scheduled for common planning time during this time with aides covering the students not involved in music.

Grades 5 and 6, have Arts block third period. Grades 7/8 have Arts block fourth period. This way the music department is able to maximize the number of rehearsals we can provide in the school.

For example, the two fourth grade teachers divide their classes into two groups, A, B. On T/TH I take the A group from both teachers and W/F I take the B group, giving me a regular size class and relieving two teachers class size for small group instruction twice a week. I don't know any school, parent, or teacher that wouldn't go for a reduction in class size.

Parents of grades K-3 saw this program and wanted music for their kids too. Parents of our middle school asked for a piano elective.

Initially our program was funded through our school's on site council. Our program is now completely funded by our parents through their annual fine arts and sciences fundraiser. Parents are committed to continuing this program for their children.
CALIFORNIA

This is my second year of teaching in IA. My duties include 5th-8th grade band, high school percussion ensemble, and assisting high school band. We (the high school director and I) have found that helping each other out benefits both of our schedules and most importantly, the students. I make myself available during his band hour, so that I can pull students out for sectionals and rehearse the percussion ensemble during that period. He, in return, helps me fit in all of my 5th and 6th grade lessons at a time when the students are available. It is an added perk that I am a woodwind/percussion specialist and he is a brass specialist.
One scheduling thing I got changed going into the 2nd year was elementary band. The first year I had the 5th and 6th graders combined on a Tuesday afternoon for one hour. Anyone who knows students of that age realizes an hour to play their instruments is quite a long time. And with only having band rehearsal once a week, it makes it a real challenge to teach the kids anything they will remember and prepare for concerts.

My situation is an alternating block with 70 minute periods. This schedule works merely OK for choir but is terrible for Band. Beginning Band students especially need to be in Band every day. This means that some weeks I see my Band students only two times with as much as 4 days between rehearsals. Then, due to the schedule, if a student forgets his/her instrument it may be a whole week before they are in rehearsal. Not to mention the time students have an instrument in the shop - especially in a more remote area like mine. I have had students who go for 3 weeks or so and have not played. I think my schedule is completely not conducive to success in the music classroom. And then we wonder why students don't advance and lose interest. Then, 70 minutes - this is unrealistic in light of the fact that our students have low attention spans, anyway, and 70 minutes is a very long time for a teacher to be "center stage" with 5-8 grade students. All in all it is tiring for everyone. It does not provide the needed sequential, repetitious, reinforcing time frames required for basic leaning and also for performance preparation. The point is success. My point is that it is not happening. My students tend to be minimally engaged and parents are not satisfied with anything lower than an 'A' even if the student has not earned it. My administrators are not knowledgeable about music education. They tend to be judgmental and unsupportive. My program survives to some extent. I would love to see my program thrive. COLORADO

To be implemented at our 6-7-8 MS next year:
6th grade band, Symphonic, and PE during period 3-4.
6th graders can be moved up to Symphonic if they complete the curriculum and show motivation.
All they have to do is switch PE periods, and it's not going to be a daunting number of kids, anyway.
Intermediate (predominantly 7th grade) band treated as a gentle and less performance-demanding continuation of Beginning Band. They can also move up to Symphonic within the normal constraints of a typical MS seven period schedule scheme if I approve the move.
The trade-off is having only one level of strings for 7-8 and the choir is only for 7-8, also

A/B day, 9 period day, middle school level. Performing groups meet daily, alternating with gym one day and with an extra help period the other day. Each grade has a separate period for the performing group. Small group lessons are scheduled once every six days as pull-outs. NEW YORK STATE

HIGH SCHOOL

have run an A/B Block for 5 years and have maintained our enrollment and success rate with our high school music program. NEBRASKA
have run an A/B Block for 5 years and have maintained our enrollment and success rate with our high school music program.

I love having two different sections of HS Choir. It means I really get to know the strengths and weaknesses (and personality) of each individual student because my largest class has 19 singers. It also forces the singers to become more confident and independent because their sections are smaller. We perform together as one choir, so they also get the advantage of singing with a larger group.

7 period day where you see your students for 50 minutes every day. This allows students the opportunity to take other music courses in addition to their band, or chorus, or orchestra class, such as AP music theory, or jazz band. I have been on the AB block where you see your students every other day for 100 minutes. I loved the long rehearsals, but the weeks where you only saw them twice were not good. If they happened to be absent one or both of those days, it was a disaster. 100 minutes were way too long for the piano classes. 50 minutes is perfect. FLORIDA

Flexible schedules... Symphonic Orchestra meets once per week outside of school hours for a 3 hour block, and is open (by audition) to all schools in the district. CALIFORNIA

Scheduling is a nightmare for our students in the arts in my town.
All I can say is that 6 periods is not enough for students to get in all the State of Indiana requirements for graduation and take fine arts classes as well. We offer such electives as class piano, music theory and composition, a survey class of music/art/drama/dance, and advanced levels of band, orchestra, and choir. Students, however, have a hard time just even fitting in the four years of ensembles, much less the other necessary classes for college preparation to music school.
Indiana offers an Academic Honors Diploma, and we have been successful discouraging participation with about half our arts students. We are a magnet for fine arts, and though we stress academic excellence through the arts, we cannot get them to take all the classes necessary for the arts diploma if they pursue the academic one.

Block Schedule that has enhanced our music classes. A student can participate in choir, band and orchestra during the same class period. Our school has a great block schedule that works! One of the reasons the schedule works so well is because the schedule was designed by the faculty, not the administrators. Feel free to contact me, I was on the original committee that designed the schedule and get many requests for input from music teachers on block schedules. MINNESOTA

7 period day
50 minute class periods
Class meets daily during 4th period
ALABAMA

MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES, no particular grade level mentioned

I did a leave replacement in a school district that had a dedicated "performing arts period." All performance ensembles met first period and no other classes were scheduled during that time. If a student was not involved in performing ensembles they did not have to be at school until second period. On top of this, the students had pull-out lessons once a week. It worked quite well

I teach in a Catholic elementary school. Teachers' plan time is when their students are at music or other special subjects, and they want as much as they can get! Typically they have 7-9 plan periods in the week. I have two. Special teachers are regarded as baby-sitters. I'm very dependant on having a sympathetic principal to make this situation livable. Right now it's good, but I've had some tough years, and came very close to being fired when I stood up to a principal who never had a music class in his life. I realize this is very negative, but these are common pitfalls as I talk with other music educators. OHIO

At a previous school that I was at, we had three specialists: art, music and phys. ed. We had a 12 week schedule where a class would see me twice per week for two of the 12 week blocks, and once per week for one of them. This worked out to be quite even amongst the three of us, and the kids had all special areas every week. The down side was that the art teacher had to "house" the projects of the entire school all of the time.

We meet our classes once every six school days. This means it could be 8 to 10 days between classes. If there is a holiday add those days into the mix. We used to see our children once a week or 35 to 36 times a year. Now we see them 27 or 28 times in a year.

In a school that I taught, we had a mixed block schedule.
It worked as follows:
Mon, Tue,Fri: Regular periods 1-6, 55 minutes each
Wed: Periods 1, 3, 5, 90 minutes each
Thur: Periods 2, 4, 6, 90 minutes each.
Band met 0 + 1st period each day. So... this meant that we had 110 minutes on Monday, Tues and Friday, 145 minutes on Wed and 55 minutes on Thur. It was very helpful during marching season. During the spring, winter percussion & color guard met 0 period and concert band met 1st period.

students have music 5 days a week alternating band and choir. This works well with keeping variety, but at times the students go a long time without band or choir - snow days, school breaks, etc.

We have a 6 day rotation and it gets very confusing. It would be so much better if it was a 5 day, so that Monday is a day 1 and Friday is a Day 5. But instead, it gets all messed around and nobody knows what day it is!

This is by no means a fabulous schedule but it was growing and my students were really learning.
Block schedules that are fall/spring like college. The school emphasized two core/two electives for both semesters. The classes were 90 minutes and some schedule changes could be made at semester. No student was intended to have more than two serious/difficult classes per semester. My students found that they could focus better on only two major classes than five or six. The negative is that it is almost impossible to take more than one type of elective. It was rare for me to have band or drama or art students for example. I thought that 90 minutes would be difficult to fill, it wasn't. I was able to actually work on our sight singing for a reasonable amount of time and still prepare all of the concerts that we had done in the past.

My music classes are scheduled "back to back" with the P.E. classes. This allows the classroom teachers to have 80 minutes of uninterrupted planning time and also allows for some flexibility for me.

For several years we used a 6-day rotational schedule because we had so many classes and specialists moved among 3 buildings. This worked well because the specialists met with each class every other day. We were able to cover so much more. But the schedule was tough for communication since the specialists schedules were not the same on any day of the week. It was difficult to schedule events when we had guests.
Then we tried a day-to-day schedule with each class meeting 2 times a week. But we had one day of the week as an alternating day. Some classes would then have a third session one week, other classes would have their third session the next week. That also worked pretty well as long as we had a room to use. MINNESOTA

My chorus and jazz band members have to miss the last 10 minutes of one class, the passing period, and the first 10 minutes of the next class to work in these groups. The teachers are pretty receptive of this idea so it doesn't work too bad. Of course we have a lot of after supper night practices after sports are done etc. and the kids are willing to come back in, and work to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves. NEBRASKA

One aspect of our schedule is an exploratory period that meets three times a week for 40 minutes. This allows us to schedule offerings like jazz band, classroom guitar, a class called "write your own songs", select choir, chamber orchestra, the school musical and other offerings during the school day, not as extra curricular before or after school activities. These classes meet for 9 weeks - long enough to prepare a concert program

nice thing about my schedule is that there is a 30 minute period blocked off at the end of the day for large group practice.
For example:
All of the kids who have their (40 minute pull-out)lesson during the day on Monday, come back at the end of the day for a larger group rehearsal. This gives them a chance to experience playing with mixed instruments and parts, long before concert time. Since this 30 minute period is blocked off, the kids are not "missing" any classroom time. Their teachers do make-up work etc. This continues though the rest of the week.