Curriculum and Scheduling
Aitkin High School is on a 7-period/trimester schedule. Each trimester lasts 12 weeks. Classes vary in length from 1 to 3 trimesters. Class periods are currently 54 minutes in length with 4 minutes passing time in between classes. Some classes, such as the ones in the Industrial Arts area are 2 periods in length. Additionally, middle school and high school students share the same time schedule. From the years 1998-2007, the school used a block schedule, where classes were 84 minutes long. In 2007, the trimester schedule used at AHS during the 1960s and 1970s was reinstated. Independent study periods were added on a rotation basis. (e.g. Day 1 is 1st hour, Day 2 is second hour, etc.) Independent study periods enable students to have time to finish class assignments, get help from another teacher, attend meetings and school assemblies, and much more.
In 2010, a new student database, Infinite Campus, was integrated, to enable students, teachers, and parents to keep track of their students performance in school. The online learning tool has many feature such as the ability to register for classes online, check grades and finding missing assignments.
More than 110 classes are offered. This includes subjects in agriculture, business, media arts, computer science and information technology, English, family and consumer science, art, music, physical education, industrial technology, mathematics, science, social studies, and World Languages.
Although AHS does not offer any AP or IB classes, it offers college credit for advanced classes with a program called College in the Schools through the University of Minnesota, Central Lakes Community College, Mesabi Community College, and Vermilion Community College and the option of PSEO. These enable students to get college credits at select colleges free of tuition and book and may even obtain enough credits to get an Associate of Arts Degree. .
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“If we focus exclusively on teaching our children to read, write, spell, and count in their first years of life, we turn our homes into extensions of school and turn bringing up a child into an exercise in curriculum development. We should be parents first and teachers of academic skills second.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)