Northwest Academy’s four-day schedule comes into play when school is canceled on either a Monday or Friday. However, the schedule varies depending on which day is missed. The class duration and order inconsistencies are illogical and stray from the normal schedule so much that they cause stress and confusion for some students and staff on where they are supposed to be at any given time.
The Monday start schedule retains the traditional Monday and Tuesday class configuration. However, on Wednesday, the schedule shortens each class by five minutes and allocates that time to Block 8 which doesn’t normally meet that day. The class replaces the flex block and wedges itself after lunch and before Block 6 and 7. On Thursday morning, Blocks 1 and 2 meet while afternoon classes are canceled and replaced by office hours from 12:15-2p. In a traditional schedule Block 1 and 2 meet in the afternoon that day.
The Tuesday schedule starts with a normal Tuesday class structure. Wednesday is similar to the traditional schedule except it eliminates the flex block from the afternoon and elongates Blocks 6 and 7 to 90 minutes. Block 3 is then shoehorned into the Thursday schedule after lunch by shortening classes by five minutes while Block 1 and 2 are shortened by 30 minutes. Friday is the same as the other four day schedule with Block 1 and 2 in the morning and office hours in the afternoon. It’s important to note that Block 1 and 2 usually never meet on Friday. Are you confused yet? Well, you are not alone.
“I don’t like the Tuesday start schedule because we have two one and a half hour classes back to back on Wednesday and that really zaps my energy and makes it hard to focus,” said freshman June Kirts.
The four-day schedule was created to balance out the amount of class time when a holiday, grading or teacher in-service days shortened a school week. Block 3 which takes place on both Mondays and Fridays was most impacted.
“In middle school, my Project Citizen class [Block 3] would get two weeks less of class time than the other two sections,” said Sharon Weir, Assistant Head of Middle School.
The Monday start schedule is more tolerable because it shortens the classes on Wednesday to an hour and eliminates flex to fit in Block 8. Even still, it’s confusing because we have Block 8 right after lunch instead of Block 6 but while the schedule isn’t perfect it doesn’t drain students’ energy as much as the Tuesday start.
“I also think it’s an interruption to normal learning times and an interruption to a lot of classes’ curriculums,” said freshman Lily Duffy.
The difference between schedules is also confusing for assignment due dates. Most of the time I don’t realize there is a weird schedule because I miss communications, or lack thereof from the school and then end up rushing on an assignment during study hall or lunch. It’s not uncommon for students to show up at the wrong class at the wrong time during these weeks.
In both schedules, the week culminates in office hours which is a time for students to meet with their teachers, and catch up on late or ongoing homework. Office hours also give students time to meet up with friends for group projects, as well as a quiet space to focus on class and homework.
The downside of office hours is that they end at 2:15pm, earlier than the typical 3:50pm end time. Even if you are not in an AAH class, office hours can still affect pick-up times and cause logistical problems when trying to get home. Many students also leave early or during lunch and don’t take advantage of office hours as there is no policy in place to mandate them to attend.
The four-day schedules began two years ago. Weir has created most of the schedules and each year has been collecting feedback on how the schedules could improve. This year’s high school schedules were made by Joanne Kim, former Head of High School. Kim and Weir wanted to keep the schedule as consistent with the normal schedule as possible while also making sure the class times were balanced.
“The first year it was based on everyone’s feedback that they just wanted one four-day schedule so that’s what we did last year and then people were like, we don’t like that, so we were like okay, we will do two,” said Weir.
The best solution is to add the flex block back in during the Tuesday start schedule between Blocks 6 and 7 on Wednesdays. This would break up those long blocks and give students more normalcy and shorten those blocks to 60 minutes instead of 65. On Wednesdays during the Monday start schedule, we should move Block 8 down as the last class of the day to give the schedule more order. The school should also keep office hours open until 3:50 pm so students can have more flexibility regarding pick up. These changes will make the schedules clearer and more straightforward for the students.
It is crucial that scheduling is not only accessible but also comprehensible for students so that there are less distractions on their plate and more time to focus on learning. This in turn would cause students to have an easier time prioritizing their work instead of the scheduling of the day.
