Bloom Block Confusion

Bloom Block Confusion

As of recent in the 2022-2023 school year, the school board has decided that students should be using a program known as “Bloom” to improve the education of Wv students. The decision was made after the committee noticed that test scores from the previous pandemic years were very sporadic, and an overall mess. The block is used to teach students “life skills” and is also used to let students catch up on any work they may be missing. 

The idea of the program was introduced during an annual teacher program held during the summer. The superintendent of Greenbrier county, Jeff Bryant, tasked each school in the county to find a way to implement bloom into class schedules. The overall plan of the program was to raise SAT scores. SAT scores are used by the WV Board of Education to evaluate schools. 

All of this planning had come together very quickly, leaving some staff partially confused about how things would go in the future. Due to circumstances out of any teacher’s control, the first day of bloom was October 6th, 2022. The teachers were only told a few days prior to the bloom day of how each group was created, which in turn led to a bit more head-scratching from staff. 

This somewhat abrupt introduction to the program led some students to even more confusion. Some students didn’t have a good idea of where to go, or of what bloom even was in the first place. Assignments given via bloom google Classroom led to struggles with various people. The assignments involved filling out planners and making charts with future goals written in them. While the idea of letting students make planners does sound good on paper, it did not work as well as expected. 

Many students don’t use planners and make certain goals. Some may just go with the flow, and others may struggle with planning and management. It is also very hard to predict what may happen in the future. It may be hard to predict what you will be working on a few weeks from now, or when you will miss days of school. 

Overall the Bloom Program’s execution led many to confusion and felt odd/abrupt to various amounts of students. 

All information given in this article was gained via an email interview with Ms.Bowles. I thank her for her participation.