Our school has an advisory block that meets every Tuesday for the 1st 40 minutes of the day. In this advisory teachers are to host an advisory block that can help improve the school community and culture. There are many different advisories with some even reaching outside the school community: domestic violence, recycling and so on. Does anyone else run an advisory or x-block or something else that allows faculty to interact with students outside the academic parameters that school has attached to it? If so, what do you do? What is successful in your school? Do faculty members have an issues because it may not necessarily be drawn out in their contracts? If this happens how does your school deal with the issues?
Mahar started doing advisory blocks last year, where you meet with the same group of students until they graduate. Administration left it pretty open ended and it was up to your and your group to decide on discussion topics. Last year I had juniors and we talked a lot about college prep and life after high school and it seemed to be quite productive. They are seniors now, and most of them have already submitted their college apps and seem like they’re sick of discussing such topics. Finding a meaningful topic for us to agree upon this year has been harder, since they’re all antsy to just graduate.
I think advisories can be beneficial, but because we don’t really have set agendas it can be good, like last year for example, or it can seem like the longest 20 minutes of the day, like this year. We did have a meeting about whether or not to keep advisory period, and the majority of teachers agreed it was beneficial to have if they were held more often and had clearer procedure how to reach that objective to strengthening the school community bond, which has not yet been worked out yet.
I do see a benefit with our advisory and I think that the advisory done at Mahar also seems like it would have majors benefits as well. I have a group of physics students (7 of them) that I often end up talking about college with. They are all seniors and are curios, anxious and excited about what the should expect as they move forward with only a semester left of high school. I think I you can talk with them about your experiences and what to expect in college it may get them more interested or hold their attention for your time with them. Its ok to tell them some personal stories as long as it is school appropriate. I usually field questions about how college daily schedules work, holding down a job in college and what a class it self is like: do you have homework, how are you graded, what are tests like, etc. For my kids its been beneficial, and my kids have a new found respect for me because no one else discusses those kinds of things with them.