The new bell schedule has been a sour topic for some, and sweeter for others. Some people have had a lot to say about this new feature in our school day, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Although there was already tension regarding the schedule, the bell itself ended up in an unfortunate predicament not long before last week. Our students and teachers alike have their own opinions on both of these topics and are happy to share them.
In the midst of a very loud and crowded soccer bus, student Addison Tuning gave her opinion on the new Wednesday schedule. To her, it is not helpful at all. Tuning explained that now she doesn’t know what she’s doing on Wednesdays, and she thinks that it’s pointless. It feels to her like she gets nothing done.
Despite these feelings, Tuning didn’t enjoy the old block days either. She says she doesn’t like the long class periods, which puts her in a fairly unfortunate position at this school. If she could change the Wednesday schedule, Tuning would have the middle day be one full school day, and simply have a day off Friday.
Though there have been some strong feelings about the broken bell, Tuning liked it that way. She explains that it had affected her very positively, and she liked the way it sounded.
“It was like a rapper,” Tuning says. “I got down to it.”
On the contrary, math teacher Kristen Watson was not too happy with the bell issues. She’s glad that they’re working again, and between the odd release times for the Wednesday schedule, she had a hard time figuring things out when it was totally silent.
Similar to Tuning, Watson prefers the old block schedule. In her opinion, the long periods were great when it came to testing, because she didn’t have to split up or shorten the test.
“On Wednesdays we had enough time to do testing and then a lesson. Now there’s not enough time for a lesson so we just quiz,” says Watson.
A few conversations with her students have informed Watson that most are very happy about quiz days, because there are over twenty minutes for catching up on homework after the ten minute quiz. But even with these widespread opinions, Watson has heard that her students feel rushed on Wednesdays, and still prefer the old schedule.
Watson thinks that there’s not much redeeming quality to the Wednesday schedule. She says that if we got rid of Advisory we would have a little more time, but that isn’t possible. Except, regarding Tuning’s theory of not having school Friday, Watson completely agreed.
“I know some schools who have no school Friday,” Watson says. “I would definitely be down for that.”
According to YC administration, the reason for the scheduling change was because of shared staff. Once they changed the schedule for the middle school, it didn’t line up with the teachers’ schedules between both schools.
