HMHS has reached Phase III of the COVID-19 district plan. Students are making the transition back to a five-day, all-day, in-school schedule. I was curious to see how they felt about the changes in comparison to the hybrid schedule and the schedule we followed before the quarantine. Students now have block scheduling, where they go to school four periods a day, and each period is 70 minutes. Additionally, they have lunch in school now in between the 3rd and 4th period. The Wednesday schedule is different from the Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday one, and the school added “Dawg Time” at the beginning of the day for clubs and students who need extra help from teachers. All of these changes seemed hard to manage, and I was intrigued to learn what HMHS students thought.

Hear from a few students from my sophomore class regarding their opinions about Phase III!

Question #1: Do you like having lunch in school and then returning to school for more class? Does it break up the day and allow you to rest or make it drag on?

Emmy Barrett: “Incorporating lunch into the schedule has just made the day feel longer. While it is a nice break, adding lunch did not really change the schedule.”

Helene Usher: “While I like seeing my friends at lunch, I feel like it is unsafe at this time, in terms of COVID cases.”

Griffin Adams: “I like it! It helps spread out the day more, and it gives me a much needed break.¨

Question #2: Do you like this schedule better than the hybrid schedule? What about in comparison to asynchronous work last spring?

Emmy: “I definitely do better learning all week in school rather than online and in a hybrid format…This new schedule is definitely an improvement from the hybrid model and the asynchronous work we did last year.”

Helene: “Of course I am grateful to be in school, but I’m not sure that it is safe to have everyone back for five days. I would have preferred to finish the year with the full capacity hybrid schedule. It was the perfect balance of normalcy and safety. When we were finally adjusting to the schedule and keeping our case numbers down, it changed again.”

Griffin: “I like being able to see people all week. It makes school much more normal. I just wish teachers understood that the transition from virtual to in-person is very difficult. It feels that they are teaching as if we were never online. This doesn’t feel fair because the quality of education we get online (asynchronous and with Google Meet) is worse than in-person learning.”

Question #3: What is the best part of the Phase III schedule, in your opinion?

Emmy: “The best part of this new schedule is definitely having longer study halls. I have a three-hour break during the “even periods,” which is very relieving.”

Helene: “Seeing all of my teachers and friends in person is my favorite. I feel like I am finally rebuilding the relationships I lost over quarantine.”

Griffin: “The best part is the social interaction. It makes the days seem more like freshman year, when everything was normal.”

Question #4: What is the worst part?

Emmy: “The worst part of the new schedule is how, on Wednesdays, the time for arriving at school changes. It confuses me because my carpool has to leave at different times on different days, but that is definitely a change I can get used to.”

Helene: “It does not matter how safe we are in school…if someone tests positive in class because they have not been following the guidelines outside of school, everyone is affected. I am terrified of getting contact traced and missing out on my AP exams and track season. I’m anxious all the time because I have no control over the situation.”

Griffin: “Being back in person…teachers have begun teaching as if we were never online, ridiculing us for not knowing what we “should be” knowing at this point in the year.”

Question #5: Is this “new normal” (block scheduling, open campus lunch for all grades, “Dawg Time,” etc) better or worse than the “old normal” schedule that we had in previous years (40-minute periods, 8 periods a day, day starts earlier)?

Emmy: “The new normal, in my opinion, is so much better than last year’s normal schedule. I especially like how there is “Dawg Time” incorporated into the schedule because it gives clubs a chance to meet, and students who are struggling with homework can ask for help!”

Helene: “I like the new schedule because the absence of labs allows me to take more classes; however, 70 minutes is a long time to sit still. A lot of my teachers have been great about breaking up the periods to make them more manageable, but some don’t, and I wish they would.”

Griffin: “This schedule makes studying easier, and I can anticipate which classes need the most attention per night. However, at the same time, the periods feel much too long and by the end, it is difficult to remain attentive.”

Question #6: What could be improved?

Emmy: “I think the outdoor seating for lunch could be improved. I feel like the school should provide picnic tables near Bancroft where there is shade because, sometimes, it is hard to eat on the turf or the stadiums without a table.”

Helene: “I wish we could finish out the year in the hybrid model with an in-person Wednesday. I would feel much safer and far less stressed out. I don’t think that I learned less with the hybrid model, and office hours were incredibly helpful for me. In the future, I hope students and teachers are allowed to have more input on decision-making (regarding the schedule).”

Griffin: “I wish the periods were slightly shortened and more time was given to lunch, which is a necessary part of the day for relaxing. It also would help Concert Choir go smoother (one class meets during lunch). It would give students more time to sing and eat.”