Semesters to Trimesters
At the high school level trimesters are more effective than semesters. So why do most high schools use a semester four quarter system rather than a trimester system? The teachers seemed to be the most concerned about this at Pineview High School, and they are trying to make the switch. The reason that trimesters are more effective is that it allows more time to the class period so teachers can get into detail about the topic. With a four quarter semester system, the classes are short and there are two more classes in one school day. This argument occurs all over the place where high schools are trying to switch from semesters to trimesters.
Currently Pineview High, in Chewelah is using a semester system with quarter terms and is trying to change the system to trimesters, in which a block schedule would then be used. The good side to this would be that it would change a forty-five minute class to a seventy minute class.
This would allow the teachers plenty of time to go in depth on a topic and plenty of time to fully explain. The lengthening of classes would mean that classes would be cut so instead of seven periods the students would have five blocked periods. In a short class period teachers have a hard time getting the attention of the students and then when they finally do the class is over. Then they have to start all over again. With longer class periods it would allow the teacher to get the attention of the student and then have their attention for a longer period of time. Trimesters seem to be better than semesters and the switch would be rather appropriate because of these reasoning's.
After researching this topic, I found that the...