Avoid metabolic rate reduction: Because muscle is very active tissue, muscle loss is accompanied by a reduction in our resting metabolism. Tranquil music echoes through the main hallway of Thomas Jefferson High School’s athletic wing during the middle of the school day.12 reasons every adult should strength train Avoid muscle loss: Adults who do not strength train lose between five and seven pounds of muscle every decade. Roughly 20 students lay on the turf floor, bending and stretching in meditative yoga poses. In the gymnasium next door, it’s much louder, as students compete in a competitive game of bat ball. While all of this occurs, a line of students step up inside the adjacent auxiliary gym and fire their bows in a new archery group forming at the school. “It’s weird to be doing this in school, though.” “It’s kind of exciting,” said senior Maxwell Skalos, 17, after taking his aim at the mark. Students at Thomas Jefferson High School have a wide range of options for how they want to spend an hour and a half of time in the middle of the school day, ranging from watching ’80s movies to getting help filling out college applications, or working with a teacher when they’re falling behind.Īlong with moving into the new $95 million Thomas Jefferson High School at 835 Old Clairton Road this year, district leaders also implemented a new schedule that gives students more rein over their day. Personalized learning time takes place from 11:30 a.m.

each day and is divided into three, 30-minute segments - one of which is lunch. Students can choose from a schedule of options provided online for how they want to spend that time. They can choose in advance or up until 11 a.m. Teachers are required to pull students who are behind at least two times a week for extra help during that time. They spend the other days sharing their interests with students through activities they plan, ranging from Fantasy Football to knitting. School leaders say they hope personalized learning time will bring about an increase in attendance, build relationships between students and teachers and reduce the number of failures. “I see kids that I don’t normally see and I can offer them things that I don’t normally offer.” “I think it’s a great opportunity for the kids and a great opportunity for the teachers,” said gifted support teacher Dan Giger, who secured a grant to provide archery equipment for the school. The idea for personalized learning time came from Superintendent Michael Ghilani and assistant superintendent of secondary education Scott Milburn.

While working as a principal in Upper St. Clair, Ghilani said he attended a Luma Institute program on reimaging high school, where they talked about structuring time differently. “Especially if you want to do it the day of, or the day before.” “The hangup always was … how are you going to schedule kids?” he said. While Ghilani and Milburn were working as administrators in Montour School District, they learned about FlexTime Manager, where students can sign on and schedule themselves into a class as late as that same day. Teachers and administrators also have the option to schedule groups of students if they want to meet with them. Milburn worked with the principal at Montour High School to pilot the program with one 39-minute session during the day, in 2016-17. “The overriding purpose of it is more time,” Ghilani said. Teachers often say their main problems are not having enough time with students that need extra help and that activities interrupt the flow of the day when they’re trying to teach, he said. With personalized learning time, all activities can occur during that already prescheduled time. Schedules don’t need to be changed repeatedly to make way for school pictures and class meetings. With the new high school, Principal Pete Murphy assigned all high school students to a mentor teacher this year where they spent their first 12 days of PLT taking a tour of the new building, going over the school handbook, getting pictures taken, meeting with the local magistrate and learning about the electronic hallpasses.įor the last two years, programs like this have caused students at TJ to miss between 550 and 600 minutes of instructional time in September alone, Milburn said.

Flextime manager upper st clair